this topic is an internal jewish matter!

The silent majority is also leaderless and without a vision and ideology that solidly defines it. Without such a framework, I doubt anybody will step forward and lead us to the middle ground as Brackman suggests. The right wing and left wing are both far too adamant and unbending in their ideologies - the left wing probably more so (notice that the right wing tore down settlements and pulled out of Gaza, while the left wing in Israel is getting voted out of existence?). In America, there is no 3rd party to set the example - you're either left or right. In my opinion you're either nuts or coocoo, with nobody in the sane middle. Brackman should work on a manifesto for his new organization and run it up the flagpole. I'll read it and see if I'll salute it or not.

If we already have the rest of the world protesting every single thing we do, why on earth would fellow Jews feel the need to add to that? We need the unconditional support of groups like AIPAC because we have the unconditional hatred of the rest of the world. Maybe someday when the world is more even handed we can handle a group like J street. But right now they are no better than Jews who helped murder Jews throughout history.

The premise of this article is so flawed. As Americans who do not live or fight in Israel our job is to support who ever is DEMOCRATICALY elected in Israel. Elections have consequences (Isnt that what we told the P.A.) So to go against what the Israeli people chose isnt to support but to overide. And if the author belives thier is an organization that could be formed that would energize millions of American Jews he is dead wrong- because the majority of American jews (not counting the modern orthodox) simply do not care. Take the biggest Jewish organisations that are tax deductable (Lobby groups are not) they only have approx a couple hundred thousand members.

Something like Neturei Karta, but with far more enlightened attitudes toward women, might be nice..

It's amazing how many Jews can condem Israel without having the faintest idea what we are all about. Come live in Sderot for a year or two. Experience the horror that these people are experiencing. You think that the Arabs are so moderate? You fools! The Arabs are not even willing to recognize that Israel has a right to exist. Their only mandate is the total destruction of Israel and the killing of every man, woman and child therein. Israel has many enemies. The hardest to bear, however, are the traitorous Jews that betray both Israel and her people. Stop being ashamed that you are Jewish.

I keep hearing and reading the exact same thing over and over again 'Clearly there is not a solely military solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. ' How do you KNOW? Has it ever been attempted? It has not, and yes there is a solely military solution to the conflict. The problem is that nobody has done it. Not that it can't be done, of course it can. Look at World War II, it was resolved through military means only. It can and does work.

How do you envision peace without withdrawal from the West Bank? Is permanent occupation peace? Or do you think we should expel non Jews from the West Bank, or perhaps just kill them outright. Any existing organization that really favor peace (and there are several) know that withdrawal from occupation is the only answer.

Having been privileged to attend the J Street conference, which clearly Rabbi Brackman did not, its worth balancing out what he says. I doubt that the motivating ideology of both the conference and of J Street is to have Israel make nice to the Palestinians. There are some "not very nice Palestinians" with whom there can be no deal, as there are some "not very nice Israelis" who do not want a negotiated settlement that will provide at least one generation of young Israelis with a future that doesn't mean yet another war with Palestinians. The key is in whether Israel will forever have to live by the sword. Those who, like the late Yitzhak Rabin, saw that the answer was no, promoted and promote still a negotiated process. Even a former AIPAC Executive Director admits that Israel has to take risks for peace and did not believe in a Likud foreign policy to achieve it. Such concepts - not living by the sword forever, taking risks for peace - are clearly foreign to the Rabbi. He also does that little trick of all deniers of reality who support Israel Right or Wrong and lambasts those who don't as "dangerous to Israel". They are all them lefty and non-Zionist. Nothing is that monolithic. I am both proud of my own Zionist credentials and of being called a leftist. The one does not rule out the other. To be pro-Israel and pro-peace means that I and the majority of those at the J Street conference are capable of not having to be anti anything. And that's our little trick. The good Rabbi should try it.

Israel's government; the same Kadima whose leaders, when part of the Likud and Labour, extricated all civilian Jews and soldiers from the Gaza Strip. The same Kadima whose prime minister, Ehud Olmert, offered the Palestinian Arabs 97% of the land in dispute, according to Mr. Mahmoud Abbas in his interview at the Washington Post in May this year. J Street, in other words, came about not as an opposition to the "rightist" government of Binyamin Netanyahu. It was rather set up as an opposition to Israel's democratically elected government, regardless who is in power. Thus, I question: What really drives J Street leadership, and towards what end...??

And why exactly does Israel and Israelis have to "take risks"?

support this

Take a look at : www.ZSTREET.ORG and join it!

..."an urgent diplomatic search for peace that does not need to include the surrender of our Holy Land" That gives you away. Your not fooling me, Rabbi.

for those that doubt...there was a time many Jews doubted the return of the Jewish country..... ............

To Joe: right on. We Jews are our own worst enemies. J St, in the US Constitution of freedom of speech is okay. Is it dangerous however to Israel's and (ultimately) our survival (USA)? There is Z St, and middle and right wing groups (ZOA). Let J St rant and rave and delude themselves. Come the final Jihad, they will be murdered first ( see 20,000 Polish officers in the Katrine Forest WW2). Active and liberal Jews are targets for Islamic fascism. Israeli Jews MUST think like Arabs to become proactive., who want Israel Judenrein. We do not really need another middle group. For what? Prior to WW2, Jewish groups were always divided and few Jews survived. Had Germany won in Egypt and Libya, no Palestinian Jew would have survived (same in England). Let J St lobby, its their right, but with vigorous opposition of ideas. Its good for our children.