Thoughts on the JStreet Jive

I recently had the occasion to read Noah Pollack's incisive unmasking of the phenomenon known as J Street. After reviewing J Street's site, and sitting through some of its You Tube offerings, I found most of Pollack's observations to be both cogent and on target. To be charitable, we have here a dewy eyed group of true believers who maintain that Israel is responsible for the absence of Peace in the Middle East; that if only Israel would make the ultimate concessions, then peace would be immediately at hand. As Pollack notes, the mantra is an old one. It's the chorus that has mon Peres, Yossi Beilin, Uri Savir, and the editorial board(s) of Haaretz for over 16 years, since the merry days of Oslo. What is remarkable about the depth of their belief is the fact that they let no facts confuse them.

It must be wonderful to have such pristine faith in the midst of the sorry tale of blood and suffering that we've undergone since the accords were signed in September 1993. It must feel wonderful to be so sure, and so secure, playing Big Brother with the lives of six million people from their perch 6,000 miles away. What a rarified existence! How I envy them the power of their convictions. How I shudder at the Jewish blood that they, obviously inadvertently, will likely spill. Then again, as the Rebbe once said, 'to chop down a forest, splinters must fly.' The ends justify the means of peace making, as long as it's someone else's forest, and you're not in the way of the splinters.