On November 21, 2024 the House of Representatives approved H.R. 9495 by a vote of 219-184 with 30 people not voting. The bill was called the “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act” and principally involved relaxing laws about tax collection if people are “detained” like hostages in Gaza, as well as to terminate “the tax-exempt status of terrorist supporting organizations.”
J Street, the left-wing pro-Palestinian group marketed as Jewish and pro-Israel was “dismayed” at its passage. It had joined with 50 other progressive groups in a letter to members of Congress to oppose the bill on the grounds that “the bill threatens to politicize decisions.”
On July 13, 2010, J Street called for a “Treasury investigation into settlement charities.” It claimed that “tax-exempt organizations are working to undermine a two-state solution by deepening the occupation.”
The head of J Street, Jeremy Ben Ami, would not relent on this Holy Grail quest and tried to push the willing ears of President Barack Obama in his fight. On September 9, 2016, Ben Ami posted an urgent plea: “J Street Calls on Treasury Department to Review Tax Deductibility of Donations to Groups Entrenching Settlements.” It stated that the best way to advance its preferred public policy goals was to terminate tax exempt status for those with different agendas.
J Street called on its supporters and all who support a just Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement to urge the US Treasury to review the tax-deductibility status of contributions to groups working to entrench or expand Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank.
J Street September 9, 2016
The call to stifle free speech and expression was obvious to all. Eugene Kontorovich wrote in Tablet Magazine on October 6, 2016 that called J Street’s action “unprecedented and clearly unconstitutional” in attacking charities “pursuing goals at odds with the foreign policy of the President.”
Snapshot of article by Eugene Kontorovich in Tablet on October 6, 2016
Now that a Republican president is about to take office, progressive groups are suddenly worried about politicizing the tax-exempt status of charities, an effort they had inaugurated.
And that’s a red herring as it’s not what the bill states. It is not trying to rob charities of donations for having different opinions, the bill specifically is about supporting terrorism. As laid out, “the term ‘terrorist supporting organization’ means any organization which is designated by the Secretary [of Treasury] as having provided, during the 3-year period ending on the date of such designation, material support or resources (within the meaning of section 2339B of title 18, United States Code) to an organization described in paragraph (2) (determined after the application of this paragraph to such organization) in excess of a de minimis amount.”
J Street has long fought to strip the tax-exempt status of charities operating east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL), such as a charity which provides wheelchairs for the elderly in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is now crying foul as Congress passed an act to fight terrorism, because of the long list of Palestinian terrorist groups and even longer list of its supporters.
Jewish organizations once again rallied people to Washington, D.C. for a “Stand Together” event. The Jewish Federations of North America invited many groups to attend, a spectrum of religious leaders and those with diverse political views to assemble and stand with fellow Jews and the Jewish State of Israel, including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Gov.Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI). The speakers included Blacks and native Americans, soldiers and children.
They had a variety of backgrounds and beliefs but were united in being pro-Israel and for fighting antisemitism.
But there were a number of left-wing radical groups which refused to join the unity event. J Street published a joint statement that a number of groups in its orbit including Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Habonim Dror North America, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish Agenda, Partners for Progressive Israel and T’ruah had joined it in boycotting the event.
Joint statement by far left-wing groups to boycott an event in Washington DC which included a wide range of pro-Israel organizations
This cohort didn’t simply decide to quietly not show up for the event but banded together and issued a joint statement denouncing unity at moment when it is sorely needed. [Note that Ameinu and Americans for Peace Now merged in February 2024, although they are still listed separately by the Conference of Presidents.]
Instead, J Street took to the soapbox to demand the U.S. withhold weapons to Israel as the Jewish state engages in a multifront war. It slammed President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
And it is urging the U.S. Congress – and perhaps the Biden Administration at the United Nations – to use its remaining months in office to severely punish Israel. This same pro-Palestinian (marketed as “pro-Israel”) group has never once suggested harming the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs).
