Signatories Include 9 Former CCAR Presidents & Prominent Rabbis from Across Denominational Spectrum, Call for Open Dialogue on Israel

WASHINGTON - Nine former presidents of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), eight rabbis honored on The Forward’s Sisterhood 50 list, and major rabbinic leaders from across the denominational spectrum have joined together to sign a letter in support of J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy organization, and its mission. The letter comes as direct talks commence between the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

The letter’s mission is two-fold: calling for bold American diplomatic leadership to urgently achieve two states, and promoting a robust conversation in the American Jewish community about Israel and the conflict. The signatories encourage other rabbinic leaders to join J Street in its efforts to achieve peace and security for Israel and her neighbors.

Titled “Seek Peace and Pursue It,” the letter underscores the urgency of the moment, as ongoing developments such as settlement expansion and a growing one-state movement suggest that the window of opportunity for two states is rapidly closing.

It reads in part:

As rabbis, we are enjoined to work to ensure that peace, justice and security flourish in our beloved Israel. And precisely because we are immutably committed to Israel’s survival as a democratic Jewish homeland, we support a peace process that will achieve a two-state solution, which we believe offers the best hope for the futures of both Israel and the Palestinian people, as well as bolstering regional stability and American strategic interests in the area.

“This broad coalition of distinguished rabbinic leaders underscores what we have always known - the mainstream of our community supports a bold American role in the region in pursuit of two states, and an open and honest conversation on Israel,” said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami. “J Street will continue to partner with rabbis and other leaders around the country as we seek peace and security for Israel and the Middle East.”

The letter also calls for a robust community discussion over what is best for Israel, citing the principle of machloket leshem shemayim (controversy for the sake of Heaven):

In the pursuit of peace, we are also deeply committed to free and open dialogue about Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Because our connection to Israel is central to our people, questions about how to best protect and preserve it deserve our constructive and engaged thinking.

“We’ve joined together because this is a critical moment in Israel’s history and we recognize that there is no better vehicle than J Street when it comes to advocating for peace and two states,” said Rabbi John Friedman, chair of J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet. “We encourage rabbinic colleagues in every stream of Jewish observance and across the country to join us in speaking out and standing with J Street - for the sake of Israel and her neighbors.”

The list of signatories features some of the most distinguished rabbinic leaders from across the denominational spectrum and from communities around the United States and from Israel. It includes the top echelon of movement leadership, rabbis from some of the largest American congregations, renowned academics, and Jewish communal leaders. Most are members of J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet, which is now nearly 600 strong. A complete list of signatories and the letter’s full text is included below the fold.

An abbreviated version of the letter will run in this week’s edition of The Forward. Click here for a PDF of the ad.

(more…)

read more

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami released the following statement, unequivocally condemning today’s terror attack in the West Bank that killed 4 Israelis:

J Street is deeply saddened to learn of the recent attack at the Kiryat Arba settlement near Hebron in the West Bank that has left four Israelis dead.

We unequivocally condemn this brutal attack and hope that Israeli and Palestinian security forces swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families.

It is unfortunately not a surprise that extremists would try to undermine the launch of direct talks. We urge all sides to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control and harming the prospects for peace.

We are reminded of Prime Minister Rabin’s important words: “And so we are determined to do the job well - despite the toll of murderous terrorism, despite fanatic and scheming enemies. We will pursue the course of peace with determination and fortitude. We will not let up. We will not give in. Peace will triumph over all our enemies, because the alternative is grim for us all. And we will prevail.”

read more

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami released the following statement ahead of this week’s launch of direct talks between the Israeli Government and the Palestinian Authority:

J Street welcomes the arrival of the respective delegations and leaders – including those of Israel and the Palestinian Authority – to Washington for the opening of direct negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We warmly support the dedication and effort of President Obama and his administration to achieving the goal of a two-state solution that ends the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the context of a regional, comprehensive peace.

This has been the core objective of J Street since its founding, and we remain as dedicated as ever to its achievement today. We will do all we can to rally support for this effort and to urge all parties to make the tough choices and to take the steps necessary to achieve a positive result in the months ahead.

The talks that begin this week are a starting point, not an end in and of themselves. The goal has never been, and shouldn’t be, the existence of a “peace process” or talks for talks’ sake.

The goal is to end the conflict in such a way that Israel’s security is assured – as the national home of the Jewish people and a democracy – and Palestinian aspirations for freedom and independence are achieved through a viable, sovereign state of Palestine, providing a national home for the Palestinian people alongside it.

This is a vital interest for Israelis and Palestinians, for their neighbors in the region, and for us as Americans.

We have urged all sides to refrain from unilateral actions that can undermine trust and derail the talks at this critical moment. In particular – as we urged all sides to press the Palestinians to join these talks in the first place – we now urge Israel to refrain from resuming construction beyond the Green Line. Once there is a border, there will be no need for further discussion of limits on construction.

