Israeli MKs Sucking Up to JStreet 2019

There are a number of Israelis who spoke at the 2019 JStreet National Conference and I will list them at the end of this article, but I want to focus here on the speeches of three of our elected representatives: Nitzan Horowitz, Ayman Odeh and Ehud Barak. This is not the first time an MK appeared on the JStreet conference stage asking left-wing American Jews to help knock sense into the Israeli voter population who vote in right-wing governments.

Formerly a correspondent and commentator with Israel Channel 2 News, Horowitz is now the head of the Democratic Union bloc that includes his own Meretz party. As if his agreement to speak at the conference and bash Israel is not sucking up enough to the JStreet leadership and members, he chose to really lay on the shmaltz, after saying what a great man he thinks Bernie Sanders is. I wonder, if his bloc got into the coalition, what he would think of Gazans sending over more missiles and crawling out of more tunnels paid for by American dollars diverted from Israel to Hamas as Bernie would like to see. If he had the responsibility to actually do something and could not just enjoy the luxury of hearing his own sycophantic self-righteous talk, would he then still agree with what he said at this conference? (His talk begins at 1:21 in the video below.)

Here is Horowitz on JStreet:

JStreet has become a beacon of true and just values and effective progressive politics, not only for the American Jewish community and not just as an ally for us, progressive and pro-peace Israelis. You became an important political player in the US national political scene affecting all Americans and millions of others around the world. For that, I wish to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

After heavy criticism of the right wing of Israel, he went on to say:

We are fighting to save democracy. We are fighting to stop racism and discrimination, lies and deceit. We are fighting to stop fascism.

Does Horowitz know what fascism is? Today that word is used as an insult without any seeming relation to the true meaning of the word. Anyone can call anyone a fascist these days and feel it puts them on the high ground. And this statement by Horowitz smears clearly over half of the Israeli population, painting them as antidemocratic and racist. Funnily enough, it was Stav Shafir, then a Labour MK and now a member of the bloc Horowitz leads, who was accused by Arab MK, Jamal Zahalka, of being racist and impolite to him in spite of her airs of being virtuous.

MK Ayman Odeh, leader of the Joint Arab List, a bloc of 4 Arab parties, came onto stage (1:38) to a standing ovation before he even began speaking. At some point he called Bernie Sanders his friend, but that is not surprising at all. If Bernie was at the helm, Odeh would revel in delight. But for now, he has to contend with the current coalition discussions to which his bloc has been invited to take part for the first time in Israel’s history.

I am calling on Benny Gantz: Be brave like Rabin was in 1993. I am calling on Benny Gantz: Be brave like Rabin was in 1993. [This is not an error; he said it twice.] And it would be my honour to be brave like Tawfiq Zayyad. [Mayor of Nazareth, MK (Hadash Party) and revolutionary poet who initiated Land Day in 1976 in opposition to Prime Minister Rabin who sought to expropriate Arab land] . . . But, in 1993, Zayyad and Rabin looked at the road ahead of them and saw a future of occupation and war forever. And they saw another road, one that involved great risk but that could lead to a future of peace. . .

It seems that here Odeh is telling us his strategy: to resist mainstream Israel, to be a revolutionary, and then to turn around and forge something new: The next step in Yassar Arafat’s plan to take over Israel, step after devious step. Placate the naive pro-peaceniks and lull them into the feeling that you really do want to just live in peace alongside them and within Israel. And then go on until the point of no return will have been reached.

One of his final statements sounds really good, but it makes no sense:

We must liberate both peoples from the prison of occupation.

Why is it that the so-called pro-peace side comes up with such clever quips that sound so good and mean so little if you try to delve into them more deeply?

Ehud Barak got his 15 minutes of JStreet fame as well (video below). At least he extols the miracle that Israel is.

My vision, which I believe is still shared by a solid silent majority [why silent?] is a democratic Zionist Jewish state at the cutting edge of human societies in science and technology, culture and education, quality of life and standard of living, a model society, light until nations, shaped upon the values of Judaism, equality, solidarity and human compassion, are promoted both by our prophets and stated in our Declaration of Independence.

But, he goes on to say that this vision requires the two-state-solution: “We will see no other solution.”

He describes his opponents as being fundamentalist, messianic and religious ultra-nationalists. But most ingenuously, Barak declares that Israel has the responsibility to try and even if we do not succeed, we should take steps toward peace (by delineating a border, for example) that leaves things open for later negotiations when the Arabs will be ready for that. He asks only that the Arabs accept the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state.

I guess he has dementia and does not remember his meeting with Clinton and Arafat in which Arafat rejected all that Barak said Israel would be willing to sign off on, and that was more than had ever been put on the table before. Barak perhaps embarrassed the JStreet crowd when he announced that the Jewish settlement blocs in Judea & Samaria and the Jewish neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty; and he may be delusional if he thinks the Arabs would ever agree to that. But at least he has not totally sold his soul to the devil.

Why do elected representatives give ant-Zionist JStreet so much seeming power?  It is shameful. Especially when you see that there is no balance and all who participated in the conference come from within the same ideological bubble more or less. If there had been at least a smidgen of debate, their attendance might have been justifiable. As it is, they just play into the hands of those who want to destroy us. That is certainly not how elected representatives of a nation should behave.

Here is a list of the Jewish speakers at JStreet 2019 who currently live in Israel:

Lior Amihai, Executive Director of Yesh Din
Chen Arieli, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv
Ami Ayalon, former Director of the Shin Bet
Amit Caraco, Jewish Israeli Regional Manager of Hands of Peace
Prof. Naomi Chazan, Former Member of Knesset, Former Board President of the New Israel Fund
Robi Damelin, Israeli spokesperson for the Parents Circle – Families Forum
Dr. Assaf David, Co-Founder of the Forum for Regional Thinking (FORTH)
Hagai El-Ad,  Executive Director of B’tselem
Ido Evan-Paz, Educational Activities Coordinator of Breaking the Silence
Gil Getz, has been called the official photographer of the #JewishResistance
Dr. Jonathan Golden, Israeli Curriculum Coordinator of the Gann Academy
Miki Golod, Director of Israel Programs at Ameinu
Dr. Nimrod Goren, Head of the Institute, Mitvim – The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies
Alon-Lee Green, National Director of Standing Together
Avner Gvaryahu,Executive Director of Breaking the Silence
Tania Hary, Executive Director of Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement
Rami Hod, Executive Director of the Berl Katznelson Center
Mikhael Manekin,Director of the Alliance for Israel’s Future Fellowship
Shaqued Morag, Executive Director of Peace Now
Shir Nosatzki,  Founding Partner and Director of Have You Seen The Horizon Lately?
Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, Human Rights Attorney
Yudith Oppenheimer, Executive Director of Ir Amim
Maya Peretz, Head of Public Transportation Sector, Koach LaOvdim
Joe Perlov, Founding Director of Re:IL – Regarding Israel
Dorit Rabinyan, Author,All the Rivers
Yaniv Sagee, CEO of Givat Haviva
Anat Saragusti, Board Member of Abraham Initiatives
Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, Political analyst, public opinion expert
Daniel Seidemann, Israeli attorney and Founder and Director of Terrestrial Jerusalem
Dr. Nachman Shai,Former Member of Knesset
Sima Shine, Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, Israel
Nadav Tamir, Advisor for International Affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation
Uri Zaki, Founder of The Front