At the end of President Barack Obama’s term in 2016, J Street effectively lobbied the administration to allow UN Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass, making it illegal for Jews to live east of the 1949 Armistice Lines (E49AL), including in the Old City of Jerusalem. It publicly thanked Obama and disgraced Secretary of State John Kerry for their efforts to make Jerusalem Jew-free as a “moral” matter.
Full page J Street ad in The New York Times in January 2017 quoting Secretary of State John Kerry after the Obama administration allowed UN Security Council 2334 to pass, making it illegal for Jews to live in Jerusalem and the “West Bank.”
Many Jewish groups are assessing whether to allow radical groups that harm Israel and the Jewish people to remain in the same tent. These umbrella groups should make plain that if these groups lobby the U.S. administration to punish Israel in the lame duck session, they will be kicked out of the community, much like they removed themselves from Standing Together in Washington.
ACTION ITEM
Write the various umbrella groups to warn J Street, New Israel Fund and others that lobbying Congress to punish Israel will result in their exclusion and/or expulsion.
To mark one year since the most brutal massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and a year which saw the most dramatic spike in antisemitism in the United States – especially on college campuses – the young members of J Street doubled down on pushing the American government to combat Israel.
On October 7, 2024, J Street U, the university-oriented section of J Street, issued a press release on J Street’s site. On that day of mourning, J Street U recalled the brutal Hamas massacre while also expressing empathy “over the suffering of the Palestinian people and mourn every innocent life lost in Gaza.” On that day of mourning, J Street U sought balance about “vile antisemitism and Islamophobia.” On that day of mourning, J Street U urged the US government to ONLY pressure the Israeli government about the defensive war they didn’t start nor wanted.
J Street press release on October 7, 2024
In March 2022, Students for Justice in Palestine, a rabidly anti-Israel and antisemitic group, called J Street a gateway for Jews to become anti-Zionists. J Street U’s jihadi grooming gangs normalized anti-Zionism on campus much like Jewish Voice for Peace, to set the stage for what the world has witnessed on campuses since October 7, 2023.
J Street is not only harmful to the Jewish State, it has normalized antisemitism we see on college campuses today.
ACTION ITEM
Here is a list of rabbis associated with J Street. If you know them, contact them to tell them your feelings about the group, to get them to either fight for change within or to leave the group.
J Street, the far left-wing pro-Palestinian group which markets itself as pro-Israel pushed the Obama Administration in 2016 to label Jews living east of the Green Line (EGL) as illegal settlers at the United Nations. That action laid the foundation for a rash of anti-Israel measures around the world.
Now, after the October 7 massacre in Israel, J Street is once again pushing the United States to stop protecting Israel at the UN Security Council.
On December 21, 2023, J Street issued a press release with four goals: 1) to pause fighting to enable Hamas to rearm; 2) get the US to “stop vetoing Security Council resolutions related to the conflict“, so more global pressure can come down on Israel; 3) get “an American commitment to recognition of Palestinian statehood” since Palestinians have clearly shown they are decent and responsible actors; and 4) put in place “strict oversight and scrutiny of arms” purchased by Israel, because J Street is convinced that conditioning aid to Israel while Iran and its proxies pursue a genocide of Jews is critical right now.
J Street;s Jeremy Ben Ami
The release concluded: “We urge the Biden administration to take immediate action to ensure that the Israeli government significantly shifts course before this conflict costs more lives and wreaks more pain and devastation. The way the current campaign is being pursued only jeopardizes Israel’s efforts to defeat Hamas and secure the release of the hostages – while laying the groundwork for even deeper, long-term security challenges.”
No such calls for “immediate action” by the US and others to pressure Hamas. J Street called for only Israel to be pressured.
Students for Justice in Palestine at Tufts wrote in March 2022 “that many Jewish people begin their anti-zionist political journey through J Street U,” J Street’s university division. The anti-Israel community knows that the woke Jewish group is a tool for young and old people in America to find their anti-Israel bona fides, to change America’s pro-Israel positions.
