a word on ‘moral bankruptcy’

Upon returning from Washington last week, the attention of myself and the two other students who I travelled with was drawn to this article in the comment section of the Jewish Chronicle. The concluding paragraph of which accused the ‘doveish Jewish left in our Diaspora’ of ‘Moral Bankruptcy’, pointed out an ‘intellectual inability to withstand the temptation to join the bandwagon of anti-Israel bashing,’ and said that J Street were ‘hypocritically calling the move “tough love” and a sign of openness to diverse views’.

In our minds, this is an unfair, and misinformed perspective of what J Street is about and, whilst any organisation has flaws and young ones especially have distance to travel, our experience was of an overwhelmingly positive, intelligent and unquestionably pro-Israel organisation. It was with this in mind that we submitted the following response to the JC:

“Integral to pro-Israel advocacy are the values of democracy, equality, and peace. This was the overwhelming message that came out of the J Street conference in Washington D.C. As British students we returned back from the conference with a renewed vigour and even more vociferous support for Israel, and more importantly, a language with which to articulate that support. The message that Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s president set out in his opening remarks that ‘we are passionately and unapologetically pro-Israel’, and yet that being pro-Israel means having the ‘obligation to speak out when we think that the policies or actions of the Israeli government are hurting Israel or harming the long term interests of the Jewish people’, was re-iterated throughout the conference. The 2000 strong conference received this warmly. It was very clear to us that J Street doesn’t self-define as pro-Israel as an excuse for a back door into the mainstream Jewish community (as some have argued), but it is proudly and unashamedly behind the state that we all hold dear.

We found it empowering to be alongside fellow Jews, not all of whom agreed in entirety, but they shared a powerful message: support for Israel does not just come in the guise of blind applause and aggressive ‘hasbara’. As graduates of Zionist Youth movements, and students, we have a constant struggle in the demand we face for an unconditional love of Israel as a Jewish state. We want to see it flourish; fulfilling it’s potential to be a democratic centre that radiates the core Jewish values we have been brought up with and is a true light unto the nations. We encounter criticism of Israel every day on our campuses; we see demonization and Israel being held to unfair double standards. That is not what we encountered at J Street. Any criticism we, as proudly pro-Israel Jews, make is because we are invested in the future of the Jewish State and the Jewish people. We believe we have a duty and responsibility as Jews to not be mere bystanders but to play an active role in the future of the state of Israel.

J Street invited people from across the political spectrum. This provided a broad and fascinating panel of speakers which helped attendees grapple with the issues at hand. The J Street line is that ‘the only way to defeat views with which we don’t agree is to defeat them with better views, not by silencing the debate’. There were 6 MKs who came to offer a true insight into the Israeli political reality. Tzipi Livni and Shimon Peres both gave their support to the organisation which is immersed in the ‘hug-wrestle’ model of support for Israel.

J Street is a young organisation dedicated to the safety, security and defence of the State of Israel and this was an undeniable message. At J Street we were able to have an open conversation about the place that is so close to all our hearts, a conversation that we don’t necessarily have the space to have here in the UK, and a conversation that has enriched and reinvigorated our commitment to doing all we can to ensure a safe, sustainable and prosperous future for the Jewish State.”

We are activists who identify strongly as part of a growing grassroots movement, a community of British Jews who are passionately Pro-Israel, believe in open and broad discourse, a Two-State solution, human rights and democratic freedom. We are encouraged by the results of last year’s JPR survey on the attitudes of British Jews towards Israel. The survey told us that 74% (70% of those who self-defined as Zionist) of British Jews are opposed to the expansion of existing settlements in the West Bank, 78% favor a two state solution with 67% supporting some kind of exchange of territory for peace. The views we heard expressed at J Street ran very much in tune with this decidedly mainstream UK perspective. It thus saddens us that the first news of the conference that reaches the UK runs against the known opinion of the majority of the UK community in that it seeks to disparage a group who are expressing exactly what we know that UK jewry feels. If our press and leadership wish to stay in tune with the constituency, they’d do well to listen more to the facts than the commentators.