To tell the truth?

J Street treads on partisan territory as it attacks new pro-Israel group as out of step
by Adam Kredo,Staff Writer


J Street - the self-professed "pro-Israel, pro-peace" group - appears to have waded further into domestic waters in recent weeks with the launch of a website assailing "neoconservatives and far-right evangelical Christians" for purporting to speak on behalf of the Jewish community.


The site has drawn both praise and criticism from pro-Israel players on both sides of partisan aisle.


For weeks, J Street has been locked in a political boxing match with the recently formed Emergency Committee for Israel, a pro-Israel outfit formed several months ago by William Kristol, a prominent Jewish neoconservative, and Gary Bauer, an evangelical Christian. ECI has been attacking J Street-backed Democratic candidates in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in a slew of political attack ads that portray the politicians - and by proxy, J Street - as openly hostile to Israel.


J Street's website, www.theydontspeakforus.com, purports to expose Bauer and Kristol as far-right extremists who are out of sync with the majority of American Jews by outlining the pair's views on a range of foreign and domestic policy issues.


Among other topics - such as the Gaza Strip and Iraq war - the site highlights the pair's stances on gay marriage, a woman's right to choose, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement and the separation of church and state.


Amy Spitalnick, J Street's spokesperson, acknowledged that while "the substance of the website is different" from her group's typical focus, "the overall purpose is exactly what we were founded to do - there's a difference between taking a stand on domestic issues, which this website does not do, and highlighting extreme records that are out of touch with the mainstream of the American Jewish community on all issues." ECI's attacks on Democratic Reps. Joe Sestak (Pa.) and Rush Holt (N.J.) are so grossly dishonest, Spitalnick charged, that J Street felt compelled to expose the players behind them.


One of ECI's ads, for instance, alleges that "Sestak raised money for an anti-Israel organization" by giving a speech to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). It goes on to blast him for signing a J Street-supported missive that asked President Barack Obama to urge Israel to ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip - a policy that's since been adopted in part by the Israeli government. The Holt ad alleges that the lawmaker "has a 100 percent rating from an Islamic organization the FBI later called a front group for Hamas." In reality, Holt's "100 percent rating" was generated by his support for a single CAIR-backed bill, a 2005 immigration measure called the REAL ID Act.


Michael Goldfarb, ECI's spokesperson, defended the veracity of ECI's ads, saying "of course, they're truthful" in the sense "that these members we've targeted have a record of hostility to Israel."


Asked if it was deceiving to indicate that Holt had a perfect voting record from CAIR based on his support for one bill unrelated to the Middle East, Goldfarb said: "People don't want to know about the mechanisms of CAIR's voting record - that's not our concern really. This is an issue for people to bring up with CAIR, not ECI."


Allegations such as those in the Holt ad, Spitalnick said, motivated J Street to launch the anti-Kristol and Bauer site. "The idea that Gary Bauer and Bill Kristol can speak on behalf of American Jews on any issue, be it Israel or anything else, is out of touch with reality," she said.


Goldfarb stressed that ECI does not pretend to speak for Jews: "We're not a Jewish organization - we're explicitly a nondenominational organization. We're an American organization."


Asked why J Street chose to include contentious domestic issues, Spitalnick explained that while aspects of the website may fall out of "the purview of Middle East peace," it is nevertheless critical "to be clear to the American Jewish community and the broader community who [Bauer and Kristol] are and what they stand for."


To Ori Nir, spokesperson for Americans for Peace Now, J Street's site successfully exposes ECI's "extremist" foundations. "It's rather odd that such people with extreme views would try to set the markers on what is right and wrong when it comes to views on Israel," Nir said.


Goldfarb, however, scoffed at J Street's rationale, saying that the right-leaning views of ECI's founder are irrelevant - it doesn't make them any less pro-Israel or hesitant about attacking Republican candidates that ECI may view as threatening to Israel. (ECI, though, has yet to do so.)


"Obviously, there are some members of our group who are pro-life, for example. I assume J Street doesn't approve of those beliefs, but these are pro-Israel people," Goldfarb said, adding that "it's become clear that J Street is not an issue advocacy organization - it's just another left-wing group."


Goldfarb's criticism was echoed by several Democratic pro-Israel politicos, though each also decried what they said is ECI's blatantly partisan tactics.

"This [J Street] website confuses me," said Ira Forman, an independent consultant who recently stepped down as the CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Council. "To me, if you are trying to push a pro-Israel, pro-peace message, you want to be nonideological and nonpartisan. ... But when you use these terms [such as gay marriage and others], it's making Israel a partisan wedge issue. I don't understand how that helps the central mission of J Street." (Forman made clear that he was speaking on his own behalf, and not the NJDC's.) Added another pro-Israel Democratic operative, who was not authorized by his employer to speak on the record: The website "takes away from some of J Street's legitimacy as a foreign policy voice when they buttress their arguments with domestic issues."


"What J Street is saying is people who don't support gay marriage and who are pro-life are out of the mainstream Jewish community. That is a fact, but it has nothing to do with their support for Israel," the source said. "Is J Street saying you can't have an individual who's pro-life, anti-gay" also be "supportive of the state of Israel?"


The 2-year-old organization, the source added, seems to be transforming from a bipartisan, pro-Israel outfit with a single-minded foreign policy objective - to secure peace in the Middle East - into a Democratic attack dog.


"That's who they are, a bunch of Jewish Democrats," the source said. Spitalnick dismissed such attacks, stating: "J Street isn't a domestic policy organization. We're an organization that represents American Jews and other friends of Israel and what's clear here - whether we're talking about Israel, foreign policy or domestic policy - is that Bauer and Kristol do not represent us."


But if the group is to increase its political clout, it needs to demonstrate that it's not simply an Obama administration tool, said an official with a pro-Israel organization who agreed to speak only on background. "There is a sense in the pro-Israel community - and there have been complaints - that J Street has not [made] a fair effort to show bipartisanship."


So far in the 2010 election cycle, JStreetPAC, the group's political action committee, has distributed nearly $1 million to 60 Democratic candidates and one Republican. It intends to disburse more than $1 million.