The United States is Israel’s sole supporting voice at the United Nations and J Street is doing its utmost to weaken that voice, just as Iran and Hamas desire.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) is a slick promoter who markets himself as an educator working for the working class who will not play games with Republican politicians.
In truth, he lives the game of politics, and it is well beyond a focus on Republicans as he plays games with antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
Reacting to his own insulting boycott of a bipartisan and bicameral invitation to Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressing a joint session of Congress, and fellow left-wing extremist Rep. Pramila Jaypal (D-WA07) calling Israel is a racist state, Bowman tweeted that he voted against a resolution condemning antisemitism because of Republican “idiotic games.”
Note that Jaypal herself posted a lengthy release about her poorly chosen words that Israel is a racist state. Her 414-word statement affirmed her belief that “words do matter and so it is important that I clarify my statement.“
Almost every Democrat joined all Republicans in backing the resolution, except for the radical left-wing fringe that is adamant about playing with the toxic hatred in the Middle East.
Almost every Democrat joined all Republicans to attend the speech by a liberal pro-peace leader in the Middle East.
The contingent that instead chose to play politics was Bowman and the Squad.
This is not new to Bowman.
Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic
Bowman has a long history of voting against Jews and the Jewish State:
Would not sign letter to Department of Education to fight antisemitism at colleges (February 4, 2022)
Original sponsor of resolution calling the founding of Israel a “catastrophe” (May 17, 2022)
Does not recognize discrimination against Jews (March 9, 2023)
Authored letter to President Biden to condition aid to Israel (April 23, 2023)
Voted against the Abraham Accords (April 25, 2023)
Voted against condemning antisemitism, and that Israel isn’t a racist state (July 18, 2023)
Boycotted speech by the Israeli president to a joint session of Congress (July 19, 2023)
Bowman takes these positions because radicals fund him. They are his real constituents.
On September 20, 2021, Bowman thanked the radical anti-Israel group, IfNotNow for their “partnership.” His top donors in the 2021-2 election cycle were another anti-Israel group, J Street, and the powerful leaders controlling schools, the American Federation of Teachers and the City University of New York, which has become a hotbed of rampant antisemitism and anti-Zionism. He is also a top recipient of money from Justice Democrats, a radical group backing alt-left politicians.
Bowman believes that liberal Jews will look past his nods to antisemitism and insults to Israel if they value the embrace of intersectionality more than from fellow Jews and Zionists. He is leaning into the cleft opening among American Jews, betting he can divide the most persecuted minority in America.
It is an ugly game that not only fans the flames of Jew hatred globally but pits Jews against themselves.
And there’s a big pot of money at the end of the anti-Jewish rainbow, a trough from which Bowman plans to feed.
J Street, the Pro-Palestinian Jewish group which markets itself as pro-Israel, was the leading donor to Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s (D-NY16) 2022 race for congress. It proudly touted that it poured $100,000 into Bowman’s campaign in August 2022, even though he was a shoe-in as an incumbent in a primary race with multiple candidates. The extreme left-wing group had taken Bowman on a visit to Israel in 2021 and doubled down on its investment.
J Street’s activities with Bowman is seemingly worthless, as it cannot get the congressman to attend liberal Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of congress next week.
Herzog is a J Street favorite. The group congratulated him on his appointment in 2021, writing “We have deeply appreciated our engagement and relationship with President-elect Herzog over the years, during his tenure as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party, as Knesset opposition leader and as Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel. It has been our honor to host him for addresses at several J Street conferences and to meet with him regularly with J Street delegations visiting Israel.” Herzog has shown his appreciation to J Street, giving televised addresses to the group’s large gatherings.
If J Street cannot get an alt-left congressman which it heavily supported to attend a speech by a liberal Israeli president, there is only one conclusion: Bowman’s anti-Israel sentiments are so profound that he cannot even accept talking to liberal Jews or Israelis. It remains to be seen if he will start to reject their money.
