“J Street” has moved outside the pale

 

What kind of Jew would go to non-Jewish legislators and lobby them to embargo arms intended for Israel?

We don’t do excommunications anymore. There are many reasons, many obvious. And sometimes we do not have to because the subjects excommunicate themselves.

“J Street” is a self-excluding entity of Jew haters: Not that they hate all Jews. They have room for George Soros and Bernie Sanders. They proudly take the lead in sabotaging the one and only country of the Jews. Enough to set themselves outside the machaneh, the “camp,” of Klal Yisrael (the Community of Israel). And they have room for unabashed Israel-haters. Two years ago, they circulated a petition stating that Ilhan Omar is not anti-Semitic . . . and not even anti-Israel.

Let us be clear. All because a Jew thinks diametrically differently from you or from the majority does not separate that Jew from the Community of Israel. But there are those who truly are outside the pale. They have been there throughout Jewish history: the Kamenevs, Zionovievs, Radeks, and Trotskys. They come in different times and in different forms and shapes. In our day, they include forms like “IfNotNow,” “Jewish Voice for Peace,” and Jews in “Students for Justice in Palestine.”

But “J Street” occupies a unique place. In This World (Olam HaZeh), it devolves on us to exclude them, to maintain our distance, just as Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses Our Teacher) warned Jews of his time to maintain their distance from Korach and his assemblage.

The thing is, Korach was a tzaddik, a righteous Jew, when compared to “J Street.” He had been at Mt. Sinai and believed in G-d. He fulfilled mitzvot, observed the Shabbat and kashrut laws. His tragedy was his pursuit of personal prestige that defied the order of life that G-d had set forth. He brought tragedy on himself and on his followers. But he did not really aim to bring tragedy on Klal Yisrael, the greater Community of Israel. By contrast, “J Street” would, if they ever were to actualize their efforts.

Really, we can stop here by noting that George Soros helped launch “J Street” with $750,000 of his money. “J Street”s” leader’s response: “I am very, very proud that our movement and what we are trying to do is aligned with the values and principles of George Soros and we are proud to have his support.” Need more? Apparently, they did because Soros gave them another million dollars in August 2022. And even more. They also got $811,697 from Hong Kong donor Consolacion Esdicul. That revelation set off so much journalistic investigating. It emerged that she lived in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, and was a friend of a non-Jewish guy who made his fortune by betting on horses, often at $250,000 a race, at the Happy Valley race track. As explained in the Jerusalem Post:

“Why would a Hong Kong individual contribute as much as one half of J Street’s budget? Actually, Esdicul’s contribution is in line with J Street’s ... taking of money from pro-Saudi activists, Arab- American leaders, Muslim activists, State Department Arabists, a Palestinian billionaire and even a Turkish American who helped produce the anti-American and anti-Semitic film ‘Valley of the Wolves.’”

Money matters. Reuters reported that Obama’s administration paid “J Street” $576,500 to promote Obama’s Iran Deal, which American Jewry so deeply opposed. In a 2010 exposé, the Washington Times reported that “J Street” had paid $56,000 over six months to a public relations and marketing firm co-owned by the leader of “J Street.” The president of Charity Navigator called the shoddy ethics of the situation “Messy.”

A “J Street” national college spokesperson published that Ben & Jerry’s had acted well in declaring their anti-Israel boycott. “J Street” featured Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) at a convention. Of course the presentation was virally anti-Semitic. “J Street” has worked to bring down Birthright-Israel, the program that brings young Jews to experience Israel and build their Zionist commitment and pride. The anti-Israel group IfNotNow was founded and has been led by a massive lineup of present and former “J Street” people.

A hate-Israel “J Street” activist, Simone Zimmerman, was hired to be “Jewish community outreach director” for Bernie Sanders. Her social media posts against Israel were so profane and hateful that — get this! — Bernie Sanders himself fired her for crossing all lines. In one such memorable post, she wrote: “ . .” (Profanities deleted.) This “J Street” star co-founded IfNotNow.

Many readers may know of outgoing Democrat Jamaal Bowman, a member of the left-wing “Squad,” who has represented a Congressional district in Queens that includes a good number of liberal Democrat Jews. Unlike others in “The Squad” — the antisemtic likes of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar — Bowman initially was a bit subdued on the matter of Israel. He even faced expulsion from the rabidly left-wing and anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America simply because he traveled to Israel. And yet, soon after he returned from Israel, he changed. He became yet one more Israel hater, a worthy partner of Tlaib and Omar. He began to attack Israel so often and so hard that AIPAC helped support the effort to apprise his constituents about him. Word spread among Jewish liberal Democrats, and they threw him out in last June’s Democrat primaries, still voting Democrat — but not for that one.

