J Street
Encyclopedia
J Street is a nonprofit
liberal
advocacy
group based in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli
and Israel-Palestinian
conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. It was founded in April 2008.
While primarily made up of Jews
, J Street welcomes non-Jewish members as well. J Street states that it "supports a new direction for American policy in the Middle East – diplomatic solutions over military ones", "multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution"; and "dialogue over confrontation" with wider international support. According to J Street, its political action committee
is "the first and only federal Political Action Committee whose goal is to demonstrate that there is meaningful political and financial support to candidates for federal office from large numbers of Americans who believe a new direction in American policy will advance U.S. interests in the Middle East and promote real peace and security for Israel and the region."
J Street describes itself as a pro-Israel organization, which supports peace between Israel and its neighbors. Some Israelis, including several public figures, have expressed profound doubts about the group's pro-Israel claims, particularly in relation to key challenges facing the Jewish state. Several US Jewish leaders have expressed reservations about J Street's position on Israel, and some have publicly disassociated themselves from the organization.
organization aimed at Washington
leaders and policymakers
, derived its name from the alphabetically named street plan of Washington, D.C.: J Street is missing from the grid (the street naming jumps from I Street to K Street for historical/orthographic reasons). Also, by association, the letter J is a reference to "Jewish". Further, K Street
is a street in downtown Washington on which multiple influential lobbying firms are located, which become synonymous for Washington’s formidable lobbying establishment. Consequently, the choice of the name reflects the desire of J Street's founders and donors
to bring a message to Washington that, metaphorically like the missing "J Street" of the D.C. grid, has thus far been absent. It may also suggest being slightly different from the more "mainstream" lobbying entities.
, the organization seeks to provide a political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who believe that a "two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel’s survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy." J Street has a two-fold mission: first, to advocate for urgent American diplomatic leadership
to achieve a two-state solution and a broader regional, comprehensive peace and, second, to ensure a broad debate on Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community. J-Street opposes recognizing Palestine as an independent state at the United Nations.
According to its website, J Street "recognizes and supports Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people" and Israel's "desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own." According to its executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami
, J Street is neither pro- nor anti- any individual organization or other pro-Israel umbrella groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC). He says J Street is proud of AIPAC's many accomplishments and clarified that the two groups have different priorities rather than different views.
Explaining the need for a new advocacy and lobbying group, Ben-Ami stated: "J Street has been started, however, because there has not been sufficient vocal and political advocacy on behalf of the view that Israel's interests will be best served when the United States makes it a major foreign policy priority to help Israel achieve a real and lasting peace not only with the Palestinians but with all its neighbors."
Alan Solomont
, one of the founders of J Street and a former national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee
(DNC) and currently a Democratic Party
fundraiser, described the need for J Street in the following way:
"We have heard the voices of neocons, and right-of-center Jewish leaders and Christian evangelicals
, and the mainstream views of the American Jewish community have not been heard." During its first conference, Ben-Ami said that "[t]he party and the viewpoint that we're closest to in Israeli politics is actually Kadima
." Kadima MK Meir Sheetrit
, who attended the conference, said, "They are more left than Kadima, but on this main issue, which is peace, I think we agree."
J Street's official policy positions as of August 2009 are:
J Street and J Street PAC, founded in April 2008, exist as separate legal entities with different political functions. The J Street Education Fund joined the J Street family of organizations in 2009:
, a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton Administration
. Ben-Ami has deep ties to Israel: His grandparents were among the founders of Tel Aviv, his parents were Israelis, his family suffered in the Holocaust
, and he has lived in Israel, where he was almost blown up in a Jerusalem terror attack. Ben-Ami has worked for many years with Jewish peace groups, including the Center for Middle East Peace and the Geneva Accord
.
The initial support of J Street came from multi-billionaire
George Soros
, who for a brief time was associated with the organization. Soros pulled out before the initial launch, so as not to negatively affect the group. In September 2010 it was revealed that despite the organization's denials, Soros secretly funded the group.
J Street's advisory council consists of former public officials, policy experts, community leaders and academics, including Daniel Levy, a former high-ranking Israeli official who was the lead drafter of the groundbreaking Geneva Initiative, Franklin Fisher and Debra DeLee
of Americans for Peace Now
, Marcia Freedman
of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
, Democratic Middle East foreign policy expert Robert Malley
, former Israeli foreign minister
Shlomo Ben-Ami
, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel W. Lewis
and former U.S. Senator
Lincoln Chafee
.
The Obama Administration nominated Hannah Rosenthal
, a member of the advisory council of both J Street and J Street PAC, to be the head of the Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
.
raising funds to support a limited number of candidates for Senate and Congressional races.
For the 2008 Congressional elections, the J Street PAC raised $600,000 and, according to J Street, 33 of the 41 candidates it backed won their seats.
In 2010, JStreetPAC endorsed 61 candidates – 3 for the Senate and 58 for the House. 45 of the PAC’s candidates won. The JStreetPAC distributed over $1.5 million dollars to its candidates, more than any other pro-Israel PAC in the two-year cycle.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, dozens of Arab and Muslim Americans and Iranian advocacy organizations donated tens of thousands of dollars to J Street, representing "a small fraction" of the group's fund-raising. Donors included Lebanese-American businessman Richard Abdoo, who is a board member of Amideast
and a former board member of the Arab American Institute
, and Genevieve Lynch, who is also a member of the National Iranian American Council
board.
J Street's first-year budget for fiscal 2009 is $1.5 million. This is a modest figure for a PAC, though Gary Kamiya writes that J Street hopes to raise significant money online, following the blueprint of MoveOn
and the Barack Obama
presidential campaign.
, a right-wing advocacy group that William Kristol
and Gary Bauer
, inspired by J Street, created. "They Don't Speak For Us" describes the ECI as "just plain out of touch" and "far outside the mainstream" of the pro-Israel Jewish community.
sent a letter congratulating J Street on its inaugural event. She said she would not be able to attend but that Kadima
would be "well-represented" by Meir Sheetrit
, Shlomo Molla
, and Haim Ramon
.
The Israeli Embassy stated that Ambassador Michael Oren
would not attend J Street's first national conference because J Street supports positions that may "impair" Israel's interest. Oren has continued his criticism since the conference, telling Conservative
rabbis meeting in Philadelphia that J Street "is a unique problem in that it not only opposes one policy of one Israeli government, it opposes all policies of all Israeli governments. It’s significantly out of the mainstream." In April 2010, Oren had a meeting with J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami to discuss the issues.
Hannah Rosenthal
, head of the Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
in the Obama Administration, criticized Oren, saying his comments were "most unfortunate". After several American Jewish groups criticized Rosenthal, the U.S. State Department
said that "Rosenthal has the complete support of the department."
In February 2010 the Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to meet with visiting U.S. congressmembers
being escorted by J Street on a visit to Israel unless members of Congress attended the meeting without their J Street escorts. Addressing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon said "The thing that troubles me is that they don't present themselves as to what they really are. They should not call themselves pro-Israeli."
In Haaretz
, columnist Bradley Burston
wrote that the Foreign Ministry's refusal to meet with the U.S. congressmembers was "a gratuitous move breathtaking in its haughtiness, its ignorance of and disrespect for the United States and the American Jewish community". He said that the Foreign Ministry considered J Street "guilty of the crime of explicitly calling itself pro-Israel, while not agreeing wholeheartedly with everything the government of Israel says and does."
