This is one seriously great Philip Weiss post, even though it’s a few shades to my left. I don’t have any idea of what’s happening at any Toronto film festival or anything like that, so I’ll need to put those points and that perspective aside. But Philip does an excellent job of elucidating what J Street’s strategy actually is, and where it’s coming from. For instance:

J Street is making a play for the Jewish center. It is trying to drive a wedge in the Jewish community with a program that says, We love Israel but the occupation is a bad thing that will kill Israel. J Street seems to think that it can win 60 to 70 percent of the American Jewish community with that program; and thereby expose the religious conservatives and neocons who make up the backbone of AIPAC as a mere 30 or 35 percent of the Jewish community.

Ultimately I have no idea what percentage of support this-or-that Shtetl faction can claim. But I would guess that statement of intent is where most of us American Jews either are or can easily be persuaded to go. It’s also a perspective that speaks to the very deep-seated American Jewish self-conception of a commitment to justice.