Sunday, November 01, 2009

Meet J Street

"JG: Are you a Zionist?
JB: I am a Zionist personally. I am deeply committed to a Jewish home, to a democratic home, to a Jewish Israel. I'm deeply committed to that and you know my family background.
JG: Ben-Ami is a Jewish name, I think.
JB: Exactly. My great-grandparents were in the First Aliyah, my grandparents founded Tel Aviv, my father was in the Irgun. I've lived in Israel myself. I have 500 cousins there. I'm deeply committed to the safety, the sanctity and the security of a Jewish home in the state of Israel.
JG: Is J Street a Zionist organization?
JB: Well, we are unabashedly for a Jewish home in the land of Israel, that there should be a Jewish home that is a democracy, that has a Jewish character and a Jewish flavor and where the law of return is a fact -- I know you're having a disagreement with Bernie (Avishai) right now. I don't even know what he said about the right of return." When Zionists refer to the Law of Return they mean of course it only applies to Jews, but not to Arabs. And according to the racist state of Israel, return refers to the return of a people to a land that they never has stepped foot on, while it does not apply to the people who were born there and whose ancestors have lived there uninterruptedly for centuries. But then again, this is Zionism. (thanks Sarah)