AIPAC Hawk, Alan Dershowitz of AIPAC vs. Hadar Susskind of J Street

Politico March 22, 2010

Ben Smith March 22, 2010

The tensions between the pro-Israel juggernaut AIPAC and the rival Jewish group J Street, which was created as a left-leaning alternative, played out in public at AIPAC's policy conference today.

The two groups have tried recently to avoid open hostility as J Street has sought to position itself inside the mainstream of American Jewish politics. An AIPAC official attended J Street's recent conference, and two J Street officials, Hadar Susskind and Amy Spitalnick, were on hand at AIPAC's gathering today.

Susskind was giving interviews to the BBC and to the liberal Israeli paper Haaretz at the Washington Convention Center, just outside the security screening, when the hawkish Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz approached. The men got into what three people present described as a heated, but civil, argument over J Street's role, and whether it could properly be described as "pro-Israel." A crowd gathered, and AIPAC security tried to push the argument outside the building