Money Talks

Will J Street fundraising translate into influence?

Eric Fingerhut
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington

C

an financial success translate
into Capitol Hill clout?
That's the question facing
J Street after the new liberal pro-Israel
political action committee raised nearly
$570,000 for 41 U.S. House and Senate
candidates — a total far surpassing most
other pro-Israel PACs.
Even some of the group's critics called
J Street's fundraising prowess impressive
for an organization that officially launched
just last April. But with an election just
completed in the United States and one
on the horizon in Israel, many said it is
still too early to judge exactly how and
whether J Street can also make a mark in
the halls of the U.S. Congress. For now the
organization is pointing to its fundraising
success as progress.
"Our hope is what we did in this cycle
will demonstrate there is political sup-
port for a broad range of views of what
it means to be pro-Israel:' said J Street
Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami,
whose organization calls itself "pro-Israel,
pro-peace" and advocates for an increased
U.S. role in finding diplomatic solutions to
end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its PAC
operates independently from its advocacy
and lobbying organization.
J Street has marketed itself as an alter-
native to the more hawkish views that it
claims dominate many organizations. Ben-
Ami said its success proved "there isn't a
stranglehold" or "monopoly" on "where
political support" for Israel comes from.
Ben-Ami hopes to see less support for
measures "critical" of the peace process,
such as efforts to curb U.S. aid to the
Palestinian Authority, as well as "more
moderate" and less "hawkish language" in
the letters and resolutions that regularly
circulate in the House and Senate dealing
with Israel and the Palestinians.
Over the summer, J Street protested
an appearance by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-
Conn., at a pro-Israel gathering organized
by Pastor John Hagee and the decision,
ultimately reversed, by Jewish organiza-
tions to invite Republican vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin to an anti-Iran rally.
More important than any of these
efforts, or the candidates J Street helped
elect to Congress, may be the new presi-

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November 20 • 2008

dent at the other end of Pennsylvania
Avenue, said pro-Israel legislators and
activists.
With President-elect Barack Obama
having pledged to step up U.S. involve-
ment and the Bush administration already
in the midst of ongoing Israeli-Palestinian
talks, J Street's desire for robust American
engagement is likely to be a centerpiece
of U.S. Middle East policy in the coming
months and years.
"I Street is supporting the direction in
which the situation is moving," said Rep.
Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., the chairman of
the House subcommittee on the Middle
East and South Asia, adding that he would
"take my hat off, or keep my kippah on"
for "anybody who can organize in six
months and raise half a million dollars."
Steve Grossman, a former AIPAC presi-
dent and longtime Democratic fundraiser
and activist, agreed that the approach
taking hold in Washington lines up rela-
tively close with J Street's stated positions.
"Barack Obama will certainly test ways in
which the United States can re-engage,"
he said, "and I think the vast majority of
American Jews will support the
Grossman predicted that "the perceived
gulf" between J Street and others in the
Jewish community "will be much more a
distinction without a difference!'
Of course, that hasn't prevented tensions
or perceived rivalries in the past. Many liber-
als, for example, hailed J Street as a much-
needed alternative and corrective to AIPAC,
even though the influential pro-Israel lobby
was advocating a two-state solution and U.S.
support for the Palestinian Authority. At the
same time, some veteran voices were quick
to slam J Street.
"They're willing to take a very dovish
view" and "of course there's some support
out there," said Morris Amitay, founder
and treasurer of the political action com-
mittee Washington PAC, and a former
executive director of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee. But he said "the
proof will be in the pudding" — whether
the pro-Israel resolutions dealing with the
peace process, like the ones to which Ben-
Ami referred, receive anything less than
the 400 votes they customarily get in the
House of Representatives. Amitay said he
was glad to be on the 400-vote side.
Ben Chouake, the president of the New
Jersey-based pro-Israel NORPAC, which
says it raised $1.1 million, said that J
Street did "an excellent job" for its first

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lout assior

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Democratic candidate Jared Polls speaks with Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street at a

party in Denver, during the 2008 Democratic convention. Polls would later be elect-
ed to the U.S. House of Represenatives with the support of J Street.

time out, but noted that they endorsed 39
Democrats to just 2 Republicans — Reps.
Geoff Davis of Kentucky and Charles
Boustany of Louisiana. NORPAC and most
other pro-Israel PACs split their donations
fairly close to 50-50 between the parties.
"They should call themselves LJ Street,"
with the "L" standing for "liberal:' he joked.
More seriously, Chouake said there was
nothing wrong with J Street backing only
members of one party, but that the group
should be more open and honest about it.
Ben Ami said J Street would love to
endorse more members of the GOP, but
there simply aren't that many Republicans
now who agree with J Street's positions.
One concrete measure of J Street's
success was its ability to convince can-
didates, including incumbents, to accept
its endorsement, some observers said.
"Receiving J Street's endorsement is
akin to a declaration of independence
on Mideast policy," one said. "It means
foregoing the financial support of the big
right-leaning PACs, and that requires real
courage!'
Amitay, a critic of J Street from its birth
— he called the group part of the "blame
Israel first" crowd — announced that his
organization would not back any candidate
that took J Street's endorsement. Along those
lines, he told J Street endorsee Rep. Robert
Wexler, D-Fla., that he would no longer ben-
efit from Washington PAC donations.

-

Amitay was planning to speak with two
other Washington PAC beneficiaries who
also received the J Street hechsher, Davis
and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Not all
pro-Israel PACs are forcing candidates to
choose. Chouake said he didn't care who
J Street endorsed and selected candidates
based on the group's existing criteria.
Thirty-two of the 41 candidates J Street
backed won election, with 24 of the win-
ners being incumbents. Two of those
endorseed — Democrats Mary Jo Kilroy
of Ohio and Ethan Berkowitz of Alaska —
are in races that have yet to be called. In
addition, J Street-backed Democrat Tom
Martin is an underdog in his runoff next
month with Republican Saxby Chambliss
in Georgia.
J Street employed a less traditional
fundraising approach in outraising doz-
ens of other pro-Israel PACs that in some
cases have been around for decades. At
nearly all other pro-Israel PACs, money
is donated to the PAC, whose leadership
takes that pool and decides which candi-
dates should receive it. There is a limit of
$5,000 per candidate per election — the
primary and the general election — for a
total of $10,000 per cycle.
J Street raised a small amount using
the conventional method, but most of its
donations came with the organization act-
ing as a "conduit," Ben-Ami explained. For
example, a donor would pledge to give J