The ballot for the J Street board position is now open. I feel very honored to be part of this organization and to
stand for re-election. I’d like to wish Talia, Edward, Virginia, Phyllis, and
Howard the best of luck. I know whoever among us sits on the board will serve J
Street well.
I am incredibly proud of having served on the board at a
time of tremendous growth and success. In the last three years, our influence
in Congress has greatly increased, as has our strength in local chapters and on
university campuses. We have also had impressive political victories, including
winning robust American engagement in the peace process, which alas was
unsuccessful, and beating back an effort to ratchet up Iran sanctions in the
midst of negotiations. I point this out not to take credit - it surely isn’t
mine - but to suggest a path forward.
There is somewhat of a paradox at play. Whenever someone
asks me how J Street is doing I can tick off the number of endorsed candidates,
95, the number of J Street U chapters, 62, or the $2.4 million raised in the
last election cycle. In just about every metric we are succeeding. Yet, when it
comes to moving the dial on the two-state solution, things in Israel seem to be
backsliding. And that’s the paradox. The more extreme the politics in Israel
become, the more obvious it is here in our community that J Street is a voice
of reason.
This past summer I was privileged to lead J Street's solidarity mission
to Israel during the Gaza war. The horror and futility of the war was apparent
from the outset. Yet, as dire as things were, being on the ground once again
confirmed what I feel every time I'm in Israel. While I’m there, it's easy to
see why many Israelis believe, or at least convince themselves, that the
vibrancy of Israeli life can endure in the face of the occupation. Because for
many, especially those in the position to influence opinion, life is that
vibrant.
But continents away, we have the benefit of perspective that
distance provides, and that Israelis either lack or choose to ignore. Israelis
know the arguments about the moral decay of the occupation. Likewise, Israelis
know the demographic and security arguments. These arguments are made by their
fellow Israelis with greater credibility, at least in their eyes, than us. But
what we have unique to offer is perspective.
Communicating that perspective may be J Street's greatest
opportunity and challenge in the short term, certainly ahead of the Israeli
elections in March. We need to find a way to express to our brothers and sisters in Israel that the situation will not hold and in a way that they will
be open to. Doing so will not be easy. We must not shrink from expressing our
concern over an increasingly intolerant society, growing extremism, and a
deepening of the occupation that we can see everyday. We must state that the Palestinian people are entitled to self-determination, just as the Jewish people are, and that their non-violent resistance to the occupation is legitimate. Israelis are fond of a
saying I heard first from Ariel Sharon explaining what some saw as his new
found flexibility upon becoming prime minister: “You see things from here that
you don’t see from there.” We now have an opportunity to explain what we see
from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and everywhere in between, that they
aren’t seeing in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
I know many people are despairing of the situation,
especially with the breakdown of negotiations, the war this summer, and an
intifada looking like it will explode at any moment. Pessimists have been
cashing bets for a long time. But we have to be right just once and last. And
we still have that chance.
