J Street has lined up plenty of high-profile speakers for its first major conference, set to begin Oct. 25 in Washington, D.C., but the new and controversial self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby is looking to add one more prominent name to the guest list.
The organization — which has backed U.S. pressure on Israel (and the Palestinians), criticized Israel’s invasion of Gaza and taken shots at established pro-Israel groups — wants Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, to attend and speak.
Oren, who was born and raised in the United States, was undecided as of midweek.
“A decision about his participation or the embassy’s participation will be taken soon,” his spokesman, Jonathan Peled, said. “We will have to deliberate this week.”
Last week, the Jerusalem Post ran an article headlined “J Street could hurt Israel’s interests” in which Peled was quoted as saying, “It is important to stress concern over certain [J Street] policies that could impair Israel’s interests.”
He said the embassy has “communicated to J Street its views on the peace process and on the best way to ensure Israel’s security.”
Peled said this week that what he told the Post still stands, but he would not elaborate on the embassy’s stance, except to say that it has been conveyed to J Street officials in private conversations.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s founder and executive director, is not taking no for an answer when it comes to Oren’s attendance at the four-day confab.
“Your attendance — even to clarify some of our areas of disagreement — will be respectfully welcomed,” Ben-Ami wrote in an open letter released this week. J Street sent a private invitation to Oren on July 13.
Oren’s presence would lend an official Israeli imprimatur at a time when J Street’s harshest critics are painting the group as undermining Jewish unity and working in tandem with Israel’s enemies.
J Street has taken several positions at odds with the Israeli government, including arguing against the immediate imposition of additional sanctions on Iran even as Israel pushes for greater action, and backing President Barack Obama’s call for a complete settlement freeze in the face of Israeli opposition.
And recently, some critics played up the fact that a handful of J Street donors — among thousands — has ties with Arab countries and Iranian expatriates opposed to sanctions against Tehran.
Such efforts to delegitimize the organization appear to have failed, with 160 congressional lawmakers endorsing its conference. Listed on the slate of scheduled speakers, although with an asterisk next to his name to denote invited but not confirmed, is Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Several former top Israeli officials are confirmed, as is Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), leaders in Congress’ unofficial Jewish caucus and close to Obama. They’ll be taking part in a panel examining how to expand the definition of “pro-Israel” on Capitol Hill.
Most notable, perhaps, is the participation of Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who leads the country’s largest synagogue movement, the Union for Reform Judaism. Earlier this year, Yoffie tussled with J Street about its equivocation over naming Hamas as the villain in Israel’s Gaza war.
In a recent interview, he said J Street’s views deserve a hearing in the wider Jewish community, and praised the group for doing more than many more established groups to promote the Israeli position of a two-state solution.
Yoffie said he would not refrain from criticizing some of J Street’s positions, particularly on Iran.
“This is not an area for passivity or indifference,” he said. “The stakes are too high.”
William Daroff, the Washington director of the Jewish Federations of North America, sparked a Twitter war last month with J Street and its defenders when he accused the group of “standing with the Mullahs” by opposing tough Iran sanctions.
J Street says it does not oppose the sanctions that would further isolate Iran for its suspected nuclear weapons program, but thinks implementation of such measures at this time would be “counterproductive.”
Beyond securing Yoffie’s participation, J Street has made significant headway in forging an increasing level of cooperation and coordination among U.S. Jewish groups associated with Israel’s dovish camp.
Along with these successes, the organization has been growing. Eighteen months ago it had no budget and no office. Now J Street has a staff of 30, offices in Washington’s K Street lobbying corridor and an annual budget of $3 million.
Even Daroff said that J Street has developed better PR chops — by condemning, for instance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust and opposing an organized effort to shame the Toronto International Film Festival for celebrating Tel Aviv’s centennial.
Still, he added, these were easy calls. J Street, Daroff said, has not yet defended Israel when it is unpopular to do so.
“I think that J Street’s voice has some resonance on the Hill because to a large degree” it is “in sync with the Obama administration” on pressing for renewed talks and a robust U.S. peacemaking role, he said. “The question is when and if the Obama administration shifts direction, would J Street still be relevant?”
Relevance is an important concept to J Street, which, after years of establishment discussions about how to draw younger Jews into the pro-Israel community is doing something about it: At its convention, the expected 1,000 attendees will be split into two lobbying groups — one for university students and one for everyone else.
The organization has yet to get a toehold among Republicans, however. GOP members slated to appear at the conference are in the “exception proves the rule” category. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) is an Arab American, and former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel left Congress in part because he was disillusioned with his party’s foreign policy, including on the Middle East.
And despite its success in lining up former Israeli officials, J Street was turned down by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli opposition leader, who even declined to address the event by video message.
J Street critics say the organization muddies the waters by presenting multiple, conflicting voices on important topics when a unified voice is needed, at least in Washington.
“Those Jewish Americans who share a deep concern for Israel’s trials and travails have the right, even the duty, to express their criticism within the Jewish community, the public at large, pretty much anywhere — except before the administration and Congress,” Chuck Froelich, a former deputy national security adviser to Israel’s government, wrote in the Jerusalem Post. “There we have to present one voice — not ‘pro’ every Israeli policy, but united, unswerving support for Israel and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.”
AIPAC may have made mistakes in the past, but is still the pre-eminent pro-Israel voice, he wrote.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said.
But J Street has stressed that it is supportive of Israel and believes its positions will best help ensure the Jewish state’s survival.
“It’s not a surprise that we disagree with certain Israeli government policies,” J Street spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said. “Our bottom line is that we always support the State of Israel and its future as a democracy … That’s why J Street exists — to have this open debate” on differing points of view.
Behind the scenes, some AIPAC backers are said to be exercised about J Street — although with AIPAC boasting a budget of more than $60 million, J Street hardly poses a major threat.
Any establishment anxieties about J Street are unjustified, said Hadar Susskind, 36, the organization’s new director of policy and strategy.
“I have tremendous respect for AIPAC,” said Susskind, who until last month was the Washington director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “They have done wonderful work strengthening” the U.S.-Israel relationship. “We need that and more, and J Street is more.”
Jerusalem Post correspondent Hilary Leila Krieger contributed to this report.