Michael Oren ducks the question of J Street
With the left-wing lobby's conference a week away, Israel's U.S. envoy keeps mum on whether he will attend.
By Natasha Mozgovaya Tags: Jews in America Israel newsWASHINGTON - The October 25 conference in Washington D.C. of left-leaning lobby group J Street is just one week away, but Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, is still not saying whether he will attend or not. President Shimon Peres has written a welcoming letter to conference participants, J Street said, with his apologies for not being able to attend.
Ambassador Oren spoke Sunday at a Reform synagogue, the Washington Hebrew Congregation, and was asked about his conflict with J Street, but would not say whether he would attend the conference. He said that the American Jewish community's strength was always in its diverse opinions. He praised the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations as an appropriate framework for representing American Jews. He just did not mention that J Street is not included in that organization.
Daniel Kohl, J Street's political director, was in the audience for Oren's speech. He said it was still possible that Oren would accept the organization's invitation to speak at the conference. On the American side, U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones will be a keynote speaker, representing the Obama administration. Senator John Kerry was also invited to speak, as were several members of Congress, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and others, including former Nebraska Republican senator Chuck Hagel and Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism.
The Israelis whom J Street listed as attending the conference include Knesset members and former parliamentarians - Amir Peretz, Shlomo Ben-Ami, MKs Shlomo Molla and Yuli Tamir, and others. J Street is proud that it has drawn MKs not only from the Labor Party but also from Kadima.
Oren told the synagogue audience that the Obama administration's demands for a total freeze on settlement construction was impossible politically and practically. He said for Jews not to live in the land of their forefathers was problematic. But he said today there were no significant differences between the Israeli and U.S. positions on freezing construction, and over a few months a compromise was reached on a limited freeze, which will differentiate East Jerusalem from the West Bank and allow normal life in the settlements.
Oren added that it is still not clear how involved the Americans will be in the direct negotiations with the Palestinians and, more important, on what will be in the negotiations. He said that while the political track was moving slowly, that of economic development in the West Bank was advancing more quickly.
On the subject of Iran, Oren said the American administration is promising Israel on almost a daily basis that the dialog with Iran will not go on forever.
He also said the U.S. was closely cooperating with Israel on the Goldstone Commission report, saying the Americans understood very quickly the report was a disaster that not only serves to delegitimatize Israel but also would be a death blow to the peace process.
Oren's words hinted at criticism of the Obama administration's approach, which, he implied, is learning and adopting more realistic positions. He compared Obama's approach to that of another Nobel Prize-winning U.S. president, Woodrow Wilson.
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"The militants who built the country"? This is a funny one! Do you mean Ben-Gurion? Moshe Sharet? Perhaps Levy Eshkol? Do you prefer the present day opportunists and selfish species?
Is Uri Avnery invited to AIPAC? Why invite a Likud apapratchik to J Street. J Street has no one to apologize to. It's Likud taht is killing Israel every day!
The one is a group of individuals who can express their individual opinions. They have no real collective power to influence policy. J Street does and that is what the zionist right wing that calls the shots is afraid of. Oren is not objective but does the bidding of his government which wants to delegitimise, at all costs, J Street. As in every case, Jewish lobbying groups and their spinmeisters are already conducting a campaign to undermine the work and positions of J Street and we won't even talk of other groups ie. Jewish Voice for Peace or Brit Tzedek v'Shalom. These groups are expsoing the propaganda of the netanyahu government and therfore they must be silenced. That is how Israel has worked in the past and is doing now. Attack and defame the messenger to undermine the legitimacy of the message. Focus on the messenger and not the message.
After the 1967 War there was an unofficial deal between the Israeli government and the aUS government. Jews would not criticize (offically) the Vietnam War, and the US government would close their eyes to settlement construction. Since that time the officail Jewish community has supported the growth of the right wing in Israel. J Street is only a beginning of what Americans have to do to make up for decades of support fro disasterouis and self destroying policies. If American Jewish leaders really want to know what happened to Jewish youth, the abandonment of progressive, anti-war policies in favor of Israeli Occupation policies would be a good place to start.
