AIPAC Policy Conference hosts speakers and delegates from all over the world – from all different backgrounds, beliefs, religions, and political affiliations.
But who’d have thunk that J Street, the upstart “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” organization that critics say threatens AIPAC’s message in Washington, would be a guest at this conference? I wouldn’t have thought so, but it turns out that AIPAC invited J Street to attend the conference in exchange for a similar invite to AIPAC for J Street’s conference this past year.
While J Street was at Policy Conference they got in trouble, according to Ben Smith at Politico, for debating Professor Alan Dershowitz (it sounds like the Prof started it), a scuffle that led to the withdrawing of press credentials from a French film crew that got in the way (after allegedly trying to film the argument, and not stopping when asked). Now that must have been a long and frustrating flight home.
We thought you would like to hear for yourselves why J Street chose to attend AIPAC Policy Conference, and how they would they respond one-on-one to the criticisms lobbed at them by members of the Pro-Israel community.
So TC Jewfolk interviewed their spokesperson – and AIPAC Policy Conference attendee – Amy Spitalnick.
Here is that video:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkaG9kXnhiM
Thoughts? Insights? How does Amy’s interview affect your view (if you have one) about J Street? And how would you respond to her if you disagree?
How does J Street expect to achieve effective outcomes in congress when they will be viewed as bias by only engaging Democrats?
AIPAC is know for their bipartisanship while having strong connections with both Democrats and Republicans. They engage all of congress while J Street seems to be focused on the administration and Democrats alone. Is that effective in being pro Israel and pro Peace?
J street is a left wing (the PC term is progressive) organization created to counter the political influence of AIPAC. They sent reps to the AIPAC conference for the same reason Al Capone robbed banks – because that’s where the money and the power and the committed people are. J street, like moveon.org and ACORN and others, believe that their policy positions are the holy grail. A neutral observer who listens to them would recognize that they represent a mostly one-sided view of the issues. Moreover, AIPAC supports the democratic choices of Israelis. J street has clear favorites among Israeli political parties. The irony is that someday when the Republicans regain political power in the US, J street’s influence will be limited because they refused to engage all parties. In Israel they will have less influence because almost all Israelis are united in annoyance of having Americans tell them whom to vote for or what to believe.
Why did they attend? Because the two organizations agree on far more than they disagree.