J Street Rising, Right Strikes Back
27 October 2009 1:00 pm by Taylor Marsh
Aipac officially denies that it has any role in the assault on J Street, but those at the forefront are close allies of the lobby group, from the conservative Weekly Standard magazine (once dubbed the “neocon bible”) to the Zionist Organisation of America. “If you look at this it’s hard not to see this as a concerted, co-ordinated campaign,” said Levy. “We know that’s how the right wing works. There’s a nexus of funders, there’s a nexus of people who sit on each other’s boards. They’re all very close to Aipac.” – Who speaks for America’s Jews?; J Street lobby group works to loosen big beasts’ grip on Congress
That “big beasts’ grip is AIPAC. The Guardian story has one side, while the JPost gives you the other, which the American right is oh, so eager to trumpet. The usual suspects are doing just that: see Peretz and Goldfarb.
J Street is streaming the conference. You can follow my reporting via Twitter.
One of the big gets by J Street is Obama’s national security adviser Gen. Jim Jones, which is driving the right berserk. But the importance of having a modern, alternative voice to AIPAC cannot be underestimated. For one thing, it gives pro-Israeli U.S. politicians an ally and a rallying voice that goes beyond the belligerent talking points of the 20th century, which has not made Israel, the Palestinians or the region any safer.
