Democracy Is Only For People Who Agree With Me

By Jeremy Ben-Ami, Executive Director, J-Street

I must say I’m disappointed that the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations voted against allowing J-Street to gain membership. It would have provided an opportunity to force our agenda onto an Israeli public that has repeatedly voted for governments opposed to our ideas. But since when has J-Street cared very much about the results of a vote? Democracy is only for those who agree with me.

There are other ways to impose our vision on Israel – and, I might add, on the organizations that voted against our joining the CPMJO. When you ignore the rules of the democratic game, you can accomplish pretty much anything. Just ask my good friend, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He’s nine years into his four-year term as president, but he’s more popular than ever among world leaders and politically liberal activists. Sometimes you have to bend the rules of democracy so the right people remain in control.

President Obama and Secretary Kerry understand that. They realize that the actual will of the Israeli people is inconsequential in comparison to American political – and, I might add, personal – interests. You think Mr. Kerry doesn’t have his eye on a Nobel Peace Prize? Israeli democracy will just have to take a back seat, and we hope to be instrumental in forcing Israeli leaders into concessions they were specifically elected to prevent.

The real danger is a viable Jewish Israel. If Israel survives as a genuine homeland for Jews, that threatens the conscience of millions of assimilated Jews everywhere else who then have to grapple with questions of a role in history, of possible fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, and whether we can ever truly escape our identity and destiny as a people – when, quite frankly, we’d rather focus on how many strippers to invite to our children’s Bar Mitzvahs. It really is a no-brainer.

Democracy only works when it produces the results I want. Otherwise, you run the risk of having to account for more than one point of view. Look at what happened in Germany in 1933. It was all democratic! And we all know the big tragedy that resulted: the establishment of Israel nearly fifteen years later. We cannot afford to let that mistake persist.

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