ACTION ITEM
EMAIL J STREET: “If you cannot get Rep. Jamaal Bowman to attend Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of congress, we expect the organization to back his primary rival next year.”
EMAIL REP. JAMAAL BOWMAN: “Israeli President Isaac Herzog is a liberal pro-peace activist. Boycotting him along with radical colleagues is not a protest against Israel but against coexistence.”
There was a time when the largest newspaper in the world did its own reporting, analysis and sourcing of news. It chose its stories and reported facts with the aim of educating the world-at-large about important matters.
Those days are long gone. The New York Times has become an activist agitator, reporting on stories from the vantage point of its far left-wing base. The news is not simply delivered as though written in the Opinion Section by progressive activists, but is actually SOURCED from left-wing groups.
Consider the paper’s reporting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Times has long chosen to vilify him as a monster, even posting TWO close-up pictures of him in an article about a Palestinian Arab youth injured during riots, seemingly suggesting the Netanyahu himself punched the boy in the face. (For comparison, try to find a picture of President Barack Obama in a Times article about American drones blowing up people in the far East).
As the paper is online, it has become easier to track the deep bias against Israel and Netanyahu: J Street.
J Street markets itself as pro-peace and pro-Israel, when it is actually a far left-wing group headed by pro-Palestinian Jews, a counter to the Republican Jewish Coalition that is conservative and pro-Israel. J Street frequently publishes opinion pieces as it lobbies politicians to take pro-Arab actions, and the Times quotes the group’s leadership as though it spoke for the majority of American Jews.
In a recent Times’ article, “Biden’s Confrontation With Netanyahu Had Been Brewing For Years“, it described a letter written by Democratic politicians urging the president to take action against Israel. Rather than source the actual letter, the Times provided a link to J STREET’S WEBSITE praising the letter.
Not only does the “Gray Lady” not go to source documents to draw its own conclusions in writing articles, it acts as a REFERRAL TO LEFT-WING ANTI-ZIONIST SITES.
The radical jihadist group Students For Justice in Palestine said that J Street is a gateway for Jews to become anti-Zionist. The New York Times is providing them a global megaphone.
J Street is a far-left wing extremist group which markets itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace” to confuse the uninformed that it is something bipartisan and mainstream. It has never been anything of the sort as it made plainly clear again.
The RJC also doesn’t advocate for Israel’s strongest ally to take action against the Jewish State.
On December 1, 2022, J Street issued a statement right before its annual policy conference, called “POLICY STATEMENT: US MUST ACT NOW TO COUNTER EXTREMIST ISRAELI OFFICIALS & POLICY MOVES.” The declaration was made in the hopes of drilling into its supporters and U.S. politicians who joined the rally, that Israel is extremist and Americans must act against the Israeli government in formation.
Over-and-again, the desired “policy statement” called the yet-to-be-formed Israeli government “extremist,” “right-wing,” “radical” and “vicious.” It stated that “we are at the precipice of a crisis in Israel’s relationship with not just the United States but with democratic norms, international law and Diaspora Jews,” and urged “the United States government must not delay in making clear its views on the threats posed by these moves — and take steps to counter them.”
J Street then issued a call for the Biden Administration to reiterate policies it falsely labeled “bi-partisan.” For J Street, that includes the demand that Jews be banned from praying at their holiest location on the Jewish Temple Mount, a plainly anti-Semitic policy.
The alt-left group then called for the United States to take six “concrete steps” against Israel. It included this gem:
“Stating that while Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, parts of the city will also one day be the capital of a Palestinian state and that the contours of the city remain a matter for negotiation and are not “off the table,” as former President Donald Trump claimed;”
If the borders of Israel and a potential Palestinian state are to be negotiated between the parties, it is asinine and counter-productive to declare what the outcome of such discussions will be.