Haviv Rettig Gur, writing in The Jerusalem Post
, said that "J Street won a small victory" in the incident. "If American legislators with pro-Israel records say J Street is kosher," Gur wrote, "that creates a new political reality with which the Israeli Right must contend."
The Foreign Ministry said J Street's assertions that Ayalon refused to meet with members of the U.S. Congress and that he later apologized were untrue, and that they were a fund-raising publicity stunt and a "premeditated public relations circus". Barukh Binah, Foreign Ministry deputy director-general and head of its North America Division said that Ayalon did not prevent any meetings between the J Street group and Israeli high officials and that Ayalon was never on the delegation's schedule. J Street said its information was based on news reports in Yedioth Ahronoth
and Maariv
.
Jeffrey Goldberg
at The Atlantic described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
's repeated refusal to meet with representatives of J Street as a "farce" and added: "He should argue with J Street, yell at J Street, grapple with J Street, but most of all meet with J Street. Those Israelis, and those American Jews, who believe that J Street, and the spirit it represents, are fleeting phenemona have absolutely no idea what is happening in the Jewish world.
in 2010 showed that George Soros
had been a donor to J Street since 2008. The approximately $750,000 from Soros and his family, together with donations from Hong Kong-based businesswoman Ms. Consolacion Esdicul, amounted to about 15% of J Street's funding since establishment. In previous statements and on its web site J Street had seemed to deny receiving support from foreign interests and from Soros, a bête noire to conservatives. Jeremy Ben-Ami apologized for earlier "misleading" statements regarding funding from Soros. Ben-Ami also clarified that donors to 501(c)(4) organizations are promised confidentiality by law and challenged critics to make public the contributors to opposing organizations. Rabbi Steve Gutow
, a president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs
, called J Street "irresponsible" for its handling of the issue.
wrote in the American Prospect that J Street "might change not only the political map in Washington but the actual map in the Middle East." Noah Pollak
at Commentary
predicted that the effort would fall flat and show there are no "great battalions of American Jewish doves languishing in voicelessness."
Ken Wald, a political scientist at University of Florida
, predicted the group would be attacked by the "Jewish right
." According to BBC News
, Wald warned that J Street "will get hammered and accused of being anti-Israel. A lot will have to do with the way they actually frame their arguments."
James Kirchick
, writing in the The New Republic
, called J Street's labeling of AIPAC as "right wing" "ridiculous"; Kirchik says that AIPAC's former president told him that AIPAC was the first American Jewish organization to support Oslo
and supports a two-state solution. Kirchick further asserts that some of J Street's positions, such as advocating negotiations with Hamas
, are not popular with most American Jews According to a March 2008 Haaretz
-Dialog poll the majority of Israelis do support direct talks with Hamas, although this referred solely to the issue of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit
. Jeremy Ben-Ami responded to Kirchick's charges during a May 26, 2008, interview published in Haaretz Magazine. Kirchik also has reacted against J Streets endorsement of the play Seven Jewish Children
, which many critics consider antisemitic. "To J Street, the inflammatory message of Seven Jewish Children is precisely what makes it worthy of production," he charges.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie
, president of the Union for Reform Judaism
, called J Street's reaction to the Israeli invasion of Gaza
"morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve." J Street responded stating, "It is hard for us to understand how the leading reform rabbi in North America could call our effort to articulate a nuanced view on these difficult issues "morally deficient." If our views are "naive" and "morally deficient", then so are the views of scores of Israeli journalists, security analysts, distinguished authors, and retired IDF officers who have posed the same questions about the Gaza attack as we have."
In April 2009, the Washington Post called J Street "Washington's leading pro-Israel PAC," citing the group's impressive fund raising efforts in its first year and its record of electoral success, including 33 victories by J Street-supported candidates for Congress.
According to Caroline Glick
, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post
, J Street is anything but pro-Israel: "Through their actions, J Street and its allies have made clear that their institutional interests are served by weakening Israel. Their mission is to harm Israel's standing in Washington and weaken the influence of the mainstream American Jewish community that supports Israel."
In August 2009, J Street released its fund raising figures for its PAC division. It showed that "at most 3 percent of the organization's thousands of contributors" were Arab and Muslim donors. Lenny Ben-David, a former Israeli diplomat and current lobbyist for AIPAC, criticized J Street for accepting such donations: "It raises questions as to their banner that they're a pro-Israel organization. Why would people who are not known to be pro-Israel give money to this organization?" J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami
said that such supporters show the broad appeal of J Street's message and its commitment to coexistence: "I think it is a terrific thing for Israel for us to be able to expand the tent of people who are willing to be considered pro-Israel and willing to support Israel through J Street. One of the ways that we're trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel is that you actually don't need to be anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian to be pro-Israel."
Shmuel Rosner
has questioned whether J Street actually represents U.S. Jewry. Noah Pollak
has questioned the veracity of their polling. Barry Rubin
has suggested that J Street is an anti-Israel front
for Iranian interests, masquerading as a Zionist organization.
In July 2010 J Street supported the construction of the Cordoba House cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site
in New York. President Jeremy Ben-Ami released a statement saying:
Responding to charges made by Ben-Ami in his book, A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation, that he and others have stifled critical debate within the Jewish community, political commentator Alan Dershowitz
said "It is a fraud in advertising to call J Street pro-Israel." In addition, Dershowitz said that "J Street has done more damage to Israel than any [other] American organization." In response to Dershowitz's comments, J Street's director of government affairs, Dylan Jacob Williams, stated that "Alan Dershowitz's comments provide ample evidence of the self-censorship of the American Jewish community from within concerning the real dangers facing Israel."
reported that J Street facilitated meetings between South African judge Richard Goldstone
and members of Congress in November 2009, causing Jeremy Ben-Ami
to tell The Jerusalem Post
on October 1, 2010, that his staff had made “two or three” such phone calls to U.S. politicians and relayed their response onward, but that after those initial inquiries were made, his organization decided not to become involved because of Israel’s attitude toward Goldstone, saying “J Street did not host, arrange or facilitate Judge Richard Goldstone’s visit.” Colette Avital
, former member of the Knesset
from the center-left Labor Party and for a time J Street’s liaison in Israel said that one of the reasons she resigned from J Street was its connection with Goldstone.
On December 30, 2010, The Washington Times
reported that J Street "paid tens of thousands of dollars to a consulting firm co-owned by its founder and president, Jeremy Ben-Ami." "Even if it's technically legal, it gets very messy when you have these sorts of deals going on because, if you're going to benefit on the other end of it, be it 100 percent or 5 percent, it raises questions about objectivity and the arms' length in the transaction," said Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator
. "Mr. Ben-Ami declined repeated interview requests, but provided a statement through a spokesman: "I founded Ben-Or together with Oriella Ben-Zvi in 1998. When I left in 2000, I relinquished all rights to ongoing compensation from Ben-Or in any form. I have received no payments from the company in the past 11 years and have had no role in the management or operation of the firm."
