By their fruits ye shall know them

February 19, 2010
by Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Several news stories recently covered what was cast as a diplomatic faux pas by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. The implication was that Ayalon should apologize for not meeting with visiting members of congress for what, it was suggested, was an act of hostility towards their host, J Street, an organization whose pro-Israel bona fides he has questioned.

While traveling in Israel, Congressman William Delahunt (D-Mass.), on behalf of himself and four other congressional members, harshly criticized the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, who declined to meet with them if they were accompanied by the trip organizers. Delahunt was angered by the Israeli official’s apparent suggestion that the delegation “would even consider traveling to the region with groups” that “[Ayalon] inaccurately described as anti-Israel.”

But it appears that the ones who should apologize are those hosts - the pro-Palestinian group J Street and the overtly anti-Israel Churches for Middle East Peace. They need to apologize to the Israeli government, to all Israelis and to the members of their congressional mission. They need to do that for inviting members of the US congress to sit down and chat with an Arab official who only days before publicly praised an Arab Palestinian terrorist for trying to murder an Israeli, and who congratulated the parents of the attempted murderer on their son becoming a martyr.

They should also be embarrassed by their hysterical response - no doubt instigated and manipulated by J Street - to the fact that they “had” to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor instead of Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon. The Prime Minister outranks the Foreign Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister outranks the Deputy Foreign Minister. Does it really make sense to complain about meeting with a higher ranking official?

Many people realize that J Street is not, as it claims to be, pro-Israel. But the other group which co-sponsored the trip and with which J Street has a well-established and at times inter-connecting relationship, Churches for Middle East Peace, does not describe itself as pro-Israel -- and with good reason.

Yet CMEP does tout itself, as J Street does also, as “pro-peace.” So guess what CMEP considers evidence of being “pro-peace”? In the 2009 CMEP conference document, all 10 points of their “2009 PRO-PEACE HILL HIGHLIGHTS” have to do with support and aid to the Arab Palestinians. The only mention of a “pro-peace” US government action having to do with Israelis is the “well-coordinated attack” by congressional leaders on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his policies.

Stop the settlements, stop Jews from building in parts of Jerusalem, eliminate all checkpoints, open the borders to Gaza, stop destroying the Gazan tunnels systems, say J Street and CMEP, and then the Israelis and all the Middle East terrorists will skip down the yellow brick road to peace.

But there is still another reason J Street should apologize to Israelis, to true lovers of Israel, and to their guest congressional delegation members. The trip itinerary, apparently arranged by J Street, included a visit on Tueday, February 16, with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Two days earlier it was revealed that Fayyad visited the parents of Faiz Faraj. Faraj was killed after charging a group of Israelis in Hebron and stabbing one of them.

During his “condolence” visit Fayyad “denounced in extremely harsh terms the actions of the ‘occupation forces,’” which he claimed were part of the “ongoing campaign to suppress the non-violent protests of residents,” according to the official Palestinian newspaper (translation by Palestinian Media Watch).

It is time to recognize that J Street travels in a parallel universe in which they see nothing wrong in having a diplomacy meeting with an Arab official who just described stabbing an Israeli to be an act of non-violence, and to honoring that “non-violent” stabbers’ parents for their wonderful son. In that universe, apparently, it makes sense for J Street to call itself pro-Israel. And in that universe, J Street’s buddy organization which shares the same alternate universe vocabulary - Churches for Middle East Peace - calls itself that with a straight face.

Lori Lowenthal Marcus is the co-founder and president of the Zionist organization Z STREET.