J Street On Celluloid

Not before time, a documentary exposing J-Street is being screened around the United States:

"Since its founding in 2008, J Street has attracted many supporters within the American Jewish community and on college campuses. The documentary film “The J Street Challenge” explores the phenomenon of J Street, examining and debating J Street’s message and its leaders....

The film presents comments and analyses from noted academics and writers who have challenged J Street’s mission and tactics. These critics assert that J Street disproportionally blames Israel for the lack of peace and ignores the vicious hatred and incitement promoted by the Palestinian leadership. J Street also seems to ignore the historical context of the conflict, with ongoing hostility and existential threats to the Jewish State from neighboring countries. The critics also question the appropriateness of a political lobby that wishes to circumvent the Israeli electorate and the country’s democracy by seeking to have the U.S government impose a solution. In pursuing its political agenda, J Street has divided the Jewish community and weakened communal support for Israel.

The film investigates the background of J Street and its founders, J Street’s organizational funding, and its alliances with organizations and individuals who are known to be hostile to the Jewish state...."

 Here's the trailer:

Regarding J-Street's dangerous duplicity, Ben Cohen has written:

'[F]erocious critics of Israel like the hedge-fund billionaire George Soros and Genevieve Lynch, a board member of the pro-Iranian regime National Iranian-American Council, have donated significant sums to the organization. And although it says it is opposed to the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, J Street maintains close ties with those who advocate collaboration with the BDS movement in targeting West Bank settlements, like the writer Peter Beinart and the corporate lawyer Kathleen Peratis. This milieu is hardly conducive to J Street’s “pro-Israel” self-image.

Then there are J Street’s statements. As Dershowitz points out, you “rarely” hear J Street praising Israel. A far more familiar refrain consists of slamming Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as an obstacle to peace, or opposing tougher sanctions on the Iranian regime—positions that don’t raise an eyebrow when articulated by anti-Israel groups, but which sound rather discordant coming from a group that claims to support Israel.

In that regard, much of the J Street documentary studies why the organization’s analysis of Israel’s situation is wrong. Its emphasis on Israel’s land policies in the West Bank, its tin ear when it comes to Palestinian and Arab incitement, its embrace of a strategy that would result in the U.S. pushing Israel to make decisions contrary to its basic security interests—these moral and strategic errors are all familiar to anyone who has followed the debate about J Street’s contribution.'

"I think it’s great to bring in a liberal voice. Whether or not you agree with him, it’s a great opportunity to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," a college senior and JStreet U Penn board member is quoted as saying, following an address by Peter Beinart to members of Hillel at the University of Pennsylvania.

Someone who profoundly disagrees with Beinart presents a different perspective on that talk, and since so much ahistorical misinformation is spewed by Israel-haters not only on comments below the above-linked report but all over the internet, I'm taking the liberty of quoting his or her remarks at length:

'Not just what Beinart said but the whole context of it was silly. Instead of the entire Jewish community ( and non-Jewish Zionists who are many ) uniting behind the one and only Jewish State and asserting its rights and educating people about the real history of modern Israel ... ), certain groups like J-Street and its fellow travelers and enablers tie themselves into knots and do a whole tap-dancing act --'well we are not saying this...well we are saying that'--buttering things up on one side, and making distinctions that no one cares about. It was all just a big waste of time.

To clear up the confusion: There was no such country as Palestine before the British Mandate of Palestine was established following the First World War. Before that it was just a general geographic term. The area on both sides of the Jordan River was divided into different administrative areas under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Under the Treaties of Sevres and then confirmed by the Treaty of Lausanne, the defeated Ottomans transferred their control to the victorious Allied Powers. Incorporating wholly the text of the Balfour Declaration,the victorious allies agreed to the San Remo Resolution(1920) and then the Mandate Treaty (1922) which clearly note the historic, cultural, religious connection of the land of Palestine to the Jewish people as a whole. The whole purpose of the Mandate was for the "reconstitution" of Israel ie re-creating that which had existed before. This This acknowledgement is binding, irrevocable International Law and is still valid to this day and includes the entire area of Judea and Samaria and all of Jerusalem. ALL inhabitants of the Mandate were deemed "Palestinians." The contemporary use of the term for all non-Jews in the area  (including non-Arabs ) dates only to the 1960's under the influence of arch-terrorist Arafat. Before that they were Levantine people or Palestinian Arabs etc. The Mandate Treaty was confirmed by the United Nations under Article 80. That is why as soon as the Mandate ended Israel was able to declare independence and gain international recognition starting with the United States and then the Soviet Union and so forth.

"The rightful owners" of the Land of Israel are the Jewish people as a whole which is one reason Israel is the Jewish State and has the Law of Return granting Jewish people the right of citizenship if they immigrate there. Jews are the indigenous people of Israel and there has been continuous Jewish habitation of the Land of Israel since Biblical times. In the Modern era Jews achieved a majority of certain areas such as Jerusalem since the 1860's. The majority of Israel's present Jewish population had been from Arab Lands where they were cruelly kicked out in the 1950's and deprived of all their property ( a value much greater than that alleged to have been lost by Palestinian Arabs following the creation of Israel.) Ottoman State owned Lands were transferred to the Mandate and then to the State of Israel where they are held by Israel in trust for the Jewish people to live on. They are also known as "public lands". Most of the land during the Ottoman era was public or state land. It now belongs to the State of Israel. Deal with it.

There is no "occupation" since Israel RE-gained the lands of Judea and Samaria and RE-united the city of Jerusalem. These lands were regained in the course of a defensive war so Israel has the right to retain the land and has the prior and better claim especially since the annexation of the so-called West Bank by Jordan was only recognized by the UK and Pakistan, so they were and still are the unallocated parts of the Mandate treaty territory that now belongs to Israel.

The people who are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity are the terrorists who have killed innocent Jewish men, women and children in horrific atrocities since the 1920's with such things as the massacre of the Jews of Hebron in 1929 to the present day with atrocities such as the slaughter of the Fogel family in Itamar including both the mother and the father and their babies. Thousands of Israelis have been killed and wounded since the so-called peace process especially during the Oslo War or the Arafat Terror war of 2000 to 2004. The present day President of the Palestinian Authority is known to have had a direct role in the planning of the Munich Olympics massacre of 1972. Jonathan Schanzer in his book writes in detail of the corruption and out -right thievery of the Palestinian Authority officials in his book "State of Failure: Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and the Unmaking of the Palestinian State". Obviously, they should be required to account for the billions of dollars they stole from International donors some of it channeled to terrorist activity including under the vastly over-rated phony and former PM Salam Fayyad.'