The American Jewish lobby J-Street is more concerned with itself than with being pro-Israel, according to Dan Diker, the Director of the Political Warfare Project at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
"The problem with the Jewish organization J-Street is that it is less of a pro-Israel organization, it's a pro-J-Street organization. It's the first time in modern Jewish history that a major Jewish organization says 'we'll support Israel if Israel supports our policy toward Israel,' which is the demand that Israel carry out a two state solution," Diker told Arutz Sheva.
"That essentially means that J-Street thinks that it is going to determine Israel's security policy for its own existential health going forward in this very troubled and terror-ridden region," he explained.
Diker noted J-Street's failure to adequately defend Israel or oppose anti-Zionist movements. "Officially, the J-Street organization opposes BDS. But what we also see is a phenomenon by which J-Street does not actively oppose or fight the BDS organizations. You don't see them colliding with or aggressively taking on more radical organizations such as IfNotNow, such as Jewish Voices for Peace, such as Students for Justice in Palestine."
"This attempt to be in the middle of the bridge all the time and not to take a completely unconditional position of unconditional support for Israel is creating problems for the organization. We see a phenomenon by which students that begin across scores of college campuses - they begin as members of J-Street and they end up as members of radical anti-Zionist organizations."
"J-Street's going to have to do a lot more to prove that it's a pro-Israel organization, as opposed to a pro-Palestinian organization and an anti-Israel organization," he said.
In response to Diker's comments, J Street chief Jeremy Ben Ami said that his organization does not provide "unconditional support" for the policies of the Israeli government, but denied suggestions J Street is an "anti-Israel organization," as Diker claimed.
"J Street supports Israel, the right of the Jewish people to a state in the land of Israel and its right to defend itself. We do not provide unconditional support for every policy that the government of Israel pursues - and neither do most Israelis. The belief that criticizing Israeli policy means one is anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic has no support among American or Israeli Jews and is counter to our Jewish history."
Israel's voters of course have the right to determine what policies the country will follow, but Americans have the same right to determine what its country is going to do in light of those policies."