In January, 2011, liberal Jewish congressman Rep. Gary Ackerman
, D-N.Y, cut ties with J Street over J Street's recommendation to the Obama administration not to veto a proposed U.N. resolution condemning Israel, saying "I've come to the conclusion that J-Street is not an organization with which I wish to be associated." He also said, "The decision to endorse the Palestinian and Arab effort to condemn Israel in the U.N. Security Council is not the choice of a concerned friend trying to help. It is rather the befuddled choice of an organization so open-minded about what constitutes support for Israel that its brains have fallen out. America really does need a smart, credible, politically active organization that is as aggressively pro-peace as it is pro-Israel. Unfortunately, J-Street ain't it." In a press release, J. Street noted that it had not endorsed the resolution, was advocating policies that would keep the resolution from coming to a vote, and if that failed was urging the US to change the resolution language to be in line with US policy.
At the J Street February 2011 conference's opening speech, Rabbi David Saperstein
, director and chief legal counsel at the Union for Reform Judaism's
Religious Action Center
for more than 30 years, said that he is "among J Street’s most fervent fans", though he shared his concerns regarding J Street’s recent recommendation to the Obama administration not to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel. Saperstein added, "If you alienate your mainstream support you risk losing everything."
A Jerusalem Post
editorial expressed concern regarding the individuals invited to speak to the February 2011 conference. They included Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace
, whom the newspaper described as an "adamant proponent" of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
against Israel; Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative
, described as a BDS advocate who took part in the Free Gaza Flotilla; and Michael Sfard, an attorney who, according to the newspaper, "advocates international 'lawfare
' against Israel". Israeli Members of Knesset were among those who voiced concern. "I have my own criticism of the current government, but there have to be limits, and this organization is doing tremendous damage to Israel," said Kadima
MK Ze'ev Bielski, a former Jewish Agency chairman. At the same time, other MK attended and spoke at the conference, including Daniel Ben-Simon, Yoel Hasson
, Amir Peretz
, Nachman Shai, and Orit Zuaretz
.
In March 2011, MK Otniel Schneller
(Kadima
) said to Ben-Ami during a Knesset committee meeting: “You are not Zionists and you do not care about Israeli interests. Fifty rockets a day are fired on the South and you fight against the American veto against condemnations of Israel. You are not Zionists and you do not care about Israel. Only here in Israel do we determine Israeli democracy, and you cannot determine what Israel’s interests are.” Ben Ami responded by saying, “An absolute parameter has to be the recognition of the fundamental right of the Jewish people to their own state. There are plenty of people, even within the American Jewish community, who are anti-Zionist and who do not recognize that right. Second, they must recognize Israel’s right to defend itself against threats – Israel must be strong, because it lives in a hard neighborhood, as we’ve even seen this morning.”
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
advocacy
Advocacy
Advocacy is a political process by an individual or a large group which normally aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions; it may be motivated from moral, ethical or faith principles or simply to protect an...
group based in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli
Arab–Israeli conflict
The Arab–Israeli conflict refers to political tensions and open hostilities between the Arab peoples and the Jewish community of the Middle East. The modern Arab-Israeli conflict began with the rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism towards the end of the nineteenth century, and intensified with the...
and Israel-Palestinian
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. It was founded in April 2008.
While primarily made up of Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
, J Street welcomes non-Jewish members as well. J Street states that it "supports a new direction for American policy in the Middle East – diplomatic solutions over military ones", "multilateral over unilateral approaches to conflict resolution"; and "dialogue over confrontation" with wider international support. According to J Street, its political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
is "the first and only federal Political Action Committee whose goal is to demonstrate that there is meaningful political and financial support to candidates for federal office from large numbers of Americans who believe a new direction in American policy will advance U.S. interests in the Middle East and promote real peace and security for Israel and the region."
J Street describes itself as a pro-Israel organization, which supports peace between Israel and its neighbors. Some Israelis, including several public figures, have expressed profound doubts about the group's pro-Israel claims, particularly in relation to key challenges facing the Jewish state. Several US Jewish leaders have expressed reservations about J Street's position on Israel, and some have publicly disassociated themselves from the organization.
Meaning of name
J Street, as an American lobbyLobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
organization aimed at Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
leaders and policymakers
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, derived its name from the alphabetically named street plan of Washington, D.C.: J Street is missing from the grid (the street naming jumps from I Street to K Street for historical/orthographic reasons). Also, by association, the letter J is a reference to "Jewish". Further, K Street
K Street (Washington, D.C.)
K Street is a major thoroughfare in the United States capital of Washington, D.C. known as a center for numerous think tanks, lobbyists, and advocacy groups.-Location:...
is a street in downtown Washington on which multiple influential lobbying firms are located, which become synonymous for Washington’s formidable lobbying establishment. Consequently, the choice of the name reflects the desire of J Street's founders and donors
Donor
A donor in general is a person who donates something voluntarily. Usually used to represent a form of pure altruism but sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognised by all parties as representing less than the value of the donation and that the motivation is altruistic...
to bring a message to Washington that, metaphorically like the missing "J Street" of the D.C. grid, has thus far been absent. It may also suggest being slightly different from the more "mainstream" lobbying entities.
Political vision
According to the J Street websiteWebsite
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, the organization seeks to provide a political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who believe that a "two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel’s survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy." J Street has a two-fold mission: first, to advocate for urgent American diplomatic leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
to achieve a two-state solution and a broader regional, comprehensive peace and, second, to ensure a broad debate on Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community. J-Street opposes recognizing Palestine as an independent state at the United Nations.
According to its website, J Street "recognizes and supports Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people" and Israel's "desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own." According to its executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami is executive director of J Street, a liberal advocacy organization in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically...
, J Street is neither pro- nor anti- any individual organization or other pro-Israel umbrella groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
American Israel Public Affairs Committee
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States...
(AIPAC). He says J Street is proud of AIPAC's many accomplishments and clarified that the two groups have different priorities rather than different views.
Explaining the need for a new advocacy and lobbying group, Ben-Ami stated: "J Street has been started, however, because there has not been sufficient vocal and political advocacy on behalf of the view that Israel's interests will be best served when the United States makes it a major foreign policy priority to help Israel achieve a real and lasting peace not only with the Palestinians but with all its neighbors."
Alan Solomont
Alan Solomont
Alan D. Solomont is the current United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra. Selected by President Barack Obama, he was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 24, 2009.- Professional career :...
, one of the founders of J Street and a former national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
(DNC) and currently a Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
fundraiser, described the need for J Street in the following way:
"We have heard the voices of neocons, and right-of-center Jewish leaders and Christian evangelicals
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, and the mainstream views of the American Jewish community have not been heard." During its first conference, Ben-Ami said that "[t]he party and the viewpoint that we're closest to in Israeli politics is actually Kadima
Kadima
Kadima is a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians...
." Kadima MK Meir Sheetrit
Meir Sheetrit
Meir Sheetrit is a Moroccan-born Israeli politician. He is currently a member of the Knesset for Kadima. He has served as Minister of the Interior, Minister of Housing & Construction, Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Education, Culture &...
, who attended the conference, said, "They are more left than Kadima, but on this main issue, which is peace, I think we agree."