You have no idea that free speech is a wonderful right in the USA. In America, comparing anyone or organization to Nazis is so wrong, it's generally not tolerated and those who do connect the two are immediately dismissed for inaccuratecy. Remeber 1/3 of the world's jewish population lives in America.
There are thousands of public policy advocacy groups, JStreet.org is just one. Under our wonderful constitution--maybe Israel should get one--US citizens are entitled "to petition Congress." Since billions go to Israel every year and foreign policy is deeply involved with the middle east, Americans have a right to speak about internal Israeli policies and practices. Wake up people..With million of Americans unemployed and federal money in $hort $upply, many blue collar workers and others want to stop all aid to everyone in world and take care of the home front. In America we respect minorities, so if arabs and iranians contribute to JStreet, so what. JStreet.org doesn't intend or pretend to represent Israelis--it represents its members. Their members are not anti-Israel..if you think so..prove it. JStreet does have impact..you're writing about them and so is Haaretz newspaper.
attending a j street function is no better than attending a white suprememcy meeting; in the end they have the same goals just different routes to get there. In this case J Street will wipe out Israel by supporting Arab rejectionism of Israel's right to exist. Of course they say otherwise, they try to bath thmeselves in love for Israel but they take money from pro Iranian groups and give cover to those attacking Israel. this is an organization for self hating jews, their alligience is to getting 15 minutes of fame, not protecting the homeland ... J street is the modern day house slave, used by their masters to say they are for equal opportunity when in reality, they help the real haters. Between J Steet and Goldstone, you would think Hashem sent an 11th plague.
Oren is just following orders. He works for Netanyahu and Lieberman. Neither is interested in relations with "liberals." Just withdraw the invitation "with regret that the current government of Israel is not interested in good relations with the entirety of American Jews who support Israel." And issue a press release about the snub.
Oren is not non-partisan in the sense that he represents the government and policies of Israel. He should send a letter of greetings to the group but not attend. J-Street has many policies that will prove injurious to the State of Israel. Their ideology is Left to Ultra-Left and serves as a great front for Obama and his government in its striving to geld the government of Israel. Their PR strides have painted a picture of a Jewish organization far more powerful and populated than they really are. Oren, remain away don't give them creedence.
In her weltangschauund Israel must be isolated. Zionism of course was meant to restore the Jews to history as a national people, away from the ghetto and schtetle mentality. Israel has not done this but only exacerbated the schtetle mentality of "kol haolam negdeynu". The world was a friendly place for the jewish state for many years. But Jews are no more exempt from international rules and expectations than any other nation and if the world no longer exempts Israel's conduct then it has everything to do with that conduct which is reprehensible. You refuse to admit or confront that reality and instead fall back on the ghetto mindset , your seige mentality that the rest of the world is not a friendly place for the jewish state.
I am an oleh living in Israel for more than 10 years. I am Zionist. I support J-Street 100%. They are an authentic voice of a growing number of American Jews who feel increasingly distanced from Israel's growing militarism and its never ending colonization of the West Bank. Get Israel out of the West Bank - it is a rot that is destroying Israeli society.
As close examination, it seems a very real possbility that JStreet was founded as a tool to help provide support by "jews" for Obama's unpopular policies among the Jewish community. It was very likely established with the objective of boosting his candidacy for the Democratic national convention, which he won only four months after JStreet's founding. After all, he is known for his grass roots movements. JStreet and Goldstone are very similar, both claiming to be looking out after Israel's interests while infact causing more damage and division than anything else.
