Friday, August 1, 2014

'Self-Righteously Suicidal Jews': J-Street Spinoff 'If Not Now' Reclaims 'Jewish Values from War and Occupation...'

Recall William Jacobson's post from a few weeks back, "“Self-righteously suicidal” Jews":
They ignore the reality of Jew hatred as a powerful motivating anti-Israel force.
Yes, it's all moral relativism with the self-righteously suicidal Jews, like "If Not Now, When?", a new leftist Jewish organization founded by Tammy Shapiro, the former director of J Street U, the student organizing arm of J Street.

Background at Forward, "J Street's Gaza War Support Wins 'Moderate' Praise — But Alienates Some Backers: Grassroots Peaceniks Take to Streets to Oppose Israel":
Turns out that J Street has "moderated" its peacenik position, issuing a statement recognizing Israel's right to self defense. And that didn't sit too well with the more radical former J-Streeters, like Ms. Shapiro: In New York, J Street did not co-sponsor a large pro-Israel rally organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, held near the United Nations on July 29.

Two hours before the JCRC rally, dozens of activists gathered outside the building where the Presidents Conference has offices to say Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, in protest of Gaza deaths. The same group, #ifnotnow, had organized a similar action in the same space days earlier.

The effort was launched by four activists, two of them former high-ranking J Street staff members: Carinne Luck, who joined J Street before its launch in 2007 and left in 2012, when she was the group’s vice president of field and campaigns, and Daniel May, director of J Street U, the group’s university arm, from 2010 through 2013. A third, Max Berger, worked as a new media assistant at J Street. He was arrested with eight other protestors during the July 29 action after entering the lobby of the Presidents Conference building and refusing to leave.

Some of the arrested activists were held until midday the following day.

Other former high-ranking J Street staffers attended one or both of the #ifnotnow protests, including J Street’s vice president of communications and new media from 2008 until 2011, Isaac Luria, who wrote the 2008 Gaza letter that [Rabbi Eric] Yoffie condemned, and Tamara Shapiro, director of J Street U from 2009 to 2010. Simone Zimmerman, the national president of J Street U’s student board in the 2012-2013 school year, is #ifnotnow’s media liaison.

Some of the former staffers said that they didn’t oppose J Street’s long-term strategy but felt hemmed in by its tactics.

“I understand the strategy that J Street has adopted, and I think it’s fine to have an organization like J Street moving that strategy,” May said. “I also think that there’s a need for an approach that fits this moment.”

Others described a sharper split between J Street and their new group. “This group has come together because we don’t share J Street’s patience with the Jewish institutional community,” Luck said.
And live on Twitter:


Notice how they "reject" others who understand that Israel's right to self-defense is non-negotiable.

They need to read Time Rutten's piece, "Hamas Causes Tragedy, but Israel Gets Blamed."


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