Jeffrey Goldberg, who at one time was at least sympathetic to J Street, if not a supporter, places the tombstone on the pro-Obama lobby masquerading as pro-Israel.
On one level, I understand what is happening here: J Street is made up of liberal Zionists, as well as non-Zionists, and even a few anti-Zionists, and it has been difficult for it to please its differing constituencies. This is why Ben-Ami, its president, might have felt the need to cover-up the involvement of George Soros, because liberal supporters of Israel know that Soros is unfriendly to the Jewish state, and some, presumably, would not want to be part of a group that counted Soros as a prominent supporter. But on another level, what is going on here is inexplicable, and terribly dispiriting to people who thought that J Street was going to make a useful contribution to the debate over the future of Israel.
The question that Goldberg leaves unanswered is why someone who is non-Zionist or anti-Zionist would want to join a truly pro-Israel organization. Of course, the answer is that J Street never was a truly pro-Israel organization.
Finally, this post from Michael Goldfarb is too good not to add:
The pro-Israel community had always been fearful of J Street’s motives and intentions, and now we know the truth – they are the deceitful anti-Israel activists we’d thought them to be. But it also turns out that they are clownishly incompetent. And for this we can be thankful. Asked by General Westmoreland how to win in war, Moshe Dayan was said to have responded: “First of all, you pick the Arabs as your enemy.” As supporters of Israel, we’ve been lucky enough to find ourselves in a fight with J Street.
Karl in Jerusalem
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