Israel Matzav

Sestak throws J Street under the bus, J Street crawls out

Trailing by ten points according to a recent poll, partly due to J Street's support, poor Joe Sestak can't get J Street to go away. On Wednesday, Sestak met with the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and tried to make J Street go away.

[T]he Congressman said the one Israel related action he regretted was signing on to the infamous "Gaza 54" letter and if he had to do it over he would have sent an individual letter. The Congressman noted that he chose not to sponsor Iran sanctions legislation when President Obama requested more time for negotiations but that he did vote for the eventual legislation. As well, he noted that while he did not sign a letter to Secretary Clinton with other Members, he wrote his own letter to her on the issues.

But J Street had to come back to give Sestak another bear hug.

UPDATE: Sestak did not, it's worth noting, back off the underlying policy, something J Street's Hadar Susskind stresses in an emailed statement:

J Street is very proud of the strong pro-Israel, pro-peace leadership that Joe Sestak has exhibited in Congress. He is one of the most thoughtful members of Congress on issues related to Israel and the Middle East - which is unsurprising given his decades of service in the US Navy, including in the Middle East, and his time as a national security aide at the White House.

We urge members of Congress all the time to send their own letters on the complex, nuanced issues that come up related to Israel and the Middle East. Our focus is on the policy, not the vehicle.

The only thing that has changed in recent months is the Netanyahu Government's welcome modification of the Gaza blockade to better achieve Israel's stated goals of weakening Hamas and enhancing Israeli security, in line with the policy that both J Street and the Congressman support.

Here's hoping that Joe Sestak and the rest of the Gaza 54 (okay, it's unrealistic to expect all of them to lose - unfortunately) lose badly in November. Really badly.

Heh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:29 AM