J Street, the left-wing, Jewish, “pro-peace” organization, has endorsed Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.
Biden welcomed the endorsement, as the JTA reports:
“I’m honored to have earned J Street’s first-ever presidential endorsement,” the former vice president said Friday. “J Street has been a powerful voice to advance social justice here at home, and to advocate for a two-state solution that advances Middle East Peace.
J Street, which claims to be “pro-Israel,” advocates for a Palestinian state and opposes Israeli “settlements” in Judea and Samaria. J Street was a vocal supporter of President Barack Obama’s antagonistic policies toward Israel and played a key role in pushing for President Obama’s disastrous nuclear deal with Iran. The organization opposed President Donald Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and opposes the Trump peace plan.
The Republican Jewish Coalition reacted to the J Street endorsement:
“Joe Biden isn’t wasting a moment trying to prove to his far-left base that he will continue the anti-Israel policies of the Obama/Biden administration,” said Matt Brooks, executive director of RJC.
Biden’s outreach to the far-left base of his party is likely to include these “unifying” moves: embracing several foreign policy positions of the Bernie Sanders campaign and looking to Sanders foreign policy advisors for guidance. Matthew Petti at the National Interest writes:
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign has asked the Bernie Sanders campaign to send over advisors to advise Biden on foreign policy, the National Interest has learned…
Three sources, including two people who advised the Sanders campaign on foreign policy, confirmed that an open invitation has been sent out to Sanders foreign policy advisors who want to work with the Biden campaign…
Several former advisors and operatives in the two camps had told Foreign Policy last week that Biden was open to adopting foreign policy positions from Sanders.
The Jewish Insider likewise reports:
According to a report by Foreign Policy, a group of advisors from the Biden campaign has been in contact with Sanders advisors to discuss a unified foreign policy platform… Joel Rubin, who served as director for Jewish outreach for the Sanders campaign… [and] who also served in the Obama administration as the State Department’s chief liaison to the House of Representatives, described the former vice president as a “natural” partner, who is “absorbing the progressive base that Bernie mobilized” because of his track record of “being able to listen, adapt and lead.”
