Israel Matzav

Shocka: J Street lied

J Street, the pro-Israel, pro-peace surrender lobby in Washington lied when it claimed that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon refused to meet with the congressional delegation that it brought to Israel last week in cooperation with Churches for Middle East Peace, an advocate of boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning Israel. In fact, Ayalon was never supposed to be on their schedule.

“[Deputy Foreign Minister Danny] Ayalon did not prevent the delegation from meeting with senior Israeli officials,” as claimed by J Street last week, said Barukh Binah, Foreign Ministry deputy director-general and head of its North America Division.

“Ayalon was never part of the delegation’s schedule and talk of boycotting meetings with congressman has no basis in fact. On the contrary, the deputy foreign minister is always willing to meet with elected officials from any friendly country, especially the United States of America, and [with] Jewish organizations which represent a range of diverse views from across the political spectrum.”

Binah also rejected the “subsequent assertion that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs apologized in hastily arranged meetings,” which he said was simply not true.

A senior Foreign Ministry official who asked to remain anonymous blasted the group for “coming to the region with the intention of creating headlines, perhaps for fund-raising purposes. The media and the congressmen became unwilling participants in a premeditated public relations circus. It is extremely disappointing that a so-called pro-Israel organization would put self-aggrandizement ahead of the interests of the State of Israel.”

Meanwhile, questions were raised in Israel about the pro-Israel credentials of the five-member congressional delegation brought by J Street, composed of California Democrats Lois Capps and Bob Filner, Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt, New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne and Ohio Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy.

While J Street chairman Jeremy Ben-Ami asserted that the delegation members were “key friends of Israel in Congress,” a recent vote on House Resolution 867, which slammed the Goldstone Report and reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defense, saw only one of the five voting in Israel’s favor.

The resolution passed 344 to 36, with 22 voting “present” and 20 not voting.

Ah but these five are proponents of 'tough love.' Just like J Street. They don't understand that they're not our parents and we're not their children.

If any of you had any doubt about J Street's intentions, the fact that they brought a congressional delegation here in which four out of five members fail what can only be described as the most basic litmus test for supporting Israel ought to tell you all you need to know about whether J Street is pro-Israel. The fact that J Street has been coddled and backed by the Obama administration and other members of the Left-Liberal wing of the Democratic party has frightening implications for Israel and for American Jewry.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:30 PM