Your Pro-Israel Dollars at Work
The latest pro-Israel primary funding battle was another victory for AIPAC in Maryland. Next stop: Michigan. Is it good for the Jews?
25
Jul
10
Feb
AIPAC Falls Victim to Polarizing Politics
And yet, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, should have been able to navigate this minefield a little more gracefully. The lobby, known for its political savviness, has demonstrated its mastery of political nuance in the past, knowing exactly how far it can go in stepping on the toes of one side (usually the Democrats) without alienating it altogether. AIPAC has shown its ability to remain a welcome guest and a trusted adviser regardless of the party occupying the White House or holding the majority in Congress.
This week, however, was different.
04
Nov
Aid to Israel: Has J Street Changed the Game?
J Street, the left-leaning pro-Israel lobby, wrapped up its three-day conference in Washington, DC last week. In an email to supporters summing up the meeting (and making a pitch for donations), the group’s president Jeremy Ben-Ami announced, “We’ve changed the conversation” about Israel, noting that the conference brought the issue of Israel to the Democratic presidential race agenda and that candidates have discussed, among other issues, their plans to “employ U.S. leverage to combat settlement expansion.” Or, in other words, J Street made using American foreign aid to Israel into an issue Democrats are willing to fight for.
10
Apr
What Will J Street’s Israel Trip Mean for Birthright?
For many young adults, going on a Taglit Birthright Israel trip is an integral part of the Jewish experience. But the trip has also proven controversial, and J Street recently announced its own free trip.
12
Jun
Is Brooke Davies the American Jewish Establishment’s Worst Nightmare?
Brooke Davies spent ten summers at Camp Ramah, confronted anti-Semitism routinely as a child in the South, and fell in love with Israel as a teenager. She also had a close call with terrorism, less than two years ago, when a young boy attempted to stab her in Jaffa. But when became a national leader in J Street U, she faced opposition from the Jewish community and even from those in her family. Now she is reconsidering her relationship with the Jewish community altogether.
05
Nov
Opinion // Agreeing to Disagree
There is no reason for the Jewish community to be monolithic in our opinions.
27
Mar
The AIPAC/J Street Color War
by Charles Kopel
A new spring ritual has taken form for American Jews concerned with Israel activism. The AIPAC Policy Conference, a mainstay in the American Zionist establishment for 53 years, is attracting larger and larger groups of delegates to Washington, DC each year. These delegates gather from around the country to address the importance of strengthening the “U.S.-Israel relationship.” The third annual conference of AIPAC’s self-proclaimed rival, J Street--aimed at fostering a network of supporters to advance its "pro-Israel, pro-peace" agenda--is wrapping up today in the nation’s capital. This division of the Israel lobby into two separate camps proves to be a comfortable accommodation for the increasingly polarized spectrum of American Jewish views regarding both the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the potential nuclear threat from Iran.
An added dimension of this division, however, is that the...
20
Mar
March Comes In with AIPAC and Goes Out with J Street
March is bookended by two Israel-related conferences in Washington this year: the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, attended by about 13,000 people, was held the first weekend in March, and the coming weekend marks J Street's third national conference. So, what does it mean to be pro-Israel? Moment asked 24 writers and thinkers--including Israeli novelist Amos Oz and journalist Peter Beinart, both of whom will be at the J Street conference--to tell us what they think it means to be pro-Israel today.
22
Jul
Where Does This J Street Go?
by Theodore Samets
Summer is a time for sales. It’s a time for vacations. It’s a time to escape work in the afternoon to get to the beach or the golf course.
It’s not usually a time for negotiating the final parameters of an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. The folks at J Street are trying to change that.
For just over a month, J Street has been pushing a campaign they call “Two-State Summer,” which they describe as “a push to support President Obama's vision for a real and final resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
If you don’t follow J Street on Twitter or like the organization on Facebook, you may not have heard of the campaign, but – get excited – you may soon, because J Street is planning an “August Day (sic) of action to publicly...
18
Jul
Glenn Beck’s Wet Hot Israeli Summer
By Adina Rosenthal
Glenn Beck is making quite a splash in the Jewish state this summer. This August, Beck will host “Restoring Courage,” a three-part event that Beck’s website describes as “an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Israel does not stand alone.” The first event will be for American Christians “to get the Christian community in America to wake up and start standing up .” The second will be more explicitly political in nature, purportedly including Senator Joe Lieberman, GOP presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Herman Cain, and two other presidential candidates yet to be revealed. The final August 24 event that, according to the Jerusalem Post, “would be attended by more than 30 American national political figures, 70 international politicians and citizen delegations from 100 countries around the world, including Bahrain” will be...