J-Street Speaker: Israel Shouldn't be a Jewish State - Ari Soffer

by Ari Soffer

J-Street Advisory Board member roundly applauded for suggesting Israeli Jews should become a 'protected minority.'

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Following the right-wing's victory in Israel's general elections earlier this month, several prominent leftist commentators have reacted ferociously, sometimes even vindictively, in some cases calling on Diaspora Jews to respond by joining the ranks of those opposed to Israel's existence as a way of "correcting" its behavior.

Unsurprisingly, the radical-left J-Street has provided one of the most visible platforms for such voices. At its annual 5th annual conference, for example, Peter Beinart actually urged young American Jews to travel to Israel to take part in Palestinian demonstrations against the IDF.

But Beinart is far from a lone voice.

Another speaker at the conference, Marcia Freedman - a former MK for the now-defunct far-left Ratz party - took aim at Israel's very essence as a Jewish state, suggesting that it would be preferable if the State of Israel no longer had a Jewish majority. Instead, she insisted Israeli Jews should accept a status of "protected minority" in an Arab-majority "bi-national" state.

In her speech, which was roundly applauded by conference-goers, Freedman adopted J-Street's familiar line, ironically claiming her idea was not anti-Zionist but in fact the very embodiment of Zionism - despite the fact that it negates the most fundamental principle of Zionism: Jewish self-determination.

Watch:



Her position was not challenged by the panel's moderator Daniel Levy, who is also a prominent J-Street board member, nor by her fellow panelists (Beinart, seen sitting to her right, can be seen nodding approvingly throughout). In fact, her comments were tweeted approvingly by one of J-Street's official student chapters:

The sympathetic reception for Freedman's extremist position at an official J-Street event should come as no surprise, given that Freedman is herself a member of J-Street's official Advisory Council, and the organization she founded - Brit Tzedek V'Shalom - in 2010 announced it would be "integrating" itself into J-Street.


Ari Soffer

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/193324#.VRfgO-Gzd-8

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