Meretz USA letter to Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren

Embassy of Israel

His Excellency Michael B. Oren, Ambassador of Israel to the United States

Your Excellency,

Meretz USA for Israeli Civil Rights and Peace, a longstanding affiliate of the American Zionist Movement, wishes to express our deep disappointment and great alarm over your recent remarks with regard to the J Street organization, delivered at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's biennial convention.

As a co-sponsor of J Street's recent national conference, your erroneous suggestion that J Street is hostile to Israel and to the Zionist idea was deeply troubling.

As you surely know, the American Jewish community, like Israel, hosts a wide spectrum of opinions regarding the path Israel should take in order to achieve peace and security. This befits a democracy. We are united, however, by our love of Israel and our sincere and abiding concern for Israel's future.

Your public suggestion, therefore, that criticism of specific Israeli government policies constitutes a threat to Israel's survival represents a dangerous stifling of opinion that consequently undermines the strength of American Jewry by splitting our community into fractious camps.

Ultimately, such an approach also weakens Zionism and the State of Israel by sowing internal division, alienating ever-growing sections of the American Jewish community and cultivating an image of Israel as a country that lacks the strength to tolerate dissent.

Meretz USA would welcome a meeting with you at your earliest convenience to discuss these issues with you in greater depth.

Respectfully on behalf of the Executive Board of Meretz USA,


Ron Skolnik

Executive Director