March 2, 2011
Rhonda,
J Street is to say the least controversial. It has been described as far to the left of Obama, thus making Obama appear as a centrist, relative at least to J. Street’s thinking.
That controversy is underlined when even leftwing Rabbi Sapperstein as you report, was critical over J Street’s prompting the U.S. not to veto the anti-Israel/anti-Semitic UN resolution.
The U.S. however, did the next best thing by Amb. Rice endorsing the resolution, but vetoing it saying it could dampen efforts for negotiations.
Will you be reporting on the crowd’s reaction to the various speakers?
Given the views of J Street, it is not surprising that few if any speakers or members of the audience during the q and a, would be expressing any views critical of J Street’s views.
It is reminiscent of the Goldstone inquiry where Goldstone reached his conclusions against Israel based only on the testimony and facts that supported the reasoning for the UN to convene the inquiry in the first place. That advance conclusion is what kept Israel from participating in what obviously was a UN kangaroo court.
I look forward to your further reports on what you heard and learned.
Will you at the conclusion of your report of events at the J Street conference take off your pure journalism hat of reporting what you heard and learned and don your advocate hat in terms of what you found good or bad about J Street and this conference?
In the interim, two items from Stephen Plaut should be of interest and use to your readers if you choose to post it to the WJR or at least to those whom you included in this e mail to assist in taking the measure of what J Street is about.
1. Twenty-Six Reasons J Street’s Demise Shouldn’t Be Mourned – Acompendium of their falsehoods, misdirections, and anti-Israel activities.
February 22, 2011 – by Lenny Ben-David
2. Steven Plaut broadcast an e mail the other day regarding those speakers invited to address the upcoming J Street conference. In his e mail he identified numerous Muslims and Jewish advocates, some of whom are part of the BDS movement. The “J” in “J Street” seems to stand for “Jihad”
Scroll down to Plaut’s posting Posting #2 2/22/2011 02:05:00 PM
http://stevenplaut.blogspot.com/
Regards,
Bill