Video: J Street Denial Of Latest Embarrassment Just Doesn't Cut It

Daniel’s remarks have been misreported. In an answer to a question on a panel he appeared on in Doha, Qatar, Daniel argued in favor of progressive Zionism. He did not call Israel’s creation "an act that was wrong." He believes that the events of the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem included acts that were wrong, but that could be excused for him by the particular and unique moment in Jewish history that we were living through in 1948:

"I believe that where Jewish history was in 1948 excused, for me – it was good enough for me – an act that was wrong."
J Street denial that Daniel Levy actually said Israel was "an act that was wrong"

That is the J Street response to the revelation last week that Daniel Levy, co-founder of J Street, referred to the reestablishment of the State of Israel as "an act that was wrong".

J Street helpfully refers you to a video of the symposium where Levy spoke--a 2 hour video--without even bothering to tell you where the quote appears. The sound is not too great either.

But here is a video of that key moment, with clear sound--the video is less than 2 minutes long and is set to start the first time at 35 seconds into the video at the point that Levy makes his key statement:




The difference is that according to the video, it is clear that Levy is referring to 1948 as the reestablishment of Israel. J Street is claiming that Levy is actually referring to the Arab refugee problem that resulted.

The Weekly Standard takes a closer look at the implications of what Daniel Levy is saying:

For one, he seems to have his history of Israel’s independence backwards – it was, after all, the Arab states that rejected the UN partition plan and chose to launch a war of annihilation against the nascent Jewish state instead. This war created the Palestinian refugee problem – but Levy thinks the refugees are Israel’s fault.

More importantly, Levy is suggesting that the Holocaust – that’s what he’s referring to when he says “where Jewish history was in 1948” – rendered Israel’s creation justifiable. In other words, only because the Nazis murdered six million Jews in Europe a few years prior did the Jews have the right to commit the “wrong” of forming a nation-state in the historic Land of Israel.

Levy should explain to J Street’s supporters whether, by this logic, he believes that pre-war Zionism – that is, the attempt to establish the state of Israel before the Holocaust had entitled the Jews to their unique status of victimhood – was unjust. He would seem to be arguing that it was.

The point is that Levy's statement--and J Street's defense of it--buys into the Arab myth and helps to extend it.

Levy’s argument – and J Street’s defense of it – help propagate the Palestinian myth of the “Nakba,” which, in the words of Sol Stern, “connotes a historical catastrophe inflicted on an innocent and blameless people (in this case, the Palestinians) by an overpowering outside force (international Zionism).”

The question is: how far does J Street buy into the Arab version of what happened in 1948 and lay the blame for Arab refugees--not on their refusal to accept the UN partition plan or their decision to declare war--but rather solely on Israel.

The answer appears to be: all the way.

Technorati Tag: J Street and Daniel Levy.