On the one hand, J Street has stopped playing their coy game about how Zionist or non-Zionist they are, and now speak openly not merely of "the Jewish people" but even come close to using Commentary’s dark phrase "the Jewish collective". On the other hand, the Israelis are more hysterical about them than ever, and therefore J Street is in no position to formally join said collective.
Not that this is a shocking outcome or even an altogether original observation, but what this adds up to is that Jeremy Ben-Ami is the Alexander Dubcek of "the Jewish collective"–the leader of Prague Spring who was forced out of office by Soviet tanks in ’68–and its "status-quo" leadership in his felicitous phrase is treating him and J Street accordingly. I still think it possible that some of the more disillusioned money men behind J Street like Victor Kovner or perhaps even George Soros might at some point force a change in the organization, but whether it will have any effect on Palestinian freedom is an open question.