What has J Street ever done to claim the title "pro-Israel"? How have J Street's proposed policies ever contributed to "peace"? (The failed Oslo agreements only brought more bloodshed and J Street wants to go even further.) J Street never misses an opportunity to undermine Israel. They are just like Meretz and the Labor party. Unable to win democratically they force their views through foreign funded lobbying/PR. It's too bad there aren't any groups brave enough to resist and challenge them. If you want to do something about it, contact your congress(wo)man and ask him/her to remove his/her name from the hosts of this anti-Israeli group or thank him/her for not being one.
j-street is an organisation made up of far left jews, arabs and iranians. j-street does not represent the vast majority of israelis. the vast majority of israelis are not far left. j-street might have the ear of the president, but they will have marginal influence within israel, where decisions are made. the last few months have taught israel, once again, that the world is not a friendly place for the jewish state. the elitists of j-street will not have any influence on israel or the course of events in the middle east. their goal to degrade israel in the american public sphere will be rejected in the long run.
it's Israel needing the support of J-Street and of Diaspora Jews. And not vice-versa. For us, J-Streeters, it doesn't matter what Oren thinks or does about us. But it should matter for Oren what we think or do about him as the official voice of the State of ISrael in the USA. It's that simple ...
are the Jewish kind- Jews who take their religion, culture and history seriously. the J-street kind are self-annhilating, anti-Jewish pundits of great ego and low self-Jewish esteem. Strong Judaism makes them wither and and goes against their religion of nothing. Jews can have no faith in J-streets directions- they are a dead end for Judaism and Israel. and..........can you understand why and where J-street gets its money from. If that does not trouble you, you are really in trouble.
Where's the Arab J Street, speaking out for peace and reconciliation. Is the defeatist, liberal idea strictly a Jewish monopoly ?? A Gaza J Street would go a long way to convince Israelis that there are some Arabs who want peace, not pieces.
Hopefully Jews all over the world will speak like you before it is too late for Israel to save itself. I was once a friend of "little Israel," but no more.
If these normal Jews would only come to Israel (we seem to only draw the crazy kind), they might have some influence on the seriously wrong direction we are going here. On the other hand, we need them there (in the US), to counter the vast conspiracy of lunatics there, also.
On January 9, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives approved, by a vote of 390 to 5 a resolution by Speaker Nancy Pelosi supporting Israel's right to use military force in self defense against Hamas rocket and mortar attacks on Israel. 20 Representatives voted "present," including Donna Edwards. She is a first-term member of Congress from a district with many Jews but more blacks. Some of the Jews in her district, dissatisfied with Edwards' unwillingness to support Israel's right to self defense, discussed the possibility of supporting a challenger to Edwards in the 2010 Democratic Party primary. At this point, J Street intervened. They raised tens of thousands of dollars for Representative Edwards within 48 hours to show that members of Congress could refrain from supporting Israel's right to self defense and still get plenty of campaign donations. J Street rewarded behavior that endangers Israel. Behavior that is rewarded tends to be repeated.
J-street is by no means left-wing. Perhaps in the world of Israeli self-perception where people who don't want to ethnically cleanse the West Bank are left this is true. Get a grip - J-Street isn't pushing for Goldstone....they're not supporting boycott...they aren't even in favor of negotiating directly with Palestinian factions. Keep pretending to marginalize them and make the question of whether attending the conference is appropriate, I'm sure the world will see the wisdom in that. Meanwhile the world will be punishing/abandoning Israel shotrly and she'll wish she had friends like J-street around. It's time to start thinking and debating like a democratic nation and not like the generation of militants who built the country and keep dragging us into trouble.
Does not Ambassador Michael Oren represent all the Israeli people and should address the J Street convention on behalf of the country as would President Shimon Peres? If the American Jewish organization is perceived as more right-leaning and J Street perceived as more left-leaning, wouldn't it make sense to acknowledge the diversity of the global Jewish community? I heard Michael Oren speak at a Reform synagogue in Toronto and the audience was quite diverse - left, right, rich, poor - all supporters of Israel and the Jewish community.