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Isi Leibler   Isi Leibler  October 1, 2010
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	J-Street unmasked by Isi Leibler October 1, 2010 http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=2450   Two years ago, when I first condemned J Street's anti-Israeli agenda, I tagged  George Soros, the billionaire Hungarian born currency speculator, as one of its  major sponsors.  Yet J-Street founder and executive director Jeremy Ben Ami, on repeated  occasions, adamantly denied this. He even said that he wished that Soros was a  funder adding that  "we got tagged as having his support without the benefit of actually getting funded." It has now been disclosed that some $750,000, amounting to almost a third of  J-Street's 2008-2009 US revenue, was provided by Soros. After being exposed as an outright serial liar, Ben-Ami tried to weasel his way out of  his shameful behavior by "accepting responsibility for being less than clear" about  J-Street funding. In fact Soros and J-Street make a perfect match. Soros has proudly proclaimed " I am not a Zionist, nor am I a practicing Jew." He believes that Israel is largely  responsible  for anti-Semitism. Much of his venom is concentrated on AIPAC, and he has  consistently  been attacking all-pro Israeli institutions. He also calls for the recognition of Hamas.  His "Open Society Institute" pours vast funds into organizations whose prime  objective  is to undermine elected governments of Israel. Only last month ago, he contributed  a record  $100 million towards Human Rights Watch, the purportedly human rights watchdog,  which no longer bothers to disguise its blatant bias and hostility towards Israel. For its part, J-Street condemned Israel for its Gaza offensive against Hamas,  describing  it as "a disproportionate response." It refused to identify "who was right and  who was  wrong" proclaiming that "we recognize that neither Israelis nor Palestinians  have a monopoly of right and wrong." It not only refused to condemn the  Goldstone Report,  but facilitated meetings between members of Congress and Judge Goldstone.  It even resurrected the anti-Semitic charge of dual loyalties, warning Jews  that by "one sided  support of Israel," they "risked alienating the American public and would  be condemned  for displaying greater loyalties towards Israel than the US." It repeatedly  slandered  AIPAC depicting it as an extremist right-wing body ignoring the fact that it  had backed  the policies of all Israeli governments, including dovish administrations preceding Netanyahu. More recently, J-Street called on its supporters to bombard the IRS with complaints  that contributions promoting social welfare causes over the green line, including the  major settlement blocs and Jerusalem, represented a breach of US law and should  be investigated. There are left wing groups like Meretz and Peace Now who oppose Israeli settlement  policies with no less vigor than J-Street. But what primarily differentiate them from  J-Street are not its views but its actions. J-Street insists that it knows better than  Israelis what is good for them, and employs the obscene analogy of parents required  to impose "tough love" on drug addicted children, to justify lobbying the Obama Administration to force Israel to make unilateral concessions to the Palestinians  which undermine its security. It also funds Congressional candidates with track  records  of hostility to Israel policies. It is surely classic Orwellian double-talk for an  organization which lobbies foreign legislators to oppose Israel policies, to  define itself as "pro-Israel." To top it off, J-Street was also exposed for having received donations and  support from  Arab and pro-Arab individuals and organizations.The donors include  Genevieve Lynch  a former participant of the US Iranian National Council who also serves  on the J-Street finance committee; Judith Barnett a former registered agent  for Saudi Arabia who also  serves on the J-Street Advisory Council; and Nancy Dutton a former attorney for the  Saudi Arabian embassy who donates to J-Street's political action committee which  finances anti-Israeli congressional candidates. It was also disclosed that a mysterious Hong Kong donor, "Consolacion Esdicul,"  whose identity was concealed, provided $800,000 (about half the total annual J-Street income). When Ben Ami was asked to identify the Hong Kong contributor, he declined  saying "Bill Bester solicited her." Bester is apparently not Jewish, and in view of  Ben-Ami's reluctance to elaborate, there is odium about this contribution.  Unconfirmed rumors suggest that it is either clandestine Saudi money or a back  channel concealing additional Soros funding. If one combines this extraordinarily contribution from a shadowy Chinese source with that of Soros it is difficult for  J-Street to deny that the bulk of their budget emanates from either anti-Israeli or  other tainted sources. How will the lack of transparency, shameless lies and the disclosure that J-Street  was clandestinely being funded by a pathologically anti-Israeli Jew like  Soros impact  on the organization? It is likely to suffer, but its core support will probably continue supporting it. The real  test will be whether the American Jewish establishment will wake up and marginalize  this organization from the mainstream instead of bringing it into "the tent." The core support of J-Street today is based on two groups. The most reliable  are the  hard line anti-Israeli elements who cynically promote the "pro-Israel" tag in  order to maximize their campaign against the Israeli government. They include  a strong element  of virulent anti-Zionists willing to collaborate with any groups including  Arabs and  extreme anti-Zionist leftists in order to undermine the Jewish state. They  usually come  out of the closet and are identified at J-Street conferences. For obvious reasons the  leaders seek to divert media attention from these elements who demonize and seek  to delegitimize the Jewish state. The other group represents the bulk of rank and file followers. Many are confused  liberals with little Jewish background who Ben Ami once described to the New York  Times as being primarily intermarried youngsters who attend "Buddhist Seders."  Some are genuinely angered when accused of providing support to those seeking to  destroy the Jewish state and maintain that they are partaking in constructive  dissident activity which they believe remains within the framework of  pro-Israel activity.  They are in many respects, reminiscent of the Jewish fellow travelers during the  Cold War. They too, were muddled liberals being manipulated by hard core  communists  into supporting bogus peace festivals and indulging in pro Soviet activities  which unquestionably furthered the interests of the "Evil Empire." For a time, these groups were also tolerated by the Jewish establishment.  But when  the evidence of Soviet duplicity and anti-Semitism became overwhelming,  they were  isolated from the mainstream. Today it is utterly preposterous to define a group like J-Street which describes  itself  as Obama's "blocking back" in Congress and seeks to undermine support for  the  government of Israel as being "pro-Israel." Nobody seeks to deny J-Street  its right  of freedom of expression. The left-liberal media will undoubtedly continue  promoting  the organization which seeks to provide a pseudo Jewish seal of approval on the  Obama administration's one sided pressures against Israel. However with these recent revelations, American Jewish leaders will hopefully  expose  them as a marginal anti-Israeli group artificially created by the largesse of Soros  and dissociate them from the mainstream of the committed Jewish community  which  remains strongly supportive of the Jewish State. ileibler@netvision.net.il This column was originally published in the Jerusalem Post