Doves Launch Effort to Challenge Pro-Israel Establishment in D.C.

Ron Kampeas
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON

After years of on-and-off policy wars with the pro-Israel establishment, liberal Jewish advocates for a more aggressive U.S. posture in Middle East peacemaking are taking the fight to the street.

K Street -- Washington's lobbying mile -- that is.

A conference call last week was set to launch J Street, a lobbying outfit and political-action committee backed by some of the biggest names in the dovish pro-Israel community.

Until now, organizers of J Street have been unwilling to discuss their plans. But in a recent interview, executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami, a Clinton-administration domestic-policy adviser who's gone on to counsel a number of Democratic campaigns, said that the goal is to take on the pro-Israel giants, particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, where they are the most powerful: in Congress.

The Targets: AIPAC and ZOA
The new group's launch video takes aim at several prominent non-Jewish conservative supporters of Israel, as well as Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.

Ben-Ami says that the new lobby will work the halls on Capitol Hill, where he asserts that the majority of lawmakers are sympathetic to the pro-Israel, pro-peace position and doing more to support Palestinian moderates, but are afraid of the political consequences of speaking out.

J Street wants to show members of Congress that the dovish view commands support among "longtime donors, new donors, leading people in their community," said Ben Ami, who's spent at least two years trying to launch incarnations of the project.

The group is ready to go with a projected annual budget of $1.5 million, about half of which is on hand, and a staff of four. That's a fraction of the nearly $50 million AIPAC spends -- not including totals from AIPAC's recent legacy fundraising program.

Despite the funding gap, Ben-Ami insists that the new lobby will play as tough as its counterpart, and suggested consequences for lawmakers who don't step up. The idea, he says, is to balance the voices urging lawmakers not to line up behind dovish measures with those of other supporters who favor aggressive efforts to promote Arab moderates and peace talks.

Such differences are already part of Washington public life. Americans for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom are the existing "go-to" spots for those seeking out the dovish Jewish view.

Over the years, each group has carved out a niche: the Bush administration has come to use the Israel Policy Forum -- inviting its leaders to top briefings -- as a means of reminding the pro-Israel establishment that it recognizes more then one Jewish voice. Brit Tzedek has an activist base that it says numbers about 30,000, ready to blitz lawmakers with calls. Americans for Peace Now brings notable Israeli doves to Capitol Hill for briefings.

However, legislation is where the rubber meets the road in Washington, and in this area, the groups' success has been limited by AIPAC's years of credibility and influence on the Hill.

How the dovish groups define success is indicative of their relative weakness: Their officials will note the significant role they played, for instance, in rolling back what they considered the more obnoxious elements of last year's Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which in a defeated hard-line version would have blocked the United States from dealing with moderates in the West Bank, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In fact, the groups actually opposed the overall bill, yet the measure passed overwhelmingly in both houses of Congress.

J Street will attempt to change that dynamic, rallying to its advisory board not only leaders of the dovish triumvirate, but veterans of more mainstream and establishment groups.

They include Sara Ehrman, doyenne of Jewish Democrats and a former AIPAC board member; Sam Lewis, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, affiliated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; and Hannah Rosenthal, former executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the community's public-policy umbrella.

Rosenthal, who now works as an executive with a Wisconsin nonprofit health-care provider, says that as JCPA boss, she was constantly fielding queries from constituents about why the word "peace" seemed to be missing from so much of the pro-Israel activism.

AIPAC declined to comment about the J Street launch; insiders said that it was watching the new group with interest, but was not overly concerned.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, says that he's doubtful that J Street is going to have a significant impact on U.S. policy.

"I don't think it affects policy," he said. "I think AIPAC enjoys very broad-based support."

Klein said he was "pleased to be shown" in the J Street video "opposing the policies of this group, which I think are naive, simplistic and mistaken."

Ben-Ami notes that the project has no one single major donor, and hopes to duplicate successes like MoveOn.org and the Barack Obama presidential campaign in building up small-donor bases. Nor does it have offices -- Ben-Ami says he's been setting up J Street from Internet cafes.

Off the record, leaders of established Jewish organizations are watching the group with interest, but also are anxious that it included figures who have stirred controversy.

Among them are Eric Alterman, a left-wing media critic who's been lacerating in his criticism of AIPAC, and Eli Pariser, the MoveOn.org founder whose group's strident anti-Iraq war activism has spooked some centrist Democrats.

Notably absent is George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist identified with confrontational liberal politics. His interest in Ben-Ami's earlier efforts wound up driving off mainstream Jewish donors.