J STREET FILLS GAP IN WASHINGTON MAP
BBC NEWS
mericas/8329441.stm
2009/10/28 13:31:17 GMT
As new pro-Israel lobby group J Street holds its first national
conference in Washington, BBC Diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus
looks at the opportunities and challenges facing an organisation set
up to represent the liberal voice of US Jews.
On the street map of Washington DC there is a strange omission. Most
streets are designated by either a number or a letter. But look as
hard as you want there is no J Street. Seemingly, a hand-written
capital I or J were seen as being too similar; a recipe for confusion.
This exception is seen by the head of the new liberal and decidedly
dovish Israeli lobby group in Washington as a useful metaphor. "Just
as there is no J Street on the grid in Washington DC," says Jeremy
Ben Ami, J Street’s Executive Director, his organisation "is looking
to fill a similar gap in the political map".
" We are representative of a very significant part of the American
Jewish community " Jeremy Ben Ami, Executive Director of J Street I
met Mr Ben Ami three floors below ground level in the sub-basement
of the Grand Hyatt hotel. J Street’s first national conference was
in full swing around us. But there was no bunker mentality here. It
was more of a coming out party.
J Street’s goal was to give a voice to a "broad segment of the American
Jewish community and other friends of Israel who believe that peace
and an end to the conflict is essential for Israel’s security and
survival".
"There was a real sense of urgency," he said, a fear that time was
running out for a two-state solution – for the idea of two countries,
Israel and Palestine, living peacefully, side-by-side.
"This president and this presidency may be the last opportunity to
bring about that two-state solution," he asserted.
The victory of Barack Obama has been crucial to the emergence of
this new lobbying effort. The liberal wing of the Jewish community
feels emboldened and listened to. A clear sign was the fact that the
keynote speaker at this conference was General James Jones, the US
National Security Advisor.
‘Absent values’
He drew rapturous applause when he told the audience that he was
happy to be there and that this administration would be present at
all future J Street conferences.
Interestingly Israel’s ambassador to Washington refused an invitation
to attend. The Israeli Embassy here put out a statement saying that
it had privately communicated "its concerns over certain policies of
the organization that may impair the interests of Israel". Nonetheless
it would send an observer.
"I think it is a serious mistake on his part and on the part of the
government of Israel," said Mr Ben Ami. "We are representative of a
very significant part of the American Jewish community."
Opinion in Israel seems divided though; Israeli opposition leader
Tzipi Livni and President Shimon Peres both both sent J Street warm
messages of support.
However, J Street is a newly spawned minnow in a sea dominated by a
much bigger fish – the long-established American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (Aipac) which in recent years has been very close to the
Bush administration. Even Aipac’s enemies admire its organisational
and lobbying skills, though some of its more strident critics have
argued that it is distorting US foreign policy in favour of Israel.
Jeremy Ben Ami says he admires some elements of the existing
pro-Israeli lobby’s work. He says that J Street is not there to take
on Aipac. "We are looking to give a positive voice to a message and
a set of values that have been absent in American politics and in
the Jewish community for too long," he said.
J J Goldberg, executive editor of the New York Jewish newspaper The
Forward, believes that J Street’s primary impact may be to moderate
the existing lobby: "If J Street is effective, it will pull Aipac to
the left as well. It will balance out the right-wing pressures."
He too stressed the importance of J Street’s emergence for the Obama
Administration: "When they [the administration] take a move that
is going to be hard for Israel, they will have people saying to the
Jewish community, credibly – no, this makes sense, hold your breath –
this is going to work out."
Fundamental change
There was a strong congressional presence at this conference, though
few of the stars from Capitol Hill. American-Arab organisations who
share J Street’s emphasis on a two-state solution were involved and
the Jordanian Ambassador also spoke.
But there were critics. Outside a handful of demonstrators waved
placards – one saying "J Street Nazis". I asked its holder, an elderly
Jewish man from Florida, how he justified this message? "J Street are
Jews who have sold-out, who didn’t really support a Jewish State,"
he said.
"J-Street told us that the Jewish community could trust Obama,"
he went on. "Well, they were wrong and can not therefore be trusted."
It’s a view shared by many more conservative American Jews. The Jewish
blogosphere and right-wing pundits have been in over-drive condemning
J Street.
But Jeremy Ben Ami says that this conference has been vastly more
successful than he had hoped. In many ways J Street is trying to
resolve the paradox that in recent years the Jewish community’s
representative bodies have been much more conservative on issues
concerning Israel than the vast majority of US Jews who voted
overwhelmingly for Barack Obama.
J Street believes that if the US is truly to recalibrate or shift its
policy on the Middle East, then first there has to be a fundamental
change in the terms of the debate at home.