I gotta hand it to J Street for the video they just disseminated as part of its new campaign encouraging its younger constituency to “have the (Israel) talk at home.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68PLokUMnkY[/youtube]

It’s pretty funny, I must admit.  The acting is superb. And to be honest, I wish conversations in my family would go that smoothly. But of course, it is quite sad that the message is simply that the US should actively broker a two-state solution, something the Obama Administration has been failing miserably at doing. If J Street wants the US to push Israel to a two-state solution, why does it insist on maintaining “robust US foreign aid to Israel“? It is not enough to say the US should be an honest broker, but it must do something about it, which demands brave action.

J Street is foundering on its most important objective: changing US foreign policy on Israel. Yes, it is creating a space for open dialogue and conversation, yes it is bringing some of the silent and disenchanted American Jews back into the fold. Yes, it is making many liberal American Jews feel better about their Zionism. But if it is to call itself a lobby (forget the “pro-peace” and “pro-Israel” part, that’s easy!) it must step up and take the difficult steps necessary to change the game –  it did not do so at the recent UN Security Council Resolution vote condemning settlements, nor in its recent letter signed by 116 members of congress calling for continued foreign aid to Israel – the letter looked like it could have easily been written by AIPAC.

For J Street to have an impact, its rhetoric must focus on the US administration and explicitly call it out for failing to be a credible broker of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Every time Israel announces a thousand more housing units in East Jerusalem, J Street should concentrate its energy on criticizing the US, not Israel.  As was poignantly argued in a recent article:

Some analysts optimistically see J Street as a sort of gateway drug that will lead its youngish adherents to eventually support a very different role for the United States in the conflict. But for now, J Street will continue to support dialogue, “expanding the tent”, and $3 billion in cluster bombs, white phosphorous and other armaments from the US government to the IDF, no strings attached, year after year.

While a campaign about talking about Israel around the dinner table is important, for J Street to make a difference in Washington, it needs to step up its game.