Similarly, as we have urged the Palestinian leadership to renounce incitement, so too should Israeli leaders — including recent outrageous and incendiary comments by Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that only serve to promote intolerance and undercut the prospects for peace.

These talks are perhaps the last chance to save the two-state solution and they represent the best hope for achieving long-term peace and security for Israel and its neighbors. We hope all those who care so deeply about the future of the region will come together in support of this effort and do whatever they can to help ensure its success.

read more

Today, J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami issued the following statement regarding the Emergency Committee for Israel:

Bill Kristol and Gary Bauer’s Emergency Committee for Israel represents all that is wrong with the way right-wing ideologues play politics with Israel’s future.

Critical peace talks are about to start this week – with Israel’s Prime Minister participating – and the Emergency Committee chooses this moment to smear a member of Congress who has been an outspoken supporter of efforts to achieve peace and security in the Middle East in an attack ad featuring lies and deception.

They should be ashamed. Most American Jews and friends of Israel simply will not buy the fear-mongering and Islamophobia that ECI is peddling.

What is the Emergency Committee for – other than helping right-wing candidates like Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania who have consistently opposed aid to Israel?

ECI refuses to take a position on the two-state solution. But two-thirds of Israelis and American Jews support it. The last four Prime Ministers of Israel have. Will ECI stop hiding its true colors on the only possible way to achieve real peace and security for Israel as a Jewish, democratic homeland?

Does it support the new peace talks starting this week, built on the notion that it should be possible to achieve a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? The Prime Minister of Israel is attending and says agreement can be reached in one year. Does ECI support the talks? Do they support the governments of Israel and of the United States in doing what they can to make them successful?

Until they clarify otherwise, we assume the answer is no. Until then, the ECI stands exposed as little more than a group of ideologues who support settlements over security and are wildly out of step with the mainstream of Jewish Americans.

Update: ECI responded to J Street’s questions here. Stay tuned!

read more

This is cross-posted on The Huffington Post.

Do American Jews support President Obama? Does that support remain strong even as the President presses both Israel and the Palestinians to make the necessary moves and compromises for peace?

These two questions are rife with political meaning — and thankfully for the cause of peace and Israel’s security as a Jewish, democratic home, the answer to both questions is yes.

Yet as the back and forth between New York Times’ Visual Editor Charles Blow and the Daily Beast’s Eric Alterman over American Jews opinions of President Obama on Israel this past week confirms, a few pervasive myths about American Jews remain strong even among those who are supposed to look at numbers first and draw conclusions later.

Blow originally argued in a New York Times op-ed that American Jews who voted for President Obama are abandoning him over his stances on Israel. Suffice it to say that Blow’s argument is a big stretch — for two reasons.

1) It is true that American Jewish approval of the President has waned, but not any more than Americans more generally. At the beginning of President Obama’s term, Gallup put American Jewish support at 77% and all Americans at 63% (a 14% gap). Gallup just released new numbers last Friday that puts the President’s approval at 61% and all Americans at 48% (a 13% gap that is nearly identical to the gap at the outset of the term).

Here’s Eric Alterman:

Barack Obama, like pretty much every Democrat before him, remains more popular with Jews than with just about any other ethnic group in America, save blacks. His approval rating among Jews, steady in the low 60s, is about 15 percent higher than it is with the goyim. Neoconservatives have been predicting a Jewish turn toward the Republicans since George McGovern only got about two-thirds of the Jewish vote–that’s right, only two-thirds–and yet it never happens.

2) American Jews are more than just single issue Israel voters. The numbers back it up. When we asked American Jews to tell us what two issues they are most concerned about in March 2009, only 8% put Israel as one of two top issues. American Jews, just like many other Americans, ranked the economy as their top concern. (As an aside, I have to say this simplistic reduction of our community’s entire political identity to our views on Israel makes me a bit uncomfortable.).

Read Alterman’s whole response at the Daily Beast, neatly dissecting and refuting Blow’s hollow arguments.

Piqued, Blow doubled down, inventing a new way to make his bunk argument with “percentage changes.” This is one of the sorts of mistakes that any Statistics 101 instructor would mark as wrong and an odd one to grace the pages of a New York Times blog entitled “By The Numbers.” Alterman calls Blow on this and other mistakes in a second response. I really recommend reading the exchange.

So where do we head from here?

Well, for one, we’re going to have to make the facts clear - and call those out who get it wrong.

And two, we have to recognize that a highly organized, political motivated, hard right minority of the American Jewish community and elsewhere in American politics peddle these myths for political gain. They are opposed to the President pressing hard for peace — and hope to undermine that effort by playing with the numbers.

They are not only wrong on the politics (American Jews will continue to support the President as he presses, even presses vigorously, both sides to make peace), but wrong on the substance.

There is no other way for Israel and its citizens to live in real peace and security than for there to be a two-state solution with the Palestinians. And this well-funded minority’s efforts, however well-meaning, to raise the political costs of bold action to achieve a just and lasting peace is bad for Israel’s long-term future.

read more