A former member of Israel's parliament who says she struggled ardently for decades for a two-state solution in the Middle East now has told a conference organized by the J Street group she's given up on that idea, and she thinks Jews should be a protected minority in a nation run by Palestinians who want to kill them.
Marcia Freedman, a former Knesset member and founding leader of Brit Tzedek V-Shalom, was participating in a recent conference by the organization that promotes itself as a supporter of peace in the Middle East.
"All of us, and I include myself in this … until very recently we made the assumption that if Israel is to be 'a Jewish state' … then it has to separate from the Palestinians or it has to dominate the Palestinians," she said.
Consequently, she said, Israel is "a state in which 20 percent of its citizens today, and now probably the third largest party in the Knesset, are not free."
Jews, she maintained, should have a "homeland" but not necessarily a "state."
"Then we have a lot of space to think about Zionism, and a lot of space in which to think about the state of Israel, in particular with respect to the Palestinians from whom we took the land," she said. "I think that's another thing we have to understand and keep in mind always, that we took this land and we displaced these people who are now struggling for a place in the world."
She explained: "What is required ... is that Israel must become exactly what it is not today, it must become a true democracy in all respects. … If then it were a true democracy that guaranteed and fiercely protected the rights of minorities including the governing rights of minorities, then I think we can begin to imagine a homeland for the Jewish people in which we are a … protected minority."
That, she said, should satisfy, "no matter who is in power."
See her comments:
The full session of nearly 90 minutes also has been posted online. Her comments are at about the hour mark.
A commentary at Algemeiner.com summed up the sentiment.
Wrote the commentator, called "Elder of Ziyon, "Isn't it interesting that at a conference that claims to be 'pro-Israel, pro-peace' and that hammers away at how it wants a two state solution, there is no objection to this one-state solution where Jews are 'protected' by people who want to kill them?"
He said there was applause from the audience and "no argument from the panel."
The commentary said the idea essentially would put Jews under Muslims as "dhimmis," those who, according to the Quran, are allowed by a Muslim majority to survive if they pay a special tax.
"This crazy lady who thinks that Israel treats Arab citizens worse than Arabs would treat Jews is given a platform, without a single dissenting voice that I could find, either at the session or on Twitter afterwards, from J Street members or attendees," he wrote.
In fact, he noted, J Street tweeted, "Marcia Freedman believes that the idea that a jewish (sic) homeland requires a Jewish majority needs to be examined more closely."
Group's branding
J Street brands itself as pro-Israel. It states on its website it seeks to “promote meaningful American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.”
The group is mostly led by left-leaning Israelis and has received significant funds from billionaire George Soros despite the group's initial denials about receiving Soros financing.
J Street supports talks with Hamas, a terrorist group whose charter seeks the destruction of Israel. The group opposes sanctions against Iran and is harshly critical of Israeli offensive anti-terror military actions.
WND was first to report that aside from direct financing from Soros, J Street is backed by a controversial Soros-financed far-left clearinghouse called the Tides Center. Tides is also behind the Occupy movement.
J Street's executive director, Jeremy Ben Ami, is himself deeply tied to the Tides Center, which is heavily financed by Soros.
Ben Ami served at a radical-led marketing firm that helps craft the public relations strategy for Tides grantees, including MoveOn. The firm, Fenton Communications, also has represented Soros himself as well as the billionaire's Open Society Institute.
Tides documentation reviewed by WND shows the group provided a $50,000 grant to the "J Street Education Fund" for fiscal year 2010. J Street's main website is listed in association with the Tides grant. According to tax filings, the J Street Education Fund is a nonprofit arm of J Street.
The fund's stated mission is to "promote meaningful American leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically through the use of coalition building, mobilizing public opinion online, engaging younger Americans and amplifying the public's voice."
Another connection
The discovery that J Street accepted a donation from the Tides Center serves as yet another connection between J Street and Soros.
J Street previously denied it received significant funds from Soros until the Washington Times reported in September 2010 that J Street had received $245,000 from Soros and his children in 2008 and another $500,000 in subsequent years. The total is about 7 percent of the $11 million that J Street says it has taken in since its 2008 founding.
The Washington Times report was based on research first published by the YidWithLid blog.
