As usual, J Street is missing in action

In just a few weeks, we will mark one year since the October 7th massacre, one of the darkest days in the history of the Jewish people.

The months since have been a wake-up call for our community – shining a bright light on who our friends are, and who are not. In the face of unprecedented anti-Israel protests in our city’s streets and on our college campuses, the Jewish community mobilized together to stand with Israel. We urged our elected officials to pass the largest security aid package in Israel’s history. And we made our voices heard politically – helping friends of Israel win elections and preventing numerous anti-Israel members and candidates from reaching Capitol Hill.

But J Street, an organization that claims to be “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy,” has pushed itself outside the mainstream pro-Israel tent and failed to uphold its own mission.

This summer was a telling showcase of the group’s demise. In the New York and Missouri Democratic primaries, much of the pro-Israel community was helping pro-Israel, pro-peace, and pro-democracy candidates George Latimer and Wesley Bell defeat anti-Israel Squad members Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman – a previous J Street endorsee. These two incumbents lead the effort in Congress to demonize and villainize Israel.

But J Street just sat and watched on the sidelines. It didn’t fundraise, it didn’t activate its grassroots, and it didn’t endorse Bell or Latimer. It was uninvolved, and as evidenced by Latimer and Bell’s decisive wins, it was unneeded. Perhaps in these races, we see the clearest reflections of the organization itself.

How can a political group that claims “pro-Israel” as the first goal of its mandate sit out these most consequential primary races where there are viable pro-Israel candidates who could win and replace anti-Israel voices in Congress?

Shockingly, the day after the Bowman defeat, J Street’s President and Executive Director Jeremy Ben Ami took to Twitter to claim his loss wasn’t a victory for the pro-Israel community.

Politico reported that Ben-Ami said the group was planning to sit out “intra-party feuds” this cycle, and would only engage in general election races. Yet J Street did engage in several other hotly contested Democratic primaries across the country, including in Oregon, where it endorsed the only Democratic candidate who supports conditioning aid to Israel (J Street lost that race to a pro-Israel Democrat).

It also endorsed a candidate in Arizona backed by far-left allies of the Squad who voted against emergency aid to Israel requested by President Biden (J Street lost that race, too).

There is no shortage of pro-Israel groups in the political ecosystem helping elect pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Democrats: AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel, and Jewish Democratic Council of America, to name just three. What separates those groups from J Street is that they have moral clarity on what it means to be pro-Israel.

J Street consistently embraces the anti-Israel fringe of the Democratic Party. The group endorses Summer Lee who has accused Israel of “genocide,” Delia Ramirez and Greg Casar who voted against condemning Hamas, Pramila Jayapal who called Israel “a racist state,” and Bernie Sanders who wants to cut off all American aid to Israel. And this isn’t a question about offensive or defensive weapons – J Street also currently supports three members who voted against funding Iron Dome.

J Street is dangerously and deliberately signaling that you can take anti-Israel positions and still receive a “pro-Israel” hechsher.

Our community should be clear: J Street is not a pro-Israel ally in this fight. Worse, it is emboldening Israel’s enemies.