J Street has long claimed that its work encourages politicians on the far Left to be less hostile to Israel. Yet, again and again – including this past week – J Street has been slapped in the face by the very far-Left politicians that it has embraced, endorsed, and publicly defended.
The latest slam is the announcement by leading members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus that they will boycott the upcoming speech by J Street’s favorite Israeli politician, President Isaac Herzog.
J Street’s press releases have referred enthusiastically to the group’s longtime “engagement and relationship” with Herzog during the years he was a leader of Israel’s left-wing Labor Party, before he assumed the ceremonial position of president.
As one J Street statement put it: “It has been our honor to host him for addresses at several J Street conferences and to meet with him regularly with J Street delegations visiting Israel.”
Left-wing politicians boycott Herzog's speech
One of those delegation visits seems to have backfired. In 2021, Jamaal Bowman (D-New York), a member of the caucus, was part of a J Street delegation to Israel. One photo from the trip showed Bowman and Herzog standing shoulder to shoulder. J Street could point to the photo as proof that, thanks to its influence, Rep. Bowman was only a moderate critic of Israeli policies, not an extremist Israel-basher.
But on April 13 of this year, Bowman was one of the leaders of a slanderous congressional letter accusing Israel of “systemic violence against Palestinians.” The letter called for “a shift in US policy” toward Israel, urging the Biden administration to impose restrictions on US aid, “including weapons and equipment” that America provides.
J Street says that it is against reducing US aid to Israel. Bowman says he is in favor. J Street loves Herzog. Bowman said this week that he will boycott Herzog’s upcoming speech to Congress. And Bowman is not the only Congress member who has thumbed his nose at J Street after receiving that group’s support.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) was the first lawmaker to announce she is boycotting Herzog. Yes, the same Omar whom J Street vocally defended against what it called “false accusations that she is antisemitic or anti-Israel.” J Street also lobbied (unsuccessfully) to prevent Omar from being removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
And now has she has repaid the J Streeters by boycotting Herzog.
As for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), whom J Street has always staunchly supported, this will be her second time publicly snubbing an Israeli Labor Party leader.
J Street's struggle for influence: Far-left congress members turn their backs
In 2020, AOC accepted an invitation from Americans for Peace Now to participate in an event commemorating the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Pro-Palestinian fanatics protested. So, she reversed herself and canceled, blaming Americans for Peace Now. She accused APN of “presenting” the event to her “differently from how it’s now being promoted.” Yeah, right.
In a heartfelt open letter to her at the time, J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami expressed his hope that “at some time in the future,” Ocasio-Cortez will recognize that her boycott of Rabin was “a mistake.”
Obviously, that time has not yet come. Last week, Ocasio-Cortez announced that she is joining Bowman and Omar in boycotting Herzog, who has even held the position of Labor Party leader, once held by Rabin. It’s not because the Herzog speech was “presented” to her any “differently from how it’s now being promoted.” No, it’s simply because Herzog is representing Israel. And in AOC’s eyes, that’s apparently a cardinal sin.
No matter how hard J Street tries, no matter how many times J Street defends or praises Bowman, Omar, or Ocasio-Cortez, their wing of the Democratic Party simply hates Israel.
It seems that every time J Street turns the other cheek – to Omar’s antisemitic remarks, to AOC’s boycott of Rabin – the far Left just slaps it on the other cheek. I wonder if J Street will ever learn that turning the other cheek is not part of Jewish tradition.
The writer is president-elect of the Religious Zionists of America. He is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995, and the author of A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.