The increasingly partisan nature of US policy toward Israel was on full display when the liberal Jewish lobby J Street for the first time offered a prime speaking slot to one of the Jewish state’s most hawkish defenders during the organization's 10th annual conference today.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., a staunch ally of Israel who was until recently the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations panel, stood out in a crowd of critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies, including the Palestinian envoy to the United States, Husam Zomlot. But like his fellow Jewish Senate speakers Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Cardin shared his disdain for some of the Donald Trump administration’s policies, including its threats to unilaterally withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran and ban refugees from several Muslim-majority nations.

Friends of Israel, Cardin said, have “a responsibility to speak out against the policies of Israel or the United States that are not consistent with our Jewish and Democratic values.”

J Street touted the appearance by Cardin, a regular speaker at the much larger annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference, as evidence of J Street’s growing political heft as Democrats increasingly speak out against Israel’s right-wing turn.