J Street - Reception

Reception

Israeli-American writer and analyst Gershom Gorenberg wrote in the American Prospect that J Street "might change not only the political map in Washington but the actual map in the Middle East." Noah Pollak at Commentary predicted that the effort would fall flat and show there are no "great battalions of American Jewish doves languishing in voicelessness."

Ken Wald, a political scientist at University of Florida, predicted the group would be attacked by the "Jewish right." According to BBC News, Wald warned that J Street "will get hammered and accused of being anti-Israel. A lot will have to do with the way they actually frame their arguments."

James Kirchick, writing in the The New Republic, called J Street's labeling of AIPAC as "right wing" "ridiculous"; Kirchik says that AIPAC's former president told him that AIPAC was the first American Jewish organization to support Oslo and supports a two-state solution. Kirchick further asserts that some of J Street's positions, such as advocating negotiations with Hamas, are not popular with most American Jews According to a March 2008 Haaretz-Dialog poll the majority of Israelis do support direct talks with Hamas, although this referred solely to the issue of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Jeremy Ben-Ami responded to Kirchick's charges during a May 26, 2008, interview published in Haaretz Magazine. Kirchik also has reacted against J Streets endorsement of the play Seven Jewish Children, which many critics consider antisemitic. "To J Street, the inflammatory message of Seven Jewish Children is precisely what makes it worthy of production," he charges.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, called J Street's reaction to the Israeli invasion of Gaza "morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve." J Street responded stating, "It is hard for us to understand how the leading reform rabbi in North America could call our effort to articulate a nuanced view on these difficult issues "morally deficient." If our views are "naive" and "morally deficient", then so are the views of scores of Israeli journalists, security analysts, distinguished authors, and retired IDF officers who have posed the same questions about the Gaza attack as we have."

In April 2009, the Washington Post called J Street "Washington's leading pro-Israel PAC," citing the group's impressive fund raising efforts in its first year and its record of electoral success, including 33 victories by J Street-supported candidates for Congress.

According to Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post, J Street is anything but pro-Israel: "Through their actions, J Street and its allies have made clear that their institutional interests are served by weakening Israel. Their mission is to harm Israel's standing in Washington and weaken the influence of the mainstream American Jewish community that supports Israel."

In August 2009, J Street released its fund raising figures for its PAC division. It showed that "at most 3 percent of the organization's thousands of contributors" were Arab and Muslim donors. Lenny Ben-David, a former Israeli diplomat and current lobbyist for AIPAC, criticized J Street for accepting such donations: "It raises questions as to their banner that they're a pro-Israel organization. Why would people who are not known to be pro-Israel give money to this organization?" J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said that such supporters show the broad appeal of J Street's message and its commitment to coexistence: "I think it is a terrific thing for Israel for us to be able to expand the tent of people who are willing to be considered pro-Israel and willing to support Israel through J Street. One of the ways that we're trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel is that you actually don't need to be anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian to be pro-Israel."

Shmuel Rosner has questioned whether J Street actually represents U.S. Jewry. Noah Pollak has questioned the veracity of their polling. Barry Rubin has suggested that J Street is an anti-Israel front for Iranian interests, masquerading as a Zionist organization.

In July 2010 J Street supported the construction of the Cordoba House cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York. President Jeremy Ben-Ami released a statement saying:

The principle at stake ... goes to the heart of American democracy, and the value we place on freedom of religion. Should one religious group in this country be treated differently than another? We believe the answer is no.... proposing a church or a synagogue for that site would raise no questions. The Muslim community has an equal right to build a community center wherever it is legal to do so. —

Responding to charges made by Ben-Ami in his book, A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation, that he and others have stifled critical debate within the Jewish community, political commentator Alan Dershowitz said "It is a fraud in advertising to call J Street pro-Israel." In addition, Dershowitz said that "J Street has done more damage to Israel than any American organization." In response to Dershowitz's comments, J Street's director of government affairs, Dylan Jacob Williams, stated that "Alan Dershowitz's comments provide ample evidence of the self-censorship of the American Jewish community from within concerning the real dangers facing Israel."

Dershowitz, in June 2012, said that J Street is "completely undercutting the Obama policy" with regards to the US position on a military option against the Iranian nuclear program, since J Street has said that it opposes a military option, while both the US and Israel have said it "must be kept on the table." In addition, he said that, "absolutely no good has come from J Street’s soft policy on Iran. Either J Street must change its policy, or truth in advertising requires that it no longer proclaim itself a friend of Israel, a friend of peace, a friend of truth, or a friend of the Obama administration."

In an April 2012 interview, Norman Finkelstein described J Street as the "loyal opposition" to the Israel lobby. He said the group was politically aligned with Kadima, a political party in the Knesset that opposed Israel's governing coalition. Finkelstein also said J Street's leadership was "hopeless".

Chuck Freilich, former deputy national security adviser in Israel, writing in the Jerusalem Post in February 2013, said that "J Street leads only to a dead end," since "only Israelis bear the responsibility for determining their future."