Meanwhile J Street actively supports the Palestinian Authority which demands a Jew-free country, and has a law calling for capital punishment for any Arab who sells land to a Jew. It supports building a seaport in Gaza, so that terrorist groups like Hamas have access to better weapons to attack Israel. It wants Hamas to be part of the Palestinian political process, essentially assuring that Israelis will never be safe if a Palestinian state is created.
Attendees at the 2022 J Street Policy Conference
J Street’s CEO and comrade-laureate, Jeremy Ben-Ami, addressed the audience to demand that members of the group stop theoretically supporting Israel. As reported by the viciously anti-Zionist site Mondoweiss, Ben-Ami said:
“We believe our community for its own sake – even more than for Israel’s sake – must root its identity in a commitment not to a flag or a piece of land but to a set of principles and values. My friends, if we don’t do this, we will see large swaths of our community walk away. Not only will they walk away from engagement with Israel– that’s already happening. They’ll walk away from the Jewish community itself…. Those in the establishment of our community who insist that Jewish America must stand united and unquestioningly loyal to Israel no matter what are doing a deep, deep, disservice to the health of the Jewish community.“
Mondoweiss cheered the Ben-Ami speech and concluded “This is an important speech, as it signals open warfare inside the Israel lobby and the wider Jewish community.” It is a little late to this story, as far-left secular Jews had abandoned Israel and huge sections of the religious Jewish community several years ago to openly embrace progressivism as its true religion.
Anti-Israel activists got it right when they said that J Street has declared “open warfare inside the Israel lobby and the wider Jewish community.” Like the zealots of 2,000 years ago who burned supplies while Jews fought the Roman army assaulting Jerusalem, alt-left Jewry is out to destroy American – and Jewish – support for the reestablished Jewish state.
On August 2nd, shortly after J Street-endorsed candidate Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) lost in the Democratic primary, J Street lambasted AIPAC and Democratic Majority For Israel for supporting Rep. Haley Stevens. The progressive group took particular aim at the two groups’ “aggressive outside spending…[which] is harmful to American foreign policy, to the Democratic Party and ultimately to the State of Israel. (J Street’s emphasis)
It was obvious sour grapes coming from a group that had endorsed and funded a campaign just like AIPAC and DMFI, but lost.
Not three weeks later, J Street has entered the race of New York’s 16th Congressional District, in lower Westchester County. And in a very hypocritical and disgusting fashion.
Neither the bipartisan group AIPAC nor the centrist Democratic DMFI spent one dollar on the NY-16 race. Neither group even endorsed any of the three candidates running. While both groups strongly dislike the anti-Israel Rep. Jamaal Bowman who is the incumbent, they have refrained from engaging in the race as the odds of defeating him are low, so have opted to focus elsewhere.
J Street endorsed Bowman early but did not put in any money into the race. Until now.
Wealthy and Poor Voters Split
After witnessing the near loss of another anti-Israel incumbent member of “the Squad”, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on August 9th, J Street became nervous. Omar won her Democratic primary by 2,400 votes out of 110,000 cast. Omar won the poorer, densely populated city area of Minneapolis but lost the wealthy suburbs. If AIPAC and DMFI had put resources into the race, Omar would likely have been defeated.
There are potential lessons for the NY-16 race, where Omar’s close colleague Bowman is the far-left incumbent.
J Street endorsed Bowman in January 2022 when NY-16 included a large section of the Bronx section of New York City. In May, the district was redrawn, removing almost the entirety of the Bronx which had been in the district, and replacing it with wealthier suburbs of lower Westchester. This dynamic could theoretically swap the rank-and-file reliable liberal voters of the Bronx with more moderate ones, threatening a far-left incumbent like Bowman.
A review of the 2020 presidential voting offers some color on how the new NY-16 towns of Westchester (many of which were in NY-17 previously), vote compared to the sections of the Bronx (now in NY-15) which were replaced.
