Yet Another Troubling Presidential Appointment
By: Editorial Board
Date: Wednesday, November 18 2009
Several weeks ago we expressed our dismay at the unusual amount of attention the Obama administration was lavishing on the fledgling J Street organization, which only last month held its first-ever convention.
The group's representatives were invited by the White House to what was supposed to be a meeting with the Presidents Conference - comprised of the heads of the major American Jewish organizations - and President Obama's national security adviser, General James Jones, was dispatched to give the keynote address at the aforementioned convention. In his remarks he said, "You can be sure that this administration will be represented at all future J Street conferences."
It is not hard to figure out the reason for the infatuation. J Street was established by American Jews who strongly object to the policies of recent Israeli governments regarding the Palestinians and are determined to force a change by lobbying Washington to pressure Israel accordingly.
Indeed, J Street's entire reason for being is to counter the influence of the Presidents Conference and AIPAC, which work with U.S. elected officials to ensure American support for the policies of whatever Israeli government is in power.
J Street is therefore a welcome gift for an administration that opposes much of Israeli policy and is more than happy to use such an organization as cover for its Mideast and Iran policies vis-à-vis the Jewish community.
(To be sure, J Street officials insist their views reflect the long-term interests of Israel and that those views are actually "pro-Israel," at least as they understand the term.)
So it was not happenstance that the president's choice to fill the position of special envoy to monitor and combat global anti-Semitism, Hannah Rosenthal, is a member of the J Street Council and a former head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which, despite its ostensible role as a broad umbrella group for the Jewish community relations councils in North America, is noted for its J Street-like policy statements regarding Israel.
Indeed, Ms. Rosenthal is a leader in the effort to redefine "pro-Israel" as not necessarily tied to support for the Israeli government. She wrote an op-ed article in April of last year, titled "Reclaiming the Pro-Israel Mantle," which can be read as a virtual J Street manifesto. Here are some excerpts:
How did we arrive at a place where pro-Israel events had come to be dominated by narrow, ultra-conservative views of what it means to be pro-Israel?
.... As American Jews, we pride ourselves on our liberal values - and rightfully so. For decades, we have heeded the call of tikkun olam - repairing the world - and been leaders on a range of social justice issues....
Yet when it comes to Israel, the voices that are heard are so often at odds with these same values.
The progressive voice in our community has been far too quiet on Israel for far too long.
Perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of timidity, we have failed to stand up to those who favor military solutions to political problems or oppose peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts in the name of promoting Israel's best interests....
To me, this is an ideal moment for a new political movement to emerge, rooted among American Jews who love Israel, to express loudly and forcefully that it is pro-Israel to press for more active American leadership role in bringing peace to the Middle East.... [Emphasis added]
Now we know why the president would want someone like Ms. Rosenthal on his team. Like her, he seems unable to distinguish between good intentions and the hard-nosed realities of living in a dangerous neighborhood where some not very nice people have - and act on - their own agendas.
But there are, as well, some disturbing things she has said about the very issue of anti-Semitism. Speaking several years ago on the sharp increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe after the outbreak of the Second Intifada, she said:
"I'll tell you point-blank; I have two grown daughters, and I didn't think that my kids were going to have to deal with the same anti-Semitism that I did as the daughter of Holocaust survivors. It's a scary time, with people losing the ability to differentiate between a Jew, any Jew, and what's going on in Israel."
As The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb writes, "Parse that quote and it's pretty clear what Rosenthal is saying - that Israelis have it coming, but the rest of the world needs to distinguish between the good progressive Jews who are not living on Palestinian land and the Israeli Jews who are committing daily atrocities "
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