What kind of Jew would go to non-Jewish legislators and lobby them to embargo arms intended for Israel?
We don’t do excommunications anymore. There are many reasons, many obvious. And sometimes we do not have to because the subjects excommunicate themselves.
“J Street” is a self-excluding entity of Jew haters: Not that they hate all Jews. They have room for George Soros and Bernie Sanders. They proudly take the lead in sabotaging the one and only country of the Jews. Enough to set themselves outside the machaneh, the “camp,” of Klal Yisrael (the Community of Israel). And they have room for unabashed Israel-haters. Two years ago, they circulated a petition stating that Ilhan Omar is not anti-Semitic . . . and not even anti-Israel.
Let us be clear. All because a Jew thinks diametrically differently from you or from the majority does not separate that Jew from the Community of Israel. But there are those who truly are outside the pale. They have been there throughout Jewish history: the Kamenevs, Zionovievs, Radeks, and Trotskys. They come in different times and in different forms and shapes. In our day, they include forms like “IfNotNow,” “Jewish Voice for Peace,” and Jews in “Students for Justice in Palestine.”
But “J Street” occupies a unique place. In This World (Olam HaZeh), it devolves on us to exclude them, to maintain our distance, just as Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses Our Teacher) warned Jews of his time to maintain their distance from Korach and his assemblage.
The thing is, Korach was a tzaddik, a righteous Jew, when compared to “J Street.” He had been at Mt. Sinai and believed in G-d. He fulfilled mitzvot, observed the Shabbat and kashrut laws. His tragedy was his pursuit of personal prestige that defied the order of life that G-d had set forth. He brought tragedy on himself and on his followers. But he did not really aim to bring tragedy on Klal Yisrael, the greater Community of Israel. By contrast, “J Street” would, if they ever were to actualize their efforts.