J STREET, LIKE CAIR, SHOULD BE DESIGNATED A FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

On Iran attacks, J Street diverges from the Israeli left

Its repeated criticism of actions of self-defense—and now, its opposition to the elimination of a nuclear threat—raise real questions about its priorities. 

 

By Moshe Phillips 

 

JNS

Mar 2, 2026

 

 

J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Echoes of some of the very darkest periods of recent Jewish history reverberated in the statements made by anti-Zionist Jews over the weekend of the initial phases of joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.

That outside-the-pale groups Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow would attack Israel and America for bombing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime should come as no surprise. But the fact that J Street, which claims to be “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy,” would sound almost the same as them does much to validate what its critics have been saying about the D.C. pressure group for years.

“We are appalled by President Trump’s reckless decision to launch a war of choice against Iran, explicitly seeking regime change,” blared a statement issued by J Street while Israeli fighter planes were still in the air. The organization said its press release was in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to commence military action in coordination with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

What must be called out here is J Street’s specific highlighting of Netanyahu in its statement. That’s because the full spectrum of the prime minister’s political opponents in Israel strongly support the decision to degrade Iran at its weakest point in memory. All of them.

J Street’s criticism of Netanyahu and the “military action” of the Jewish state stands in stark contrast to the leadership of Israel’s left, including politicians featured by the agency as speakers at its annual conventions and that it very much wants to be seen as being allied with.

If J Street doesn’t have any Israeli political leaders who agree with its views, then how exactly is it “pro-Israel?”

Merav Michaeli addressed the 2018 J Street conference and tweeted on March 1 that Israel had achieved “tremendous successes” against Iran.

Yair Golan appeared at the J Street conference in 2022 and posted on X on Feb. 28: “Eliminating Khamenei is a dramatic and significant step. Israel’s security forces, together with the American forces, have once again demonstrated intelligence superiority and impressive operational capability. I salute you.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a longtime critic of Netanyahu and was scheduled to speak at the J Street conference that started on Feb. 28. On Newsmax that day, he told his audience that “this has been the focus of Israeli policies for more than 20 years now … . Now (that Trump) took this action, and I hope it will be successful, and it will last until it is done.”

Michaeli, Golan and Olmert are not outliers. Benny Gantz, Naftali Bennett, Gadi Eizenkot and Yair Lapid are all leaders of parties that run against Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and consistently condemn him and his policies. And every single one of them has tweeted enthusiastic support for Netanyahu and the attacks against the Islamic Republic. Not one of these top Israeli politicians sounds anything at all like J Street.

The organization’s repeated criticism of Israeli actions of self-defense—and now, its opposition to the elimination of a nuclear threat—raises real and significant questions about its priorities. This isn’t a minor policy disagreement. It’s a fundamental divergence on how to ensure the safety and survival of the Jewish state. When American Jewish organizations weigh in on matters of life and death for Israelis, there is an obligation to speak from a position of real knowledge.

“Iran does not present an imminent threat that requires launching a ‘preventive’ war,” J Street claimed in its Feb. 28 news release, and no Israeli political leaders are saying the same thing. Why is J Street on the same side as JVP and IfNotNow, and not Israel’s left-leaning parties?

That’s the real takeaway here. J Street is not what it claims to be and perhaps never has been.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog strongly supports the attacks on Iran, tweeting: “I congratulate the IDF and the U.S. Army on the bold joint operation ‘Roaring Lion’ against the Iranian threat. This is a dramatic and historic step, and I thank the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the decision in the hope that it will bring historic change for us and for the entire Middle East.”

Let’s remember that Herzog is a former chairman of Israel’s Labor Party.

Once again, this underlines how J Street has positioned itself far outside the mainstream Jewish community. And it reminds us why both of the major Jewish umbrella organizations—the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the American Zionist Movement—have rejected it.

These important umbrella groups understand that J Street is extreme and stands for nothing but its own radical political agenda.