Talk:J Street

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Opposition to BDS needs qualification

Currently, the article states (for instance):

J Street strongly opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

As it stands, this gives a wrong impression, because the statement on their website (the first source that is given as a citation for this claim) reads:

2) We do not oppose boycott, divestment, or sanctions initiatives that explicitly support a two-state solution, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and focus only on occupied territory beyond the Green Line
These kinds of initiatives are different from those advocated and initiated by the Global BDS Movement. It is critical to maintain the distinction between boycott efforts that work against the interests of Israel, and initiatives which are limited to opposing the occupation. We neither oppose nor call for these initiatives.

Thus, while it is not wrong that J Street opposes the Global BDS Movement, and persistently so, the article should be changed to reflect that they do not oppose boycott, divestment and sanctions initiatives that meet these criteria. Furthermore, I think it should be mentioned that J Street, notwithstanding their opposition to the Global BDS Movement, is at the same time opposed to legislative measures against BDS ("J Street is opposed to legislative attempts to penalize or criminalize BDS activities because they are the wrong way to combat the BDS Movement", ibid.). --ImmerOrdentlich2 (talk) 19:29, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 1 July 2025

Description of J Street:

The current description of J Street at the beginning of the page is too wordy when it should provide a short neutral introduction. I suggest replacing it with a more concise summary, which we see later in the article.

Diff:

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ORIGINAL_TEXT J Street (Hebrew: ג'יי סטריט) is a nonprofit liberal[4][5] Zionist[6][7][8] advocacy and lobby group based in the United States whose aims include strengthening Jewish democracy in Israel, promoting a diplomatic end to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict with a two-state solution,[9] and opposing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.[10][11][12] J Street describes itself as "the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the Jewish people". Many right-wing and Zionist critics allege that J Street and the policies they support are anti-Israel.[13][14] Left-wing and anti-Zionist critics reject J Street's positions in favor of Zionism and aid to Israel,[15][16][17] its rejection of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and human rights organizations' allegations of a Gaza genocide,[17][18] and past efforts against Palestinian statehood.[19][20][21]
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Suggested Edit: J Street (Hebrew: ג'יי סטריט) is a nonprofit liberal[4][5] Zionist[6][7][8] advocacy and lobby group based in the United States whose stated aim is to provide a political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who believe that a "two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel's survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy". In recent years, J Street has been active in lobbying in support of diplomatic efforts such as the Iran Deal and opposing Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank [Source: https://jstreet.org/about-us/policypositions/]. J Street strongly opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.[10][11][12] Since its founding J Street's stances have attracted criticism from both right-wing Zionists [13][14] and left-wing anti-Zionists.[15][16][17]

PeaceNow67 (talk) 21:36, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Not done for now: Thank you for the suggestion. I agree that the current lead is longer than ideal and could benefit from streamlining. That said, your proposed edit, while more concise, may understate some of the notable and well-sourced controversies that have shaped public understanding of J Street.

Specifically:

  • Quoting J Street’s mission statement verbatim in the lead introduces promotional language that Wikipedia generally avoids, per WP:LEAD and WP:NPOV. Paraphrasing is preferred unless the phrasing is iconic or broadly cited.
  • Including specific policy positions (like support for the Iran Deal or opposition to settlements) may be too granular for the lead unless clearly central to the group's public identity.
  • The original version's summary of criticism from both right- and left-wing groups is more detailed and better reflects the breadth of secondary sourcing. Condensing this to a single sentence may obscure the nature of those criticisms.

A compromise might be to retain the improved structure and clarity of your draft, while also preserving a more balanced summary of J Street's positions and criticisms.

Dahawk04 (talk) 13:27, 3 July 2025 (UTC)

Updated Political Activities 1 July 2025

Updating section to reflect J Street's recent political activities:

Diff:

