Is There Anyone From J Street Who ISN'T A Co-Founder of If Not Now?

Just asking.

It seems there are various former members of J Street, some who served in leadership positions, who are now involved in If Not Now -- and some of them are apparently founding members.

For example:

Max Berger

• He is identified as a co-founder of If Not Now in his 'bio' on Haaretz
• JTA article notes that before If Not Now, Max Berger worked for J Street as a new media assistant

What You Need To Know About J-Street's "Birthright" Style Trip

This post originally appeared on Elder of Ziyon on July 4, 2019


The Birthright program is often in the news, mainly because of the tremendous work it does to strengthen the Jewish sense of identity of young Jews by creating the opportunity for them to visit Israel for free.

The Birthright trips have expanded over the years and now you can choose your own theme/itinerary:

• Active: Dive-in to the ultimate outdoor adventure and get ready to hike, bike, and climb your way through Israel
• Professional: Delve deeper into your professional industry by experiencing the best of Israel through an occupational lens
• Culinary: Savor the flavor of Mediterranean cuisine and develop your palate and culinary skills alongside some of Israel's finest chefs
• Spiritual: Embark on a meaningful quest through mystical Israel. Connect with the land, the people and yourself
• Cultural: Get lost in Israel's thriving city centers and explore music, theatre and award-winning film
• LGBTQ: Join like-minded peers on a curated tour of Israel's thriving LGBTQ culture
• Study Abroad: Make the country your classroom and travel Israel for 12-14 days. You will experience all the best parts of our Classic trip and master a topic of your choosing earning 3 credits in the process

The goal of Birthright is

Is 'Democratic Majority for Israel' Intended To Clean Up J Street's Mess?

Get the popcorn: J Street is getting some competition.

The Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) is a new group, presenting itself as "the pro-Israel voice of Democrats."
How new is DMFI?
So new, that when I did a search by name to find their website -- it showed up at the bottom of the first page of hits -- and that was a paid advertised link.

Here is their introductory video:

J Street: From Blocking Back to Quarterback?

"Our No. 1 agenda item is to do whatever we can in Congress to act as the president’s blocking back."
J Street co-founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, "The New Israel Lobby," September 9, 2009

And in order to do whatever they could in Congress to support Obama, J Street took -- and continues to take -- a different approach than AIPAC.

AIPAC supports the policy of whoever is elected to lead Israel. In order to do that, AIPAC backs the idea of bipartisan support:

AIPAC is not a political action committee (PAC) and we do not rate or endorse candidates for elected or appointed office. AIPAC members in all 50 states are encouraged to be politically active and develop relationships with their members of Congress to help educate them about the importance of U.S.-Israel ties.

J Street is different on both counts:

Judging J Street By The Candidates They Support

J Street, founded back in November 2007, made no secret of its agenda in its beginnings. In 2009, co-founder Jeremy Ben-Ami admitted to New York Times journalist James Traub:

Our No. 1 agenda item is to do whatever we can in Congress to act as the president’s blocking back.

Back then, there was also no secret about what kind of candidates J Street was going to support -- all you had to do was check their website.

• In 2010, J Street endorsed 61 candidates - all Democrats
• In 2012, J Street endorsed 41 candidates - all Democrats
• In 2014, J Street endorsed 71 candidates - all Democrats
• In 2016, J Street endorsed 73 candidates - all Democrats

That's 246 candidates J Street has endorsed during that time, and all of them Democrats.

So much for the importance of bi-partisan support for Israel.

How The J Street Grinch Stole Hanukkah

It looks like J Street is at it again.

You really have to admire how a group that claims to be dedicated to Israel can find the time to involve itself in petty politics.

This time, J Street is taking a stand on where the Conference of Presidents can celebrate Hanukkah:

TELL CONFERENCE OF PRESIDENTS MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS: DON'T CELEBRATE HANUKKAH AT TRUMP HOTEL.

The Conference of Presidents purports to speak for the American Jewish community. Tell its member organizations: Speak out and make it clear that the Trump Hotel is an inappropriate place to celebrate Hanukkah.

It’s almost too outrageous to believe: An umbrella group that claims to represent the American Jewish community plans to host its 2016 Hanukkah Party at Trump Hotel.

Trump's campaign rhetoric and policy positions are an affront to some of the most core values of American Jews. To hold a Hanukkah party under the Trump banner is shocking in its wrong-headedness.

