Alan Dershowitz: J Street’s Hypocrisy Must Be Exposed

[Purveyor]

By Alan M. Dershowitz | Mar. 27, 2014 | 10:44 PM

J Street, the American organization that calls itself pro-Israel and pro peace but that always seems to be taking positions that are anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, is asking America’s Jewish leadership to have a big tent and to open its doors to J Street. While I generally support that position, it is imperative that J Street’s hypocrisy be exposed. J Street insists that all major pro-Israel organizations be open to speakers who favor opposing views—such as supporters of the BDS movements, supporters of the single secular binational state approach, and those who oppose Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

In the abstract, this open tent policy seems commendable. We should be committed to the open marketplace of ideas in which views prevail on their merits not on the basis of exclusion.

Now let’s see how J Street itself fares with regard to an open tent policy. It has categorically refused to allow speakers like me, who oppose J Street’s policies on Iran and other security matters, to speak to its members at its conventions. I have repeatedly and persistently sought an opportunity to present my perspective—which is shared by many American supporters of Israel—at the J Street convention, or at other events officially sponsored by J Street. When J Street invites BDS supporters and those oppose Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people to speak at its events, it claims that it does not necessarily support these positions, but it believes in encouraging its members to hear views that are different from its official positions. That is total nonsense. J Street only wants people to hear views to the anti-Israel hard left of its position. It categorically refuses to allow its members to hear views that are more centrist and more pro-Israel, such as my own.

I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes over not being invited by J Street to speak at its convention. Indeed I suspect that this column will generate such an invitation, since J Street will not be able to justify to its members its policy of censoring speakers to the center and right of its official positions. I receive hundreds, perhaps thousands of invitations each year, to speak to pro-Israel groups. I am writing this not to solicit an invitation but rather to set the record straight that from the beginning of its existence, J Street has never invited me, or others who hold my critical views of J Street, to address its members.

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http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.582518

[azurnoir]

1. oooh so Alan haz a sad - J-Street doesn't invite him to their party

[King_David]

2. Has J street got much support among the American Jewish community ?

More or less than Dershowitz ?

Seems to me they in a competition to claim support among the same constituency .
Aipac and Dershowitz vs J Street ...

Wonder who has more heft or influence within the community .

[azurnoir]

3. really I've never 'looked it up' so why don't you tell us :)

[King_David]

4. I only know anecdotally

What have you guys found anecdotally

within the Jewish community ?

What they say at your JCC water cooler ?

or at your shul ?

or at your Seder table ?

or in the march for Israel ?

or your Hebrew school?

or your UJA meeting?

Or at your JNF meet?


Or at yr kids Bnai Brit group

or at your Jewish community meeting??

Or at your Agudah or Kesey shalom planning meeting?

What you guys best friends say?

[azurnoir]

5. well what do they say?

you seem to know 'anecdotally'

BTW you seem a bit obsessed about my credentials as you put it

Star Member King_David (6,566 posts)
12. Obviously not all Jewish people

But being in the community and part of the mainstream , having gone to day school , summer camp , JCC , being in the board if major Jewish and Zionist organizations and attendee of the WZO and UJA conferences multiple years ....

I would say I'm a pretty mainstream Jew and quite sure from my very active participation in the community that my views are majority Jewish view.

That's my cred.

What are your "credentials " .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=26261

[King_David]

7. Just asking what you had heard,

No obsession here.

[bemildred]

6. Nice to see Mr. Dershowitz is still taking himself very seriously. nt

[LeftishBrit]

8. Do most organizations invite people who take highly critical views of them to speak at their

conventions?

And, if you have a highly critical view of an organization, why would you even want to speak at their conventions?

'It categorically refuses to allow its members to hear views that are more centrist and more pro-Israel, such as my own.'

And how does it do that? Does it censor the reading material, Internet access, and TV access of every member of J-Street? Are J-Street members forcibly prevented from reading anything that Dershowitz writes? On the contrary, I am sure that J-Street members, like others, can hear any views that are going around. Not having them at the J-Street convention does not equate to not allowing someone to hear them. Romney was not invited to speak at the Democratic convention; this doesn't mean that no one could hear his views.

[aranthus]

9. Not likely, but that wasn't his point.

Do you think it's right for J-Street to demand that pro-Israel organizations allow obviously anti-Israel speakers when J-Street doesn't allow people like Dershowitz? It's fine for J-Street to not invite him, just they should shut up about everyone else.

[shira]

10. J-Street invites BDS'ers against Israel's right to exist to speak, so why not Dersh?

They say they should be included within all pro-Israel organizations to give their POV.

It's hypocritical.

[aranthus]

12. They have a right to not invite Dershowitz,

but they should shut up about whoever other groups have the right to invite or not. Dershowitz' point was their hypocrisy, not that they had to invite him. And of course, the J-Street response completely ignores that.

[shira]

11. Ben Ami responds to Dershowitz & J-Street Challenge, but not to any of their main points...

Not only did Jeremy Ben Ami avoid being interviewed for the film, he avoided responding to the film's points:

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.582595

In Jewish communal venues, let’s call an end to attack videos and mudslinging, and discuss the challenges facing Israel and the Jewish people. A response to Alan Dershowitz.

Given the significant negative consequences that could follow failure, one might imagine that pro-Israel advocates would be screaming from the rooftops to do everything possible to help the talks succeed before it’s too late.

Yet instead of organizing to meet this existential threat, some on the far right of the American Jewish community are focusing their effort and their fire in a different direction – on members of their own community. In particular, there is a new well-funded and energetic campaign to defame and delegitimize J Street, centered on an hour-long attack-umentary called the “J Street Challenge.”

Sadly even a couple of mainstream, established Jewish organizations and figures are associating themselves with it - contrary to our community's firm commitment to civil debate on issues of legitimate disagreement.

Those who've made the film and are hawking it are, however, missing the real challenges that J Street is posing to the Jewish community. Here are a few of them:

more:
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.582595