Interesting Al Jazeera piece

[MikeWaters]

J Street was founded to promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israel conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. We support a new direction for American policy in the Middle East and a broad public and policy debate about the U.S. role in the region.

J Street represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who support Israel and its desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own - two states living side-by-side in peace and security. We believe ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in the best interests of Israel, the United States, the Palestinians, and the region as a whole.

J Street supports diplomatic solutions over military ones, including in Iran; multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution; and dialogue over confrontation with a wide range of countries and actors when conflicts do arise. For more on our policy positions, click here.

J Street will advocate forcefully in the policy process, in Congress, in the media, and in the Jewish community to make sure public officials and community leaders clearly see the depth and breadth of support for our views on Middle East policy among voters and supporters in their states and districts. We seek to complement the work of existing organizations and individuals that share our agenda. In our lobbying and advocacy efforts, we will enlist individual supporters of other efforts as partners.

J Street is itself a 501(c)(4) organization and is part of the J Street family of organizations, which includes an independent, legally unconnected Political Action Committee, JStreetPAC.

http://jstreet.org/about/about-us

This piece is damning towards the current Jewish lobby that they are seeking to supplant.

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Last evening on NPR, they had a piece on a new pro-Israeli lobby, called J Street.

They said that they are different in that they actually want peace.

I thought that was interesting.

As it currently stands, Hezbollah is leading the way to a Lebanese civil war. Iraq continues in instability. Iran continues it's verbal threats against Israel, the other day Admadinejad called it a 'stinking corpse' that is destined to dissappear. A peaceful Israel will soon be a non-existent Israel.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by YOhio

As it currently stands, Hezbollah is leading the way to a Lebanese civil war. Iraq continues in instability. Iran continues it's verbal threats against Israel, the other day Admadinejad called it a 'stinking corpse' that is destined to dissappear. A peaceful Israel will soon be a non-existent Israel.

You is not so smart. Most of the enemies of Israel use Palestianian plight as they excuse. If Israel/Palestine make peace, then the powder keg is gone.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by YOhio

As it currently stands, Hezbollah is leading the way to a Lebanese civil war. Iraq continues in instability. Iran continues it's verbal threats against Israel, the other day Admadinejad called it a 'stinking corpse' that is destined to dissappear. A peaceful Israel will soon be a non-existent Israel.

Admandiejad's comment is reason enough to be very wary of Iran's nuclear program. He's hateful enough to blow Israel away.

If these terrorist organizations keep pushing, we may see another 6 day war kind of reaction. Israel only take so much before it gets pissed and goes off.

[YOhio]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

You is not so smart. Most of the enemies of Israel use Palestianian plight as they excuse. If Israel/Palestine make peace, then the powder keg is gone.

While the treatment of Palestinians is a great excuse to hate Israel, antipathy towards Israel will exist as long as they're occupying Jerusalem.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by YOhio

While the treatment of Palestinians is a great excuse to hate Israel, antipathy towards Israel will exist as long as they're occupying Jerusalem.

Yeah, as long as they occupy ALL of Jerusalem.

I don't really feel bad for the Israelis. They have trampled on the Palestinians and made little serious effort for peace.

As near as I figure, they like their settlements better than they like peace.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

There are no easy solutions. But I think the first step would be to halt any further expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and begin to dismantle current settlements. Carter was right; it is a form of apartheid.

GWB was the first US president in history to fail to denounce the settlements. I can certainly understand why Palestinians would be against a candidate thought to be sympathetic to Bush's foreign policy.

Closing down the settlements in Gaza doesn't count for anything?

(not directed specifically at Leb) I'm actually a little surprised to find the mild anti-Israel sentiment here. I shouldn't be. As a community, CG is my Bizarro world.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by Tex

Closing down the settlements in Gaza doesn't count for anything?

(not directed specifically at Leb) I'm actually a little surprised to find the mild anti-Israel sentiment here. I shouldn't be. As a community, CG is my Bizarro world.

It's just that some of us want peace, and we realize that the building of settlements goes counter to that. Disbanding the settlements is the right move.

See, this is what J-street is all about. They are trying to make it ok to say "We want Jewish peace, we want the settlements gone, AND we are not anti-Israel or anti-semitic." Pro-Peace is Pro-Israel.

[Tex]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

It's just that some of us want peace, and we realize that the building of settlements goes counter to that. Disbanding the settlements is the right move.

See, this is what J-street is all about. They are trying to make it ok to say "We want Jewish peace, we want the settlements gone, AND we are not anti-Israel or anti-semitic." Pro-Peace is Pro-Israel.

Peace, nebulously defined.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by Tex

Closing down the settlements in Gaza doesn't count for anything?

(not directed specifically at Leb) I'm actually a little surprised to find the mild anti-Israel sentiment here. I shouldn't be. As a community, CG is my Bizarro world.

"anti-Israel"? Where did that come from? Are you aware that a substantial percentage of the Israeli citizens would like to have the settlements dismantled? Are you going to label them all "anti-Israel"?

And FWIW, I just spent the last week with a close friend of mind who is an Israeli citizen who lives near Tel Aviv. Don't give me your condescending "Bizarro world" bullshit, Tex.