American Jews and Israel

J Street puts a foot in the door

Can a handful of peaceniks challenge the power of AIPAC?

See article

Readers' comments



Thanks and Best wishes to J Street. Unfortunately, AIPAC's brethren in the main stream media will make certain that their voice doesn't make it to the general population.

So much for free speech in the US.


As the U.S. becomes less and less important so will AIPAC. J Street is siphoning off the liberal wing of AIPAC. Because the Israelis have become more brazen in disregarding U.S. appeals to fairness vis-à-vis the Palestinians the mood of the media is changing and therefore the mood on the street. Nobody likes being duped. Nobody likes being humiliated by a protégé. This dilutes the influenced of AIPAC further.
Israel though is reaching critical mass, so it doesn’t need the U.S. as much as it did anyway. Some of the mid-term consequences of all this could be a reduction of aid for Israel and less protection from the U.N. by the United States. Israel’s biggest adversary may become the United Nations rather than the Islamic world.

Cosimo Rondo

J-Street which was initially financed by leftist George Soros, has issued two statements on the Goldstone Report. Neither contains an iota of criticism of a report that even The Economist, not exactly friendly toward Israel, calls a "thimbleful of poison" and the product of "willful blindness." Instead of condemning this UN travesty, J-Street has treated it with respect, calling upon Israel "to credibly address [its] full range of charges and findings."

Sid Kiffa

I wish a lot of success to J street. However too many entrenched obstacles in the United States to deal with not least, amongst these, is the consistently pro isreali government positions of the US administration. One current example of such unhelpful but not surprising US position is Mrs Clinton's declaration of support for the often repeated position of the Netenyahou government on the resumption of negotiations with the continuation of settlements in the occupied territory. Surely another success for AIPAC and an indication of the difficulties faced by J street. When are the American people going to understand that it is in their interest to be at peace with everybody in the world including the palestinians?



Ben gurion warned us that Israel would be judged by how it treats the Arabs.

Israel has demonstrated through the occupation that it has been willing to compromise Jewish values for the sake of a greater Israel. It has pursued a strategy which has been devastating to the Palestinian people. Einstein's and Ben Gurion's visions have been fulfilled.

It is not too late to correct the damage. However it requires a vision and courageous leadership. Neither has come from Israel. The religious zealots hungry for free land are committed to Israeli expansionism at a devistating cost to the Palestinians. These same zealots have infused a fear within their fellow Israelis for security, but in fact, the settler zealots create the unrest that prompts violence.

J Street, if anything, is a voice for change that reflects our historic values of truth and justice. They recognize Israel will not change unless more Jews recognize how Israel has gone awry and convince the USA to no longer be a partner to Israel unless Israel mends its ways.


Anyone interested in the Israel/U.S.A. relationship, and the situation in the Middle East, must read the book by professors Mearsheimer and Walt (The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy), mentioned in the article. Especially if you are an American taxpayer!

If you do not know the facts described by these professors of Political Science and International Affairs, you simply are not in a position to understand the Israeli-Palestinian problem at all.


J Street is a reaction to the excesses of AIPAC. AIPAC has been out of control and needs to be restrained. J Street is an attempt by the Jewish community to correct the excesses of AIPAC, but it is not enough. AIPAC should be investigated by the United States for its loyalty to another country. If AIPAC is found to be disloyal to the United States it should be banned.
Justification for an investigation by the United States into the affairs of AIPAC would be the entanglement in the Iraq war due to AIPAC influence and the military aid granted to Israel used to illegally occupy Palestine, whereby this aid is granted largely through the influence of AIPAC.
An investigation now would be in the interests of the United States because it has severe budget constraints and it must reposition itself diplomatically with the emerging countries of the world. Supporting Israel now is largely throwing money it doesn’t have at a colonialist country, whereas the emerging countries of the world dislike colonialism.


In response to bampbs' comments. While I do agree that the older generation's sorrow and kvelling regarding the holocaust can indicate a blind support of Israel, Israel's meaning for Jews is a whole lot deeper than that. To us it's God keeping a promise made long ago. For the last 2,000 years at every passover seder in every corner of the world we say "next year in Jerusalem". While he holocaust did galvanise the pro-Zionist movement, it was not the impetus for creating Israel.

That is not to say that American Jews of all ages form opinions regarding Israel based more on feelings rather than history and fact. It is clear to me however, that the decades-long, brutal agression towards Palestinians violates the very core of Jewish ethics. (One of our best and enduring gifts to the world I might add). For the Jewish state to be legitimately and justifably accused of crimes against humanity is the saddest irony I can imagine.

Furthermore, I have heard startlingly ignorant and irrational comments by young American Jews regarding the mideast and the the holocaust. The ranting isn't over yet.


