Israel Matzav: J Street's 'distractions'

J Street's 'distractions'

Ami Isseroff has a great quip in the middle of an article on why Michael Oren was right to skip the J Street conference this week (a decision that is looking smarter by the minute):

J Street spokespersons have demonized and trivialized anyone who dares to disagree with their positions as superannuated Yiddish speakers or neoconservative reactionaries. This is the organization that endorsed the showing of the anti-Semitic play, "Seven Jewish Children" by Theater J, which is also participating in the J Street conference. Poet Josh Healey was excluded from the conference, but only because he likened Guantanamo prison to Auschwitz, not because he wrote that Israelis, no JEWS ("the chosen people") are doing what the Nazis did to Jews. It did not occur to J Street leaders that such sentiments are not appropriate to a conference of a Jewish organization, let alone an organization that is pro-Israel. Rather, J Street guru Jeremy Ben-Ami noted that:

We are sorry for any distraction that this issue may cause for those interested in working with us to advance the cause of peace and security for Israel and the Middle East.

Presumably, Ben-Ami would consider Mein Kampf to be only a "distraction" for those interested in working to better German - Jewish relations in the 1930s.

Heh. That last line is priceless.

By the way, that's Michael Oren at the top of this post.

Israel Matzav: J Street's 'distractions'