J Street's official policy positions as of August 2009 are:
- On IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
: J Street believes Iran cannot be allowed to achieve nuclear weapons and supports a "comprehensive and multilateral approach, rooted in active diplomatic engagement with Iran and the international community. It supports the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act of 2009. J Street is strongly opposed to any consideration at this time of the use of military force by Israel or the United States to attack Iran. - On the Israeli–Palestinian conflictIsraeli–Palestinian conflictThe Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
: "J Street believes that reaching a sustainable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is both a fundamental American interest and essential to the survival and security of Israel as a democracy and home for the Jewish people." - On Jerusalem: "Jerusalem's ultimate status and borders should be negotiated and resolved as part of an agreement between official Israeli and Palestinian authorities and endorsed by both peoples." "J Street would support [...] a two-state solution under which the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem would fall under Israeli sovereignty and the Arab neighborhoods would be under Palestinian sovereignty." "J Street does believe that Israel's capital is in Jerusalem and will be internationally recognized as such in the context of an agreed two-state solution."
- On Israeli settlementIsraeli settlementAn Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
s: "Israel's settlements in the occupied territories have, for over forty years, been an obstacle to peace. They have drained Israel's economy, military, and democracy and eroded the country's ability to uphold the rule of law." - On the Arab World: "J Street believes that the US should actively promote and facilitate reconciliation between Israel and the Arab world, as well as the establishment of diplomatic relations and relevant security guarantees – in the context of a comprehensive peace agreement." J Street references the Arab Peace InitiativeArab Peace InitiativeThe Beirut Summit was a meeting of the Arab League in Beirut, Lebanon in March 2002 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The meeting became especially noteworthy for the adoption, by the Arab states attending, of a proposal offering a comprehensive peace between the Arab countries and...
proposed by King AbdullahAbdullah of Saudi ArabiaAbdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, is the King of Saudi Arabia. He succeeded to the throne on 1 August 2005 upon the death of his half-brother, King Fahd. When Crown Prince, he governed Saudi Arabia as regent from 1998 to 2005...
of Saudi ArabiaSaudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
as a possible framework for a comprehensive Arab-Israel peace.
Structure
- J Street – a nonprofitNon-profit organizationNonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
advocacy groupAdvocacy groupAdvocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems...
registered as a 501(c)(4) social welfare group. J Street aims to encourage "support strong American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts peacefully and diplomatically."
- The J Street PAC – a political action committeePolitical action committeeIn the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
capable of making direct political campaign donations. Thus, the J Street PAC will provide political and financial support to candidates who are seeking election or reelection and agree with J Streets goals. - The J Street Education Fund, Inc. – a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It aims to educate targeted communities about the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, raise the visibility of a mainstream pro-Israel, pro-peace presence within the American Jewish community, and promote open, dynamic and spirited conversation about how to best advance the interests and future of a democratic, Jewish Israel. J Street Local, J Street’s national field program and J Street U (formerly UPZUnion of Progressive ZionistsThe Union of Progressive Zionists was a North American network of Jewish student activists who have organized around principles of social justice and peace in Israel and Palestine...
), J Street’s on campus movement are programs of the J Street Education Fund.
Management
J Street's founding Executive Director is Jeremy Ben-AmiJeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami is executive director of J Street, a liberal advocacy organization in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically...
, a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton Administration
Presidency of Bill Clinton
The United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton Administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term...
. Ben-Ami has deep ties to Israel: His grandparents were among the founders of Tel Aviv, his parents were Israelis, his family suffered in the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, and he has lived in Israel, where he was almost blown up in a Jerusalem terror attack. Ben-Ami has worked for many years with Jewish peace groups, including the Center for Middle East Peace and the Geneva Accord
Geneva Accord
The Geneva Initiative, also known as the Geneva Accord, is a model permanent status agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on previous official negotiations, international resolutions, the Quartet Roadmap, the Clinton Parameters, and the Arab Peace Initiative...
.
The initial support of J Street came from multi-billionaire
Billionaire
A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...
George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
, who for a brief time was associated with the organization. Soros pulled out before the initial launch, so as not to negatively affect the group. In September 2010 it was revealed that despite the organization's denials, Soros secretly funded the group.
J Street's advisory council consists of former public officials, policy experts, community leaders and academics, including Daniel Levy, a former high-ranking Israeli official who was the lead drafter of the groundbreaking Geneva Initiative, Franklin Fisher and Debra DeLee
Debra DeLee
Debra DeLee was Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 1994 to 1995, and was the second woman to hold the post. She is currently President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now , a national Zionist organization dedicated to enhancing Israel’s security through peace and to supporting the...
of Americans for Peace Now
Americans for Peace Now
Americans for Peace Now , the United States partner of Israel’s Shalom Achshav organization, is an American coalition working to help Israel achieve a secure peace with the Arab states and the Palestinian people...
, Marcia Freedman
Marcia Freedman
Marcia Freedman is an American-Israeli activist on behalf of peace, women's rights, and gay rights. In the early 1970s she helped create and lead the feminist movement in Israel...
of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Brit Tzedek v'Shalom
Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, also known as Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, is an organization of United States Jews and describes its members as "deeply committed to Israel's well-being through the achievement of a negotiated settlement to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict"...
, Democratic Middle East foreign policy expert Robert Malley
Robert Malley
Robert Malley is an American lawyer, political scientist and specialist in conflict resolution. He is currently Program Director for Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group in Washington, D.C., and a former Special Assistant to President Bill Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs...
, former Israeli foreign minister
Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel
The Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel is the political head of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The position is one of the most important in the Israeli cabinet after Prime Minister and Defense Minister...
Shlomo Ben-Ami
Shlomo Ben-Ami
Prof. Shlomo Ben-Ami is a former Israeli diplomat, politician and historian.-Biography:Ben-Ami was born in Tangiers, Morocco, and immigrated to Israel in 1955....
, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Samuel W. Lewis
Samuel W. Lewis
Samuel Winfield Lewis is a retired American diplomat. During his lengthy career with the United States Department of State he served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs , U.S. ambassador to Israel and Director of Policy Planning...
and former U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Davenport Chafee is an American politician who has been the 74th Governor of Rhode Island since January 2011. Prior to his election as governor, Chafee served in the United States Senate as a Republican from 1999 until losing his Senate re-election bid in 2006 to Democrat Sheldon...
.
The Obama Administration nominated Hannah Rosenthal
Hannah Rosenthal
Hannah Rosenthal is a Special Envoy and the head of Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism in the Obama Administration, sworn to office November 23, 2009.-Biography :...
, a member of the advisory council of both J Street and J Street PAC, to be the head of the Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
The Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism is a part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs at the United States Department of State. It is headed by the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism . The office "advocates U.S...
.
Political fund raising
The J Street PAC acts as a traditional political action committeePolitical action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
raising funds to support a limited number of candidates for Senate and Congressional races.
For the 2008 Congressional elections, the J Street PAC raised $600,000 and, according to J Street, 33 of the 41 candidates it backed won their seats.
In 2010, JStreetPAC endorsed 61 candidates – 3 for the Senate and 58 for the House. 45 of the PAC’s candidates won. The JStreetPAC distributed over $1.5 million dollars to its candidates, more than any other pro-Israel PAC in the two-year cycle.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, dozens of Arab and Muslim Americans and Iranian advocacy organizations donated tens of thousands of dollars to J Street, representing "a small fraction" of the group's fund-raising. Donors included Lebanese-American businessman Richard Abdoo, who is a board member of Amideast
Amideast
AMIDEAST is a U.S. non-profit organization that works to strengthen mutual understanding and cooperation between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa...
and a former board member of the Arab American Institute
Arab American Institute
Founded in 1985, the Arab American Institute is a non-profit membership organization based in Washington D.C. that focuses on the issues and interests of Arab-Americans nationwide. James Zogby, brother of pollster John Zogby, is founder and president of the AAI....
