What's Next for J Street

By Dylan Matthews - American Prospect
Thursday, July 17, 2008 - Web Link
Send this news item to a Friend
Sign-up for Daily News Updates

July 17, 2008

J Street, a new pro-peace Israel lobby in Washington, made a splash when it launched this past April, earning praise from The American Prospect's own Gershom Gorenberg and Ezra Klein, and predictable scorn from conservatives. The organization is led by director Jeremy Ben-Ami, a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration and a veteran of Howard Dean's presidential campaign. In addition to his experience in American politics, Ben-Ami has been active on Israeli issues for years: He was communications director for the New Israel Fund and started an Israeli public relations firm, Ben-Or Communications.
Since its launch, J Street has been busy running campaigns against John McCain's support of John Hagee, the administration's saber-rattling toward Iran, and mainstream Jewish organizations' refusals to acknowledge the ceasefire in Gaza. It also released a list of its first eight endorsements for the November 2008 elections which contains both junior members of Congress and challengers seeking office for the first time. Last Friday, the Prospect spoke with Ben-Ami by phone.

Dylan Matthews: How much interaction has there been between J Street and the campaigns, both during the primary season and now in the general?

Jeremy Ben-Ami: We made a conscious decision that our greatest political impact in the 2008 cycle is actually going to be made in the congressional races. The amount of money that is being invested in the presidential race and the amount of forces that are at play mean that a new group like ours cannot have a very great impact in such a big pool, and so we decided to try to be a larger fish in a smaller pool.

DM: Well then let's talk about the congressional endorsements. How did you go about picking the first list, since that came out pretty recently?