One of the things that struck me in the New York Times’ hagiography of J-Street is this quote:
The average age of the dozen or so staff members is about 30. Ben-Ami speaks for, and to, this post-Holocaust generation. “They’re all intermarried,” he says. “They’re all doing Buddhist seders.”
And of course, this follows logically:
They are, he adds, baffled by the notion of “Israel as the place you can always count on when they come to get you.”
So we have Jews that aren’t very Jewish running a pro-Israel lobby group that isn’t very pro-Israel. It makes a crazy kind of sense. But of course, it’s also an influential lobby that isn’t very influential. And a representative group that isn’t really representative.
But if you count J-Street as the Buddhist, intermarrying, Arab-supported segment of the Israel Lobby, it all works.
(Celebrating Passover with idolatry. Wow. That’s a new low.)
That last comment – brilliant.
On Operation Cast Lead, at least, J Street was less pro-Israel than the Egyptian foreign ministry. I think this says something.
‘Buddhist seders’?! Are they having a laugh, or what?
J-Street, the only connection that they have to Judaism is the fact that they try to use the same initial.