Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

AIPAC is not a real pro-Israel lobby. It is a pro-Likud lobby. As Gershom Gorenberg points out in his fine essay in Prospect Magazine, A Liberal Israel Lobby, AIPAC’s positions are regularly at variance with the Israeli government. If you’re a true pro-Israel lobby that wouldn’t be the case.

Gershom makes a cogent case that we need such a true pro-Israel lobby. One that doesn’t look only to maintain Israel’s military power so it can continue the Occupation and subjugation of several million Palestinians. One that takes a long view of Israel’s interests and lobbies for peace between the two peoples; a peace that is stable and unshakable.

There are rumblings that such a lobby, which has been bruited about for over a year, is about to come to pass. I know more than I’m allowed to say here (for once I’m in on a secret), but since Gershom, who has his Jewish journalist ear to the ground, has all but announced the imminent formation of the group I can go at least that far. Nathan Guttman reported some time ago in The Forward that the name ‘J Street’ is one being used among the supporters of the project. I’m hoping that shortly more concrete information will be announced by the founders.

One thing that should (but probably won’t) reassure AIPAC. The new group will spend much more time raising funds for political candidates than it will lobbying for policy. As such, it will be doing things that AIPAC itself cannot even directly do (though AIPAC’s donors do this themselves and with a vengeance). But certainly a goal will be to provide a countervailing weight to AIPAC on policy issues so that politicians, hitherto petrified to cross the group, might realize that their political funding sources will not dry up if they take a position counter to AIPAC.

I’ve followed the ups and downs of this project. I’ve despaired when George Soros announced he wasn’t on board. I’ve fretted when I worried that David Saperstein would sap the heart out of it by temporizing its agenda. And now, I’ve finally got something to cheer about as the new new Jewish thing is about to arrive. This baby is long overdue. Long may it thrive.