Rachel Lerner of J Street sent out the email below today about her and another J Streeter’s attendance at the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem. The Congress directs the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish National Fund, and the Jewish Agency– all of which foster the illegal colonization by Jews of occupied territories.

J Street is opposed to the occupation because it wants a two-state solution. Lerner, the senior vice president for community relations at J Street, justifies her attendance by explaining that she is introducing a resolution that would demand more “transparency” on the part of WZO about the subsidies to Jewish-only settlements in an effort to bring the settlements to an end and save the two-state solution.

A choice for full financial transparency is a choice for an Israel that better reflects our Jewish and democratic values.

Really? If world Zionism knew exactly how many millions were going to Jewish-only settlements, they’d change the policy? That’s a bit like joining a group that gives money to segregationists and demanding that they be more transparent about the gift.

I think the real reason for her attendance is that Lerner believes in the “Zionist dream” and so she joins with the community that shares her dream, even if many are racist; note that none of Israel’s dramatic shifts rightward, let alone the arson murder of three members of a Palestinian family by settlers last July– a bit like the Philadelphia Mississippi murders– even registers in Lerner’s account below. She also believes that we can have a sincere conversation in the Jewish community “about whether the Israel we’re building right now is the Israel we want for our future.” It is very much like Americans for Peace Now remaining a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations even when that body opposes the Iran deal and supports the illegal settlements; they want to be part of the power conversation, even if it’s a very dark power. (IMHO you cannot organize the Jewish community forward inside that official community; you are just balancing the Ku Klux Klan-like elements of the Zionist faithful. You have to get outside that community to a more diverse community that includes many Jews, and build something better.)

But here is Lerner’s complete email: