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A recent J Street post is entitled "J Street Condemns Knesset Passage of Boycott Bill," (click here for the link), and today we're lucky enough to get two contradictions for the price of one.
Firstly, in the name of supposedly protecting and promoting Israel, J Street once again publicly excoriates (or "condemns" as the case may be) the Jewish state.
Secondly, and best of all, is that J Street does so in the context of demanding that Israel give a pass to those who wish to destablize the country by waging a form of economic warfare against it.
Many will agree that the boycott bill criminalizing the BDS movement is a strong step, but (in the words of Jonathan Tobin)
". . . those seeking to implement boycotts are not merely expressing criticism of government policies but are, in fact, waging economic warfare on Israel. Moreover, such boycotts are not merely symbolic efforts to chide the Jewish state on a particular issue but part of an insidious international conspiracy to strangle a nation. If the majority of Israelis, and it would appear a majority of the country as well as the Knesset backs this measure, it is because they rightly see advocacy of boycotts as racist attacks on their very existence."J Street, it seems, disagrees with this majority of Israelis.
"The problem with the boycott bill," Mr. Tobin continues, "is it makes those who support the vicious war to extinguish the Jewish state look like free speech martyrs."
J Street is certainly doing everything it can to promote this "martyr" viewpoint.
In closing, it is interesting to note that, in a recent email urging recipients to join the organization's Two-State Summer campaign, Jeremy Ben-Ami closed his letter with a reference to J Street as the "pro-peace, pro-Israel movement." Some will say that this is just a slip of the tongue, but I maintain it is a far more meaningful Freudian slip of sorts. In its official communications, J Street has always been careful to put "pro-Israel" first. But those who follow it know far too well that J Street's actions demonstrate that this is simply not the case.
(Click here for link to full post by Jonathan Tobin.)
