News

The Limits of a Coalition Without AIPAC

By Nathan Guttman December 8, 2010

The Obama administration is still in full-court-press mode on the ratification of the New START treaty, still hoping to get a vote during the lame duck congressional session. The treaty has broadbased support in the U.S. and abroad, and passage is a top priority for President Obama, but a conservative minority opposing it is digging in its heels — with the support of the American Israel Political Action Committee.

Attempts to pressure AIPAC to lobby in favor of the ratification of the nuclear arms reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia have hit a brick wall and gotten some pushback from the right wing of the Jewish community. The Emergency Committee for Israel took aim at Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Carl Levin of Michigan, who wrote a letter asking AIPAC to support START. “We’ve rarely seen Senators stoop to this kind of public bullying,” ECI chairman William Kristol wrote.

On the other end of the political map, some liberal-leaning Jewish groups have voiced their support, joining the National Jewish Democratic Committee and the Anti-Defamation League that had led the way on this issue. J Street wrote to House members asking them to sign on to a congressional letter urging their colleagues in the Senate to ratify the treaty. Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, sent his own letter to senators asking them to ratify the New START treaty for a “safer America and a safer world,” and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs also sent senators another letter making the case for approving the treaty.

So here is where the administration’s efforts to engage the Jewish community on START stand: On the one hand, the White House and congressional Democrats were successful in creating a remarkable Jewish coalition in support of the treaty, which spans from J Street to ADL. On the other hand, without the lobbying power of AIPAC, this coalition isn’t even close to showing lawmakers what Jewish power really means.

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO