Divergent Path on Israel Helps Lobby Group Grow

WASHINGTON — There was a time not so long ago when political contributions from Americans supportive of Israel inevitably veered toward those Congressional candidates who were the most hawkish and outspoken in defending Israel and its security.

No longer. While aggressive defenders of Israel still dominate the debate, more moderate voices in the Jewish community — led by J Street, a Washington lobbying group — are expanding their ability to generate money and political capital for pro-Israel candidates who favor a less confrontational approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other issues.

This week, J Street is expected to land one of its biggest names when it announces its endorsement of Senator Dianne Feinstein, the veteran Democrat from California who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, an important forum for Middle East intelligence. With Ms. Feinstein’s acceptance of J Street’s endorsement, the group’s political action committee plans to raise at least $100,000 for her re-election bid, the officials said.


Founded in 2008, J Street is on pace to set a fund-raising record this election. By November, it expects to raise nearly $2 million for more than 60 Congressional candidates whose views on Israel align with its own, said Alexandra Stanton, a co-chairwoman of the PAC, and she said it had tapped into pro-Israel donors who had no real political outlet before now. Several leaders from J Street, along with other Jewish groups, attended a White House reception with President Obama on Wednesday as part of Jewish Heritage Month.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, said in an interview that “the assumption has always been that to run for office, you have to run to the right on this issue with a relatively hawkish view on Israel and the Middle East — the ‘Israel right or wrong’ position.”

“We’re changing that calculus,” he said. “We are beginning to organize a very, very large network of people in the middle.”

In the past, some Congressional candidates were reluctant to take J Street’s money because of charges from some American Jewish leaders and Israeli officials that the group’s moderate positions — it supports increased diplomacy, a two-state Israeli solution and continued aid to the Palestinian Authority — made it “anti-Israel.”

“These are people who cannot be considered friendly to Israel,” said Morris J. Amitay, a former executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, widely considered the most powerful American lobbying force on Israeli matters. Aipac has generally supported a more aggressive defense of Israel, including possible use of American military force against Iran.
Josh Block, another former Aipac official, called J Street “a gnat” in the Israel debate and “a fringe organization with no credibility.”

Capitol Hill critics say J Street has been unnecessarily sharp-elbowed in attacking lawmakers over policy differences, leading to friction with onetime supporters like Representative Gary L. Ackerman, Democrat of New York, who broke with the group last year over its support for a United Nations resolution criticizing Israel’s West Bank settlements as illegal.

For J Street defenders, the vitriol is a sign that the group is beginning to have an impact.
Ms. Feinstein is regarded as a strong supporter of Israel — “obviously, we’re going to back up Israel” in any military conflict against Iran, she said in a recent CNN interview — and her acceptance of J Street’s endorsement is seen as buoying the group’s political credentials. Bill Carrick, the senior strategist for the Feinstein campaign, said that the senator agreed with many of J Street’s principles and that the decision to accept the group’s endorsement was simple.

“We didn’t look at it as picking sides in the debate,” he said. “They wanted to endorse her and, basically, she said fine.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 30, 2012

An earlier version of this article misstated the party affiliation of Representative Joe Walsh of Illinois; he is a Republican, not a Democrat.

Prof Gerald M. Steinberg

NGO Monitor and

Bar Ilan University