There are a couple of takeaways from the voting patterns of the poorer sections of the Bronx which were removed from NY-16 relative to the wealthier sections of Westchester which were added. The biggest one is that Westchester was much more content to put in “protest” votes in leaving the choice blank (+6.9%), rather than follow the front-runner, Joe Biden (-6.4%).
The second is that the wealthier towns of Westchester, a county which is roughly 20% Jewish, did not rally to Michael Bloomberg. This observation should be discounted by the Bronx having him as mayor for three terms while Westchester did not.
Lastly, Westchester and the Bronx voted in a similar pattern for the far-left. While Westchester backed Warren more than the Bronx did (+1.0%), the Bronx voted in a similar percentage favoring Bernie Sanders (-0.8%).
The political strategists at J Street know these things: that Westchester is just as likely to vote liberal BUT is also likely to stay away and not support the frontrunner incumbent, especially in an off-cycle end of summer primary. The lower voter turnout and Westchester’s challenge to the frontrunner could spell the end of Bowman’s political career.
Westchester Jewish Community Rallying For Vedat Gashi
There are specific reasons for Bowman to be concerned beyond macro trend lines, which brought J Street into the action.
Bowman’s positions are very unpopular in lower Westchester. Those include:
Call to “Defund the police”
“Abolish ICE”, the immigration and customs enforcement department, and a call for “open borders”
Push for teaching “Critical Race Theory” in schools
Voting against the Infrastructure Bill, and then lying to constituents that he supported it
Sponsoring a bill that called the founding of Israel a catastrophe
Not signing a bipartisan letter to fight anti-Semitism on campuses
Not supporting the Abraham Accords which set peace and normalization agreements between Israel and four Muslim countries
His vote to condition aid to Israel, in contrast to President Biden’s pledge not to do so
Bowman’s being one of the least bipartisan members of congress, going into a session that will likely see a split in Democratic and Republican control
The vast majority of the Westchester Jewish community is against these policies. Further, reading of Bowman’s tight relationship with the noxiously anti-Israel group IfNotNow where he said “I couldn’t be more grateful that IfNotNow Movement has had my back in Congress this year and I know that our partnership is just beginning,” made people search for an alternative.
J Street wasn’t initially concerned by the anger of the Jewish community, as there were three candidates running against Bowman. His victory was a near certainty as people were likely to split the vote. With AIPAC and DMFI concluding the same and staying out of the race, J Street opted to place its money bets on other races.
However, over the last few weeks, Jewish grass roots efforts led to coalescing behind Vedat Gashi, a secular Muslim immigrant from Kosovo. The Jewish community was pulled in by his powerful story, his pledge for “commonsense” policies which would NOT defund the police, which would support investments in infrastructure and would support Israel. Gashi lawn signs began dotting the suburban landscape. The easy Bowman victory was now hotly contested.
So J Street came in to fight the local Jews.
J Street Pours Money Into Campaign Against The Local Jewish Community
With primaries scheduled for August 23rd, J Street announced on August 17 that it would pour $200,000 into the races of Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Jamaal Bowman. The hypocrisy of funding Bowman in a race without any PAC involvement after slamming “aggressive outside spending” is just the beginning.
J Street’s flood of money in the final days of the race is not only going against the desires of the local Jewish community; it is trying to get the non-Jewish community out to vote. Its press release states that its “Bowman ad running across streaming platforms including ESPN, Vevo, MLB, NBC, CBS, ABC and BET.” BET is predominantly watched by the non-Jewish African-American community.
The Westchester Jewish community is rightfully outraged.
J Street is attempting to undermine the local Jewish community’s desire for a moderate pro-Israel candidate to represent them in congress, by spending tons of money to get the non-Jewish community to vote for a far-left anti-Israel candidate. It’s appalling, and the ramifications will likely last well beyond this immediate election.
Member of the far-left anti-Israel “Squad”, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Israel’s biggest critics in Congress came out to support Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) in his Democratic primary against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI). They included Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and J Street.
