Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Don't brand 'J Street' as anti-Zionist

E' una grande soddisfazione morale per me poter postare questo articolo.
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The Jerusalem Post
May 1, 2008 22:51 | Updated May 2, 2008 10:43
Don't brand 'J Street' as anti-Zionist
By DAVID KIMCHE
We tend to make our political calculations based on situations we know, 
based on the past, and not on changes that are happening before our 
eyes. Don Rumsfeld once wrote the following delightful truism:
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know there are known unknowns.
That is to say we know there are some things we do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know.
We don't, of course, know who will be the next tenant in the White 
House. We don't know how he or she, black or white, will affect the 
goings on in our own back yard here in the Middle East. The political 
mavens in Washington are predicting that there won't be all that much 
difference between the policies toward Israel of the three presidential 
candidates.
Yet it would be foolhardy not to take note of the change that is 
overtaking the American scene. Suffice to look at the TV election 
scenes, at the outpouring of exuberant enthusiasm at the Barack Obama 
fests. Look again at the youngsters who crowd into those election 
gatherings. They, the young generation, are going to vote for change, 
for Obama, never mind for whom their elders will vote. Whether he wins 
or loses, Obama has already left his mark on the American scene. He, at 
least in the eyes of the young generation, stands for the America of 
tomorrow.
The mere idea of a black president, or a woman president for that 
matter, speaks volumes of that change, and it is imperative that we take 
note of it, and adjust accordingly.
ISRAEL'S NEEDS are primarily represented in the US, over and above our 
embassy and consulates, by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, 
or AIPAC, considered to be the most formidable lobby operating in the 
US. When I was director-general of the Foreign Ministry I worked closely 
with AIPAC, and was full of admiration for the dedication and the 
efficiency of its leaders and staff. Those were the days of Menachem 
Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, and AIPAC's activities dovetailed seamlessly 
with the policies of the government of Israel.
Since those days it has grown enormously and extended its power to such 
an extent that no American politician can ignore its clout. It has 
become the dominant factor on the American Jewish landscape, keeping 
American politicians in line with what AIPAC's leaders conceive to be 
the best interests of Israel. Woe betide any politician who ignores the 
demands of this powerful lobby.
On the face it, that sounds great for Israel. The problem lies both in 
its interpretation of the best interests of Israel and in its method of 
delivering its message. In truth we have today a situation in which the 
dog's tail is wagging the dog. AIPAC has become more militant than the 
Israeli government. Its messages reflect more the oppositionist Likud 
doctrine than the moderate stance of Prime Minister Olmert. Moreover, 
whereas the American Jewish community is known for its liberal, 
progressive pro-Democrat party heritage - some 80 percent of the Jewish 
voters traditionally cast their votes for the Democrats - AIPAC is 
geared to an extreme-right-wing agenda, often more in line with the 
Jewish neo-cons than with the majority of American Jews.
Coupled with this dichotomy is its method of persuasion of recalcitrant 
politicians, the overkill of its modus operandi, which is becoming 
increasingly distasteful to many of the new politicians who sit in the 
House of Representatives and the Senate, both of which now have a 
Democrat majority.
These are the reasons that a number of pro-Israeli American Jews closely 
aligned with the Democratic Party felt the need to launch a new 
Political Action Committee (PAC), to act in what they consider to be 
more in line with the real interests of Israel. Named 'J Street' (J for 
Jewish, but also because 'K Street' is where most of Washington's 
political lobbyists are situated), its founders do not consider it to be 
a rival of AIPAC, but rather an effort to offer politicians something 
different from that powerful body, something that will serve the true 
interests of Israel.
The executive director of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, who served in Bill 
Clinton's administration and whose grandfather was one of the founding 
fathers of Tel Aviv, wrote in the Forward that "voices of reason need to 
reclaim what it means to be pro-Israel and to establish in American 
political discourse that Israel's core security interest is to achieve a 
negotiated two-state solution and to define once and for all permanent, 
internationally recognized borders."
And he adds: "I support Israel. My family history ingrains in me the 
belief that the Jewish people need and deserve a home. I know that that 
nation must be strong and secure and that a deep bond between Israel and 
America is essential to its survival. I heed those in Israel who say we 
are fast approaching a point of no return beyond which it may be 
impossible to secure Israel's future as the Jewish democratic home 
envisioned by my father, the Irgunist, and his grandparents, the 
socialist Zionist pioneers. An immediate, negotiated end to the conflict 
is, simply, an existential necessity - and the time to reach it is 
running out."
Ben-Ami and his colleagues in J Street believe that the US must follow a 
more active policy to achieve this goal. The next president should not 
wait till the seventh year of his/her term in office to act, as 
President Bush has done. Do these beliefs warrant him and his supporters 
to be branded as anti-Zionist, a danger to Israel, as some of columnists 
writing in The Jerusalem Post have hinted?
J Street intends to tackle the known unknowns, the changes occurring on 
the American political landscape. It identifies the dangers of a 
backlash of politicians against the methods employed by AIPAC, and their 
distaste for its far-right-wing agenda. It intends to make a special 
effort to win over the young generation. "There is a real generational 
issue here," Ben Ami says. Those same youngsters - Jewish and non-Jewish 
- who are today rooting for Barack Obama, or working on Darfur or Tibet, 
need to be recruited for the just cause of Israel, and J Street intends 
to make that one its principal objectives.
So no, Mr. Isi Leibler, there was no need to put inverted commas round 
the words 'Zionist' and 'pro-Israel' when describing the leaders of J 
Street in your column in the Post last Tuesday. They may think 
differently from you, but they are as much pro-Israel as you are, and so 
are the former foreign minister of Israel, the former IDF chief of 
General Staff, the former head of the Israel Air Force, the former head 
of Tel Aviv University's Institute of Strategic Studies, to mention just 
a few of the supporters of J Street in Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=2&cid=1209626990096&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 wrote:
scusa, Persio, tu risiedi a Roma, giusto?

 scusa, Persio, tu risiedi a Roma, giusto?
Si, ma che stai architettando?

 Si, ma che stai architettando?
Vuol controllare quanto hai dichiarato nel 2005.
HRCF
-- 
Tarpaulin: Amarcord Cold War
http://tarpaulin.blogspot.com/

 Vuol controllare quanto hai dichiarato nel 2005.
eddài, così non c'è gusto...

 eddài, così non c'è gusto...
Bah, non capisco il gusto di vedere quanto dichiarano i tuoi interlocutori.


 Vuol controllare quanto hai dichiarato nel 2005.
Orpo!  Rimarrà allibito...

 Orpo!  Rimarrà allibito...
Boh, pare lo stia facendo con tutti gli utenti di IPI dei quali conosce 
il nome, presumibilmnte quindi anche con me.


 il nome, presumibilmnte quindi anche con me.
a parte il fatto che l'imbeccata l'hai data tu su IPS, sai benissimo
che i dati di Arezzo non si trovano grazie agli amici di Licio....

 sai benissimo che i dati di Arezzo non si trovano 
Davvero?
