I have been a bit perplexed about all the attention given lately to Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's decision not to meet with a US congressional delegation because the visit was sponsored by J Street. Not that there isn't something to Ayalon's comment afterward questioning whether J Street was disingenuous in calling itself pro-Israeli. At the same time, Israel's Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, was moving away from his earlier refusal to deal with J Street, saying if the organization calls itself pro-Israeli, "I am happy to deal with it on that basis." So Israel's foreign policy establishment seems as conflicted over J Street's place as are American Jews.
 
Still, I find myself thinking that there is a missing ingredient in the coverage of this story. That missing piece is the identity and views of the co-sponsor of the congressional mission, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP).
 
CMEP is a coalition of 22 American mainstream church bodies and religious agencies. Its stated mission is to work for peace in the region and it calls for a two-state solution. However, its statements consistently place the onus for movement toward peace on Israel. The group repeatedly supports the Palestinian side of any given issue, most recently in positions concerning conditions in Gaza, the Goldstone Report, and Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank. In its communications with the administration, especially during this past year, there is no indication of balance in its approach.
 
Despite the blatant one-sidedness of the Goldstone Report, CMEP has praised it, characterizing the allegations of Israeli war crimes in Gaza as "credible." Contrary to mounds of evidence, it has accused Israel, through its blockade of Gaza intended to block the rearming of Hamas and to free Gilad Shalit, of creating a "grave humanitarian crisis." CMEP, together with other organizations including J Street, called on the US government to pressure Israel to lift the blockade, thereby ignoring Hamas's clear intention to rearm in preparation for more attacks on Israeli civilians.
 
And a year ago, the organization urged newly appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to pressure Israel to halt settlement building while praising the Palestinian Authority for preventing violence against Israelis.
 
The point is not to criticize CMEP on any one issue. After all, there are legitimate criticisms of settlements, of Israel's blockade of Gaza, of the conduct of Operation Cast Lead. Rather, it is its simplistic and perverse tendency, whatever the issue, whatever the complexity, to find Israel at fault, as the obstacle to peace, as the problem (this was a characteristic of Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in the Israel Lobby who blamed every problem going back to the founding of the state, no matter how complex, solely on Israel).

One doesn't have to be a Zionist to note that so many of the issues at stake are hard and that responsibility for the persistence of the conflict cannot simply fall in Israel's lap. The minimization or willful ignoring of Palestinian rejectionism in the face of Israeli peace initiatives, of the continued Palestinian teaching of hate of Israel to its young people, and of the role of Islamic extremists and terrorists within the Palestinian camp all speak volumes about a group like Churches for Middle East Peace.
  
In the final analysis, one can ask the question as to whether Israeli officials should ever refuse to meet with any US congressional delegation considering America's steadfast support for Israel and its security over many decades.
 
But if there were any justification to refuse to meet with this particular congressional group, it probably would have been more appropriately based on the role played by Churches for Middle East Peace, and not on J Street.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.