Wednesday, October 27, 2010
FIrst of all, if you thought J Street had learned its lesson about taking funds from people who were clearly no friends of Israel, be assured...they have learned nothing: More J Street Donors Revealed. For instance:
Another new name on the J Street PAC's list of contributors is M. Cherif Bassiouni, a well-known professor of law at DePaul University. Bassiouni is also an unlikely candidate to contribute to a purported "pro-Israel" organization. Several years ago he complained in an article in the Harvard International Law Journal, "A large segment of the world population asks why Israel's repression of the Palestinian people, which includes the commission of 'grave breaches' of the Geneva Convention and what the customary law of armed conflict considers 'war crimes,' is deemed justified, while Palestinians' unlawful acts of targeting civilians are condemned? These are only some contemporary examples of the double standard that fuels terrorism."
Lenny Ben-David's excellent new expose (with even more) is here: J Street has no shame
Also, there's a nice profile of the Emergency Committee for Israel in the Washington Jewish Week: Group's new PAC targets candidates as 'anti-Israel'
If the Emergency Committee for Israel's aggressive political tactics are unsettling to some Democrats, maybe it's because "they know they've been caught doing something the American people don't want them to do," said Noah Pollak, ECI's executive director.
In the past few months, ECI has made a name for itself by assaulting Democrats in hotly contested congressional races over their support for Israel -- or lack thereof, as ECI sees it...
There is much moaning from J Street people featured. This jumped out at me:
..."I could list out two dozen Republicans in Congress who take a much more nuanced view on" the peace process, but can't express it "because the majority of campaign support they get is from folks who are on the far-right, neo-conservative, Israel-right-or-wrong crowd," [director of policy Hadar] Susskind said...
Emphasis mine.
If I use the term "Judea and Samaria" as opposed to "West Bank," it tells you something about who I am, where I'm coming from...my politics.
If I describe someone as either "Pro Life" or "Anti-Choice," it likewise tells you something about who I am, where I'm coming from...my politics.
Well, the term Israel-right-or-wrong crowd as used by this J Street official, also carries meaning. It is a term I have only ever heard...ever...by either Israel's harshest critics or outright anti-Semites. I have never heard that term used by a person who could be described as even a fair critic of Israel. (Similar, though not quite identical to the way patriotic Americans are often contemptuously referred to as "America right-or-wrong-types" by many on the far left for whom it seems America can do no right.)
How revealing to hear such terminology used by an official of an ostensibly "pro-Israel" organization. Once again, through their funders, their choice of rhetoric, and the way they deal with people who are, after all, supposed to be on the same side as they, J Street reveals itself as the rapidly irrelevant fraud they have been from the start.
