J Street mum about Hamas 54 53 50 letter
Lenny Ben David tries to get to the bottom of J Street's silence on the HamasAnd who appears first on the Minnesota Independent’s list of the letter’s backers? “Among the groups supporting the letter: J Street, The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF), The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), The American Near East Refugee Association (ANERA), The Methodist Church, The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), and Rabbis for Human Rights.”Follow the money - it seems to explain an awful lot, doesn't it?
With the exception of the rabbis, none of J Street’s colleagues on the letter are known for their fraternal feelings toward Israel.
Is that why J Street avoids claiming credit for the letter or publicizing the fact that it trucks with some unkosher characters? Perhaps the “pro-Israel” group wanted to avoid appearing “pro-Gaza” on the eve of launching its national grassroots operation last week. Or perhaps J Street got burned over the last year when it was revealed that a large portion of its PAC funds (possibly close to 10 percent) were coming from individuals never known for being “pro-Israel.” Indeed, the most recent Federal Election Commission records (for the last quarter of 2009) suggest that the J Street PAC donors with ties to Saudi Arabia — the tarnished National Iranian American Council and the Arab-American Institute — didn’t like the publicity and are keeping their checkbooks closed.
By the way, it's worth going to the three links at the top to check if your representatives are on the list. I know of at least three representatives that have large Jewish constituencies (Bill Pascrell from Northern New Jersey, Yvonne Clarke from Brooklyn and Elijah Cummings from Baltimore - all Democrats).
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:13 AM
2 Comments:
I'm not even going to bother checking that list, Carl. Why? Because I live in Oklahoma - I SERIOUSLY doubt Jim Inhofe, Tom Coburn, or any other of our reps/Senators would sign some crap like that. This is one state of the union where I know for a fact that they have pro-Israel rallies where thousands of people will fill up a stadium, all waving Israeli flags. This is the "Buckle of the Bible Belt," and being pro-Israel is pretty much the norm around here.
Eric Massa also represents a large Jewish district in Rochester, NY.
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