AIPAC’s simpler view is not only that "the government of Israel is the best judge of where Israel’s interests lie." It is also that Israel's interests coincide with America's. Sometimes, but not always. Let's see which side J Street is on when the going gets tough.

Theo Horesh

Political commentators underestimate the power of the Israel lobby by focusing solely on what goes on in Washington. American Israel hawks are winning their battles not just in the letters to the editors or in the comment sections of blogs but within their neighborhoods, families, and community groups. It is here that Israel hawks are often willing to destroy the peace to win their arguments.

For more liberal Jews, the issue of Israel's behavior and role in the world, just doesn't seem to take center stage in the same way as it does for the often ethnocentric and racist hawks. For more liberal Jews tend to concern themselves with a far wider array of issues.

For these reasons, "J" street may want to focus on growing a larger membership with smaller levels of commitment. It will be difficult to match the commitment of a group of Israel hawks who experience themselves as existentially threatened. But the emergence of such a group as "J" street will almost certainly unleash a wave of support for a two-state solution that has been pent up for far too long.


J Street is a breath of fresh air in the stale atmosphere of US Middle East policy lobbying, where hawks and neocons have led the US down a sinister and dangerous path. Let's all hope they will bring some light into this dark corner of American foreign affairs.


To continue to favor Israel today means more military solutions where diplomacy, even-handedness and fairness are cheaper, multi-cultural and friendly. Arabs are people too, and they are nice when one treats them right.
Also these pro-Israeli solutions are expensive in lives and treasure. The two wars we are fighting now follow from this orientation. I know the AIPAC will squawk, but tough love is needed to really secure the land of Israel proper. Listen to J Street. They are the Jews with the best ideas today.


It is great to see J Street, this article, these comments and this debate. The Non-Jew has not yet spoken in a significant way. He has been dormant and passive up to now, however he is involved in two wars and an unprecedented national debt due to the mismanagement of Middle East Policy.
How do you create a popular movement to redefine Middle East policy without waking the anti-Semitic monster? Here is where J Street can help - by becoming proactive from within the Jewish community to revise policy from pro-Zionist to a pro-balanced policy. By taking the initiative the Jews could both solve the problem and control the transition so that the transition occurs in a benign way.


Having attended the conference, I was greatly impressed by the organization's commitment to productive solutions, creative thinking, and smart politics. There was significant diversity of opinion within the conference attendees themselves (much like one see in the Democratic party), and I applaud J Street for forging ahead while welcoming open dialogue. That approach is exactly what we need to pursue peace.

Perhaps one of the most glaring contradictions is the how the alternative to a two-state solution is in fact a non-Zionist solution. One panelist noted that Palestinians have two options. They can work toward a two-state solution, or they might suffer through more of the status quo until demographic realities suggest that a one-state solution is the best path. That is: one democratic state with equal rights and one vote per person. In that context, Israeli Jews have only one option that maintains a Jewish state: two states side by side in peace. Unfortunately, the breakdown in trust for the other side blinds some Israelis and American Jews to the long-term results of the occupation.


For too long, AIPAC has been the only, frequently strident voice heard in Washington in terms of the Israeli perspective. AIPAC certainly didn't represent the views of those who supported Israel but were horrified by Israel's blatant mistreatment, abuse and discrimination against the Palestinians. J Street is a much needed breath of fresh air that gives a more balanced and objective view of the Israeli-Palestinian question.


The generation of American Jews who felt guilty because they stayed here in safety when Israel was genuinely at risk is dying off. Younger American Jews feel no need to be "More Catholic than the Pope." The Israeli right had better adjust to a politics here that will be much more like that in Israel - open, diverse, argumentative - or the alienation that has been growing since the massacre at Sabra and Shatila will make their lives very difficult.


J Street will be performing a valuable service if it only allows the dialogue over Israeli policy in this country to be as open as it is in Israel.


This report confirms my belief that the Mid-East situation is not basically one of Israelis against Arabs, but rather Israelis and Arabs who want peace, on the one side, against Israelis and Arabs who want to conquer each other, on the others side.


J Street and the Jewish Voice for Peace are the moderate voices of Jews that will one day allow people, especially Jews, to regain their love for Israel.

Mad Hatter

It has been intriguing and quite predictable to watch the evolution of “J” street.

As refreshing as it is to see a new-school lobby group that actually reflect a more global “pro-Israel, pro-peace” opinion of rather than the usual hysterical “never again - end justifies the means” bunch, one cannot help but be cynical.


What the old-school hasn’t realised, is the sea-change in global opinion and that Israel, thanks to it’s increasingly despicable behaviour towards the Palestinians, no longer has a special place in people hearts.

“J” Street should be able to capitalise on this by bringing a broader coalition of pro-Israel members under it’s roof.



Products and events


Take our weekly news quiz to stay on top of the headlines

