{"id":19357,"date":"2010-06-01T07:55:25","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T05:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=19357"},"modified":"2013-10-13T00:30:39","modified_gmt":"2013-10-12T21:30:39","slug":"statement-from-j-street-home-of-the-pro-israel-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/06\/01\/statement-from-j-street-home-of-the-pro-israel-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"STATEMENT FROM J STREET ;  home of the pro-Israel movement."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>J  Street is  the political home of the pro-Israel,  pro-peace movement.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>From: info@jstreet.org<br \/>\nSent: 5\/31\/2010  1:19:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time<br \/>\nSubj: Shocking News Off Gaza<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"600\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"10\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"600\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Like many of you, I am still  absorbing the terrible news from  the waters off of Israel and Gaza  this morning.<\/p>\n<p>Going into this weekend, we knew there were few  good outcomes  likely from the latest effort to break the blockade of  the Gaza Strip in the  face of Israel&#8217;s determination to prevent it.<\/p>\n<p>But none of us expected the tragedy we woke up to this  morning, a  day on which we honor the memory of U.S. soldiers who served and died   in prior wars.<\/p>\n<p>As one of our supporters wrote to me this morning,  &#8220;how many  more people need to die, how many more children deprived of a  father or mother,  before this conflict is settled and people can live  in peace and security, while  devoting their energy to building better  lives?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With details still emerging and propaganda spinning  furiously  on all sides &#8211; one simple truth stands clear to us: today&#8217;s  events are the  natural outgrowth of the larger, ongoing failure to  resolve this conflict  peacefully through a two-state solution.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It  is up to our leaders to turn this crisis into a real  push to end the  conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians now &#8211; otherwise  events  will spin even further out of control.<\/strong> We will have more to say on   how in the days ahead.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, feel free to share your  thoughts with us by  responding directly to this message and we&#8217;ll put  together a webpage for  feedback and reactions from the J Street  community later on in the week.<\/p>\n<p>Our <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/salsa.wiredforchange.com\/dia\/track.jsp?v=2&amp;c=QQPAJUfFgIeg0mhzdYQqJ2D4aKMN7dN8\">statement<\/span> reacting to the day&#8217;s events follows:<\/p>\n<p>J Street is deeply shocked  and saddened by reports that at  least 10 civilians have been killed  and dozens more wounded (including Israeli  soldiers) this morning as  Israel intercepted a naval convoy bringing  humanitarian supplies and  construction materials to the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n<p>We express our  condolences to the families of those killed  and we wish the injured a  full and speedy recovery. We hope that leaders on all  sides will take  immediate steps to ensure that this incident does not escalate  into a  broader round of violence &#8211; in Israel, in Gaza, or in the region.<\/p>\n<p>There  will undoubtedly be calls in the coming days for a UN  investigation  into today&#8217;s events. A credible, independent commission appointed  by  the Israeli government should provide the world with a full and complete   report into the causes and circumstances surrounding the day&#8217;s events  and  establish responsibility for the violence and bloodshed.<\/p>\n<p>This  shocking outcome of an effort to bring humanitarian  relief to the  people of Gaza is in part a consequence of the ongoing,   counterproductive Israeli blockade of Gaza. J Street has been and  continues to  be opposed to the blockade &#8211; believing that there are  better ways to ensure  Israel&#8217;s security and to prevent weapons  smuggling than a complete closure of  the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n<p>We do not  know yet what the impact of today&#8217;s incident will  be on the  just-restarted peace process, on Israel&#8217;s relations with the   international community, or on the health of Arab-Jewish relations  within Israel  itself.<\/p>\n<p>We do know, however, that today is one  more nail in the  coffin for hopes of ending the Israeli-Palestinian  conflict peacefully and  diplomatically and for preserving Israel&#8217;s  Jewish and democratic character. We  urge President Obama and other  international and regional leaders to take  today&#8217;s terrible news as an  opportunity to engage even more forcefully in  immediate efforts to end  the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll be in touch,<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;  Jeremy<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Ben-Ami<br \/>\nPresident<br \/>\nJ Street<br \/>\nMay 31, 2010<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n<p><strong>J  Street is  the political home of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><strong><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>J Street is the political home of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. From: info@jstreet.org Sent: 5\/31\/2010 1:19:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time Subj: Shocking News Off Gaza Like many of you, I am still absorbing the terrible news from the waters off of Israel and Gaza this morning. Going into this weekend, we knew there were few [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":32532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[1052],"class_list":["post-19357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel","tag-israeli-expansionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}