Divided Congress Upends US-Israel Relationship

Liberal Israel policy advocacy group J Street has endorsed more than half of the Democrats in the US House this cycle, the latest example of continued fallout from last year's nuclear agreement with Iran.

Since last September, Democrats have reliably blocked Republican attempts to revisit the Iran deal. That partisan divide has gradually extended to other aspects of the US-Israel relationship, raising questions about its long-term future as left-leaning American Jews grow increasingly estranged from Israel's right-wing political environment.

For J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami, the fact that 117 House and Senate candidates have sought and received the group's backing this cycle — up from 95 in 2014 — is evidence that “the conversation about Israel in American politics is changing dramatically." The shift is causing headaches for the leading pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which unsuccessfully opposed the nuclear deal last year and has since mostly stayed out of the fray.

“There is a very serious challenge ahead for American policy, which is that these issues are becoming more of a political football than they’ve ever been before," Ben-Ami told Al-Monitor. "I think AIPAC has some very difficult waters to navigate ahead in an effort to try to maintain bipartisanship in an increasingly partisan atmosphere."

Officially, AIPAC has continued to make efforts to rein in Iran a top priority.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/08/congress-upends-us-israel-relations.html#ixzz4I5kwEL6v