The Israel lobby is exposed these days as it has never been before. Or AIPAC is. AIPAC is a dirty word among Democrats because it refuses to criticize the Netanyahu government. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner are both refusing AIPAC donations. In New York City, progressive Democratic candidates are primarying two sitting congressmen, Ritchie Torres and Dan Goldman, and making the incumbent's donations from AIPAC an issue.

And not just Democrats. In announcing her resignation from Congress, the Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted that she takes no money from AIPAC– and "condemns Israeli genocide" — in contrast to Donald Trump, who has gotten over $230 million in pro-Israel money, and backs Israeli genocide to the hilt. 

The liberal Zionist organization J Street looks to be the beneficiary of this shift. J Street used to represent a left/liberal fringe of the Democratic establishment. Now it represents the center/right. 

And J Street is lobbying hard for Israel. It doesn't want the U.S. to cut military aid to Israel. It says it wants young Jews to "fall in love with Israel" all over again. 

This is risky positioning. There is today a "civil war" inside the Democratic Party over Israel, two liberal Zionists acknowledged on a recent J Street podcast.

That civil war is happening for a simple reason. The Democratic base sympathizes with Palestinians more than they do Israelis, by a shocking 60 to 12 percent. Among the young, the numbers are even higher, while the party's elites sympathize with Israel. 

But liberal Zionists and the party leadership still see things from the Israeli perspective.  

J Street leader Jeremy Ben-Ami described his civil war with the base on the same podcast. J Street sees Gaza from an Israeli perspective: Gaza was all about what Hamas did on October 7. But the Democratic base looks at Israeli actions over the last 27 months. Ben-Ami: 

"The base of the Democratic party thinks that what just happened in Gaza is wrong—and  whether or not October 7 is the single worst thing that has ever happened in our life time– that happens to be true for us, that is our view of October 7– for many Democratic voters and certainly for many Jewish kids of ours, what happened over the last two years is the worst thing they've witnessed an American ally do to another people."

J Street actually reflects the right-wing Jewish establishment here. It wasn't a genocide, it was a "defensive" war.

Here are some of J Street's positions (per statements by its leadership): 

Gaza was bad, but let's not talk about Gaza. Gaza is past. Gaza is simply omitted from this policy memo for the American president.

Military aid to Israel must continue. Though we'll cut funding tied to human rights abuses by settlers in the West Bank. 

The West Bank is the issue because the occupation of the West Bank is an impediment to a two-state solution, which is the will of the international community, and the crux of J Street's message.