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A crowd of about 150 at the Jewish Center in Princeton listened to Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, and Dr. Ben Chouake, president of NORPAC, respond to the question, "What does it mean to be pro-Israel today?" on April 5.

J Street and NORPAC are political action committees, supporting public officials who work toward the goal of ever-closer cooperation between the United States and Israel.

Due to strong feelings evoked in the Jewish community by issues surrounding Israel, questions were submitted in writing and read by Rabbi Adam Feldman, who moderated the program.

Ben-Ami said he agreed with Ehud Olmert, who he quoted as saying that unless Israel is successful in achieving a two-state solution with the Palestinian people, Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is finished. The reason? Because more non-Jews than Jews will reside in Israel in less than 10 years, Ben-Ami believes that Israel will be forced into ruling in a nondemocratic way and that only strong American leadership can change this course.

Secondly, Ben-Ami maintains there must be an end to the settlement enterprise on the West Bank. "The settlements are gradually making it impossible for there to be a Palestinian state," he said.

Thirdly, after acknowledging that Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are real threats to Israel, Ben-Ami suggested that the best way to achieve security was not exclusively through military force but through some kind of negotiated agreement. "Ultimately, you have to sit down with people you don't agree with, but maintain military superiority," he said.

Ben-Ami concluded his introduction by lamenting the fact that, for the most part, J Street has not been allowed to share a platform with other Jews who seriously disagree with his approach. "The strength of our community as American Jews going forward is highly dependent on our ability to have this conversation in a civil way," he said.

He is particularly concerned with the situation on college campuses, where he believes Jewish students have only two choices: what he called "Israel right or wrong" or going to pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel rallies. "More and more this dichotomy is being created," he said. "We need to create a middle ground; we need to be able to say we disagree with the policies of Israel. We have to maintain a safe space for open and rational discussion."

Chouake, doctor of emergency and internal medicine, is president of NORPAC, which he described as a nonpartisan political action committee that supports candidates and is dedicated to promoting a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. After introducing himself, he immediately took the offensive against J Street. "There is an approach being presented tonight that is dangerous to the Jewish state and the Jewish people," he said. "J Street would have you believe that Israel should be pressured for its own good, that Israel is a puppet, and it would be better if we forced a solution."

By contrast, he said, NORPAC takes a bipartisan consensus approach that does not threaten Israel's safety. He emphasized that Israel, having to send its children to the army "to face the front lines of battle and terrorism" when children here are starting college, certainly wants peace. He added that Israel, under the aegis of Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton, offered the Palestinian Authority a state "with half of Jerusalem and $30 billion" -- but the response was the second intifada. Next, he said, "Sharon and Olmert displaced Jews from Gaza, a territory with an industrial base and natural gas reserves, and Hamas launched 7,000 missiles and mortars, forcing another war four months ago, and they fired purposely at a time when children were leaving school."

Chouake expressed strong trust in Israel's self-determination. "We don't presume to be privy to higher knowledge than Israel," he said. "We seek to be advocates for Israel, not to manipulate its own political workings. Our job is to give our brethren agency to stand strong against undue pressure, to find security from a position of strength."

Chouake also raised other concerns he had about J Street -- "the grave damage done to our own people when they go to members of Congress to tell them Israel is wrong and asking them to pressure Israel." He also suggested that an endorsement of J Street by James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute, undercut its claim to be pro-Israel, and that since 97 percent of its contributions went to one party, it could hardly claim to be nonpartisan.

Chouake then raised the famous question by Hillel in the Ethics of the Fathers, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" His answer: "Because to survive and continue our legacy, we must be for ourselves. During WWII, the world, including Roosevelt, denied sanctuary to Jews left defenseless to the fate of the Nazis." He added that his own family and his wife's were among those who perished because there was no Israel. He concluded, "Several wars of genocide have been fought against Israel, and the struggle is ongoing."

Feldman then moved to the first written question, asking the speakers to comment on the recent governmental transitions in the United States and in Israel. Ben-Ami suggested a preference for the administration change in the United States over that of Israel. "The Obama world view is one that recognizes that this is in fact a dangerous world and that there are real threats to us," he said, "but that those threats are not best dealt with through a win-lose view of the world, an 'us versus them' world."

Even though Israel today has military superiority, he warned, as technology improves and rockets are more accurate and longer range, its superior strength will disappear. "If we continue to try to win militarily, there will be no end to conflict," said Ben-Ami. "Obama wants to talk to Iran and, through dialogue and diplomacy, find fissures in the Iranian polity."