, and Genevieve Lynch, who is also a member of the National Iranian American Council
National Iranian American Council
The National Iranian American Council is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization "dedicated to advancing the interests of the Iranian-American community." Trita Parsi is the organization's current president and founder.-Formation:...
board.
Capitol Hill lobbying
J Street lobbies for and against Israel-related bills and legislation.J Street's first-year budget for fiscal 2009 is $1.5 million. This is a modest figure for a PAC, though Gary Kamiya writes that J Street hopes to raise significant money online, following the blueprint of MoveOn
MoveOn
MoveOn is an American non-profit, progressive or liberal public policy advocacy group and political action committee, which has raised millions of dollars for candidates it identifies as "moderates" or "progressives" in the United States. It was formed in 1998 in response to the impeachment of...
and the Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
presidential campaign.
Other projects
Recently, J Street started a special website and project, They Don't Speak For Us. It criticizes the Emergency Committee for IsraelEmergency Committee for Israel
The Emergency Committee for Israel's Leadership is a right-wing 501 political advocacy organization in the United States. The group’s board members include Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Republican Virginia congressman Scott Rigell,...
, a right-wing advocacy group that William Kristol
William Kristol
William Kristol is an American neoconservative political analyst and commentator. He is the founder and editor of the political magazine The Weekly Standard and a regular commentator on the Fox News Channel....
and Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer
Gary Lee Bauer is an American politician notable for his ties to several evangelical Christian groups and campaigns.-Biography:...
, inspired by J Street, created. "They Don't Speak For Us" describes the ECI as "just plain out of touch" and "far outside the mainstream" of the pro-Israel Jewish community.
Relationship with Israel
On October 22, 2009, Israeli opposition leader Tzipi LivniTzipi Livni
Tzipporah Malkah "Tzipi" Livni is an Israeli lawyer and politician. She is the current Israeli Opposition Leader and leader of Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset. Raised an ardent nationalist, Livni has become one of her nation's leading voices for the two-state solution. In Israel she has...
sent a letter congratulating J Street on its inaugural event. She said she would not be able to attend but that Kadima
Kadima
Kadima is a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians...
would be "well-represented" by Meir Sheetrit
Meir Sheetrit
Meir Sheetrit is a Moroccan-born Israeli politician. He is currently a member of the Knesset for Kadima. He has served as Minister of the Interior, Minister of Housing & Construction, Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Education, Culture &...
, Shlomo Molla
Shlomo Molla
Shlomo Molla is an Israeli politician who has served as a member of the Knesset for Kadima since February 2008.-Biography:Molla was born in a small Jewish village of 40 families in Gondar Province in Ethiopia in 1965 into a family of 9 brothers and 2 sisters. Molla attempted to immigrate to Israel...
, and Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon
Haim Ramon is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset between 1983 and 2009, and as both Vice Prime Minister and Minister in the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for state policy.-Biography:...
.
The Israeli Embassy stated that Ambassador Michael Oren
Michael Oren
Michael B. Oren is an American-born Israeli historian and author and the Israeli ambassador to the United States...
would not attend J Street's first national conference because J Street supports positions that may "impair" Israel's interest. Oren has continued his criticism since the conference, telling Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
rabbis meeting in Philadelphia that J Street "is a unique problem in that it not only opposes one policy of one Israeli government, it opposes all policies of all Israeli governments. It’s significantly out of the mainstream." In April 2010, Oren had a meeting with J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami to discuss the issues.
Hannah Rosenthal
Hannah Rosenthal
Hannah Rosenthal is a Special Envoy and the head of Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism in the Obama Administration, sworn to office November 23, 2009.-Biography :...
, head of the Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism
The Office To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism is a part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs at the United States Department of State. It is headed by the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism . The office "advocates U.S...
in the Obama Administration, criticized Oren, saying his comments were "most unfortunate". After several American Jewish groups criticized Rosenthal, the U.S. State Department
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
said that "Rosenthal has the complete support of the department."
In February 2010 the Israeli Foreign Ministry refused to meet with visiting U.S. congressmembers
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
being escorted by J Street on a visit to Israel unless members of Congress attended the meeting without their J Street escorts. Addressing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon said "The thing that troubles me is that they don't present themselves as to what they really are. They should not call themselves pro-Israeli."
In Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
, columnist Bradley Burston
Bradley Burston
Bradley Burston is an American-born Israeli journalist, a columnist for Haaretz, and Senior Editor of Haaretz.com, which publishes his blog, "A Special Place in Hell"....
wrote that the Foreign Ministry's refusal to meet with the U.S. congressmembers was "a gratuitous move breathtaking in its haughtiness, its ignorance of and disrespect for the United States and the American Jewish community". He said that the Foreign Ministry considered J Street "guilty of the crime of explicitly calling itself pro-Israel, while not agreeing wholeheartedly with everything the government of Israel says and does."
Haviv Rettig Gur, writing in The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
, said that "J Street won a small victory" in the incident. "If American legislators with pro-Israel records say J Street is kosher," Gur wrote, "that creates a new political reality with which the Israeli Right must contend."
The Foreign Ministry said J Street's assertions that Ayalon refused to meet with members of the U.S. Congress and that he later apologized were untrue, and that they were a fund-raising publicity stunt and a "premeditated public relations circus". Barukh Binah, Foreign Ministry deputy director-general and head of its North America Division said that Ayalon did not prevent any meetings between the J Street group and Israeli high officials and that Ayalon was never on the delegation's schedule. J Street said its information was based on news reports in Yedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth
Yedioth Ahronoth is a daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel. Since the 1970s, it has been the most widely circulated paper in Israel. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Yedioth Ahronoth retained the title of most widely read newspaper in Israel...
and Maariv
Maariv
Maariv is a Hebrew language daily newspaper published in Israel. It is second in sales after Yedioth Ahronoth and third in readership after Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel HaYom. In a TGI survey comparing the last half of 2009 with the same period in 2008, Maariv saw its market share fall slightly...
.
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg is an American journalist. He is an author and a staff writer for The Atlantic, having previously worked for The New Yorker. Goldberg writes principally on foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and Africa...
at The Atlantic described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He serves also as the Chairman of the Likud Party, as a Knesset member, as the Health Minister of Israel, as the Pensioner Affairs Minister of Israel and as the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.Netanyahu is the first and, to...
's repeated refusal to meet with representatives of J Street as a "farce" and added: "He should argue with J Street, yell at J Street, grapple with J Street, but most of all meet with J Street. Those Israelis, and those American Jews, who believe that J Street, and the spirit it represents, are fleeting phenemona have absolutely no idea what is happening in the Jewish world.
