I just learned that the new Israel lobby, J Street, played a key role in dealing that astonishing defeat to AIPAC in Congress last week–in which a coalition of peace groups and religious groups spearheaded by the National Iranian American Council lobbied effectively against a belligerent resolution, House 362, that had been expected to pass overwhelmingly and that would have urged Bush to impose a kind of embargo on Iranian exports. In the end the House leadership tabled the thing lest it prove to be another Iraqi War trojan horse. I'm told that J Street sent out an appeal to its members on the legislation. At its site, you will see that J Street took a hard line against military action against Iran. (Though they were all for the rally against Ahmadinejad at the U.N. last week.)
At the AIPAC policy conference last June, maumauing Iran was the chief order of business, and right after the policy conference, AIPAC legions flooded the Hill to urge Congress to take harsher action against Iran. Among the 270 sponsors of the measure that would have recommended a virtual blockade of Iran were the insouciant Robert Wexler, who later backtracked in this piece on Huffpo, and Barney Frank, who backtracked to David Swanson here.
I sure hope I see journalism on this remarkable coalition of Iranian-Americans led by the realist scholar, Trita Parsi, Christian groups, and the Jewish center-left. J Street says that most Jews are against the Iraq war (and a lot of the others, including some foolish congressmen, are having buyers' remorse); and J Street put its money where its mouth is here and has knocked out Sonny Liston. I'd email the boys over there, but it's Rosh Hashanah. Come to think of it, I'm headed out myself…
