I’m happy to report that Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street’s president, has written to apologize for the tweet published in its official Twitter feed which called my criticism of the Aipac Israel junket “crazy, disgusting and racist.” Jeremy’s heard some strong words from me on this; and it’s been some time in coming, but the result is what’s important. I’m grateful both to Jeremy for being big enough to admit a mistake (not of his own direct making) and to those supporters who took up my defense.
Here’s what Jeremy wrote:
I do feel strongly that J Street should strive to avoid turning substantive disagreements into personal attacks, and in this case – having taken a quick look at the various posts – we did not live up to that goal, and for that I am personally sorry.
While we as an organization will disagree with you and others over time, we should find other words to express our disagreement. I would say the same is true of your disagreement with Rep. Jackson and Adam Holland. You too could have benefited from expressing yourself differently.
Let’s say that we’ll all strive to avoid personalizing the issue differences we may have and let’s consider this matter closed.
I want to add something I’ve written on this subject before, my disagreements with J Street have always been substantive and I’ve tried never to stoop to using the terms which Jeremy has finally renounced. I have never called him or the group racist and certainly would never call them crazy or disgusting. I hope I don’t ever do so in future.
Very happy to hear this.
Jeremy Ben Ami is basically a decent guy who founded an organization with the goal of prodding the Obama administration to take a progressive position on the Two State solution. For a while their motto was “We’ve got your back, Mr. President.”
Unfortunately the President never had JStreet’s back and next month he’s going to demonstrate that and the repudiation of the Two State solution in the biggest way possible — by vetoing a Palestinian state at the UN.
When this happens, Mr. Ben Ami will join the ranks of the unemployed within short order. JStreet will either close or have to remake itself by shedding its crush on Mr. Obama.
I see it differently. J Street is and unfortunately always was a slightly more liberal version of the National Jewish Democratic Coalition. That is, a front group (perhaps too harsh a word) for Jews to support Democrats and a Dem. president. Yes, it’s more of a single issue Israel focused group than NJDC & yes, it’s more liberal on Israel than NJDC. But that’s about it. So I don’t think they have any particular strong views about a particular settlement of the conflict. If Obama supported a one state or three state solution I think J St. would come to attention & salute the Democratic flag. J St. is a creature of the Democratic party.
So I don’t think Jeremy will be out of a job anytime soon. As long as Aipac follows the hard right path it has chosen there will always be room among liberal Zionists for J St (though I believe that liberal Zionists will become ever more marginalized in the community). If Aipac were smart it would moderate its positions & co-opt J St. But it isn’t smart enough or flexible enough to do that.
It’s amusing to see two enemies of Israel fight each other….
Good luck to both of you
How did you get past the comment filter. Good luck to you, liar.
Comment gefilte?
I think J Street might have reconsidered after weighing the pros and cons of alienating a popular Liberal Jew, with a gift for putting it bluntly, who still sees hope for Zionism to rehabilitate itself. Seems like the cons were more threatening especially when you might actually be the gift of hope that keeps on giving to the actual status of Zionism.
Sigh, they reeled you back into the fold. If only you were 100% on our side! One can only dream…
That’s a very half-hearted “apology”, which takes time off to criticise you.
I agree to a point. The fact that Jeremy took time to criticize my comments on Jesse Jackson & Adam Holland, which had nothing to do with J St. or him per se, shows how difficult it was for him to let go of the original tweet insult and his anger at my previous criticisms of him and J St. But the main pt is that he did apologize even if he did so in a somewhat attenuated way. I think that cut about my words about Jackson & Holland didn’t make Jeremy look any better. He would’ve been far better sticking to the direct matter at hand, which was the atrocious smear used by the J St. staffer who attacked me. Apologizing for that & leaving everything else alone would’ve reflected far better on him.
But he is what he is & J St. is what it is. It can’t be diff. or better than it is. So I’m content w. things as Jeremy left them within those parameters.