In a now-removed section of the "Myth and Facts" page of its website, J Street denied the "myth" that Soros "founded and is the primary funder of J Street."
In what some charged was a misleading statement, J Street claimed Soros "did not found J Street."
"In fact, George Soros very publicly stated his decision not to be engaged in J Street when it was launched – precisely out of fear that his involvement would be used against the organization," the website stated.
In a March 2010 interview with Moment magazine, Ben-Ami directly denied Soros funding altogether: "We got tagged as having his support without the benefit of actually getting funded!"
After the Washington Times piece, however, Ben Ami accepted "responsibility personally for being less than clear about Mr. Soros' support once he did become a donor."
WND's revelation about Tides Center funding to J Street opened new avenues of concern about the Israel lobby group, including Ben Ami's personal ties to Tides and its marketing partner, Fenton Communications.
J Street is further connected to Tides through Hadar Susskind, vice president and managing director of Tides' Washington, D.C., office. Prior to joining Tides, Susskind served as vice president of policy and strategy at J Street.
Moveon.org, ACORN Occupy Wall Street
Tides has been closely linked to Occupy since the anti-Wall Street movement's inception. The Tides-funded Adbusters magazine is reported to have come up with the Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The Adbusters website serves as a central hub for Occupy's planning.
The Tides-funded Ruckus Society has been providing direct-action training to Occupy protesters as well as official training resources, including manuals, to Occupy training groups. Ruckus, which helped spark the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle, was also listed as a "friend and partner" of the Occupy Days of Action in October.
Another grantee of Tides is MoveOn.org, which has joined Occupy.
Tides also funds hundreds of other far-left causes. It was a primary financier to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, which was implicated in massive voter fraud.
J Street's radical director
Ben Ami himself is connected to some of the Tides-sponsored radical groups. Until he founded J Street, he served as senior vice-president of Fenton Communications, a marketing outfit that crafts the public relations strategy of Tides grantees and has been closely tied to Occupy as well.
Fenton Communications helped to craft Moveon.org's infamous attacks on Gen. David Petraeus.
Fenton has been behind the public relations strategies of a who's who of far-left causes, organizations and activists, from representing Health Care for America Now to crafting strategy for a litany of anti-war groups. Fenton also has represented Soros himself and the billionaire's Open Society Institute.
Fenton, which works closely with Tides, first made its name representing communist dictatorships in the 1980s.
Fenton Communications was founded in 1982 by David Fenton, an activist who served as a photographer for Bill Ayers’ domestic Weather Underground terror group.
David Fenton used the Tides Center to set up Environmental Media Services in 1994. Tides reportedly originally ran EMS’ daily operations.
David Fenton serves on the board of numerous Tides-funded groups, while his firm represents more than 30 Tides Center grantees.
An example of the close public relations relationship between Fenton and Tides, meanwhile, is the Social Venture Network, which was established and operates as a project of the Tides Foundation, while its strategy is represented by Fenton. SVN's board has included Tides' founder Drummond Pike as well as Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink.
Another group, September Eleventh Families For Peaceful Tomorrows, is an anti-war organization founded by individuals who lost loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The group's campaign was coordinated by Fenton while the group was funded by Tides.
Also represented by Fenton is the Win Without War group, which was funded by Soros and Tides.
Ben Ami's former employer, Fenton, in 2009 spearheaded a major campaign to end Israel's naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Fenton Communications reportedly developed a communications action plan for an 18-month campaign, known as the Al Fakhoora Project, aimed at delegitimizing Israel's naval blockade while garnering support for the Hamas-led government and the people of the Gaza strip.
Newsmax reported Fenton signed contracts for the project worth more than $390,000 with Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the wife of Qatar's ruler, as well as a separate foundation she chairs
Israel distances
Even the Israeli government distanced itself from J Street, with its ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, refusing to attend its annual dinner in 2012. Israeli Embassy spokesman Yoni Peled told the Jerusalem Post his government has some "concern over certain [J Street] policies that could impair Israel's interests."
The Powerline blog previously documented how far-leftist Israelis are influential in the J Street leadership, including former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg, who generated controversy when he stated, "To define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end."
Another key J Street member, Mideast expert Henry Siegman, has compared Israel to apartheid South Africa.