Monday, June 30, 2008

A good starting point as any

June 30, 2008

A good starting point as any



A new organisation has emerged as a potential counterweight to the all too powerful and influential pro-Israeli lobby in the US, he American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The approach of the new group, J Street, is marked different from AIPAC in that it favour diplomacy over use of military force to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Also absent from the ranks of J Street, according to its founders, hawkish views that consider as impossible Arab-Israeli co-existence.
A recent poll by the American Jewish Committee found that 55 per cent of American Jews think Israel and the Arabs will never be able to live in peace, and that 82 per cent think the Arabs' are not seeking the return of occupied territories but the destruction of Israel.
Interestingly, the same poll also found that American Jews are troubled by current US foreign policy. Two-thirds said they believed the United States should not have invaded Iraq — a move that strengthened Iran and thus undermined Israel's security.
All those interested in seeing peace in the Middle East should be watching the emergence of J Street and trying to figure out whether it could be a positive influence in the effort for fair and just Arab-Israeli agreements.
It is known that AIPAC's political influence and support of hawkish US and Israeli policies have been a serious hindrance to efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East. In fact, AIPAC is accepted as the most powerful lobbying group in the US and its influence runs throughout the US body politic, whether Republican or Democrat.
J Street describes itself as the political arm of the pro-peace movement and promises to "advocate forcefully'' in support of diplomatic solutions over military ones and dialogue over confrontation.
"What J Street was started to do was fill a vacuum, and that vacuum is that nobody has been a strong political voice for assertive American diplomacy in the Middle East to resolve conflict," says the group.
One of its first actions was the release of a full-page ad in the New York Times last week chastising "established'' pro-Israel organizations for their "deafening silence'' on Israel's new cease-fire with Hamas and the resumption of peace talks with Syria.
"These efforts may or may not succeed,'' the ad said. "But they are designed to enhance Israel's security, the region's stability and to bring peace closer. And they deserve our support.''
It is too early to say whether J Street would be able to really make the much-needed difference in the US approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict and Washington's open bias in favour of Israel on every issue. However, the very fact that a group like J Street has been formed — it claims a membership of 30,000 including rabbis, CEOs and several Nobel laureates — is a positive step since it affirms the existence of American Jews who do not blindly endorse whatever actions and policies followed by Israel and who believe that any Arab-Israeli peace agreement should be just and fair to all parties involved.
It is a good starting point as any. Let us keep watching.