Josh Healey’s take on J Street
by: Dave Belden on November 5th, 2009 | Comments Off
Is here, on his new blog. We put up a couple of posts about him or by him here already. His opening words:
I’m gonna be real with you — I was excited that J Street invited me to their founding conference. Excited to be part of the conversation of progressive, peace-seeking Jewish Americans that had found a new, stronger voice in Washington. Excited to push conference attendees towards language and policies of real justice and human rights for Palestinians, not just a ‘peace process’ that perpetuates Israeli supremacy. And excited to be pushed back; to challenge and debate about how best to change American foreign policy, how to build multi-ethnic coalitions, how the hell we can resolve this conflict before we’ve all lost what humanity we have left.
So when J Street capitulated to a right-wing smear campaign and dis-invited me and my fellow poets because we had poems questioning the moral purity of Israel, I was disappointed. But not surprised. The more I learned about J Street, the more I realized that their leaders was more conservative than their own energized members, whom had been wooed with promises of “hope” and “change.” Sound familiar?
The rest is here.


