JustASC

Writing in Slate about the new dovish and self-described “pro-Israel” lobbying group J Street, Shmuel Rosner says it’s time to dump the term “pro-Israel”:

Defining someone as “pro-Israel”- or, for that matter, pro-anything or anti-anything - is a way for people to simplify complicated questions when searching for a political party, a candidate, or an organization they would like to support. The problem is that along the way the term has been used so often - to describe so many conflicting positions - that it has become practically meaningless, more confusing than clarifying.

So maybe now, for Israel’s 60th birthday, there’s one last position that the “pro-Israel” camp can agree on: It is time to dump the term. Those Democrats might be right when they tell William Daroff: “We are all pro-Israel.” But Republicans are also right when they insist: “We should still talk about the specifics.” Without specifics, being “pro-Israel” is almost like being pro-great-weather or pro-tasty-food.

Rosner misses something here: J Street needs to call itself “pro-Israel” because so many of its opponents will question not its policies, but its very commitment to the security and future of a Jewish state. J Street probably welcomes a debate on “specifics” ; but they know that too often you can’t have that debate with any intelligence because the right will cry “anti-Israel” if you cross any of the lines they have drawn in the sand.

“Pro-Israel” is the rhetorical version of the flag pin: You don’t need to wear one to be patriotic; but if you don’t wear it, you can bet your opponents will point it out.

And there is a difference between a left wing position that would like to see U.S. pressure on Israel to make  a deal with the Palestinians, and a left-wing position that propsoes a “single-state” soultion for Israel and Palestine. The former stands for a Jewish democratic state; the latter does not. “Pro-Israel” establishes a baseline, which J Street states nicely when it talks about being committed to “U.S. support for Israel as a Jewish and democratic state [as] an historic and legitimate commitment” and “maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 4:06 pm and is filed under JustASC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.