Sir, - Despite J Street's claim of being a pro-Israel group interested in advancing the halted peace process, the address by Jeremy Ben-Ami to the opening of the its third annual conference, clearly provides serious doubts about the validity of that claim. After bemoaning the absence of a viable peace process, Ben-Ami place the blame on 'the current leadership in Israel and settlement construction'. Two points are worthy of note:
- The current Israel leadership is the one that was chosen by the only democratic elections taking place in the entire Middle East.
- Ben-Ami's ignoble failure to cite even minimally the Palestinian responsibility for the absence of the peace talks.
In addition, I completely reject the right of Ben-Ami or any other non-resident of Israel to define, establish, or prioritize for us the existential threats that we face. A nuclear armed Iran is indisputably an existential threat to Israel, while the issue of a two-state solution constitutes no such threat, and can be solved only by direct negotiations without prior conditions, by the two sides.
ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva
[Image credit: Wikimedia user Wickey-nl]