Funding
Confidential IRS documents obtained by The Washington TimesThe Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
in 2010 showed that George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
had been a donor to J Street since 2008. The approximately $750,000 from Soros and his family, together with donations from Hong Kong-based businesswoman Ms. Consolacion Esdicul, amounted to about 15% of J Street's funding since establishment. In previous statements and on its web site J Street had seemed to deny receiving support from foreign interests and from Soros, a bête noire to conservatives. Jeremy Ben-Ami apologized for earlier "misleading" statements regarding funding from Soros. Ben-Ami also clarified that donors to 501(c)(4) organizations are promised confidentiality by law and challenged critics to make public the contributors to opposing organizations. Rabbi Steve Gutow
Steve Gutow
Rabbi Steve Gutow is a rabbi, lawyer, community activist, and Jewish leader. He currently serves as the President and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs .-Background:...
, a president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs is an American Jewish non-profit organization that deals with community relations. It is a coordinating round table organization of 14 other national Jewish organizations as well as 127 local Jewish federations and community relations councils...
, called J Street "irresponsible" for its handling of the issue.
Public response
Israeli-American writer and analyst Gershom GorenbergGershom Gorenberg
Gershom Gorenberg is an American-born Israeli historian, journalist and blogger, specializing in Middle Eastern politics and the interaction of religion and politics. He is currently a senior correspondent for The American Prospect, a monthly American political magazine...
wrote in the American Prospect that J Street "might change not only the political map in Washington but the actual map in the Middle East." Noah Pollak
Noah Pollak
Noah Pollak is an American political writer specializing in issues concerning foreign policy, Israel, and the Jewish people.Currently, Pollak is a regular contributor to the American publication Commentary Magazine. He also serves as the executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel's...
at Commentary
Commentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
predicted that the effort would fall flat and show there are no "great battalions of American Jewish doves languishing in voicelessness."
Ken Wald, a political scientist at University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, predicted the group would be attacked by the "Jewish right
Jewish right
The term Jewish right refers to Jews who identify with or support right-wing or conservative causes. The Jewish right is not a monolithic designation. Its application ranges from advocacy of religious morals to conservative politics...
." According to BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, Wald warned that J Street "will get hammered and accused of being anti-Israel. A lot will have to do with the way they actually frame their arguments."
James Kirchick
James Kirchick
James Kirchick is a reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist. He is a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington; prior to this he was writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty....
, writing in the The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, called J Street's labeling of AIPAC as "right wing" "ridiculous"; Kirchik says that AIPAC's former president told him that AIPAC was the first American Jewish organization to support Oslo
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles , was an attempt to resolve the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict...
and supports a two-state solution. Kirchick further asserts that some of J Street's positions, such as advocating negotiations with Hamas
Hamas
Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
, are not popular with most American Jews According to a March 2008 Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
-Dialog poll the majority of Israelis do support direct talks with Hamas, although this referred solely to the issue of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit
Gilad Shalit is an Israeli – French citizen and Israel Defense Forces soldier. On 25 June 2006, he was captured inside Israel by Hamas militants in a cross-border raid via underground tunnels near the border with Gaza. The Hamas militants held him for over five years, until he was released on...
. Jeremy Ben-Ami responded to Kirchick's charges during a May 26, 2008, interview published in Haaretz Magazine. Kirchik also has reacted against J Streets endorsement of the play Seven Jewish Children
Seven Jewish Children
Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza is a controversial six-page, 10-minute play by British playwright Caryl Churchill, written in response to the 2008-2009 Israel military strike on Gaza, and first performed at London's Royal Court Theatre on 6 February 2009...
, which many critics consider antisemitic. "To J Street, the inflammatory message of Seven Jewish Children is precisely what makes it worthy of production," he charges.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie
Eric Yoffie
Eric H. Yoffie is a Reform rabbi, and president of the Union for Reform Judaism , the congregational arm of the Reform movement in North America which represents an estimated 1.5 million Reform Jews in more than 900 synagogues across the United States and Canada...
, president of the Union for Reform Judaism
Union for Reform Judaism
The Union for Reform Judaism , formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations , is an organization which supports Reform Jewish congregations in North America. The current President is Rabbi Eric H...
, called J Street's reaction to the Israeli invasion of Gaza
2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict
The Gaza War, known as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world, was a three-week bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israel, and hundreds of rocket attacks on south of Israel which...
"morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve." J Street responded stating, "It is hard for us to understand how the leading reform rabbi in North America could call our effort to articulate a nuanced view on these difficult issues "morally deficient." If our views are "naive" and "morally deficient", then so are the views of scores of Israeli journalists, security analysts, distinguished authors, and retired IDF officers who have posed the same questions about the Gaza attack as we have."
In April 2009, the Washington Post called J Street "Washington's leading pro-Israel PAC," citing the group's impressive fund raising efforts in its first year and its record of electoral success, including 33 victories by J Street-supported candidates for Congress.
According to Caroline Glick
Caroline Glick
Caroline Glick is an American-Israeli journalist for Makor Rishon and is the deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post. She is also the Senior Fellow for Middle East Affairs of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy.-Life:...
, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
, J Street is anything but pro-Israel: "Through their actions, J Street and its allies have made clear that their institutional interests are served by weakening Israel. Their mission is to harm Israel's standing in Washington and weaken the influence of the mainstream American Jewish community that supports Israel."
In August 2009, J Street released its fund raising figures for its PAC division. It showed that "at most 3 percent of the organization's thousands of contributors" were Arab and Muslim donors. Lenny Ben-David, a former Israeli diplomat and current lobbyist for AIPAC, criticized J Street for accepting such donations: "It raises questions as to their banner that they're a pro-Israel organization. Why would people who are not known to be pro-Israel give money to this organization?" J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami is executive director of J Street, a liberal advocacy organization in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically...
said that such supporters show the broad appeal of J Street's message and its commitment to coexistence: "I think it is a terrific thing for Israel for us to be able to expand the tent of people who are willing to be considered pro-Israel and willing to support Israel through J Street. One of the ways that we're trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel is that you actually don't need to be anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian to be pro-Israel."
Shmuel Rosner
Shmuel Rosner
Shmuel Rosner is an Israeli journalist and editor. He writes for the Jerusalem Post, Maariv and Slate magazine. In 2005-2008, he was chief United States correspondent for the daily newspaper Haaretz.- Journalism career :...
has questioned whether J Street actually represents U.S. Jewry. Noah Pollak
Noah Pollak
Noah Pollak is an American political writer specializing in issues concerning foreign policy, Israel, and the Jewish people.Currently, Pollak is a regular contributor to the American publication Commentary Magazine. He also serves as the executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel's...
has questioned the veracity of their polling. Barry Rubin
Barry Rubin
Barry Rubin is an American-born Israeli expert in terrorism. He is a professor at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel and the director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center of the IDC, and a senior fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center's International Policy...
has suggested that J Street is an anti-Israel front
Front organization
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy groups, or corporations...
for Iranian interests, masquerading as a Zionist organization.
In July 2010 J Street supported the construction of the Cordoba House cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site , also known as "Ground Zero" after the September 11 attacks, sits on in Lower Manhattan in New York City...
in New York. President Jeremy Ben-Ami released a statement saying:
The principle at stake ... goes to the heart of American democracy, and the value we place on freedom of religion. Should one religious group in this country be treated differently than another? We believe the answer is no.... proposing a church or a synagogue for that site would raise no questions. The Muslim community has an equal right to build a community center wherever it is legal to do so.
