Between Kristol and Blumenthal
A Goldblog reader writes:
I'm writing to say that there has to be some place for people who fall somewhere in between Bill Kristol and Max Blumenthal. I'm a middle-aged Jewish woman who grew up in a very pro-Israel environment. We celebrated the victory of the Six Day War as much as we did Pesach and Chanukah. I remember crying at the grave site of Golda Meir on a synagogue trip to Israel the winter after she died.
Here is my problem now: My current position about Israel (settlements, etc.) is a lot closer to the leadership of J Street than it is to the leadership of AIPAC. My favorite Israeli authors are Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua and David Grossman. But I also read Daniel Gordis's dispatches
I have contributed to J Street and have "befriended" J Street on Facebook (much to the ire of some of my cousins who are Likudniks). But I'm a stay-at-home mom with two school age kids so traveling to the J Street conference was never in the cards for me. The fact that the conference participants appear to be to the left of J Street doesn't surprise me for that reason.
My fear is that if the media and the Weekly Standard crowd succeed in marginalizing J Street, pro-Israel/pro-peace Jews like me will be further alienated. That's to say nothing of the majority of my 50-something Jewish friends who don't even know what Yom Ha'atzmaut is and certainly aren't teaching their kids about it.