William Kristol
In founding the Emergency Committee for Israel, William Kristol and his partners took a page from J Street, an advocacy group on the opposite end of the Jewish political spectrum that has succeeded in creating a big buzz with relatively few resources. Kristol, the most prominent among three board members, set up the ECI to focus solely on the way issues relating to Israel play out in political races. In 2011, ECI became a player that Jewish Democrats could no longer ignore.
Kristol steered the group toward running TV advertisements against candidates affiliated with J Street and then moved on to attack President Obama for what the ECI sees as his administration’s mistreatment of Israel. In recent ad campaigns, the ECI injected the issue of Israel into a special election in New York’s 9th congressional district, in which Republican Bob Turner defeated Democrat David Weprin in the race to replace the disgraced Anthony Weiner. In addition, the group has attacked the Occupy Wall Street movement as being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.
Kristol, 58, was born into Jewish political activism. His father, Irving Kristol, was the editor of Commentary magazine and a pioneering neoconservative thinker. William Kristol followed in his father’s footsteps, adhering to the same political line and promoting it through punditry. He is the founder and editor of The Weekly Standard and a regular contributor on Fox News.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30