What had changed Bowman from being cautious on Israel to becoming a full-blown enemy of Israel? The answer: Bowman said that his opinion on Israel was transformed after he visited the country on a trip sponsored by “J Street.” He said the “J Street” trip soured his view of the Jewish state. They introduced him to a bevy of deep-rooted and bitter critics of the Israel we know. They set him up with rabidly left Israelis, “Palestinians” (note: there is no such thing as a “Palestinian,” just an Arab of Gaza, Judea, or Samaria), and they reeducated Bowman to “sour” on the Israel we love. The New York Times reported five years ago that “J Street” conducts the same exact “Israel tours” for college students, to give them the opposite view of a Birthright experience and highlight all that is wrong with Israel.

Who does this? What member of the Community of Jews does such a thing?

What member? The same exact kind of member that lobbies United States Senators to embargo weapons meant for Israel. But what kind of Jew does that?

Certainly not Israel’s extreme-left Labor Party and Meretz — the “Democrats.” Of course not. They don’t want an arms embargo. Their boys and girls are on the fronts, too, in Gaza and in Lebanon. Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthi rockets land on their homes and them, too.

So what kind of Jew would go to non-Jewish legislators and lobby them to embargo arms intended for Israel? (See, e.g., “J Street Urges Senators to Support Resolutions Blocking U.S. Arms Sales to Israel.”) Or supports the arrest warrants that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued against Israel’s Prime Minister and former Defense Minister? What kind of Jew would bring American lawmakers or college students to Israel on tours aimed at introducing them to Israel’s bitterest enemies, Israel’s haters? Answer: Jews who need to be considered beyond the pale of Klal Yisrael, the Community of Israel.

There is some partial comfort here, chatzi-nechamah. A great deal of them, perhaps the majority of “J Street,” are not even Jews to begin with. Many are outright self-acknowledged non-Jews, even self-described “Palestinians.”

The most fascinating “J Street” person to analyze is their leader, Jeremy Ben-Ami. Back in the early 1980’s, when I was United States national executive director of Likud Zionists of America (then called “Herut Zionists of America”), I knew his Dad intimately. Yitshaq Ben-Ami was a member of my Board of Directors. The man was a living hero, a patriot of Zion, a legend. When he died, even the New York Times honored him with a full obituary. Others did as well.

In 1932, at age 18, this Hero of Zion joined Betar, worked with Menachem Begin within the Jabotinsky movement, and played an historic role in facilitating the illegal Jewish immigration into Israel that evaded the British ban. The Irgun sent him to Europe in 1937 to advance illegal immigration into Israel. At the time, Nazi Germany was not yet averse to emptying out all its Jews into Israel, so Yitshaq Ben-Ami negotiated even with Adolph Eichmann to save Jewish lives by the thousands. He came to the United States in 1939, at age 25, and played a leading role in raising funds to support the illegal immigration, working with Robert Briscoe, the Irish patriot.

(Briscoe, a Jew, was a prominent leader in the Irish fight for independence from England. He was so deeply engaged in fighting the British that he once left his Irish Jewish family on Yom Kippur when he was summoned by Sinn Fein. In the 1920’s, Briscoe was sent by I.R.A. hero Michael Collins to Weimar Germany to procure and smuggle guns for the I.R.A. war against England. In time, as a powerful Jew with connections to arms dealers who hated the British, he helped the Irgun cause, too.)

Yitshaq Ben-Ami next became deeply involved in the “Bergson Group.” He was national director of the American League for a Free Palestine from 1946-1948 and helped found the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews. Yitshaq Ben-Ami’s life truly was the stuff of Zionist legend. When the “Sakariyah,” an illegal transport carrying 2,000 Jews to “Palestine,” got stuck in the freezing waters of the Danube, Ben-Ami raised $10,000 in just a few days to free them. He was a critical player in almost every single historic event during those years, from recruiting Ben Hecht to the cause to helping organize the March of 400 Rabbis to the FDR White House.

His heroic efforts for Israel were stopped only when he was drafted into the United States army amid World War II, ultimately fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. Yitshaq Ben-Ami was on board the Altalena when it sailed to Israel to deliver desperately needed weapons to help the Irgun fight to save Jerusalem. (The tragic story of the Altalena can be found here.) He later published a deeply moving memoir, “Years of Wrath, Days of Glory.”

That was the father of Jeremy Ben-Ami, “J Street” leader, who lobbies U.S. Senators to embargo weapons to Israel, supports ICC arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister, and educates Jamaal Bowmans and college kids to hate the Israel we love. How explain such a thing? A son devoted to destroying everything his Greater-than-Life dad stood for?

I am sorry for whatever, if any, demons he has wrestled with in his life. But, when the survival of my people is paramount, pity must wait. “J Street” must be out. They must not be included in any Jewish communal umbrella group. Not a local Federation. Not a local Jewish community council. Not an October 7 commemoration. They must be kept far away from Hillel and Jewish campus groups. In language they best would understand: they must be embargoed.

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