Responding to charges made by Ben-Ami in his book, A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation, that he and others have stifled critical debate within the Jewish community, political commentator Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
said "It is a fraud in advertising to call J Street pro-Israel." In addition, Dershowitz said that "J Street has done more damage to Israel than any [other] American organization." In response to Dershowitz's comments, J Street's director of government affairs, Dylan Jacob Williams, stated that "Alan Dershowitz's comments provide ample evidence of the self-censorship of the American Jewish community from within concerning the real dangers facing Israel."
Controversy
On Sept. 30, 2010, The Washington TimesThe Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
reported that J Street facilitated meetings between South African judge Richard Goldstone
Richard Goldstone
Richard Joseph Goldstone is a South African former judge. After working for 17 years as a commercial lawyer, he was appointed by the South African government to serve on the Transvaal Supreme Court from 1980 to 1989 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1990 to 1994...
and members of Congress in November 2009, causing Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami is executive director of J Street, a liberal advocacy organization in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israel-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically...
to tell The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
on October 1, 2010, that his staff had made “two or three” such phone calls to U.S. politicians and relayed their response onward, but that after those initial inquiries were made, his organization decided not to become involved because of Israel’s attitude toward Goldstone, saying “J Street did not host, arrange or facilitate Judge Richard Goldstone’s visit.” Colette Avital
Colette Avital
Colette Avital is an Israeli diplomat and politician. She served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party and One Israel between 1999 and 2009.-Biography:...
, former member of the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
from the center-left Labor Party and for a time J Street’s liaison in Israel said that one of the reasons she resigned from J Street was its connection with Goldstone.
On December 30, 2010, The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
reported that J Street "paid tens of thousands of dollars to a consulting firm co-owned by its founder and president, Jeremy Ben-Ami." "Even if it's technically legal, it gets very messy when you have these sorts of deals going on because, if you're going to benefit on the other end of it, be it 100 percent or 5 percent, it raises questions about objectivity and the arms' length in the transaction," said Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator
Charity Navigator is an independent, non-profit organization that evaluates American charities. Its stated goal is "to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of America's largest charities."-About:...
. "Mr. Ben-Ami declined repeated interview requests, but provided a statement through a spokesman: "I founded Ben-Or together with Oriella Ben-Zvi in 1998. When I left in 2000, I relinquished all rights to ongoing compensation from Ben-Or in any form. I have received no payments from the company in the past 11 years and have had no role in the management or operation of the firm."
In January, 2011, liberal Jewish congressman Rep. Gary Ackerman
Gary Ackerman
Gary Leonard Ackerman is the U.S. Representative for , serving since a special election in 1983. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
, D-N.Y, cut ties with J Street over J Street's recommendation to the Obama administration not to veto a proposed U.N. resolution condemning Israel, saying "I've come to the conclusion that J-Street is not an organization with which I wish to be associated." He also said, "The decision to endorse the Palestinian and Arab effort to condemn Israel in the U.N. Security Council is not the choice of a concerned friend trying to help. It is rather the befuddled choice of an organization so open-minded about what constitutes support for Israel that its brains have fallen out. America really does need a smart, credible, politically active organization that is as aggressively pro-peace as it is pro-Israel. Unfortunately, J-Street ain't it." In a press release, J. Street noted that it had not endorsed the resolution, was advocating policies that would keep the resolution from coming to a vote, and if that failed was urging the US to change the resolution language to be in line with US policy.
At the J Street February 2011 conference's opening speech, Rabbi David Saperstein
David Saperstein (rabbi)
David Saperstein is a rabbi, lawyer, and Jewish community leader. He has served as the director and chief legal counsel at the Union for Reform Judaism's Religious Action Center for more than 30 years. Saperstein succeeded Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch as leader of the Washington D.C.-based political...
, director and chief legal counsel at the Union for Reform Judaism's
Union for Reform Judaism
The Union for Reform Judaism , formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations , is an organization which supports Reform Jewish congregations in North America. The current President is Rabbi Eric H...
Religious Action Center
Religious Action Center
The Religious Action Center is the political and legislative outreach arm of Reform Judaism in the United States. The RAC is operated under the auspices of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, a joint body of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union for Reform Judaism...
for more than 30 years, said that he is "among J Street’s most fervent fans", though he shared his concerns regarding J Street’s recent recommendation to the Obama administration not to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel. Saperstein added, "If you alienate your mainstream support you risk losing everything."
A Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
editorial expressed concern regarding the individuals invited to speak to the February 2011 conference. They included Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace is a United States Jewish organization which describes itself as "a diverse and democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights [to] support the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for security...
, whom the newspaper described as an "adamant proponent" of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions refers to a campaign first initiated on 9 July 2005 by 171 Palestinian non-governmental organizations in support of the Palestinian cause ".....
against Israel; Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative
Palestinian National Initiative
Palestinian National Initiative is a Palestinian political movement or party led by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti.Its formation was formally announced on June 17, 2002 in Ramallah on the West Bank, part of the Palestinian Territories, by Dr. Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Dr...
, described as a BDS advocate who took part in the Free Gaza Flotilla; and Michael Sfard, an attorney who, according to the newspaper, "advocates international 'lawfare
Lawfare
Lawfare is a recently coined word not yet appearing in the Oxford English Dictionary, a portmanteau of the words 'law' and 'warfare', said to describe a form of asymmetric warfare...
' against Israel". Israeli Members of Knesset were among those who voiced concern. "I have my own criticism of the current government, but there have to be limits, and this organization is doing tremendous damage to Israel," said Kadima
Kadima
Kadima is a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians...
MK Ze'ev Bielski, a former Jewish Agency chairman. At the same time, other MK attended and spoke at the conference, including Daniel Ben-Simon, Yoel Hasson
Yoel Hasson
Yoel Hasson is an Israeli politician and a member of the Knesset for Kadima.-Biography:Born in Tel Aviv, Hasson studied for a BA in government and public policy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. He joined the Betar movement, and was head of the national leadership of its youth movement...
, Amir Peretz
Amir Peretz
Amir Peretz is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for the Labour Party. He is a former Defense Minister of Israel and former leader of the Labour Party, having left those positions in June 2007....
, Nachman Shai, and Orit Zuaretz
Orit Zuaretz
Orit Zuaretz is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Kadima.-Biography:Born Svetlana Czerniak in the Soviet Union, Zuaretz made aliyah to Israel in 1971. She gained a BA in Social Science studied towards an MA in the New Age Middle East.She was elected onto the Tzoran-Kadima local...
.
In March 2011, MK Otniel Schneller
Otniel Schneller
Otniel Schneller is an Israeli politician and a member of the Knesset for Kadima.-Biography:Born in Jerusalem, and raised in Michigan, Schneller took Jewish studies and social science at Bar-Ilan University, finishing his studied in 1978. Between 1983 and 1986 he served as secretary general of the...
(Kadima
Kadima
Kadima is a centrist and liberal political party in Israel. It was established on 24 November 2005 by moderates from Likud largely to support the issue of Ariel Sharon's unilateral disengagement plan, and was soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians...