The J Street Version of Israeli History -- Coming To a Jewish School Near You

J Street's activities extend from politics and advocacy -- to education:

J Street University is circulating a map that restores the Green Line and working to get it into synagogues, Hebrew schools, and summer camps. Good for them. Of course, fighting (nonviolently) over maps is preferable to shooting over the borders of the territories they represent, but there’s no substitute for a one-map solution.

Here is the map:

J Street has a lesson plan to go along with the map. I embedded a copy of the lesson plan at the end of the post.

The introduction in the lesson plan introduces what they see as the issue behind maps of Israel today:

Mideast Media Sampler 4/15/13: Some In The Media Are Getting Wise To J Street

by David Gerstman, contributing blogger at Legal Insurrection


1) Bursting the balloon

When I saw the following headline at the Baltimore Jewish Times I was worried, " J Street Carved Out A Place In The U.S.-Israel Advocacy." The article, written by managing editor, Maayan Jaffe starts by faithfully recounting all of J-Streets claims. But, there's more to the title, that suggests that this isn't going to be another J-Street whitewash: "Israelis say Policies Don’t Jibe."

Jaffe first looks at J-Street's math and observes:

Mideast Media Sampler 3/13/13: Reporting On Israel Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry

From David Gerstman:

1) Being a reporter means never having to say you're sorry

The New York Times has reported on the UN report that raised doubts about the death of Omar Masharawi.

Isabel Kershner wrote U.N. Ties Gaza Baby’s Death to Palestinians:

Paul Danahar, the BBC Middle East bureau chief, wrote on his Twitter account that an Israeli shell had come through the roof of the small Gaza home. Mr. Danahar visited his grieving colleague there on Nov. 15 and posted a photograph of a roundish hole in the roof of a burned-out room. 

But a March 6 report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the eight-day conflict, which ended with a cease-fire, stated that three people in the home — Omar, a woman and an 18-year-old youth — were most likely the victims of “what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel.” 

The circumstances of those deaths are likely to remain in dispute. Israel’s military has not determined whether it hit the house or not, saying it does not have clear information about what happened. The BBC has reported that privately, military officials told journalists at the time that Israel had aimed at a militant who was hiding in the building.

There are a few things here.

J Street's Boast Of Their Influence Is Tested As Congress Considers Penalizing Palestinians

J Street is the "nation's largest pro-Israel PAC again" -- by its own admission: JStreetPAC Scores Big in 2012 Election:

50 percent more Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Senators, Representatives headed to 113th Congress

PAC distributes $1.8 million to federal candidates, making it nation's largest pro-Israel PAC again

JStreetPAC emerged from the 2012 election as the nation's largest pro-Israel PAC and with 50 percent more endorsed Members of the House and Senate than last cycle.

JStreetPAC, the largest pro-Israel political action committee in every cycle since its founding in 2008, broke its own fundraising record again this year, disbursing more than $1.8 million to 71 pro-Israel, pro-peace candidates. Seventy of the candidates won, including all of the incumbents. In addition, J Street backed its candidates with advertising and direct mail.

“JStreetPAC’s resounding success speaks to the deep hunger among American Jews and friends of Israel for a political voice that represents their belief that American leadership is vital to achieving a two-state solution and to securing Israel’s Jewish, democratic future,” said JStreetPAC President Jeremy Ben-Ami.

And now for a dose of reality.

J Street's Empty Boast and the Changing View Of Israel In The Democratic Party

The following from Steven J. Rosen is reposted here with permission

Is J Street Winning?

by Steven J. Rosen
Foreign Policy
November 9, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3374/is-j-street-winning

Will there be a tectonic shift in attitudes toward the Middle East among Democrats in the next Congress?

Gone will be many Democratic heavyweights who could be counted as loyal supporters of the pro-Israel cause. Howard Berman, ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was defeated by Brad Sherman in an intraparty race; Shelley Berkley resigned from the House to pursue a failed Senate campaign; Rep. Steve Rothman was defeated by Rep. Bill Pascrell in the Democratic primary; Sen. Joe Lieberman declined to run again; Gary Ackerman, ranking Democrat on the House Mideast subcommittee, retired rather than face a bitter primary fight; and Rep. Barney Frank retired. Entering Congress, meanwhile, is a new class of Democrats with weaker ties to Israel, such as Tammy Baldwin (previously a member of the House), Ann McLane Kuster, and Tammy Duckworth.

J Street, an organization highly critical of Israeli policies, is hailing the election results as "an incredible victory" and "part of transforming the political atmosphere around Israel in the U.S."

