From Jeremy Ben Ami at J-Street:
Last week, while the Jewish community celebrated one of our most sacred holidays with friends and family, the Trump administration was busy continuing its assault on the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
By announcing that the US will close the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington, Trump and his team sent yet another clear signal that they are committed to bullying the Palestinians and advancing the agenda of the Israeli far-right — not to mediating this intractable conflict.
Furthermore, we learned this week the appalling news that the administration has decided to cut funds to coexistence organizations that build people-to-people relationships between Israelis and Palestinians and foster coexistence — groups like Kids4Peace and the Peres Center for Peace. That’s not just an attack on Palestinians — it’s an attack on the very concept of peacemaking and reconciliation.
Whatever the wisdom of cutting aid to co-existence programs, J-Street doesn’t mention a couple of salient facts that the media also ignores:
* As far as I can tell every single such coexistence program is initiated by Jews. I have yet to see one that was created by Palestinian Arabs, although there are some individuals who do care about real peace, like Bassem Eid. I have never seen J-Street mention this huge disparity, nor have I ever seen J-Street ever say a word of support for human rights activists like Eid.
* There are some coexistence programs, formal and informal, between Jewish “settler” and their neighboring Palestinians. J-Street does not support those programs. Their pretense to be “pro-peace” is a sham.
* Most importantly, the Palestinian Authority – and UNRWA! – is officially against every coexistence program with Israeli Jews. They call them “normalization” and it is tantamount to a crime. J-Street has nothing bad to say about that.
So spare us your lies that you support real peace and coexistence programs, Jeremy. You’re only animating emotion is hate for those you disagree with, not the love that you pretend to support.
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