Britannia Radio

Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

Here's a funny line:
Ben-Ami rejected the contention out-of-hand. "I can't see this having become a vehicle in any way for the political expression of Arab-Americans. I think that's ludicrous. I don't see that in the slightest."

J-Street has floated the following ideas via the poll of American Jews that
they distributed in March as the Netanyahu Government was being formed:

Poll question:  Below is a list of actions the United States could take to
try convincing the Palestinians and Israelis to accept this peace agreement
today. For each action, please mark whether you approve or disapprove that action.

...- Reduce military aid for Israel if it blocks the agreement from being
reached

- Reduce American support for Israel in international institutions if it
blocks the agreement from being reached
.
Poll question: I am concerned that other Americans will end up resenting
American Jews because of America's perceived favoritism toward Israel under all circumstances.


If Ben-Ami can't see how this line of thinking could express the thinking of Arab-Americans he should consider getting new glasses.]

===

Muslims, Arabs among J Street donors
HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, Jerusalem Post correspondent , THE JERUSALEM POST Aug.
14, 2009
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418604334&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

The J Street political action committee has received tens of thousands of
dollars in donations from dozens of Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as
from several individuals connected to organizations doing Palestinian and
Iranian issues advocacy, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Additionally, at least two State Department officials connected to Middle
East issues have donated to the PAC, which gives money to candidates for US
Congress supported by J Street. The organization describes itself as a
"pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby pushing for more American involvement and
diplomacy in resolving the Middle East conflict.

Arab and Muslim donors are extremely rare for other organizations that
describe themselves as supporters of Israel as J Street does, Jewish leaders
at organizations across the political spectrum told The Jerusalem Post.
Because most of these other organizations are not PACs, however, US law does
not require them to release their donor lists. J Street's non-PAC arm also
does not release a complete list of contributors.

J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami estimated the amount of Arab and
Muslim donors to be a very small percentage - at most 3 percent - of the
organization's thousands of contributors. But he said that such supporters
show the broad appeal of J Street's message and its commitment to
coexistence.

"I think it is a terrific thing for Israel for us to be able to expand the
tent of people who are willing to be considered pro-Israel and willing to
support Israel through J Street," he said. "One of the ways that we're
trying to redefine what it means to be pro-Israel is that you actually don't
need to be anti-Arab or anti-Palestinian to be pro-Israel."

Activists from several other Israel-oriented groups, though, suggested that
J Street's donor list reflects on the group's commitment to Israel and
approach to the peace process.

"It raises questions as to their banner that they're a pro-Israel
organization. Why would people who are not known to be pro-Israel give money
to this organization?" asked Lenny Ben-David, a former Israeli diplomat and
staffer for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major Washington
lobby but not a PAC that makes contributions to candidates. "Once you
introduce a large group and large amount of money from people who are
suspect in their pro-Israel credentials, J Street loses some of its
credibility in claiming it is pro-Israel and representing the Jewish
community."

Ben-Ami described the organization as one that is "primarily but not
exclusively Jewish" and said that as the numbers of Arabs and Muslims
participating in J Street are low, he would like to welcome more non-Jews
into the fold.

The funds that come from these sources indeed constitute a small fraction of
the year-and-a-half-old organization's political fundraising, which totaled
around $844,000 in 2008 - a key election year - and $111,000 so far in 2009.
They comprise several dozen of the PAC's 4,000-5,000 donors.

But some of the contributors play key roles in the organization. The finance
committee's 50 members - with a $10,000 contribution threshold - include
Lebanese-American businessman Richard Abdoo, a current board member of
Amideast and a former board member of the Arab American Institute, and
Genevieve Lynch, who is also a member of the National Iranian American
Council board. The group has also received several contributions from Nancy
Dutton, an attorney who once represented the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

Smaller donors include several leaders of Muslim student groups, Saudi- and
Iranian-born Americans, and Palestinian- and Arab-American businessmen who
also give to Arab-oriented PACs.

Additionally, Nicole Shampaine, director of the State Department's Office
for Egypt and the Levant, gave $1,000 last summer. Lewis Elbinger, who used
to serve in Saudi Arabia, gave a combined $150.

A State Department legal adviser said there were no laws or codes
prohibiting employees from donating to groups doing advocacy work on the
policies they are formulating.

"The State Department ethics rules don't prohibit contributions to lobbying
groups," she said.

Shampaine did not respond to a request for comment from the Post and
Elbinger could not be reached.

The donations raised the eyebrows of some Jewish organization officials.

"It informs our view of where these individual foreign service officers'
heads are in relation to US-Israel policy," said one who spoke on condition
of anonymity. "It might not be the smartest move for them to be showing
their hand in that way, though I don't think it's illegal or even
unethical."

