“I am uncomfortable defining lines for anyone,” former Milwaukeean Daniel Kohl told The Chronicle. “Part of the problem in our community is that people are trying to draw lines. That limits the number of people who can be engaged with Israel.”
Kohl knows a lot about how the pro-Israel community often tries to draw lines that include some and exclude others. Kohl for the past three years has been the vice president for political affairs for J Street.
This organization describes itself as “The Political Home for Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Americans.” But it also is an organization that some people in the U.S. Jewish community denounce vehemently and are seeking to banish.
N. Richard Greenfield, publisher of the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, wrote an editorial posted on the paper’s website on June 9, headlined, “Supporting J Street harms Israel.”
He contended that “contrary to the claim that J Street is just part of the ‘discussion’ within the Jewish community, we believe their actions and policies are detrimental to the safety and security of the State of Israel.”
In addition, what Kohl called a “kerfuffle” recently occurred in Boston. Some Jews there tried to throw the local J Street out of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston — only to be defeated by a vote of 57-9 on May 25. (Be it said that at issue in Boston was not only J Street’s positions and actions, but also whether it had been admitted to the JCRC according to proper procedures.)
And as columnist Leonard Fein wrote in the June 1 issue of the Forward, “In synagogues across the country, any suggestion that J Street be given a respectful hearing or be included in a forum on what it means to be ‘pro-Israel is likely to be vehemently attacked — nay, assaulted.”
Though Kohl, 45, and his family have lived the Washington, D.C., area for about two years, he maintains ties to Wisconsin. Not only does he have family here, but also he recently came to the state to drop two of his three children at a Wisconsin summer camp.
During his visit, he stopped at The Chronicle offices to talk about his work at J Street; and the conversation naturally included the controversy over the organization’s acceptance in the U.S. pro-Israel community.
“I’m all for a large [pro-Israel] tent,” he said. “I don’t see it as my place to define who is inside and outside that tent. I think people should be debating about the substance of the issues rather than the boundaries of the tent.”
But what about J Street’s own tent? Are there people that J Street would consider outside the constructive debate?
Kohl acknowledged there were, and he defined them. “Israel has real enemies,” he said, and they include “people who favor a one-state solution [i.e., Israel should be a non-Jewish, secular democratic state]; that’s beyond the tent… J Street does not provide a home for those who are proponents of a binational state.”
J Street also opposes the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) efforts against Israel; and supports the idea of Israel having “a qualitative military edge” over the surrounding Arab countries, Kohl said.
Moreover, “we support the existence of a security barrier; we recognize that it has saved lives, though we don’t necessarily agree with its contouring,” he said. Finally, “we also support the existence of a special U.S.-Israel relationship.”
Nevertheless, J Street insists that “active American leadership” is necessary to create a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Kohl said. And Kohl and other J Street organizers believe that most American Jews agree with this position as well.
“We struck a missing place in the marketplace,” Kohl said. “There was no political organization that was giving voice to concerned friends of Israel who understand the importance of a peace deal to Israel’s Jewish and democratic future.”
J Street’s growth may provide some evidence of this. Founded in 2008, it now has “more than 170,000 supporters,” Kohl said. There are chapters — or “locals” — in many, though not all, states, including two in Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee). Its staff has grown from 10 to 50 in about three years, said Kohl.
It also in the 2010 elections ran “the single largest” pro-Israel political action committee (PAC), giving $1.5 million to 61 candidates, amounting to 30 percent of all pro-Israel PAC funds distributed that year.
Apart from that, Kohl said J Street’s polls have shown that some four-fifths of American Jews “support active American leadership leading to a two-state solution.” (See http://jstreet.org/polling-of-american-jews/.)
And this way of thinking, Kohl said, is shared by increasingly more Israeli Jews.
Kohl recently participated in J Street’s National Leadership Mission to Israel on April 30-May 8. (As did Milwaukeean Max Samson; see June 2011 Chronicle.) Both then and since, Kohl said he has seen evidence of a reviving peace movement.
“Last year, the Israeli peace movement … consisted of a smattering of groups,” he said. “This year, it has a number of groups that are growing and starting to join forces.”
Moreover, a poll published in the June 20 Jerusalem Post found that 71 percent of Israelis believe “Israel should engage in dialogue with Jewish groups in the Diaspora even if [such groups] are critical of its policies.”
“We just think it is critically important that American Jews hear the same kind of range of view that are expressed and articulated in Israel,” Kohl said.
In his position at J Street, Kohl directs the PAC, heads the “national leadership division,” and generally oversees the organization’s “political work.”
“I don’t think I could find anything more compelling to me,” he said. “It marries several of my passions: my passion for Israel, my passion for and knowledge of politics, my passion and concern for the American Jewish community and where we’re headed. I have no problem waking up and getting out of bed every morning.”
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