News > May 15, 2008

New Jewish Lobby Counters Neocons

By Ralph Seliger

Robert Malley, a former Middle East policy consultant for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), serves on J Street's advisory council.

On April 15, after 18 months of planning, a new progressive Jewish lobby called J Street was launched as a counterweight to the increasingly conservative American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). There is no physical J Street in Washington, D.C., but the name conjures up K Street, the hub for lobbying on Capitol Hill.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper columnist Shmuel Rosner writes that the “J” in J Street also jokingly refers to Jeremy Ben-Ami, the veteran political operative and public relations professional who served as a domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration and has worked for various progressive and peace-oriented American-Jewish organizations. Ben-Ami is executive director of both J Street — a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization — and of its separately chartered political action committee, JStreetPAC.

As Ben-Ami explained by e-mail, existing pro-Israel, pro-peace groups — such as Americans for Peace Now, Brit Tzedek V’Shalom and Israel Policy Forum — cannot take political stances because of their nonprofit status. But, as individuals, leaders from all three organizations are allowed to serve as members of J Street’s advisory council.

Initially, JStreetPAC plans to raise and contribute money for a small number of candidates for the U.S. House and Senate, as indicated on its website, “to demonstrate that there is meaningful political and financial support available to candidates for federal office from large numbers of Americans who believe a new direction in American policy will advance U.S. interests … and promote real peace and security for Israel and the region.”

J Street has a four-person staff and a projected $1.5 million annual budget, as compared with AIPAC’s approximately 300 employees and annual expenditures of about $60 million.

Early reports of this project focused on the participation of George Soros, the multibillionaire market speculator known for his outspoken views and his philanthropy for liberal causes. On April 12, 2007, Soros indicated in an article in the New York Review of Books that attacks on his character prompted him to withdraw his involvement from the group so as not to damage its efforts. As a result, Soros is not among the 100 people named on J Street’s advisory council.

Still, others on the council could become lightning rods for attack. One is Robert Malley, a former Clinton administration official who, as a Middle East policy consultant for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), has drawn fire for allegedly being “anti-Israel.” Malley has written critically of the U.S. and Israeli roles at the failed 2000 Camp David summit. Another is Henry Siegman, former head of the American Jewish Congress, who for years has written scathingly against Israeli policies in the West Bank.

A separate listing of 25 Israeli supporters includes professors, retired generals and former cabinet ministers. One controversial figure on this list is Avrum Burg, a former chairman of the World Zionist Organization and a prominent Labour Party politician. In 2004, Burg resigned from parliament, and last year wrote Defeating Hitler, an acerbic book that argues for an end to Zionism.

“For too long, the loudest voices … when it comes to Israel and the Middle East, have belonged to the far right,” Ben-Ami wrote in an e-mail to In These Times. He continues: “For the first time, political incumbents, as well as candidates, will know that there is organized support for sensible, mainstream positions on Israel and the Middle East — one that backs a two-state solution, opposes settlement expansion and advocates diplomatic, not military, resolutions to regional conflicts.”

Ben-Ami concludes: “These are sensible, smart ways to be pro-Israel, and to remain true to the values that the American Jewish community has always promoted of justice and peace for all.”

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• Reader Comments

  Instructive to hear about the formidable resources of AIPAC - terrifying. Where does the funding come from?
  But alas, J Street has arrived too late. Too little to late. A two state solution is now out of the question.
  So does J Street merely represent the ‘soft power’ means to similar outcomes? Namely, permanent subjugation of the Palestinian people.
  People like Malley, Siegman and Burg are smart cookies. Surely they must stand for something more than endless linguistic blather that merely diverts attention while the ethnic cleansing of the Occupied Territories continues unrelentingly.

  Posted by evanj on May 16, 2008 at 5:11 AM

  Ralph Seliger has nothing but praise for J Street.

  If you want a more critical perspective, check out Rannie Amiri on CounterPunch.
  http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri04182008.html

  Amiri asks some important questions, that Seliger evades.

  On its website, J Street says the following about The Two-State Solution

  “The outlines of an agreement are by now well-known and widely accepted: Borders based on the 1967 lines with agreed reciprocal land swaps allowing Israeli incorporation of a majority of settlers as well as Palestinian viability and contiguity; a division of Jerusalem that is based on demographic realities, establishes the capitals of the two states, and allows freedom of access to all holy sites; robust security arrangements; and resolution of the refugee issue that focuses on resettlement in the new state of Palestine, financial compensation and assistance.”

  Amiri asks the uncomfortable questions:

  “Israeli incorporation of a majority of settlers”? “Demographic realities”? Is Ehud Barak’s “generous offer” being re-visited? Will “demographic realities”—a quaint euphemism for the annexation of large swathes of the West Bank and Jerusalem—lead to the Bantustan that Palestine is destined to become? Will the “robust security arrangements” include maintaining the myriad of checkpoints which obstruct access to hospitals, reunion of families and imposition of unnecessary hardship on all but the privileged West Bank settlers who are allowed unencumbered travel?

  J Street has nothing to say about the Israel’s Apartheid Wall that annexes large parts of the West Bank. The World Court has ruled the wall to be illegal under international law, but J Street has nothing to say about it.

  J Street has a promotional video that praises an Israeli politician, supposedly as an alternative to the extremists supported by AIPAC. Which Israeli politician? None other than Ehud Olmert, whose most notable achievement was Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon!  Olmert was a political protege of Ariel Sharon, and became prime minister when Sharon had a stroke. Olmert continued in Sharon’s footsteps, invading Lebanon AGAIN!

  I’m not convinced that J Street is all that different from AIPAC. They’re just selling the same product with a softer line, because the AIPAC hardline posture is an increasingly difficult sell to a US public that has started to hear a Palestinian perspective.

  Washington already has one Israel Lobby. Do we really need another one?

  Posted by Nevada_Ned on May 16, 2008 at 8:00 AM

  I am hoping you are wrong, Nevada Ned, but I fear you are correct. Time will tell, and unfortunately there is not much of that left.

  I am hoping the people who put J Street together, many of whom I know for a fact to be sincere, are not being duped into a PR stunt designed to make American Jews look like they give a fuck about Palestine.

  Posted by opeluboy on May 16, 2008 at 4:37 PM

  Sounds like Nevada Ned has done his research, and my hope for a Liberal Jewish lobby that counteracts AIPAC is not yet here.

  However, I disagree with opeluboy. There are MANY American Jews (in addition to Israeli Jews) who DO “give a fuck” about Palestinians, and who are sickened by the fascist policies of the Israeli government.

  To assume all Jews think the same is as offensive as saying that all Muslims, women, Black people or Latinos think the same. And it leads to more hatred and paranoia on all sides.

  PEACE NOW!

  Posted by Marta on May 21, 2008 at 5:02 AM

  Marta, I will believe it when I see it. Name three well-known Jewish entertainers, politicians, musicians that are conspicuously fighting for this cause.

  Posted by opeluboy on May 21, 2008 at 4:46 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 13 posts.

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