A Firmer Hand

Thanks in part to the influence of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC, the U.S. government rarely gets tough with Israel, even on issues like Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, which Washington views as harmful to the peace process. A new lobby group formed last month, J Street, wants to change that. Founded by a number of liberal Jews, J Street wants to see the administration press Israel not only for an end to settlement construction, but also a real peace effort between Israel and Syria and possibly talks between Israel and Hamas. The group's name is a play on the political geography of downtown Washington, where K street is the traditional hub of lobbyists and J street doesn't exist. Newsweek correspondent Dan Ephron sat down recently with the group's executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami to discuss the organization's agenda.

Newsweek: What data do you have that suggests Jews are dovish on matters of peace between Israel and the Arabs?
Ben-Ami: I think on most polls, no matter how they're worded, you find plurality or majority support for the notion that there should be a two-state solution, that there has to be an end to the occupation and a Palestinian state. So I think the gap we're trying to fill is whether that needs to be the centerpiece of American policy towards Israel or just an afterthought. And I think if you look at the websites of the other groups, they'll pay lip service to peace and to a two-state solution but to our mind, it's actually an essential element of a pro-Israel agenda.

To what extent is the formation of J Street a response to AIPAC?
It's actually not a response to simply AIPAC and it's by no means an anti-AIPAC group. What we're responding to is that for too long there's been an alliance between the neo-cons, the radical right of the Christian Zionist movement and the far-right portions of the Jewish community that has really locked up what it means to be pro-Israel. We're responding more to that than to any one organization.

You talk about the idea that AIPAC is not centrally for a two-state solution but there certainly have been and are people in the leadership who express support for a Palestinian state.
I think if you ask Shlomo Ben-Ami, the former foreign minister of Israel, or you ask Amnon Lipkin Shahak, the former head of the IDF (the Israeli military) what's the single most important thing for Israel to do to ensure its security for another 60 years, they would say 'we've got to end this conflict. We have to have defined borders and an internationally-recognized end.' They would put it at the top of the list of Israel's needs. And I don't think any of the existing groups at the moment put that at the top of their agenda.

You said in a recent article that when the U.S. closes its eyes to the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank it's analogous to a person allowing his friend to drive home drunk from a bar but not only that-to actually give him the keys to your Porsche and a shot of tequila for the road. Now one might argue that the Porsche in your analogy is the nearly three billion dollars the U.S. gives Israel in aid every year. Would you condition continued aid on a genuine freeze in U.S. settlements?
Well, the United States clearly has a lot of influence on Israel because of the nature of the relationship and if you're really serious about stopping the settlements and about what American policy is--American policy says no more settlements, no more expansion and take down those outposts--if we're serious about it, then we need to start to act serious. And it's time to act like the big brother or the parent and to say 'enough is enough and we're going to take the car keys if you don't stop driving drunk.' We're not talking about simply business as usual. There's got to be some sort of intervention here where the U.S. says to Israel the time has come to finally do something.

You're suggesting actually withholding aid?
No, I'm not saying that. I want to be really clear. I'm saying that when the U.S. president closes the door with the Israeli prime minister, the U.S. president has a lot more chips to play than any other person who closes that door. And within Israel, the Israeli prime minister may have a tough time because of their domestic politics fulfilling their commitments. It's going to be a lot easier if they say to their coalition partners and to the rest of the government, 'I have to do this because the president of the United States is telling me to do it.' And it's time for the president to know that there's a group of people here who recognize that that is not only in Israel's best interests, it's in the U.S.'s best interests. We've got to step up and start to make this a more serious, meaningful policy.