The Middle East: A New Group Emerges To Challenge the traditional western approach to Israel

We Ought To Be Optimistic About The Future Of The Middle East

I have often been critical of Israeli government policy; at the same time I have always been cautiously optimistic. My optimism has  stemmed from the fact that I know so many North American Jews who agree with me that, very often, the policies of Israel are at  odds with both common sense and the search for peace. For many years now, ever since I became a serious student of Middle  Eastern politics, I have been watching for signs of the emergence of a North American constituency that agreed with my own point of   view. That was selfish perhaps. Perhaps I’ve been looking for vindication. But…the fact is that the signs are beginning to appear.

Of course Noam Chomsky, the renowned linguist from M.I.T. has been in this rational groove for ages. But until recently he has been  virtually alone, except for a few Jewish scholars such as Avi Shlaim and others. And while Chomsky may be too tough for some, one does detect some movement.

We are beginning to see an amoeba-like growth of constructive thinking amongst prominent, influential and well-informed North  American Jewish scholars and thinkers.

A short while ago I wrote about the work of Aaron Miller. Mr. Miller (the author of "The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace"), is the first prominent and influential Jewish American to call for substantive changes in the American approach to Israel. More "tough love", Miller says, and less pandering. A little cracking of heads is what’s needed.  

Now we see the coming out of a group called J Street. The Executive Director of the new group is Jeremy Ben-Ami. He says, “a  large number of American Jews and their friends have dropped out of the discussion about how to bring peace to Israel and its  neighbors because they don’t have a home politically.” Ben-Ami and the group he leads thinks…as does Aaron Miller…that the  established Israel Lobby in Washington exercises too much raw power, with no brake on its support for Israel Right Or Wrong.

Mr. Ben-Ami is quoted in the International Herald Tribune  as saying that J Street would "choose candidates in June who are willing, for example,  to express forcefully their support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine issue and for aid to the Palestinian Authority".

This is a welcome development both for Jews who want Israel to survive and for non-Jews who want the same thing in a peaceful  setting. J Street represents a home for all supporters of Israel’s right to exist, but who oppose that country’s more extreme policies.

It’s a group, incidentally, which will find many many supporters within Israel itself.

You can read the IHT article here.