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J Street's stated aim is to provide a political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who believe that a "two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel's survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy". J Street strongly opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.[10][11][12] According to its executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street is proud of AIPAC's accomplishments, but the two groups have different priorities rather than different views.[24][23][25] Explaining the need for a new lobbying group, Ben-Ami stated: "Israel's interests will be best served when the United States makes it a major foreign policy priority to help Israel achieve a real and lasting peace...."[26] Alan Solomont, one of the founders of J Street and a former national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), described the need for J Street in the following way: "We have heard the voices of neocons, and right-of-center Jewish leaders and Christian evangelicals, and the mainstream views of the American Jewish community have not been heard."[24] During its first conference, Ben-Ami said, "The party and the viewpoint that we're closest to in Israeli politics is actually Kadima."[27] The Washington Post described the perceived differences between J Street and AIPAC: "While both groups call themselves bipartisan, AIPAC has won support from an overwhelming majority of Republican Jews, while J Street is presenting itself as an alternative for Democrats who have grown uncomfortable with both Netanyahu's policies and the conservatives' flocking to AIPAC."[28] In 2011, J Street opposed recognizing Palestine as an independent state at the United Nations.[19] J Street endorsed the nuclear disarmament deal with Iran, which Obama supported and Netanyahu and AIPAC opposed. In 2016 the political focus of J Street was to unseat Republican senators who led U.S. Congressional opposition to the Iran deal.[29][30]
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J Street's stated aim is to provide a political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who believe that a "two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel's survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy". J Street strongly opposes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.[10][11][12] According to its executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street is proud of AIPAC's accomplishments, but the two groups have different priorities rather than different views.[24][23][25] Explaining the need for a new lobbying group, Ben-Ami stated: "Israel's interests will be best served when the United States makes it a major foreign policy priority to help Israel achieve a real and lasting peace...."[26] Alan Solomont, one of the founders of J Street and a former national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), described the need for J Street in the following way: "We have heard the voices of neocons, and right-of-center Jewish leaders and Christian evangelicals, and the mainstream views of the American Jewish community have not been heard."[24] During its first conference, Ben-Ami said, "The party and the viewpoint that we're closest to in Israeli politics is actually Kadima."[27] The Washington Post described the perceived differences between J Street and AIPAC: "While both groups call themselves bipartisan, AIPAC has won support from an overwhelming majority of Republican Jews, while J Street is presenting itself as an alternative for Democrats who have grown uncomfortable with both Netanyahu's policies and the conservatives' flocking to AIPAC."[28] In 2011, J Street opposed recognizing Palestine as an independent state at the United Nations.[19] J Street endorsed the nuclear disarmament deal with Iran, which Obama supported and Netanyahu and AIPAC opposed. In 2016 the political focus of J Street was to unseat Republican senators who led U.S. Congressional opposition to the Iran deal.[29][30] The organization has since reversed its opposition to Palestinian statehood, calling for "credible, irreversible steps on the ground that improve freedom for Palestinians and set the conditions for the establishment of a Palestinian state." [https://jstreet.org/j-streets-2025-policy-agenda-for-the-trump-administration/] J Street has been vocally opposed to the agendas of Israeli Prime Minister and United States President Donald Trump [https://jstreet.org/j-streets-2025-policy-agenda-for-the-trump-administration/]. J Street opposes settlement expansion in the West Bank and supports the West Bank Violence Prevention Act, which is "designed to inhibit and punish the violent Israeli settlers and Palestinian terrorist groups for these actions, which undermine a critical US policy objective: peace and the viability of a two-state solution." [https://jstreet.org/explainer-the-west-bank-violence-prevention-act-h-r-3045/] After calling for a bilateral ceasefire and hostage deal in the Gaza War, J Street joined its partners in advocating for humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza [https://www.progressiveisraelnetwork.org/pin-organizations-take-action-around-the-humanitarian-catastrophe-in-gaza/] and supported Senator Bernie Sanders' Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, arguing that "the arms we provide must be used in accordance with US and international law." [https://jstreet.org/press-releases/j-street-statement-on-the-joint-resolutions-of-disapproval/]

PeaceNow67 (talk) 22:18, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Not done for now: Thanks for proposing this update. Including J Street’s recent political activity is definitely appropriate, but the current version has a few issues that need to be addressed before inclusion:
  • Most of the new content is sourced directly from J Street’s own website. Per WP:PRIMARY and WP:ABOUTSELF, we need reliable secondary sources to confirm the significance and context of these positions.
  • Several statements (e.g., “vocally opposed to the agendas of…”) read more like advocacy than encyclopedic summary. We should aim for WP:NPOV tone and phrasing.
  • The update gives substantial attention to J Street’s recent views without summarizing broader reaction or criticism — this risks violating WP:DUE by presenting an unbalanced view.

If you can find reliable secondary sources that cover these recent positions in a balanced way, and rewrite the content to reflect neutral tone, I’d definitely support including some of this. Happy to help refine it further if you'd like.

Dahawk04 (talk) 13:29, 3 July 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 1 July 2025

Updating the reception of J Street:

Diff:

