In theory I should not be posting a tribute to J Street's Election Day triumph. I work for Israel Policy Forum and, on paper, J Street is the competition.

But only on paper. Israel Policy Forum works to change US Middle East policy through our publications and advocacy work. (My IPF Friday, for instance, is the most widely circulated English language publication on the Middle East in the world). Click to subscribe for FREE). We regularly meet with Senators, House Members and White House and State Department officials to inform them about what is really happening in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. In private, I'd say 90-95% of legislators agree with us. Our goal is to turn private support (and resentment of the lobby's unrelenting pressure) into public support and major policy change.

J Street goes the direct route. It provides money to candidates who reject the deadly one-sided policies of the status quo. The man behind J Street, Jeremy Ben Ami, has always believed that challenging the lobby required not just advocating but providing money. Lots of money.

After all, the main reason that candidates and elected officials support the lobby's approach-- keep everything just the way it is rather than seeking peace and security for Israel -- is money, along with inertia, the intense desire to avoid flack on pretty much anything.

I worked on the Hill for 20 years. Legislators resist doing anything that will offend noisy and rich special interests in general, but especially if the opposing side has neither noise nor money behind it.

Happily, a good hundred legislators were with us before J Street started rewarding legislators for doing the right thing.

One, Betty McCollum (D-MN), actually made headlines by publicly telling the lobby that they will regret it in a big way if they continue threatening her. She got an apology -- followed by appointment to the Appropriations Committee and its Foreign Operations Subcommittee. (Somebody up in the leadership likes us and she's not Steny Hoyer).

Anyway, J Street and IPF are doing two different things.

IPF has changed the way Washington thinks and talks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has successfully worked to rollback the lobby's most punitive anti-Palestinian measures. J Street rewards those who have embraced the change and opposes those who haven't.

To make a long story short: here is what J Street accomplished on Tuesday.

**It raised and distributed over $560,000 to candidates for the House and Senate, making it the largest pro-Israel PAC in the country

**It endorsed 24 incumbent members of Congress (all of whom won re-election), the new Senator from Oregon Jeff Merkley and six new Members of Congress (Three races remain too close to call including J Street's Al Franken). The PAC's endorsees included four committee chairs and many senior Jewish members of Congress

**J Street has attracted 86,000 online supporters in just six months

The House Member closest to President-Elect Obama, Robert Wexler of Florida, not only accepted J Street's endorsement, he did so over the forceful objections of the lobby which told legislators and candidates that going with J Street was suicidal.

It most certainly wasn't. In fact, one well-known and powerful AIPAC ally asked for J Street's endorsement only to be told that, as a hawk on all Middle East issues, she didn't qualify. She said that she'll be back in two years with a record that merits J's endorsement!

This is incredible although not surprising.

It is more surprising that anyone supports the traditional lobby which, other than claiming credit for the Israel aid package which passes automatically (with our support as well) has no recent record to speak of. Oh yeah, it did push the Iraq war, block aid to the Palestinian Authority and thereby help to produce the Hamas triumph, and is now focusing like a laser not on Israel at all but on confronting Iran.

Why would anyone support that?

Well, not so many do! J Street has done good. Jeremy Ben Ami has produced, if not a miracle, a revolution.

Okay, it's not as big as the miracle of Barack Obama's election which I still can't get over, but it's big.

Pro-Israel politics has been transformed. The "old" lobby, powerful as it still is,
is not out of the picture. (Sheldon Adelson the right-wing anti-union casino billionaire Republican just built them their own eight million dollar building on Capitol Hill). But the lean and mean J Street machine has got them plenty nervous, as their furious calls to candidates and Members of Congress indicate.

Won't it be nice to have a pro-Israel political machine that will support President Obama's efforts to achieve peace and security for Israel and the Palestinians, a Palestinian state in the West Bank/Gaza with Jerusalem as shared capital, and an end to a conflict that is serves as a recruiting tool for the terror war against us? Won't it be great to have legislators who aren't afraid to tell the Israelis to arrest and jail rightwing thugs who terrorize olive farmers and little kids in Hebron? Won't it be nice to have a lobby that not only uses the word "occupatiom" but fights it?

Guess what we have it. And, although by law IPF cannot engage in campaigns, the words I write are enthusiastically enlisted in the struggle., This isn't just a game changer. It's a life saver. American lives, Israeli lives, Palestinian lives.

Way to go, us.

POSTSCRIPT: This is the attitude we're up against from AIPAC based on one of its self-proclaimed (money giving) members as posted here, under this post. He writes that we'll fail because : ""my friends and I will continue to control how key Congressional decision-makers view Israel--J Street notwithstanding--for the forseeable future." Holy cow. They just say it!!!!
Control.