The J Street Scam

Council for the National Interest - J Street is seductive. Americans have been bombarded with propaganda about Israel ever since the foundation of the country over sixty years ago. More recently, the United States has been designated by the media and the chattering classes as the protector of the Jewish state with little regard for those actions undertaken by Tel Aviv that impact negatively on US interests. This is because the Israel Lobby is the most powerful foreign lobby in the United States by far. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has become the ugly side of the Lobby, has rightly drawn criticism for its bullying tactics and its alignment with extreme right-wing parties in Israel. Progressives and some conservatives in the United States who support Israel as a homeland for the world’s Jews have been eager to find a more respectable alternative lobby. That alternative is J Street.

J Street, which recently completed its third annual conference in Washington, is a self-proclaimed kinder and gentler advocate of Israeli interests. It favors peace on equitable terms with the Palestinians and also with Israel’s Arab neighbors. It opposes expansion of the Israeli settlements on the West Bank because they are an obstacle to peace. It calls itself “pro-Israel, pro-American, and pro-peace.” If one judges by the enemies it has attracted, including nearly all leading neoconservatives, J Street has to be considered a breath of fresh air and the best option for sustainable peace in the Middle East.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? But somehow the parts don’t quite add up.....
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