US JEWISH LOBBY GAINS NEW VOICE
By Max Deveson, BBC News

AZG Armenian Daily
23/04/2008

USA

Are liberal Jewish voices in America being drowned out by
powerful conservative lobbyists? A group of prominent left-leaning
Jewish-Americans thinks so.

They have launched a new lobbying organisation, called J Street,
which they hope will redress this perceived imbalance.

"The term ‘pro-Israel’ has been hijacked by those who hold views
that a majority of Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, oppose," says
executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami, a former adviser to President Bill
Clinton. He says J Street will campaign for a two-state solution to
the conflict in the Middle East.

Its political fundraising sister group – J Street PAC, for political
action committee – will raise money and donate to sympathetic
politicians.

Furious debate

The group is billing itself as a counterweight to the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the most prominent Jewish lobbying
organisation in the US.

J Street says Aipac does not reflect the liberal views of a
large number of its existing donors, let alone the mainstream of
Jewish-American opinion.

The role of the pro-Israeli lobby – and of Aipac itself – in American
politics has been the subject of furious debate in recent years.

The most pro-Israel thing any American politician or policy maker can
do is help to bring about a two-state solution and a comprehensive
peace agreement between Israel and her neighbours

Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street

In 2006, academics Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer
of the University of Chicago caused a storm when they published an
article arguing that groups like Aipac had pushed US foreign policy
in a pro-Israeli direction often against America’s national interests.

Critics of the two academics countered that the pro-Israeli lobby
should be allowed to make its case to government just like any other
interest group, and that characterisations of Jewish lobbyists as
"well-funded" and "powerful" were liable to play into the hands of
anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.

The team behind J Street do not necessarily buy into the
Walt-Mearsheimer analysis, but they do believe that America’s current
policy tilts too strongly towards Israeli right-wingers, and is in
the long-term interests neither of Israel nor the US.

"The most pro-Israel thing any American politician or policy maker
can do is help to bring about a two-state solution and a comprehensive
peace agreement between Israel and her neighbours," says Mr Ben-Ami.

No threat

Although Aipac have not publicly commented on J Street’s launch,
they are – perhaps unsurprisingly – not thought to be particularly
supportive of the new group’s aims. Nor are they concerned that
they will lose their pre-eminent position within the Jewish-American
community.

"I believe that Aipac has very broad support and will continue to
enjoy it," Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major
American Jewish Organizations, of which Aipac is a member, told the
Washington Post newspaper.

Financially, J Street is certainly unlikely to pose a threat to Aipac.

Its first-year budget of $1.5m (£750,000) will be no match for Aipac,
which has an endowment of more than $100m (£50m), over 100,000 members
and 18 offices around the US.J Street hopes that its voice will be
amplified by some of its more high-profile backers, including former
senator Lincoln Chafee.

It may also be able to draw on the power of online fundraising groups
like Moveon.org, from which some of J Street’s organisers have come.

A similar attempt to create a liberal Jewish pressure group took place
in the UK last year, with the launch of Independent Jewish Voices
(IJV).

IJV set itself up as an alternative to the Board of Deputies of
British Jews, which it said was too uncritical in its attitude to
Israeli policy.

‘Vague approach’

At its inception, IJV was able to unveil a number of high-profile
supporters, including the writer Stephen Fry and the film director
Mike Leigh.

But it was criticised by some for what journalist Seth Freedman
described as its "vague, indistinct approach", particularly in its
attitude towards the controversial proposal from members of the
UK-based University and College Union to boycott Israeli academic
institutions.

J Street will get hammered and accused of being anti-Israel

Ken Wald, political scientist

In November 2007, one of IJV’s leading members, Rabbi David Goldberg,
resigned from the group, citing the organisation’s "lack of direction".

J Street will be more focused on raising money and lobbying influential
politicians than IJV, and the American group is unlikely to engage
in divisive political campaigns.

But it is likely to draw criticism from more conservative pro-Israeli
factions.

"[J Street] will get hammered and accused of being anti-Israel,"
University of Florida political scientist Ken Wald told the Jewish
Week newspaper.

"A lot will have to do with the way they actually frame their
arguments," he added.

J Street may not succeed in its ambition to become a rival to Aipac
and the other pro-Israeli lobby groups.

But the vibrant – and sometimes fractious – Jewish-American
conversation will certainly be getting a little louder.

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