The 'New American Jew': "... a far cry from the notion of a bloodthirsty, implacable Iran fueled only by hatred for Israel ..."

In the Boston Globe/ here

"... For instance, when asked about the prospect of Iran destroying Israel,Harvard Divinity School student Kenan Jaffe, 26, said he thought it was “unlikely.’’

“I also don’t think it’s directly related to the Palestinian question,’’ he said, “and it is only to the extent that if Israel comes to a final status solution with the Palestinians, Iran will have nothing to say about Israel and no reason to make threats against it.’’

This is a far cry from the notion of a bloodthirsty, implacable Iran fueled only by hatred for Israel - a story we hear quite often from groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. And while most members of the audience probably weren’t as sanguine about Iran as Jaffe, fear of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasn’t, for the most part, what had brought them to Cambridge on a rainy February evening.

Rather, they were worried about the grim prospects that face Israel if it can’t make peace with the Palestinians. Given the region’s demographic patterns, absent a two-state solution, Israel will soon have to choose between being a Jewish state and a democratic one.

While J Street does strongly oppose the possibility of Iran getting nuclear weapons, the demographic crisis, not an attack from Iran, is the greatest threat facing Israel, said Ben-Ami.

He’s not alone in thinking so, if the popularity and early clout of his organization, which is just two years old, is any indication. And regardless of one’s political affiliation, this shift is going to have huge ramifications for the future of US-Israeli relations. If Israel wants to continue turning its back on those who criticize it, it may soon find itself with little to say to an increasingly large, vocal segment of American Jews."