[Peace] J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami on the Jewish "witch hunt" against Keith Ellison

[Robert Naiman]

[...]

Ben-Ami spoke at a Jewish forum on Israel at B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on
NY’s Upper West Side. Jane Eisner, the editor of the Forward, said that
the Keith Ellison statement that had “bubbled up” that afternoon was
“awful” and that he has a “rather troubling record” on Israel. But she said
she might be willing to dismiss things he had said “offhandedly,” the same
way the Jewish community can dismiss the fact that Pentagon pick General
James Mattis once said Israel is headed
<http://mondoweiss.net/2016/11/consideration-impending-apartheid/> for
“apartheid.”

Ben-Ami responded:

I just have to jump in for his defense. I think that there’s nothing
troubling about his record. I think that the witch hunt that is going on on
Keith Ellison is reminiscent of the witch hunt that goes on every single
time somebody who has dared to criticize the policies of the government of
Israel steps forward and has a potential to hold position in this country.
And the ADL and other organizations come after them until they’re driven
out of the competition for that job and I think it’s a very bad tendency of
our community.

Ben-Ami said he has no preference for Democratic party chair, but that
Ellison must be allowed to be critical of Israel.

I have traveled with Keith to Israel. I’ve gone to Sderot and talked with
the Israeli victims of the rockets from Gaza. We have met with Israelis and
Palestinians together. There is no one more committed to a two state
solution for the sake of Israel’s security than Keith Ellison….

I do have a stake in the dynamic in America where people like Keith who are
critical of Israeli policy end up cast as having a quote unquote troubling
record on Israel. It’s not a troubling record. He’s critical of the
policies of the government of Israel.

Then he addressed the quote in question and said he has said the same:

And he is calling out the fact that the voices that push for policies here
are very very powerful. And the quote that was quoted was him speaking to
Arab Americans, saying, If you want to have a say, then you have to learn
the way the Jewish Americans do it. I say that to the Arab American
leaders…. You have to be organized.

Look at what the Jewish community has done for the last 50, 60 years. I’m
proud of it. I’m proud of AIPAC. I’m proud of what we’ve done to build the
us Israel relationship. You do the same, get a PAC, get a lobby, get
organized.

Michael Makovsky, a neoconservative who heads the Jewish Institute for
National Security Affairs, then said — the panel was all Zionists, no
Jewish anti-Zionists, don’t you worry about that — then said that Ellison
was no James Mattis. Obviously reading from talking points, Makovsky said
that Ellison had been a “member of Farrakhan’s organization the Nation of
Islam,” that in 2007 he compared 9/11 attacks to the Reichstag fire as a
conspiracy to gain political power, and that in 2014 he was one of eight
House members who voted against giving Israel $225 million for military
batteries depleted after its assault on Gaza.

Again Ben-Ami leapt to Ellison’s defense. Ellison had apologized for the
2007 remark and he had voted for military aid to Israel “across the board.”
He had not done so in 2014 on procedural grounds. “He is a staunch
supporter of Israel’s security.”

Then Ben-Ami lumped Makovsky in with the Jewish community’s witch hunt:

To go on this kind of witch hunt where you continue to throw things out
about him to imply something about him that isn’t true is what’s wrong with
the way we discuss Israel in this community. We slander the reputation and
name of a good man who is a friend of Israel and is looking to achieve
peace and security not just for Israel but for the Palestinian people.


[...]

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/12/witchhunt-comments-tendency/

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1 <(202)%20448-2898>
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