The self-acclaimed "pro-Israel and pro-peace" J Street lobby, which strongly opposed Operation Cast Lead against terror in Gaza, has gained strong support from the Arab-American Institute, a powerful pro-Arab political lobby.
J Street was formed last year by George Soros, a dovish and Jewish billionaire. The group also has the moral support of Americans for Peace Now. It was named after the non-existent J Street in Washington, where main thoroughfares in the city are named after the letters of the alphabet except for the letter "J."
The group challenges the position of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and calls itself "the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement." J Street says it "represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish, who support Israel and its desire for security as the Jewish homeland, as well as the right of the Palestinians to a sovereign state of their own."
One group of non-Jews backing J Street's policies, most lately the appointment of U.S. Sen. George Mitchell as special Middle East envoy, is the powerful Arab American Institute lobby, headed by by James Zogby.
He previously has defended the right of Muslim groups, including Hamas, to raise funds, claiming they have no connection with terror.
In an article this week in the Huffington Post, he said that J Street represents a "remarkable convergence of views of Arab Americans and American Jews who back the creating of a new Arab state within Israel's current borders."
He stated that the existence of the lobby was reflected in a campaign speech last year by President Barack Obama, who said, "I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you're anti-Israel... that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel."
Zogby, along with J Street, congratulated President Obama for his appointment of Sen. Mitchell after both the Arab and new Jewish lobby condemned Israel for its counterterrorist campaign against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
"J Street understands that Hamas is a terrorist organization and a harsh enemy," according to the lobby. "We are neither dovish nor pacifist, nor are we blindly opposed to the use of force. We support Israel in defending and protecting its citizens from attack, including through military action if necessary and appropriate to the threat. We believe, however, that force cannot be Israel’s only or preponderant response – even to Hamas."
It charged that Operation Cast Lead was "disproportionate to the threat and escalatory in nature [and] will be seen, with time, as counterproductive."
While the Arab American Institute encourages J Street, many dovish Jews, most notably Union for Reform Judaism president Eric Yoffie, opposed the Jewish lobby's recent condemnation of Israel.
"I welcomed the founding of J Street and… I am a dove myself, [but] this time J Street got it very wrong," he recently stated. "It could find no moral difference between the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian militants, who have launched more than 5,000 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli civilians in the past three years, and the long-delayed response of Israel, which finally lost patience and responded to the pleas of its battered citizens in the south."