Lenny Ben David
Jerusalem Post, Aug. 16, 2022
“J Street, However, opposed the emergency appropriation. In a June 17, 2021 essay, less than a month after the savage Gaza war, Williams asked “whether a wealthy country like Israel actually needs an additional $1 billion from a partner [the United States] already struggling to meet the myriad needs of its own citizens in difficult times to pay for it.”
The May 2021 Gaza war put a strain on Israel’s Iron Dome system. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had fired 4,300 rockets. More than 1,500 flew toward heavily populated areas in Israel, and the Iron Dome’s Tamir missiles knocked down more than 90 percent of them. Within days, experts from Israel, the US administration, and Congress were discussing restocking the Tamir interceptors. The price tag: $1 billion.
And by mid-June 2021, opposition to replenishing the essential defensive materiel to Israel was emerging in Washington among a squad of members of Congress, anti-Israel progressive groups, and some think tanks of the so-called “deep state.”
Who led the charge against the Iron Dome? None other than the purportedly “pro-Israel” J Street and Dylan Williams, the organization’s chief lobbyist and senior vice president for policy and strategy.
