(jewishtribune).By choosing the name Z Street, its founders have made sure that those who follow American-Jewish and Middle East politics know exactly what this new Zionist organization does not stand for.
In a telephone conversation with the Jewish Tribune, co-founders Lori Lowenthal Marcus of Philadelphia and Allyson Rowen Taylor of Los Angeles discussed their motivation to create Z Street, which, among other principles, will defend the right of the Jewish people to live freely anywhere, including Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.
This is in sharp contrast to activist American-Jewish leftist organization J Street, which has been strongly supporting US President Barack Obama’s policies concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict, in contrast to the elected Israeli government.
The day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy address in June, for example, J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben Ami expressed “regret” for the Israeli leader’s “failure to acknowledge Israel’s commitment to a full settlement freeze on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem,” including natural growth.
Other Z Street principles include: renewing pride in the terms ‘Jewish state’ and ‘Zionism’; circulation of facts, rather than “deceptive ‘Palestinian’ narratives, and categorical rejection of agreements with, or concessions to, terrorists or their supporters who are dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
When the Jewish Tribune interviewed Marcus and Taylor, Z Street had been launched less than two weeks earlier and already had more than 16,000 hits on its web site at http://ziostreet.wordpress.com.
“I’m very, very nervous about Iran,” declared Marcus, who worries about the new American administration’s overtures to anti-Western leaders. “Evil smells weakness. And [Iranian leader] Ahmadinejad and [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong-il are evil.”
“Hitler said he was going to kill the Jews,” Taylor said. “Today Ahmadinejad says the same thing. What is it that people don’t get? I don’t want to be part of the silent majority. We have Holocaust museums, people talk about it, but somehow we’re still in denial.”
Inspiration to take emergency action came from the WWII era’s Bergson Group, a “band of warriors, led by Peter Bergson and Ben Hecht, [who] staged marches, rallies and theatre events,” according to Z Street’s web site. “They refused to mimic the [mainstream] Jewish leaders who shrank from their moral duty to demand the US government face the irrefutable facts of the [Nazi] plans, and then the execution of those plans, to murder millions. It would be an honour for Z Street to be compared to the Bergson Group…. The [present] policy implications are profound and the time is now.”
“When people ask why a new organization, I say we’re not doing anything that the Bergson Group didn’t do before,” Marcus said, adding that she would work together with other groups that share a similar vision, such as Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI) and Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), although the tactics might differ.
“Many people agree with me on the position they take, but they can’t remember the facts and defend it,” said Marcus, a lawyer and journalist. “They feel it in their hearts, but that isn’t enough. One of our main strategies is to fight with facts. We plan to have comedians as well. Humour has a way of helping people remember the facts.
In a telephone conversation with the Jewish Tribune, co-founders Lori Lowenthal Marcus of Philadelphia and Allyson Rowen Taylor of Los Angeles discussed their motivation to create Z Street, which, among other principles, will defend the right of the Jewish people to live freely anywhere, including Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.
This is in sharp contrast to activist American-Jewish leftist organization J Street, which has been strongly supporting US President Barack Obama’s policies concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict, in contrast to the elected Israeli government.
The day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy address in June, for example, J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben Ami expressed “regret” for the Israeli leader’s “failure to acknowledge Israel’s commitment to a full settlement freeze on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem,” including natural growth.
Other Z Street principles include: renewing pride in the terms ‘Jewish state’ and ‘Zionism’; circulation of facts, rather than “deceptive ‘Palestinian’ narratives, and categorical rejection of agreements with, or concessions to, terrorists or their supporters who are dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
When the Jewish Tribune interviewed Marcus and Taylor, Z Street had been launched less than two weeks earlier and already had more than 16,000 hits on its web site at http://ziostreet.wordpress.com.
“I’m very, very nervous about Iran,” declared Marcus, who worries about the new American administration’s overtures to anti-Western leaders. “Evil smells weakness. And [Iranian leader] Ahmadinejad and [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong-il are evil.”
“Hitler said he was going to kill the Jews,” Taylor said. “Today Ahmadinejad says the same thing. What is it that people don’t get? I don’t want to be part of the silent majority. We have Holocaust museums, people talk about it, but somehow we’re still in denial.”
Inspiration to take emergency action came from the WWII era’s Bergson Group, a “band of warriors, led by Peter Bergson and Ben Hecht, [who] staged marches, rallies and theatre events,” according to Z Street’s web site. “They refused to mimic the [mainstream] Jewish leaders who shrank from their moral duty to demand the US government face the irrefutable facts of the [Nazi] plans, and then the execution of those plans, to murder millions. It would be an honour for Z Street to be compared to the Bergson Group…. The [present] policy implications are profound and the time is now.”
“When people ask why a new organization, I say we’re not doing anything that the Bergson Group didn’t do before,” Marcus said, adding that she would work together with other groups that share a similar vision, such as Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI) and Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), although the tactics might differ.
“Many people agree with me on the position they take, but they can’t remember the facts and defend it,” said Marcus, a lawyer and journalist. “They feel it in their hearts, but that isn’t enough. One of our main strategies is to fight with facts. We plan to have comedians as well. Humour has a way of helping people remember the facts.