CHALLAH @ Omri Ceren
If you type “Israel-Firster” into Google or Bing, the first hit you get is to a Jeffrey Goldberg post tracing how it and other anti-Semitic tropes are entering mainstream anti-Israel discourse. The rest of the top links are to hate sites like davidduke.com, america-hijacked.com, stormfront.org, and waronyou.com, where the dual-loyalty canard gets routine play.
Presumably search engines will soon pick up the most recent use of the phrase, this time courtesy of James Zogby’s Arab American Institute (AAI):
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice was not happy with this legislation, telling Ros-Lehtinen, “There’s no question that when the United States is in debt to the United Nations, when we fail to meet our treaty obligations to pay our assessed contributions, that our influence is diminished, our standing is injured, and our ability to pursue important initiatives that advance U.S. national security and U.S. national interest is gravely undermined.” Whether Israel-Firsters (as MJ Rosenberg calls them) like Ros-Lehtinen will bother to heed Rice’s cautions is doubtful.
...When asked about the incident on Twitter, whoever is behind the Arab American Institute Twitter account responded glibly: “The term is actually that of MJ Rosenberg. If you want to argue that he’s an anti-Semite, good luck with that.” While it’s true Rosenberg once made John Mearsheimer’s “Good Jews” list, there’s reason to suspect looking to him for a certificate of rhetorical kashrut on this issue will not have the intended anodyne effect. He does not seem like a credible example of someone who trots out “Israel-Firsters” minus its anti-Semitic connotations. His use of the phrase has instead been in the context of railing against the influence of Jewish money, in between paranoia about Israeli warmongering and nudge-wink crossed-out assertions that “Jews control America.” In any case, “Israel-Firster” is not Rosenberg’s phrase, but rather that of anti-Jewish hate groups. He just adopted it, before passing it on to the AAI.
Ros-Lehtinen isn’t technically a Jew, although she often plays one on hate sites. It’d be nonetheless interesting to know what the AAI meant when they said that others “like” her are Israel-Firsters. Women? Floridians? Congresspeople with vaguely Jewish last names? Maybe someone can ask them.
It seems that the Arab American Institute has some close ties with JStreet.
J Street’s PAC received tens of thousands of dollars from one of the leaders of the Arab American community, Richard Abdoo. J Street’s relationship with the Arab American Institute is very tight, with the two organizations meeting together with White House officials. The Arab American Institute was also identified in 2004 as involved in a plot to establish a bogus organization called the Alliance for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, an organization that railed against Israeli settlements and praised Saudi King Abdullah’s peace plan. Behind the plot was a PR firm called Qorvis that served as Saudi Arabia’s foreign agent in Washington. The FBI raided Qorvis because of the bogus organization. Are J Street and the Arab American Institute the Alliance’s successors?
When JStreet began AAI was very pleased about its arrival. The two organizations have cosponsored a number of panels on the Middle East in the past few years. Back in 2009 the two had a joint dinner.
On October 25th the Arab American Institute and J Street convened a joint meeting, that brought leaders and activists from both communities together as an expression of our shared commitment to advance a just and comprehensive Middle East peace. Two nights later, my wife Eileen and I had the pleasure of attending the J Street Gala Banquet. Because it was such an extraordinary event, I want to share some observations about the night.
....Other speakers developed this theme with one of the most eloquent moments of the night coming when J Street’s Director Ben-Ami spoke of his group’s resolve to be, “a voice that cares not simply about our people’s destiny but about the future of the Palestinian people – not just because it is in our interest, but because Palestinian children deserve a future and freedom, hope and happiness every bit as much as Jewish children.” His remarks, like those of the Rabbi, were greeted with applause.
It was also important to note how significant the entire night was for the dozens of Members of Congress who were in attendance. For those who had long been advocates of a just peace, they found reinforcement, and for those who have been afraid to speak out, they were able to see, and hear, the emergence of an alternative voice that makes debate on Middle East issues possible.
As one attendee noted, “without exaggeration, this is a revolution”. The three days, beginning with the joint Arab American-American Jewish meeting, to the banquet at its conclusion, marks the birth of a movement and, one hopes, a transformation not only within the Jewish community’s internal debate, but in Arab American-American Jewish cooperation....
Will JStreet condemn AAI's use of the term "Israel-Firster?" Or do they agree with its usage?
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