Far-left Rep. Rashida Tlaib,, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) in a rally to support Levin’s primary race, August 2022.
Tlaib often falsely slanders Israel as an “apartheid government” committing “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinian Arabs. She calls the founding of the Jewish State a “Nakba” (catastrophe) and opposes countries normalizing relations with Israel.
Those sentiments make her a favorite of the extremist fringes of the left and right.
Members of anti-Israel IfNotNow together with Rep. Tlaib and Rep. Levin
J Street, a far-left pro-Palestinian group marketed as “pro-Israel”, poured over $700,000 into Rep. Levin’s progressive campaign against moderate pro-Israel Rep. Haley Stevens, who was backed by the bipartisan group AIPAC. Stevens won 59.5% of the Democratic primary vote on August 2nd, which brought out roughly 110,000 voters.
When Stevens prevailed over Levin, J Street issued a press release claiming that AIPAC’s involvement in the race was a “sad moment for diplomacy and democracy.” J Street was appalled that AIPAC spent $5 million on the race and had labeled Levin as “fringe”. Therefore, the progressive fringe group asked Democratic politicians to stay far away from AIPAC in the future.
“Candidates in future primaries should disavow and decline the support of AIPAC and its SuperPAC”
J STreet, august 2, 2022
J Street is peddling its extremist socialist policies as “mainstream” as it tries to become the sole voice regarding Israel in the Democratic Party. It is aggressively attempting to defeat any politician with moderate and pro-Israel views and replace them with alt-left voices who adhere to their socialist principles.
It’s completely within their right to lobby and say what they want, but they are both hypocrites and liars. The group lies when it says it is pro-Israel when in fact it is pro-Palestinian first and foremost, and when it claims its policies are mainstream. They are hypocrites when they state a desire for a “political space for open and healthy debate over US foreign policy” and then attempt to shut down AIPAC.
A long-time liberal Democrat, Gary Ackerman (D-NY) once said that J Street is “so open-minded about what constitutes support for Israel that its brains have fallen out.” He concluded that “America really does need a smart, credible, politically active organization that is as aggressively pro-peace as it is pro-Israel. Unfortunately, J-Street ain’t it.”
J Street, Rashida Tlaib and Bernie Sanders worked their hardest to defeat a moderate pro-Israel Democrat, and they are continuing to publicly push Americans to “disavow” bipartisanship and moderate solutions to today’s problems.
Some of Rep. Haley Stevens comments about Israel and anti-Semitism which seemingly offended pro-Israel progressives:
“I am deeply concerned by the persistent and growing effort to demonize Israel, the world’s only Jewish state and a close American ally, on the international stage. Whether through the chronic bias displayed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) or accusations put out by groups like Amnesty International, I stand opposed to efforts to unjustifiably brand Israel as an “apartheid state,” and I will always work to mitigate the threat of delegitimization against our closest friends in the Middle East.” – February 2, 2022
“Make no mistake about it: a strong and enduring partnership between the United States and the State of Israel is paramount to our interests at home and abroad. Bipartisan support for Israel and a two-state solution promotes lasting peace and democracy in the Middle East. I’m eager to reaffirm my support for Israel, condemn anti-semitism in all its forms, and make clear that my beliefs on Israel and any other policy topic for that matter will never be bought and paid for.” – February 11, 2019
Quite a contrast from Levin saying “Unless Palestinian human rights are respected, we cannot fight antisemitism.” Levin’s appalling statement was rebuked by Liora Rez, director of Stop Antisemitism.org, saying “Neo nazis and radical Islamists quite frequently hold Jews in America responsible for the Israel/Palestinian conflict. For a sitting U.S. Congressman to mirror this horrific rhetoric does nothing but feed the Jew hating machine. Andy Levin should be ashamed of himself!”
And in even sharper contract to Levin-supporter Rashida Tlaib:
First One Through 