J Street First Back

J Street, the new pro-Israel, pro-peace PAC is doing one of it's first actions around the fact that, referring to his political opponents, Bush "likened us to those who favored talking to rather than defeating Adolf Hitler on the eve of World War II. How dare he invoke the memory of the Holocaust to justify his disastruous policies. Write to Bush now and tell him - Shame on you!"

As they say, we've had years to see what Bush's policies accomplish -- not much for the United States and not much for Israel either -- just more war, instability, growing al-Qaeda recruitment, and more nuclear proliferation.

Comments

And yet J Street wants to keep the settlements too - in the guise of acknowledging "demographic realities". If there was full-throated US pressure to remove all the settlements from in and around East Jerusalem, it would be the J Street types using the appeasement analogy...

Posted by otto | May 15, 2008 3:26 PM

The New Republic didn't waste much time setting ace reporter James Kirchick on the J Street beat.

Posted by ndm | May 15, 2008 3:28 PM

Well, call me old fashioned, but I just don't think Barack Obama should be negotiating with Adolf Hitler. It just sets the wrong tone, especially with this being the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel and 63 years after Hitler's own death. What could Obama be thinking?

Posted by El Cid | May 15, 2008 3:30 PM

Re otto

Settlements today, settlements tomorrow, settlements to the far horizon.

Posted by SLC | May 15, 2008 3:31 PM

Settlements today, settlements tomorrow, settlements to the far horizon.

Yes, because a policy that has endangered Israelis, ruined Israel's international reputation, cost the state of Israel untold amounts of resources and (by the way) controverted international treaty agreements which Israel is a high contracting signatory of, well... by God, that's a policy that has to be extended at all costs.

Posted by Freddie | May 15, 2008 3:41 PM

"Yes, because a policy that has endangered Israelis, ruined Israel's international reputation, cost the state of Israel untold amounts of resources and (by the way) controverted international treaty agreements which Israel is a high contracting signatory of, well... by God, that's a policy that has to be extended at all costs.

Posted by Freddie | May 15, 2008 3:41 PM"

SLC hates Israelis. He admits so. To him, Israelis are just abstract ideas to be used towards making himself feel stronger. Their lives have no meaning as actual human lives, just pawns in a religious fundamentalist gambit.

Posted by Reality Man | May 15, 2008 3:43 PM

Yes, because a policy that has endangered Israelis, ruined Israel's international reputation, cost the state of Israel untold amounts of resources and (by the way) controverted international treaty agreements which Israel is a high contracting signatory of, well... by God, that's a policy that has to be extended at all costs.

None of this is wrong, but it is morally incomplete. The settlements express hatred of the palestinian arabs, and should be condemned for that reason directly and above all. The problem with Apartheid was not only, or even primarily, that it ruined the Afrikaaners' reputation, etc, and it would have been morally wrong to start solely to argue for changing Afrikaaner behaviour solely from Afrikaaner self-interest.

Posted by otto | May 15, 2008 3:49 PM

Correct James Kirchick link - for what it's worth.

Posted by ndm | May 15, 2008 4:08 PM

If Kirchick said it it must be right, right? Anyone who supports J Street must hate the Jews I guess, just like anyone who won't fellate Marty must be a Jew hater

Posted by Marty Farty Peretz | May 15, 2008 4:18 PM

If Kirchick said it it must be right, right? Anyone who supports J Street must hate the Jews I guess, just like anyone who won't fellate Marty must be a Jew hater

Posted by Marty Farty Peretz | May 15, 2008 4:23 PM

Yay! J-Street whips out the Holocaust Card in its first "action". America has really been waiting for another overly-influential pro-Israel lobby. Weren't there some hedge fund jobs waiting for these young Jews, or do they have so much money in their trust funds already they aren't motivated to work?

When to regular old white Americans (you remember: the folks who built this country that has been a paradise for Jews for 200 years) get a lobby? Do we count? Can we call it W-Street?

By the way, if these young American Jews are filled with a need to serve a larger purpose, they could always join the U.S. military.

Posted by Harry | May 15, 2008 4:31 PM

Correct James Kirchick link - for what it's worth.

James Kirchick:

"The genesis of J Street lies in the allegedly right-wing agenda of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)--king of pro-Israel lobbies with 100,000 members and an annual operating budget of $60 million."

Allegedly?

Posted by Peter K. | May 15, 2008 4:46 PM

Back in the day when Hitchens still had street cred - he was on the Maher "PC" show seated next to gangrenous ziocon imbecile Dennis Prager and when Prager invoked the Holocaust over some minor matter - Hitchens jumped all over his ass like a killer doberman. It was actually rather nice to see. W and the Kirchik kapos deserve no less.

Posted by Trevor | May 15, 2008 4:59 PM

Without expressing a view on the merits, I have issues with the messaging. They say:

"likened us to those who favored talking to rather than defeating Adolf Hitler on the eve of World War II. How dare he invoke the memory of the Holocaust to justify his disastruous policies. Write to Bush now and tell him - Shame on you!"

This is awkward, overly personalized, and (crucially) misses the distinction between talking and offering concessions. It should be:

"Bush likened people who prefer diplomacy to those who gave half of Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler on the eve of World War II. How dare he invoke the memory of Nazi Germany to attack efforts to preserve a just peace. Write to Bush now and tell him: Shame on you!"

Posted by southpaw | May 15, 2008 5:38 PM

Yay! J-Street whips out the Holocaust Card in its first "action". America has really been waiting for another overly-influential pro-Israel lobby. Weren't there some hedge fund jobs waiting for these young Jews, or do they have so much money in their trust funds already they aren't motivated to work?

When to regular old white Americans (you remember: the folks who built this country that has been a paradise for Jews for 200 years) get a lobby? Do we count? Can we call it W-Street?

Um, Harry, they were knocking down the "Holocaust card," (whipped out by "regular old white American" George Bush), not whipping it out.

I think you're right. You do need a lobby of your own. Clearly.

Posted by SoCalJustice | May 15, 2008 5:40 PM

Matt -
Please learn the difference between it's and its. It's not hard, while your mistakes are distracting and weakening.

Posted by DNS | May 15, 2008 6:08 PM

"Write to Bush now and tell him - Shame on you!"

LOL. Bush has no shame...

Posted by exGOP | May 15, 2008 6:27 PM

"your mistakes are distracting and weakening."

His ignorance and all-consuming certainty that he's always right even when he's wrong is even more so.

"Write to Bush now and tell him - Shame on you!"

I prefer Keith Olbermann's response:

Countdown Special Comment to President Bush: “Shut the hell up.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/14/countdown-special-comment-to-president-bush-shut-the-hell-up/

Of course, Olbermann has the phrase wrong. It should be "Shut the FUCK up!" But Olbermann is afraid the SEC might fine him for saying a "bad word".

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | May 15, 2008 6:54 PM

No secret that Olbermann's conspicuous lacuna is his apparent reluctan to ever mention that G.W. Bush has always gotten his talking points from the ziocons, a.k.a ziocon dung beetles, i.e. a grotesque ideological cabal that hijacked Our Government and has been eating away at American Blood and Treasure going on 7+ years. Of course, he's not all bad - but this seriously undercuts his over-arching message that the country needs a big change, one that The Manchurian Septugenarian can't and won't offer us.

Posted by Trevor | May 15, 2008 8:24 PM

We should demand that George W. Bush denounce Prescott Bush's dealings with the Nazis, and then, if he does, we should moan that he "threw his grandfather under the bus".

Posted by DonBoy | May 15, 2008 11:04 PM