J Street knows that the Emergency Committee for Israel is hitting nerves. Joe Sestak has now refudiated signing a letter to Obama urging the lifting of most of the Gaza blockade. So what is J Street doing?
The irony of the Emergency Committee’s attacks is that the changes that Members of Congress called for recently become the official policy of the Israeli Government.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu altered Israel’s Gaza blockade policy recently to allow more humanitarian goods into Gaza, stating that the change in policy “eliminates Hamas’ main propaganda claim and allows us and our international allies to face our real concerns in the realm of security.â€
So the truth begs the question — shouldn’t the Emergency Committee be running their attack ads against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?
What’s missing from the above? Any context about the Gaza flotilla attack, the world outrage that immediately followed it, and the threatened [even more] isolation of Israel. The Gaza blockade was lifted under pressure, not because Bibi thought it was about time to lift the blockade.
And of course, the letter had it exactly wrong:
Easing the blockade on Gaza will not only improve the conditions on the ground for Gaza’s civilian population, but will also undermine the tunnel economy which has strengthened Hamas.
The tunnel economy is going gangbusters, still.
Of course, the really good news is that nobody other than the New York Times and its readers really gives a damn about J Street. But Bill Kristol is obviously hitting his target if J Street is singling him out for smearing. Job well done, Bill.
As far as I am aware the tunnel economy was damaged – even though it still operates.
Is that wrong?
Steven, that was the spin at the beginning. But the tunnels are still going strong. They’re even importing horses for riding clubs through them.
This is a serious questio for those who follow J Street more closely than I: Has it ever issued a statemet condemning something the Palestinins have done without one of those “both/nd” statements, i.e. criticizing the Palis without at the same timing criticizing Israel for the same infrction or something similar?
They circulated that infamous congressional letter about Israeli policy. Have they ever pointed out that the Obama administration responded to Palestinian actions and obfusscations by increasing US payments to the Palestinians.
For tht matter, have they ever issued a criticism of anything the Obama administration hs done?
Bill Kristol? He’s the guy behind the Weekly Standard (i.e., the *new* New Republic). All I know is that his mum is a far more distinguished public intellectual than John Podhoretz’s mum.
Maybe Netanyahu should be attacked and he may yet even be proven wrong about the closure (America has one in place against Cuba for the past 60 years and who cares?). But that isn’t the job of ECI which is concerned with US elections.