J Street Seeks a Middle Path on Gaza. Is That Possible Anymore?

Today’s New York Times wrote an article describing the purpose of J Street. The article raised the question of whether a middle path on Gaza is possible.

Please note… Large parts of this essay are direct copies of the NYT’s article.

Over the last five years, the Jewish political advocacy group J Street reached new heights of influence. The center-left lobby, whose slogan upon its founding in 2008 was “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” saw five Democratic presidential candidates stump at its 2019 convention. It helped persuade 48 congressional Democrats to back a 2021 bill that would have pressured Israel to further a two-state solution. In 2022, J Street had its best fund-raising year up to that point, a spokesman confirmed.

With the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC increasingly identified with the right, J Street appealed to many American Jews as reasonably moderate:  standing by a democratic Israel, opposing the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and supporting the coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis in two states.

October 7^th has made a neutral position on Israel difficult. J Street founder and president, Jeremy Ben-Ami said in an interview, “I have never hidden the fact that I want J Street to be on the 50-yard line of the American Jewish community.”

Ben-Ami said that J Street backs the Biden administration, which warned American aid would depend on Israel’s treatment of civilians, and supports a negotiated cease-fire.

The war has raised serious concerns within J Street’s ranks about its ability to hold that middle position without being pulled apart by forces on the right and left. Some of J Street’s staff have been frustrated by the following:  (1) J Street did not call for a cease-fire earlier (2) J Street has alienated younger Americans, including Jewish ones, who are much more likely to oppose Israel’s conduct in Gaza, as the death toll soars past 32,000 and more than100 hostages languish.

J Street’s cautious footing contrasts with the uncomplicated starkness both of left-wing groups — such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, which quickly called for a cease-fire and are often on the front lines of pro-Palestinian protests — and of ones to its right, like AIPAC, which praised U.S. support for Israel’s military and is pushing for more.

Employees have quit J Street because of its refusal to take a harder line against Israel, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former staff members.

J Street was founded on the belief that a large swath of American Jews — a group that broadly is liberal in its politics, as well as supportive of Israel — was not represented by groups on the right or the left.

J Street would defend Israel’s right to exist while pushing for a two-state solution, a position that would align it with the nearly two-thirds of American Jews who believe that possible, according to an extensive 2021 Pew Research survey of the American Jewish community. J Street’s fundamental pro-Israel outlook would also give it the credibility to criticize the Israeli right, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

45% of American Jews support both military aid to Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza, which describes J Street’s position.

82% of middle-aged and older American Jews approved Mr. Biden’s strongly pro-Israel stance. Only 53% of Jews between 18 to 35 did.

The majority of American Jews “still support Israel and still support the war against Hamas,” said Dov Waxman, a professor of Israel studies at U.C.L.A. “But over time, they have had growing misgivings about the way in which Israel is conducting the war and the impact on Palestinian civilians.”

Marc Israel, the lead rabbi at Tikvat Israel Congregation in Rockville, MD., said he had long felt welcome within AIPAC as a supporter of Israel who favored a Palestinian state alongside it. And for years he had viewed J Street as, he said, “always a little too quick to be critical of Israel in situations where I thought there was more nuance.”

But Rabbi Israel drifted toward J Street following AIPAC’s decision in 2022 to endorse candidates for the first time and back some Republican politicians who had said the 2020 presidential election was a fraud. Rabbi Israel has been appointed to J Street’s clergy advisers. J Street’s responses to the war over the past months have cemented his sense that he is on the correct course.

J Street, Rabbi Israel said, is “one of the only, if not the only, Jewish organizations in America that is really expressing the nuanced view that many people I encounter feel.”

Conclusion

On a personal basis, I am torn. That is, I find the October 7 behavior of Hamas to be abhorrent, violating any sense of decency. I worry that Hamas’s treatment of the more than 100 hostages in captivity barbaric.

On the other hand, I believe strongly that Israel must give autonomy to the West Bank. Furthermore, I oppose the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Lastly, I oppose AIPAC’s backing of Republican politicians who said that the 2020 presidential election was a fraud.