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'''J Street''' is a ] ] group based in the ] that promotes American leadership to end the ] and ] conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. While primarily made up of Jews, J Street welcomes both Jewish and non-Jewish members.All of the dozen or so J Street staff members are intermarried Jews and doing Buddhist Seders <ref>[ '''J Street''' is a ] ] group based in the ] that promotes American leadership to end the ] and ] conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. While primarily made up of Jews, J Street welcomes both Jewish and non-Jewish members. J Street's 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 a wide range of countries and actors. According to its website, "'''J Street Political Action Committee''' (J Street PAC) is the first and only federal ] 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." <ref name=JStreetAboutUs>{{cite news
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/magazine/13JStreet-t.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1]</ref> J Street's 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 a wide range of countries and actors. According to its website, "'''J Street Political Action Committee''' (J Street PAC) is the first and only federal ] 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." <ref name=JStreetAboutUs>{{cite news
|url=http://jstreet.org/about/about-us |url=http://jstreet.org/about/about-us
|title= About ''J Street'' |title= About ''J Street''

Revision as of 05:57, 10 September 2009

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J Street
J Street Logo
FounderJeremy Ben-Ami
Type501(c)(4) charitable organization
FocusArab-Israeli conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Location
Area served  Israel /  USA
MethodLobbying
Key peopleJeremy Ben-Ami (Executive director)
Franklin Fisher (Advisor)
Daniel Levy (Advisor)
Debra DeLee (Advisor)
Marcia Freedman (Advisor)
Shlomo Ben-Ami (Advisor)
Samuel W. Lewis (Advisor)
Lincoln Chafee (Advisor)
Websitewww.jstreet.org

J Street is a nonprofit advocacy group based in the United States that promotes American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israel conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. While primarily made up of Jews, J Street welcomes both Jewish and non-Jewish members. J Street's 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 a wide range of countries and actors. According to its website, "J Street Political Action Committee (J Street PAC) 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."

Political vision

According to the J Street website, the organization seeks "to change the direction of American policy in the Middle East" and to become "the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement."

J Street supports Israel and its 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."

J Street's official policy positions as of August 2009 are:

  • On Iran: J Street is "supportive of President Obama’s effort to engage Iran diplomatically." "J street does not, in principle, oppose the imposition of further sanctions on Iran as part of American policy designed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons." J Street references an US intelligent report that states that Iran isn't likely to gain nuclear capabilities prior to 2014.
  • On the Israel-Palestinian conflict: "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 Settlements: "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 Syria: "J Street believes that an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty would contribute significantly to stability and security in the region. The US should vigorously encourage and facilitate Israeli-Syrian peace talks, building on talks pursued previously under Israeli Prime Ministers Rabin, Netanyahu, Barak, and Olmert."
  • 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 Initiative proposed by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a possible framework for a comprehensive Arab-Israel peace.

Meaning of name

J Street's rationale is reflected in its unusual name. "K Street," a street in the heart of downtown Washington, D.C. and a historical landmark because of the famous powerhouse lobbying firms located on it, has become synonymous for Washington’s formidable lobbying establishment. "J Street," logically the next, parallel street to "K street", does not exist in reality. For historical reasons, it is absent from Washington's downtown street grid. Thus, the choice of the name reflects the desire of J Street's founders and donors to bring a voice to Washington D.C. that they believe, much like the missing "J Street" of the downtown grid, has been absent until now.

Structure

J Street PAC logo

J Street and J Street PAC, founded in April 2008, exist as separate legal entities with different political functions:

  • J Street - a nonprofit advocacy group registered as a 501(c)(4) charitable group. J Street aims to encourage "support strong American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts peacefully and diplomatically." Because of J Street's charitable status, it is precluded by campaign finance regulations from financially supporting political campaigns of candidates seeking federal office.
  • The J Street PAC - a political action committee 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 Street's goals.

Management

J Street's founding Executive Director is Jeremy Ben-Ami, 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 Initiative-North America.

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.

J Street's advisory council includes former public officials, policy experts, and community and academic leaders. These include, among others, 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 US Senator Lincoln Chafee.

Activities

J Street is active in two realms:

Political fund raising

The J Street PAC acts as a traditional political action committee raising funds to support a limited number of candidates for Senate and Congressional races.