Though Abdoo, Lynch and Dutton also did not respond to queries from the
Post, donor Zahi Khouri was reached by telephone during a visit to the West
Bank, where he splits his time along with Orlando.

He explained that he donated to the J Street PAC because "I believe that
they are sincere about being pro-Israel and they are sincere about being
pro-peace. And AIPAC I consider an enemy of Israel rather than a friend of
Israel because they're not helping it to achieve peace."

The businessman behind some of the biggest Palestinian investment groups and
enterprises said that he wanted to see a home for Israel and a home for
Palestinians, along the 1967 border with a shared Jerusalem and symbolic
treatment of the refugees, and felt that J Street would help achieve that.

"They are equally hard on the Palestinians as they are on Israel, so they're
not pro-Palestinian. They are just pro-peace and pro-Israel. I believe
that," he told the Post.

Khouri, who also does outreach in conjunction with a Palestinian media
advocacy group, noted that he doesn't give money to other Jewish or
Israel-oriented organizations, and officials with such bodies said it was
very unusual to receive money from Palestinian or Muslim Americans.

Mainstream groups ranging from the American Jewish Committee to the United
Jewish Communities 150-plus federations rarely if ever get such donations;
PACs from the National Jewish Democratic Council's to the Republican Jewish
Coalition's don't list such contributors among their public filings.

Other progressive Jewish groups also aren't accustomed to such backers.

"APN receives thousands of checks every year from its supporters. The vast
majority - as far as we can tell - are American Jews. That is the segment of
the US public that we typically target," said APN spokesman Ori Nir, noting
that while he does not keep tabs on every check received, he knows that all
of the group's major donors are Jewish.

Nir, whose group has similar stances on the peace process and engagement
with Iran to J Street, also said that the organization tears up any checks
sent with Israel-bashing notes.

In contrast, Ben-Ami said that J Street doesn't screen or reject donations.
"We are so clearly pro-Israel, and we are an organization that is grounded
in and based in Jewish values and a Jewish desire to support the State of
Israel, that if someone wants to choose to do their political giving through
us, it's more a question for them: Do they want to be seen to be giving
their money through us. If they do it, that's the statement they're making."

Ben-Ami also rejected anything smacking of a religious test of donors for
pro-Israel groups.

"It would be a very big mistake for pro-Israel organizations to apply a
religious or ethnic litmus test for support for Israel from other Americans.
I don't think anybody checked to see whether [Pastor] John Hagee was Jewish
before he was invited to keynote the AIPAC conference," he said. "I don't
think we should be banning Christians, I don't think we should be banning
Muslims, I don't think we should be banning Arabs from finding a way to
support Israel, to support its right to exist and to support a program that
is designed to secure the future."

Ben-Ami noted that J Street, as with APN and other Jewish groups, doesn't
solicit donations from Muslims and Arabs, but he said that in any case, "Our
views are not a reflection of our donors. Our donors are supporting our
views."

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, one of the few mainstream
Jewish organizations to recall receiving occasional donations from Arabs or
Muslims - though, like most non-profits, it hasn't disclosed its donor list
as the law doesn't require it to - said the key issue in his mind about J
Street's contributors were whether they were individuals or organizations.

"Individuals have a right to support whoever they want. What would be
troubling would be if you find organizations," he said, as it raises the
question of, "Why are these Arab or Muslim organizations supporting a Jewish
or pro-Israel group?"

Another leader from a mainstream pro-Israel organization said that while his
group has never received money from such sources, "There's no moral
impediment for reaching into other constituencies. It's not something we
have done, but I like to think the cause of Middle East peace is a cause
that is not only supported by American Jews but is broadly supported."

At the same time, he suggested that these donors might have chosen to give
to J Street because "that constituency supports the kind of a line that
maybe naturally gravitates to an advocacy organization that's more critical
of Israel."

An official from another Jewish organization who also spoke anonymously had
a different explanation for the donations, though. "Arab-American
organizations or Palestinian American organizations have minuscule impact in
Washington" in comparison to major Jewish ones, he maintained. "That's where
the power is. So if you're looking for impact, for bang for your political
buck, you'd give to J Street."

Ben-Ami rejected the contention out-of-hand. "I can't see this having become
a vehicle in any way for the political expression of Arab-Americans. I think
that's ludicrous. I don't see that in the slightest."

He said instead that it was J Street's "approach to being pro-Israel that
actually is so attractive to people of other religions, who are trying to
find a way to be pro-Israel that breaks the cycle of violence, and breaks
the cycle of us-versus-them thinking."

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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il