) said to Ben-Ami during a Knesset committee meeting: “You are not Zionists and you do not care about Israeli interests. Fifty rockets a day are fired on the South and you fight against the American veto against condemnations of Israel. You are not Zionists and you do not care about Israel. Only here in Israel do we determine Israeli democracy, and you cannot determine what Israel’s interests are.” Ben Ami responded by saying, “An absolute parameter has to be the recognition of the fundamental right of the Jewish people to their own state. There are plenty of people, even within the American Jewish community, who are anti-Zionist and who do not recognize that right. Second, they must recognize Israel’s right to defend itself against threats – Israel must be strong, because it lives in a hard neighborhood, as we’ve even seen this morning.”
See also
- J Street U
- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
- Diaspora politics in the United StatesDiaspora politics in the United StatesDiaspora politics in the United States is the study of the political behavior of transnational ethnic diasporas, their relationship with their ethnic homelands and their host states, as well as their prominent role in ethnic conflicts. This article describes case studies and theories of political...
- Israel lobby in the United StatesIsrael lobby in the United StatesThe Israel lobby is a term used to describe the diverse coalition of those who, as individuals and as groups, seek and have sought to influence the foreign policy of the United States in support of Zionism, Israel or the specific policies of its government...
- Jewish lobbyJewish lobbyThe term Jewish lobby is used to describe organized lobbying attributed to Jews on domestic and foreign policy decisions, as a political participant of representative government, conducted predominantly in the Jewish diaspora in a number of Western countries...
- Jewish Agency
- Independent Jewish VoicesIndependent Jewish VoicesFor the Canadian group see Independent Jewish Voices . For the Australian group see Independent Australian Jewish Voices.Independent Jewish Voices is an organization launched on 5 February 2007 by 150 prominent British Jews such as Nobel laureate Harold Pinter, historian Eric Hobsbawm, lawyer Sir...
- Brit Tzedek v'ShalomBrit Tzedek v'ShalomBrit Tzedek v'Shalom, also known as Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace, is an organization of United States Jews and describes its members as "deeply committed to Israel's well-being through the achievement of a negotiated settlement to the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict"...
- Americans for Peace NowAmericans for Peace NowAmericans for Peace Now , the United States partner of Israel’s Shalom Achshav organization, is an American coalition working to help Israel achieve a secure peace with the Arab states and the Palestinian people...
- Jewish Voice for PeaceJewish Voice for PeaceJewish Voice for Peace is a United States Jewish organization which describes itself as "a diverse and democratic community of activists inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, and human rights [to] support the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for security...
- Israel Policy ForumIsrael Policy ForumThe Israel Policy Forum is a New York, NY based American Jewish organization that works for a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The organization lobbies American policymakers in support of this goal and writes opinion pieces that have appeared in many Jewish and non-Jewish...
- Republican Jewish CoalitionRepublican Jewish CoalitionThe Republican Jewish Coalition , founded in 1985, is a political lobbying group in the United States that promotes Jewish Republicans. The RJC claims that it is the most important voice on conservative political issues for the Jewish-American community...
- White House Jewish LiaisonWhite House Jewish LiaisonThe White House staff position of Liaison to the Jewish Community is a role charged with serving as the Administration's voice to the American Jewish community and gathering the community's consensus viewpoint on issues affecting it for the benefit of White House policymakers...
- National Jewish Democratic CouncilNational Jewish Democratic CouncilThe National Jewish Democratic Council works as lobbying organization for the country of Israel in the United States of America and the Democratic Party and its mission is to promote pro-Israeli policies within the Party, and to promote the Democratic Party within the jewish community.The NJDC is...
- JCallJCallJCall is a nonprofit advocacy group based in Europe to lobby the European parliament on foreign policy issues concerning the Middle East and Israel in particular. They say they are based along the lines of the America group J Street, founded just months before this group...
– European-based advocacy
- JCall
Further reading
- Kirsch, JonathanJonathan KirschJonathan Kirsch is a Biblical scholar, an attorney, and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He is a bestselling author of books on religion, the Bible, and Judaism. He earned a B.A. degree in Russian and Jewish history from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a J.D. degree from Loyola...
. The J Street Zionist, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los AngelesThe Jewish Journal of Greater Los AngelesThe Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles is an independent, nonprofit community weekly newspaper serving the Jewish community of greater Los Angeles, published by TRIBE Media Corp. The Journal was established in 1985. As of 2010 it had a verified circulation of 60,000 and an estimated readership...
, November 17, 2011. - Hoffman, Allison. Heads Up: J Street chief Jeremy Ben-Ami calls the plays for the first self-confident alternative Jewish establishment, Tablet MagazineTablet MagazineTablet Magazine is a two-time National Magazine Award-winning online publication of Jewish life, arts, and ideas. Sponsored by Nextbook, it was launched in June 2009. Its Editor in Chief is Alana Newhouse....
, October 28, 2010. - Kirchick, JamesJames KirchickJames Kirchick is a reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist. He is a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington; prior to this he was writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty....
. The Fork in J Street: Will the new Israel lobby disavow its extreme left flank?, The New RepublicThe New RepublicThe magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, October 31, 2009. - Goldberg, Jeffrey. J Street's Ben-Ami on Zionism and Military Aid to Israel, The Atlantic, October 23, 2009.
- Boteach, ShmuleyShmuley BoteachShmuel "Shmuley" Boteach is an American Orthodox rabbi, author, TV host and public speaker.Among other books, Boteach wrote Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy, published in 1999, which openly discusses intimacy and sexual intercourse...
. No Holds Barred: J Street – a shameful address The Jerusalem PostThe Jerusalem PostThe Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
, September 15, 2009 - Traub, JamesJames TraubJames Traub, born in 1954, is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, where he has worked since 1998. From 1994 to 1997, he was a staff writer for The New Yorker. He has also written for The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, National Review and Foreign Affairs...
. The New Israel Lobby The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, September 13, 2009 - Guttman, Nathan. J Street Makes a Strategic Acquisition, The ForwardThe ForwardThe Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
, September 4, 2009 - Guttman, Nathan. J Street Shows Its Strength In Numbers, The Forward, November 13, 2008
- Rosner, Shmuel. Jeremy Ben-Ami, Executive Director of the new pro-Israel dovish lobby, J Street, will answer questions HaaretzHaaretzHaaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
, May 29, 2008 - Ephron, Dan. A Firmer Hand: Washington's new Jewish lobby presses Israel NewsweekNewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, May 27, 2008 - Ben-Ami, Jeremy. 5 Myths on Who's Really 'Pro-Israel' Washington Post, May 8, 2008
- Lichfield, Gideon. Hurdles on J Street Prospect (UK)Prospect (magazine)Prospect is a monthly British general interest magazine, specialising in politics and current affairs. Frequent topics include British, European, and US politics, social issues, art, literature, cinema, science, the media, history, philosophy, and psychology...
, April 30, 2008 - Tobin, Jonathan. View From America: Making sense of the 'J Street' jive The Jerusalem PostThe Jerusalem PostThe Jerusalem Post is an Israeli daily English-language broadsheet newspaper, founded on December 1, 1932 by Gershon Agron as The Palestine Post. The daily readership numbers do not approach those of the major Hebrew newspapers....
, April 27, 2008 - Rozen, Laura. J Street Hopes to Prod Washington MidEast Policy Towards Center Mother JonesMother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
, April 15, 2008
External links
- J Street official website
- J Street Political Action Committee official PAC website