J Street’s funding disproportionately comes from George Soros, some Hong Kong woman that no one has been able to track down, and not a few State Department officials. George Soros is obsessively hostile to Israel’s concerns, and in the next few weeks the same thing will be obvious about some of those State Department officials. So while it’s theoretically possible that Consolacion Esdicul will turn out to have committed Exodus to memory or whatever, in the meantime it’s probably safe to assume that J Street’s anti-Israel funders aren’t earmarking their money for pro-Israel campaigns.
So it’s not really surprising that J Street co-founder Daniel Levy thinks that Israel’s creation was wrong.
And it’s kind of predictable that JStreet’s new Israel campus organizer Drew Cohen would (a) harbor some really ugly antipathy toward the Jewish State and (b) commit to getting other American Jews to embrace his antipathy. This pattern is in line with the rest of JStreetU, which finally had to drop even the pretense of pro-Israel advocacy because it meshed poorly with their “genocidal anti-Jewish terrorists equal Israeli Jewish victims” moral equivocation.
J Street’s pretty pleased with Cohen’s appointment – see below for the full email he’s passing around on the organization’s behalf – which is kind of weird for a “pro-Israel” organization, given how he’s proud of being an anti-Israel ideologue:
* Here’s him explaining that he “sees his role” as deliberately altering the emphasis that American Jews place on Israeli security concerns, since it’s futile to “wait patiently for Israel to come around.” Elsewhere here’s him indicating that American Jews need to be shown “the truth of what is going on” in Israeli civil society, and no he doesn’t mean “truth” in a positive “let’s tell people about how the Jewish State is a Middle East beacon of human rights” sense.
* Here’s him explaining that he can’t be comfortable unless he’s “with people who I am certain do not espouse Zionism or any form of oppression.”
* Here’s him condemning Operation Cast Lead, an Israeli defensive campaign supported by the far leftwing Meretz party and understood by Egypt and the Arab League, as an “unjust and even criminal” act by which he was “shocked and appalled at the mass destruction.”
* Here’s him snidely passing on a description of Israel’s Gaza Flotilla interdiction, a last-ditch passive option forced by Israel’s having been denied forward defense and active defense, as “a heinous brutality.”
* Here’s him minimizing the danger posed by that Flotilla, which would have detonated Israel’s last chance of blocking Iran’s Gaza proxy, due to it being merely a “mythic threat.”
* Here’s him insisting that Jews who want to reverse Jordan’s gleeful 1948 ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter “are engaged in structural violence against the Palestinian people.”
* Here’s him musing over the “parallels between the issues at the U.S.-Mexico border and the Israeli-Palestinian security barrier” and here’s him rhetorically leveling ghettos and Bethlehem.
All of which is fine in theory, but not if you’re pretending to be pro-Israel. And yet so proud is J Street of him:
It is my distinct pleasure to announce the launch of JStreetU Jerusalem.
Having spent the past three and a half years in Jerusalem, and having put a great deal of effort into building connections both in the diaspora community and with those in Israel working for positive change, we are preparing to launch an exciting new project, to help connect those two communities.
JStreetU, the university branch of JStreet, has recently hired Kelly and I to put together educational programs reflective of JStreetU’s mission for students studying abroad in Israel, both on the undergraduate and graduate level – including Rabbinic programs, education programs, or the myriad other Israel experiences (and especially Pardes), and we wanted to pass word on to those of you we know as we’re getting ready to launch. Our location in Jerusalem creates unique opportunities unavailable to Jews living in the US, to see first-hand the realities of Israel and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, as well as to meet those working for the betterment of the country. When you return home to the US, you will be asked question about the political situation here in Israel, and we hope through these programs to educate those who visit Israel and empower them to work for positive change upon their return to the US.
We’re writing you for two reasons. One, please join our facebook page in order to receive announcements about upcoming events and other ways you can be involved. Two, tell your friends, or other people who may be in other programs going on in Israel, about this exciting new project. Feel free to forward this e-mail to any relevant list-serves or groups. Furthermore, we are also going to be starting a search for a student intern at Rothberg, the international school at Hebrew University, for this semester or next. If you know of anyone who would be a good fit, please send them our way.
We’re very excited about the launch of this program, and the potential to impact the way American Jews use their time while in Israel, as well as to empower them upon their return to the US. Here’s the link to our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/JStreetU-Jerusalem/137641172953579
Thank you in advance for your participation and support,
Drew & Kelly Cohen
JStreetU Jerusalem Organizers
(h/t: Adina Kutnicki, Israel)
References:
* Muslims, Arabs among J Street donors [JPost]
* Soros’s Anti-Human-Rights Agenda [Bayefsky / NRO]
* US warns Israel of WikiLeaks release [AFP]
* US warns Israel of WikiLeaks release [Good / Atlantic]
* Daniel Levy Archive [Mere Rhetoric]
* J Street Co-Founder Daniel Levy: Israel’s Creation “An Act That Was Wrong” [Mere Rhetoric]
* J Street’s campus branch drops pro-Israel slogan [JPost]
* Jon Stewart for President [LastTrumpet / JewSchool]
* I prefer the first amendment [LastTrumpet / JewSchool]
* Wake-up call [LastTrumpet / JewSchool]
* American Jews Oppose Israeli Policy in Gaza [Silverstein / Tikun Olam]
* Of Course: “Pro-Israel” J-Street Is More Anti-Israel Than Israel’s Sworn Enemies, Equates Israeli Self-Defense With Hamas Violence [Mere Rhetoric]
* Palestinian Authority, Arab Countries: Of Course This Is Hamas’s Fault [Mere Rhetoric]
* Omri Ceren Show, “Flotilla Open Season” at 6:30pm PDT, Lebanon Threatens War, Palestinian Child Abuse, Obama’s New Hamas Stimulus Package, Etc. [Mere Rhetoric]
* In summation [LastTrumpet / JewSchool]
* No, Mort, that’s not quite right… [LastTrumpet / JewSchool]
* Sweden: It’s Time For The EU To Lock In Jordan’s Ethnic Cleansing Of East Jerusalem [Mere Rhetoric]
* Jews disagree over SF mural [LastTrumpet / JewSchool]
* Santa’s Ghetto in Bethlehem [LastTrumpet / JewSchool]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Israel
* Democratic Politics
* Jewish Politics