Chouake again expressed an unwillingness to comment on the Israeli government. "I trust the Israeli people," he said. "My job isn't to tell Israel what to do. My job is to facilitate their leadership, to stand up as their defender. I go to Congress not to be their accusers; we have plenty of accusers. I go and say, 'This is how we can help the Jewish homeland survive'."

He suggested that the United States is Israel's one dependable friend, and he is concerned about undermining U.S. support. "We have plenty of enemies. They are all over the place, looking to establish boycotts," he said. "One side wants peaceful coexistence. The other side wants to kill every man, woman, and child and drive them into the sea."

Another question, addressed to Ben-Ami, asked how he deals with Palestinian children's books that demonize Israeli Jews and help raise another generation of terrorists. "I think it is horrendous, and I condemn it," he said. But when he started to ask people to look at Israeli textbooks, one audience member called out, "I don't want to hear slander." An Israeli also called out, defending the rectitude of the books he had used in school.

Ben-Ami defended himself. He was not denying the hatred and prejudice, he said, but felt both sides needed to be held accountable. "We need to understand the history of the Palestinian people as well as we understand own history, and they need to understand us. It's true that textbooks on the Palestinian side need to change, but I believe we would all be better served if we as well as the Israeli Jewish population better understood the Palestinian people."

Chouake's response was quick: "If you teach bad values and you don't teach good values, all you get at the end of the day is smart criminals; what you are getting is a population that is bred to grow up with hatred." He believes that textbooks of Palestinians and other Arab countries are part of an educational process that is preparing children to commit atrocities and to commit genocide and suggested that countries who provide funding for UNRWA or direct aid to the Palestinian Authority should tell the Palestinians to tone down what appears in state-sponsored media.

The next question, addressed to Chouake, wondered why, if NORPAC believes that the United States can't dictate Israeli policy, NORPAC seems willing to dictate policies regarding the missiles directed at Israel and Iran. Chouake suggested that Israel too held these to be major threats. About Ahmadinejad, he said, "He wants to do to us in 12 minutes what it took Hitler 12 years to do. If you put a nuclear bomb in the hands of someone with as much hatred and a messianic complex, you will have a problem with the world that is unimaginable."

A question directed at Ben-Ami asked who would be a partner for peace, given the existential threats of Hezbollah and Hamas. "That's the central question," said Ben-Ami. "The sad truth is that when there was an attempt at a peace process, it showed that the sides themselves, left to their own devices, have not been able to hammer out a peace. That's why J Street and two-thirds of Jewish Americans believe the U.S. should play an active role in the process of bringing about a two-state solution."

He added that the Palestinians are currently in Egypt negotiating a unity government that will try to close the gaps between the Palestinian people. "If it includes elements of Hamas that are willing to talk to Israel, we think they should be pursued," he said.

In response to a question on how he justifies exerting pressure on a democratically elected government, Ben-Ami said, "If it is a reflection on the United States, we have every right to stand up and say what we believe is in Israel's interests, American interests, and American-Jewish interests."

Asked to respond to a New York Times article accusing Israel of war crimes in the Gaza war, Chouake said, "I've always been a little distressed by how much bad PR Israel gets from the New York Times. They have the most moral army with the highest standards in the world. Because of that, everyone knows and expects to hold them to a higher standard -- so they take their hits." He gave the example of a young soldier sighting through a rifle scope a Palestinian fighter shooting and holding a child as a human shield.

Ben-Ami next addressed a question about how J Street can support negotiations with Palestinians who do not support Israel's existence and have regularly rejected offers during peace negotiations. He urged people to read all accounts of the different negotiations, at Taba, Camp David, and Geneva, for a fuller understanding of how much of the West Bank and Gaza were offered to the Palestinians and what happened. He added, "Now there is more time and good will on the part of the American government than Bill Clinton had in his waning days."

The two men stayed true to form in their closing statements. Ben-Ami ended by encouraging a continuation of dialogue on Israel policy. "It's contentious," he said, "but I'm fine with that. I think we should have more discussions like this -- the ability to hear each other out and try to talk through positions, even though we may not reach consensus."

Chouake emphasized instead the position of Jews as a minority whose survival is always at issue. "We are very few, and we face a difficult world," he said. He also held that political action with a consensus message would make all the difference: "Your voice, your participation, your support is important. Our children and grandchildren depend on it. Our lives depend on it."