For the 2008 Congressional elections, the J Street PAC hoped to raise around $300,000 to funnel into three to five swing districts. Ultimately it raised $600,000 and, according to J Street, 33 of the 41 candidates it backed won their seats.

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.

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 may seem a low figure compared to AIPAC's endowment of more than $100 million, according to Gary Kamiya, but the Internet revolution in politics has changed the rules of the game. J Street founders hope to raise significant money online, following in the successful footsteps of MoveOn and the Barack Obama campaign.

Public response

Israeli-American writer and analyst Gershom Gorenberg 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." On the negative side, Noah Pollak at Commentary Magazine 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 (although according to Haaretz-Dialog poll the majority of Israelis, as of March 2008, do support direct talks with Hamas.) 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 widely believed to be 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 which started at the end of December 2008 "morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve." J Street responded to the Rabbi's criticism 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." The Post cited 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 fundraising figures for its PAC division. It showed that "at most 3 percent of the organization's thousands of contributors" were Arab and Muslim donors. Ben-Ami, the President of J Street 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."

Others criticized the group for allowing donations from Muslims and Arabs. Lenny Ben-David, a former Israeli diplomat and now a lobbyist for AIPAC said that "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?"

See also

References

  1. ^ "About J Street". J Street. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  2. Rosner's Guest: Jeremy Ben-Ami
  3. ^ Besser, James (2008-03-26). "New PAC To Offer Pols A Dovish Mideast View". The Jewish Week. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  4. ^ Abramowitz, Michael (2008-04-15). "Jewish Liberals to Launch A Counterpoint to AIPAC". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  5. ^ Kamiya, Gary (2008-04-29). "Taking Back the Debate Over Israel". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  6. http://www.jstreet.org/page/iran
  7. http://www.jstreet.org/page/israel-palestine
  8. http://www.jstreet.org/page/jerusalem
  9. http://www.jstreet.org/page/settlements
  10. http://www.jstreet.org/page/syria
  11. http://www.jstreet.org/page/the-us-israel-and-arab-world
  12. "No 'J' Street in Washington, DC". Snopes. 2007-05-27. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  13. "About the J Street PAC". J Street Political Action Committee. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  14. ^ Deveson, Max (2008-04-16). "Jewish lobby gains new voice". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  15. Turning on to J Street, The American Conservative, May 2008.
  16. "The J Street Advisory Council". J Street. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  17. Silverstein, Richard (2008-04-17). "J Street, New Israel Peace Lobby, Launches". www.richardsilverstein.com. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  18. The Daily Telegraph, 18 April 2009, US Jewish lobby challenged by 'pro-peace' rival
  19. ^ Krieger, Hilary Leila (August 14, 2009). "J Street Donors include Muslims, Arabs". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved August 15, 2009.
  20. Gorenberg, Gershom (2008-04-15). "J Street on the Map". American Prospect. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  21. Pollak, Noah (2008-04-15). "Taking It to the (J) Street". Commentary Magazine. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
  22. Street Cred? Who does the new Israel lobby really represent?
  23. Israelis Want to Talk to Hamas | Newsweek International Edition | Newsweek.com
  24. Rosner, Shmuel (2008-05-26). "Rosner's Guest: Jeremy Ben-Ami". Haaretz. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  25. James Kirchik, Self-loathing on J Street Jerusalem Post, April 12, 2009.
  26. Monica Hesse, 'Jewish Children' Comes to D.C. Already Upstaged by Controversy, The Washington Post, March 17, 2009.
  27. Allison Hoffman, 'Seven Jewish Children' provokes US debate - among Jews, The Jerusalem Post, March 29, 2009.
  28. Jan Ravensbergen, Packed house for provocative play, The Gazette, May 4, 2009.
  29. Cnaan Liphshiz, Liverpool cuts funding for festival that includes 'anti-Semitic' play, Haaretz, May 17, 2009.
  30. Statement in Response to Israeli Airstrikes in Gaza
  31. On Gaza, sense, and Centrism | The Forward
  32. Statement in Response to Rabbi Eric Yoffie's Comments in the Forward
  33. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603995.html
  34. Carline Glick: The Lonely Israeli Left Jerusalem Post, July 30, 2009.

Further reading

External links

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