Sampler: J-Street's Wins and Losses, New York Times Isabel Kershner Misses Opportunity

Mideast Media Sampler 12/25/11

by DG:

1) 3 notes about J-Street

Nearly two years ago, Jeremy Ben Ami, in an op-ed for the International Herald Tribune, Tel Aviv Then and Now - wrote:

Jewish Americans — who remain deeply loyal to Israel and staunch defenders of its right to exist — now face conflicting winds blowing on two continents. An overwhelming majority share the politics and worldview of President Barack Obama and have rejected the Bush-Cheney neoconservatism that framed Middle East conflict in simplistic black and white. They recognize, as the new president said in Ankara this week, that security requires peace and that peace begins by “learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes to see through their eyes.”

Last week the Forward reported, J Street Accepted in Some, Not All, Cities:

Mock Interview: J Street gets a ‘Rabbinic Organizer’!

Position Title: Rabbinic Organizer
Reports to: Vice President of the J Street Education Fund
Start Date: September 2011
Location: J Street National Office, Washington, DC

...Rabbis help on a local and national level to shape J Street policy, communicate J Street’s message publicly, lead rabbinic actions, organize events, and expand our rabbinic
community, as well as serve as validators for the pro-Israel pro-peace movement [emphasis added]
From the J Street site

The following "interview" is the creation of FreznoZionism.com: J Street gets a ‘Rabbinic Organizer’

J Street: Hello, J Street. Ben Ami speaking.

Rabbi Malcolm Shain: Bon Ami? No, I didn’t want cleanser. I’m looking for J Street, the Pro-Israel, Pro-peace people.

JS: This is J Street. Although we could really use some Bon Ami. I can’t describe how disgusting the sink is since all the help quit. First we lost Spitalnick and Luria, and now Susskind has gone to Tides. Hmm, maybe some Tide would work on this sink.

J Street: Is It Either Sensible Or Mainstream?

"It is time for the broad, sensible mainstream of pro-Israel American Jews and their allies to challenge those on the extreme right who claim to speak for all American Jews in the national debate about Israel and the Middle East--and who, through the use of fear and intimidation, have cut off reasonable debate on the topic"
J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami

So J Street is going to represent the "sensible mainstream of pro-Israel American Jews"?
Well, who are the members and supporters of J Street who are going to do that? James Kirchick writes in The New Republic that a look at the supporters of J Street turns up a number of people who are decidedly not members of the 'sensible mainstream':

A perusal of J Street's list of supporters further undermines its pretensions to mainstream credibility. One of the most prominent Israelis involved with the group is Avrum Burg, former speaker of the Knesset. A member of a distinguished Israeli political family, he set off a political scandal last year when, in an interview with Ha'aretz, he claimed that "to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end"; he has also compared contemporary Israel to pre-Nazi Germany. Naomi Chazan is a former Knesset member from the left-wing Meretz Party, which has just five seats (out of 120) in the Knesset. Henry Siegman, a former Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has compared Israel to apartheid South Africa, accused Israeli leaders of having the U.S. government "in their pockets," and claimed (absurdly) that the 2000 intifada "was not planned by Arafat, but a spontaneous eruption of Palestinian anger."

For that matter, despite J Street's description of AIPAC to the contrary, AIPAC is not really outside the mainstream at all:

Moreover, J Street's depiction of the pro-Israel establishment--read, AIPAC-- as wildly hawkish is more than a bit of a stretch. I called Steve Grossman, AIPAC's president from 1992 to 1996, to ask him what he thought of this line of attack. After stepping down from his AIPAC post, Grossman became national chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and he later served as chairman of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Unsurprisingly, the notion that AIPAC is a right-wing organization strikes him as ridiculous. "There are lots of people who are involved with AIPAC, including me, who have always believed that the two-state solution is essential and the deep involvement of the United States to find a solution, however intractable the problems may be, is absolutely axiomatic," he says. He points to AIPAC's early support for the negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo accords--staunchly opposed by hawks in both Israel and the United States--as but one example where aipac angered many of its conservative supporters. "There were people in AIPAC who felt Oslo was a bad idea, but I'm still proud of the fact that the first American Jewish organization to support Rabin and Peres and the Oslo accords was AIPAC," he told me.

By all means--let J Street go ahead and do its thing, but let them also be honest about who they are and where they really stand on Israel. I mentioned in a previous post that J Street has been reticent in making known who is behind the group.

It is becoming increasingly clear why.

Technorati Tag: J Street.