Israel Matzav: The biggest contributor to Sherrod Brown's campaign is... J Street

Sunday, September 09, 2012

The biggest contributor to Sherrod Brown's campaign is... J Street

In an earlier post, I reported on the use of Nazi imagery in the campaign of Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Oh). If you can tell the person by the company he keeps (which I believe you can), then Senator Brown has a little explaining to do. According to this report, the largest contributor to Brown's campaign is none other than the Soros-backed, pro-Saudi, pro-Iran J Street.

Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is running for reelection on a record that voters who care about Israel are likely to find ambivalent. The Democrat’s campaign sounds all the right notes on the importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship, but his list of backers raises questions about how reliable his support for Israel will be if Ohioans return him to the Senate for a second term.

Brown has received more in campaign contributions from the lobbying group J Street and some of its top people than from any other source. J Street purports to be dedicated to a “pro-peace, pro-Israel” agenda, but its many critics regard it as fundamentally opposed to Israel’s security interests.

“There are individuals within J Street who have been critical of Israel to the point of being a liability,” says Asaf Romirowsky, a fellow at the Middle East Forum. “They have been very careless in the way they have treated Israeli policies, and it is endangering Israel.”

...

Meanwhile, Brown’s opponent in the Senate race, Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel, is an unequivocal supporter of Israel. “I believe there is one Jerusalem that is the capital of Israel,” Mandel has stated. “Jews should be able to build, live, and conduct commerce wherever they are in Jerusalem and in the state of Israel.”

In an effort to compromise Mandel’s clear support for Israel and his identity as the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super PAC, has accused him of “taking cash from Nazis.” For evidence, it points to a campaign contribution from Richard Iott, a former House candidate who has played an SS officer in World War II reenactments.

And in fact, Brown is apparently in J Street's pocket.

In January 2011, after J Street urged President Obama not to veto a Palestinian-backed U.N. resolution attacking Israeli settlements, some of Brown’s Democratic colleagues publicly broke with the organization. J Street’s “brains have fallen out,” said Representative Gary Ackerman of New York.

Brown, though, stood by his loyal donor. He was one of the few senators to attend J Street’s annual conference one month later. He has attended multiple J Street conferences since then and has hosted events for the group at his offices in both Ohio and Washington, D.C.

Read the whole thing. There's much more, including a connection to Media Matters and its sponsor.

Labels: Campaign 2012, Sherrod Brown, United States Senate