{"id":2885,"date":"2015-08-22T13:26:42","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T18:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/?p=2885"},"modified":"2015-08-22T13:26:42","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T18:26:42","slug":"j-street-u-picks-muslim-leader-jews-freak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2015\/08\/j-street-u-picks-muslim-leader-jews-freak-out.html","title":{"rendered":"J Street U Picks Muslim Leader, Jews Freak Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Amna<\/a>
Amna Farooqi address J Street U Conference. Courtesy J Street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The new president of the campus arm of the liberal\u00a0Zionist organization J Street<\/a> was elected last week at the J Street U<\/a> summer leadership conference.<\/p>\n

After taking a class at the University of Maryland, where she is a senior, she \u201cfell in love with Zionism,\u201d noting that Zionism is about taking ownership over the story of one\u2019s people.\u201d She also\u00a0spent a semester at Hebrew University in Jerusalem to get a better idea of what Israel was all about.<\/p>\n

Could there be anything more wonderful for a grown-up supporter of Israel to hear? Well that depends on just how much you hate Muslims.<\/p>\n

As it happens, the new president of J Street U is a Muslim of Pakistani descent. She grew up in a fairly pro-Palestinian family. So\u00a0it should come as no surprise that the right wing of the Jewish \/ pro-Israel world is freaking out.<\/p>\n

Prof. Steven M. Cohen, everyone\u2019s go-to-guy for a quick analysis of anything Jewish, said this in Haaretz<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cPro-Israel conservatives, Jewish and not, will see confirmation of their suspicion that J Street specifically and the pro-Israel left generally is actually disloyal and subversive, lacking true commitment to Israel\u2019s security.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s Daniel Greenfield writing at Frontpagemag.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The whole point of setting up a J Street U was to have a Jewashed SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine]. An anti-Israel student group with a Jewish front that would also claim to be pro-Israel. Its leftist activists could yell at Jewish leaders that they\u2019re alienating the \u201cyouth\u201d.<\/p>\n

Turning it into a vocal \u201cSmash the Occupation\u201d group with a Muslim leader just makes it SJP. But when your organization pretends to represent Jewish youth, when it\u2019s really a puppet of a senile Nazi collaborating billionaire, why not go ahead and jump the shark.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you look at the picture of Amna in front of the Israeli flag, you can definitely get a sense of just how much she hates Israel. The \u201csenile Nazi collaborating billionaire,\u201d by the way, is George Soros.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile over at breitbart.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It is an entirely appropriate choice, given that Farooqi\u2019s views are hostile to the Israeli government, like those of J Street itself.<\/p>\n

\u2026It confirms that J Street is not, in fact, a pro-Israel organization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because opposition to the Israeli government<\/em> is definitely an indication that you are not so pro-Israel. Can breitbart even spell the word democracy?<\/p>\n

So far Pamela Geller hasn\u2019t weighed in, but that\u2019s just a matter of time.<\/p>\n

The comments sections at Jewish and Israeli\u00a0sites are quite revealing. Here\u2019s some thoughtful introspection by\u00a0readers at timesofisrael.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Good, J Street is finally coming out of the closet and showing its true anti-Israel agenda for what it is. But Soros and Ben-Ami are probably sh\u2013ing in their pants that these kids have blown their cover on their propaganda operation of pretending to be pro-Israel while doing all they can to annihilate it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this:<\/p>\n

\u201cJ Street\u201d has never been a Jewish organization, of course, and certainly not a \u201cpro-Israel\/pro-peace\u201d. This lobbying group has been an anti-Israel and anti-peace organization and the proxy forces of the Obama cult to attack Israel \u2013 the People, the Land, the State and the Teachings \u2013 from \u201cwithin\u201d, thus undermining Israel\u2019s most vital national and security interests.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here are some lovely gems from commenters at israelnationalnews.com<\/a> (affiliated with Arutz 7, an Orthodox Zionist Israeli radio station):<\/p>\n

The members of J Street, have shown their true colors. They are the dissidents of Judaism, and will end their day\u2019s, as Korach and his 250 followers, ended theres.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Open your Bibles to Numbers 16 to\u00a0read all about how merciful and loving Yahweh opened up the earth to swallow up Korach, his followers and all their wives,\u00a0children and livestock when they dared to challenge\u00a0Moses.<\/p>\n

And just in case Yahweh doesn\u2019t take care of these\u00a0modern-day Korach-ian traitors, this commenter offers an alternative:<\/p>\n

I Hope and pray that the White power Neo-Nazis will hurry and teach you an unforgettable lesson.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a special way to demonstrate\u00a0your love of your fellow Jews! Am Yisrael Chai!<\/em><\/p>\n

In the interest of fairness I will point out that this young woman has also been excoriated by many Muslims. But that\u2019s not surprising. We already know that many, many people in the Muslim world hate Israel.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for this\u00a0very reason that the Jewish world should\u00a0be thrilled to have a young Muslim woman speaking out so passionately about her support for the\u00a0Jewish state. We should laud her as a shining example of the power of the Jewish story of self-liberation to continue to inspire others.<\/p>\n

But the inspiring\u00a0kind of Zionism is slowly dying an agonizing death.<\/p>\n

So while I\u2019m really happy for J Street U and gratified by their choice of Ms. Farooqi, I continue to be pessimistic about the future of a liberal democratic Israel. If these reactions are any sign of things to come, it is doomed. And I\u2019ll go on record right now in saying that I am\u00a0not interested in an undemocratic Israel. And\u00a0I\u00a0am not\u00a0alone.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hillel president Eric Fingerhut also showed up at J Street U to apologize<\/a> for blowing them off at their big conference last spring. Good for him.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new president of the campus arm of the liberal\u00a0Zionist organization J Street was elected last week at the J Street U summer leadership conference. After taking a class at the University of Maryland, where she is a senior, she \u201cfell in love with Zionism,\u201d noting that Zionism is about taking ownership over the story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":2887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4,20,21,33],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-american-jews","tag-israel","tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nJ Street U Picks Muslim Leader, Jews Freak Out<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The new president of the campus arm of the liberal\u00a0Zionist organization J Street was elected last week at the J Street U summer leadership conference.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2015\/08\/j-street-u-picks-muslim-leader-jews-freak-out.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"J Street U Picks Muslim Leader, Jews Freak Out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The new president of the campus arm of the liberal\u00a0Zionist organization J Street was elected last week at the J Street U summer leadership conference.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2015\/08\/j-street-u-picks-muslim-leader-jews-freak-out.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-22T18:26:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/554\/2015\/08\/Amna-Farooqi-address-J-Street-U-Conference-1024x682.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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