New anti-israel group has trouble raising funds

Ynet reports (via memeorandum):

A new survey conducted by a Washington DC-based evangelical organization among American Christians has found that 82% of them believe they have a moral obligation to support the Jews and Israel. The poll, conducted among Catholics and Protestants alike, tested their stance on Jerusalem’s future and ways to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat.

The poll reveals a number of other common sense findings. By 32 to 24 percent those surveyed figure that a Palestinian state will be a terrorist state. 65 percent of those surveyed believe that Iran is developing nuclear weapons with which to attack Israel. And by 45 to 9 percent those surveyed said that they wouldn’t support a President who pressured Israel to concede issues that endangered its security.

Meryl’s celebrating:

And how refreshing it is to have Jews and Christians on the same side of an issue for a change. Here. Have a virtual handshake, folks.

Israel Matzav is fretting:

I wonder if 82% of American Jews believe that they have a moral obligation to support Israel. Given the number of moonbats among American Jews, I doubt it.

(And yes, historically, Americans, not just Jewish Americans, favor Israel by a wide margin. Support for Israel is not just a Jewish issue, it’s an American issue.)

A report in the Washington Post confirms Israel Matzav’s fears, Jewish Liberals to Launch A Counterpoint to AIPAC

Some of the country’s most prominent Jewish liberals are forming a political action committee and lobbying group aimed at dislodging what they consider the excessive hold of neoconservatives and evangelical Christians on U.S. policy toward Israel.The group is planning to channel political contributions to favored candidates in perhaps a half-dozen campaigns this fall, the first time an organization focused on Israel has tried to play such a direct role in the political process, according to its organizers.

Organizers said they hope those efforts, coupled with a separate lobbying group that will focus on promoting an Arab-Israeli peace settlement, will fill a void left by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and other Jewish groups that they contend have tilted to the right in recent years.

The obliviousness of these people is amazing. No American President was more invested in the kind of peacemaking they want than Bill Clinton. He shunned Binyamin Netanyahu while welcoming Yasser Arafat. And did he get a peace treaty at the end of his term?

“The definition of what it means to be pro-Israel has come to diverge from pursuing a peace settlement,” said Alan Solomont, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser involved in the initiative. In recent years, he said, “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.”Solomont is a top fundraiser for the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), but the organizers include supporters and fundraisers for both Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Many prominent figures in the American Jewish left, former lawmakers and U.S. government officials, and several prominent Israeli figures, as well as activists who have raised money for the Democracy Alliance and MoveOn.org, are also involved.

A peace settlement to be pro-Israel must not endanger Israel. Israel is markedly less secure now than it was in 1993. So promoting the kind of process that Israel’s been involved in over the past 15 years is not pro-Israel. That’s because those who feel that their primary goal is to support peace, means ignoring Palestinians violations of agreements.

“The genesis of this is really the frustration on the part of a very substantial portion of the American Jewish community that despite the fact that there is broad support for a peace-oriented policy in the Middle East, there doesn’t seem to be the political will to actually carry it out,” Ben-Ami said. “We have not been effective at transmitting the message that there is political support for these positions in the American Jewish community and their allies.”

I really don’t think that it’s a substantial part of the American Jewish community. It might be a substantial part of the wealthy, liberal, American Jewish community, but qualifying it like that would make the “J-street” initiative looks rather narrow.

As far as the “political will” is concerned, it’s lacking because any mildly perceptive observer realizes that the Palestinians have used their newfound benefits (land, money, weapons) not to build a functioning society but to build a a terror infrastructure with which to attack Israel. The lack of “political will” that Ben Ami observes is simply an observation that the peace process hasn’t worked.

Take away all of the qualifications and this paragraph pretty much sums up the problem:

Some veteran Middle East experts said the new group faces the political reality that many American Jews have become disillusioned over the years with the peace process and what they consider to be the intransigence, hostility and–in some cases–terrorism of would-be Palestinian partners. While Bush early on in his administration grew skeptical of the peacemaking efforts of President Clinton, he received very little push-back from organized American Jewry.

Well it’s not just what we “consider,” it’s what we’ve observed. And frankly, President Bush was correct. The more American Presidents push for peace, the more Palestinians demand and the less Israel gets credit for its sacrifices.

Martin Indyk, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and the director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said the group “has a very steep hill to climb because peacemaking has acquired a bad reputation over the years in the Jewish community, and there is a widespread fear that U.S. intervention on behalf of peace will lead to pressure on Israel.”

Again it’s not just a “widespread fear,” it’s exactly what we’ve seen from the first Bush administration and, as noted above, from the Clinton administration too.

But here’s the kicker:

The initial efforts will be relatively modest: Ben-Ami said the group aims to try to raise at least $50,000 or more for a handful of campaigns this fall as a “test case.” But the group intends to raise its profile in future campaign cycles, and some major liberal fundraisers have already committed to the venture, including Solomont, high-tech entrepreneur Davidi Gilo and former New York City corporation counsel Victor Kovner, a supporter of Clinton’s presidential bid.

Given the high powered nature of the organizers of this group, $50,000 is pretty small change. I think it reflects that these folks represent pretty much themselves. I also think that it’s telling that no Republicans are publicly associated with this effort yet, reflecting the stronger commitment to Israel in the Republican Party at present.

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.