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Liberal Zionist perspectives When J Street was initially founded in 2008, Israeli-American writer and analyst Gershom Gorenberg wrote in the American Prospect that J Street "might change not only the political map in Washington but the actual map in the Middle East".[67] In 2008, Ken Wald, a political scientist at the University of Florida, predicted the group would be attacked by the "Jewish right". According to BBC News, Wald warned that J Street would "get hammered and accused of being anti-Israel. A lot will have to do with the way they actually frame their arguments."[23][34] In April 2009, The Washington Post called J Street "Washington's leading pro-Israel PAC", citing the group's impressive fund raising efforts in its first year and its record of electoral success, including 33 victories by J Street-supported candidates for Congress.[4] In 2014, The Economist wrote that many liberal Jews in America are opposed to the occupation and distressed by Israel's increasing religious nationalism; those who oppose the policies of Israeli governments but support the State of Israel gravitate to organizations like J Street, whose dovish members include former officials of President Clinton's and President Obama's administrations.[68] In March 2015 The Forward said of J Street: "Since its inception ... the organization has disrupted the debate about what it means to be pro-Israel."[69] NPR's Mara Liasson described J Street's role in American Jewish dialogue on Israel: "J Street is the pro-two-state group and anti-Netanyahu, pro-nuclear-deal and generally much more supportive of Obama than AIPAC is."[70] Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, called J Street's reaction[71] to the 2008-2009 Israeli invasion of Gaza "morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve".[72] J Street responded stating, "It is hard for us to understand how the leading reform rabbi in North America could call our effort to articulate a nuanced view on these difficult issues 'morally deficient'. If our views are 'naive' and 'morally deficient', then so are the views of scores of Israeli journalists, security analysts, distinguished authors, and retired IDF officers who have posed the same questions about the Gaza attack as we have."[73] Despite this rebuttal, J Street subsequently invited Yoffie to its 2009 convention, and he subsequently praised the organization's stance on the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, which was closer to that of other American Jewish organizations.[74] Chuck Freilich, former deputy national security adviser in Israel, writing in The Jerusalem Post in February 2013, said, "J Street leads only to a dead end" since "only Israelis bear the responsibility for determining their future."[75]
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Liberal Zionist perspectives When J Street was initially founded in 2008, Israeli-American writer and analyst Gershom Gorenberg wrote in the American Prospect that J Street "might change not only the political map in Washington but the actual map in the Middle East".[67] In 2008, Ken Wald, a political scientist at the University of Florida, predicted the group would be attacked by the "Jewish right". According to BBC News, Wald warned that J Street would "get hammered and accused of being anti-Israel. A lot will have to do with the way they actually frame their arguments."[23][34] In April 2009, The Washington Post called J Street "Washington's leading pro-Israel PAC", citing the group's impressive fund raising efforts in its first year and its record of electoral success, including 33 victories by J Street-supported candidates for Congress.[4] In 2014, The Economist wrote that many liberal Jews in America are opposed to the occupation and distressed by Israel's increasing religious nationalism; those who oppose the policies of Israeli governments but support the State of Israel gravitate to organizations like J Street, whose dovish members include former officials of President Clinton's and President Obama's administrations.[68] In March 2015 The Forward said of J Street: "Since its inception ... the organization has disrupted the debate about what it means to be pro-Israel."[69] NPR's Mara Liasson described J Street's role in American Jewish dialogue on Israel: "J Street is the pro-two-state group and anti-Netanyahu, pro-nuclear-deal and generally much more supportive of Obama than AIPAC is."[70] Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, called J Street's reaction[71] to the 2008-2009 Israeli invasion of Gaza "morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve".[72] J Street responded stating, "It is hard for us to understand how the leading reform rabbi in North America could call our effort to articulate a nuanced view on these difficult issues 'morally deficient'. If our views are 'naive' and 'morally deficient', then so are the views of scores of Israeli journalists, security analysts, distinguished authors, and retired IDF officers who have posed the same questions about the Gaza attack as we have."[73] Despite this rebuttal, J Street subsequently invited Yoffie to its 2009 convention, and he subsequently praised the organization's stance on the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, which was closer to that of other American Jewish organizations.[74] Chuck Freilich, former deputy national security adviser in Israel, writing in The Jerusalem Post in February 2013, said, "J Street leads only to a dead end" since "only Israelis bear the responsibility for determining their future."[75] J Street came to the defense of Jewish Congressman Andy Levin during the contentious primary race in Michigan's 11th Congressional District. Levin, countering attacks from AIPAC and other right-leaning pro-Israel groups, told reporters: “Here I am a Jew, a proud Zionist, who can talk to people across lines,” he said. “I can talk to IfNotNow, I can talk to JVP [Jewish Voice for Peace], I can talk to Palestinians, I can talk to other Arab Americans, I can talk to anybody.” [https://forward.com/news/501923/andy-levin-jewish-congressman-andy-levin-calls-out-attacks-by-aipac-israel/] In 2022, billionaire and progressive activist George Soros donated one million dollars to J Street PAC. As The Forward noted: "Soros is a longtime supporter of J Street, which advocates for Israel to relinquish lands as a means of achieving a two-state solution and is reviled on the right as a result." [https://forward.com/fast-forward/515534/robert-kraft-makes-1m-donation-to-aipacs-super-pac-while-george-soros-pours-1m-into-j-streets/]

PeaceNow67 (talk) 22:42, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Not done for now: Thanks for the proposed additions — these are helpful updates that reflect J Street’s recent political activity and relationships. A few thoughts before this can be added:
  • Both examples (Andy Levin and George Soros) are notable and sourced to reliable outlets. However, they may fit better in a new subsection (e.g., “Recent political reception” or “Political support and influence”) rather than in “Liberal Zionist perspectives,” which focuses more on ideological analysis.
  • The phrase “reviled on the right” from The Forward should be attributed more clearly to the source to avoid NPOV issues — perhaps something like: “The Forward noted that J Street is ‘reviled on the right’ for its positions.”

I'm happy to help reformat and integrate the content once those adjustments are made.

Dahawk04 (talk) 13:34, 3 July 2025 (UTC)

Edit request 7 August 2025

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