What is J Street up against? The American Jewish establishment, which is calcified and backward and ethnocentric. Politico’s Alex Isenstadt reported the other day that U.S. House candidate Doug Pike had lost support among Jews in the Philadelphia suburbs because he liked J Street. Emphasis mine:
Doug Pike, a Democratic House candidate in the heavily Jewish Philadelphia suburbs, discovered the perils of alienating part of that Democratic constituency when he lost the endorsement of state Rep. Josh Shapiro, who complained about Pike’s support for J Street, the liberal-leaning Israel policy organization.
Now that story has been revised to save J Street political embarrassment, and make the anecdote flimsy. It reads:
Doug Pike, a Democratic House candidate in the heavily Jewish Philadelphia suburbs, discovered the perils of alienating part of that Democratic constituency when he lost the endorsement of state Rep. Josh Shapiro, who voiced concerns about Pike’s positions on Israel.
I hope the second version is true, but somehow I doubt it. J Street has come under incredible pressure inside Jewish power politics. It’s why the group sandbagged Goldstone all last year, and why a J Street rep said nice things to Alan Dershowitz outside AIPAC even as Dershowitz was trying to excommunicate him.
