By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
When Rainer Waldman Adkins handed two small boxes, each containing about 800 postcards expressing support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to representatives of both of Washington State’s senators on Aug. 23, he said they had one simple message: “We’ve got your back.”
The purpose, Adkins told JTNews, “was to demonstrate that there’s considerable grassroots support in America’s Jewish community and other people who care about the future of Israel.”
The presentation of the postcards, held at the front of the federal building in downtown Seattle, drew about 20 supporters but was part of a nationwide J Street event that saw the presentation of more than 40,000 postcards to members of Congress.
Though J Street is known for its liberal views, Adkins said the postcard campaign drew more than the organization’s supporters.
“They represent a wide diversity of people within the Jewish community and within the general community,” he said. “Many of the signers were people participating in the heart of the Jewish community, and we’re very pleased with that.”
Michael Richmond of Seattle attended the presentation because he said J Street is the only organization he has seen that is strongly pushing for a two-state solution. Nobody else, he said, is taking a stand.
“They don’t come out strong enough for it, often enough for it, and they don’t push the president and Congress for it,” he said.
Brooke Brod has been working with J Street since its inception more than three years ago, and does so because “I want [Israel] to remain both a democratic and Jewish state,” she said. “I don’t see how it’s possible otherwise.”
She acknowledged that both Sens. Patty Murray (D) and Maria Cantwell (D) have come out in favor of two states, as have President Obama and his recent predecessors. Letting them know there’s broad support from citizens validates those positions, Brod said.
“We do these things to let them know that constituents have their backs,” she said.
The dog days of late August might seem the wrong time to get an elected official’s attention, but Adkins said the timing was set for two reasons: The first was that during a recess the elected officials would more likely be in their home states, and the second was because the Palestinian Authority is expected to request formal recognition of statehood from the United Nations on Sept. 20, and “we believe that it’s really important that there be a boost provided to the United States government to promote alternatives to that avenue,” he said.
Before that request is granted, Adkins said, there should be meaningful negotiations between the two parties that would lay a groundwork to statehood.
“If the Palestinians go to the General Assembly, it’s not going to create major changes on the ground,” he said. “The status quo still will be the same, really, in terms of the day-to-day lives of Israelis and Palestinians.”
Jay Heyman, a rabbi from the Bay Area who recently retired to West Seattle, told the gathered supporters that he feared an “ongoing, unsustainable stalemate.”
“We will not stand by idly while…the occupation continues indefinitely,” he said.
Polls have consistently shown that a majority of American Jews supports a two-state solution, Adkins added, and the best avenue of action is to press the U.S. government to continue supporting that goal.
Richmond’s concerns were much more internal: He said he sees a civil war within the Jewish community, and they need to present a united front when it comes to Israel’s future.
“When the time comes that Israel needs all the supporters it can get, we won’t be able to get our act together,” Richmond said. “That’s the thing that scares me most of all.