Theresa Heinz Kerry underwriting restaurant distributing anti-Israel propaganda
A foundation financed by
Theresa Heinz Kerry - wife of US Secretary of State John FN Kerry - is underwriting a Pittsburgh restaurant that distributes anti-Israel propaganda with its food (picture from
The Federalist Papers via Leah P).
A food cart that hands out anti-Israel propaganda with each of its
sandwiches has received funding from a foundation run by Secretary of
State John Kerry’s wife.
Conflict Kitchen, a pop-up restaurant located at the intersection of Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh University the
University of Pittsburgh, seeks to use food to educate locals and
college students about countries that are allegedly in conflict with the
United States.
It recently began serving Palestinian food wrapped in leaflets that
include quotes from Palestinians defending terrorism and opposing the
existence of Israel.
“How can you compare Israeli F-16s, which are some of the best
military planes in the world, to a few hundred homemade rockets?” states
one quote on the wrapper, a reference to Hamas rocket attacks against Israelis. “You’re pushing them to the absolute extreme. So what do you expect?”
“Palestinians are not going to just let [Israel] in and drop their
arms,” it adds. “No, they’re going to kill and they are going to die.”
The statements on the wrappers were taken from interviews with
Palestinians. They are published without quotation marks and do not
appear to be edited for accuracy.
Another section of the wrapper refers to the creation of Israel as
“an intentional and ongoing offensive.” It also alleges that Israel
deliberately blocks Palestinians from obtaining drinking water, opposes
non-Jews from becoming citizens, and has assassinated or imprisoned all
of the non-corrupt Palestinian leaders.
According to the wrapper, Conflict Kitchen is supported in part by
the Heinz Endowment, which is chaired by Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz
Kerry.
A spokesman for the Heinz Endowment told the Washington Free Beacon that it gave Conflict Kitchen a $50,000 grant last April to support its relocation to another site in Pittsburgh.
The Conflict Kitchen claims to be interested in other conflicts. And indeed, it is.
Previously, Conflict Kitchen served Iranian food along with leaflets
that included quotes that claimed a nuclear Iran would not be a threat
and that the United States would profit from any military intervention.
“Iran should equally have the right to develop nuclear weapons,” said one quote on wrapper.
“In general, Iranian people have no issues with the Jews,” said
another quote. “What Iranians resent is the creation of the state of
Israel because of the disaster that it created for millions of
Palestinians. To this day, Israel refuses to recognize the United
Nation’s resolutions for Israel to leave the occupied lands.”
The Heinz Endowment was not listed as a supporter of Conflict Kitchen on the Iranian food wrapper.
According to Conflict Kitchen’s Palestinian leaflets, it also
receives funding from the Sprout Fund, the Benter Foundation, and the
Studio for Creative Inquiry. The Benter Foundation is run by
horse-racing tycoon and Democracy Alliance member Bill Benter, who was revealed to be a major funder of liberal Middle East lobbying group J Street in 2010.
Gee, does anyone see a pattern here?
Oh, by the way, guess where
Benter's home town is....
But no, none of this could possibly color John Kerry's views on Israel.... /sarc
Labels: Bill Benter, Iranian nuclear threat, J Street, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Palestinians, Theresa Heinz Kerry, two-state solution, University of Pittsburgh
If there are no Muslims involved, who cares?
Hong Kong riot police fired teargas, pepper spray for the first time
since 2005 to disperse pro-democracy demonstrators during clashes after
thousands of protesters blocked the main street to the financial Central
district on September 28.
Let's go to the videotape.
Much more
here.
Still waiting for the first call for China to end its occupation of Hong Kong. Not holding my breath.
Still waiting for
Bill Benter to protest. Not holding my breath.
Labels: Bill Benter, China, J Street, occupation
Tzachi Hanegbi plays dumb
Tzachi HaNegbi (left, with Livni and Olmert) posts on his Facebook page that he was contacted by
Im Tirtzu's Ronen Shoval and
urged not to attend the J Street convention next month (link in Hebrew, translation mine).
This week, in light of my anticipated participation on a panel of six Knesset members at the annual convention of the American Jewish group J Street, I was approached by Ronen Shoval who heads the Im Tirtzu organization.
According to Shoval the organization is an "explicitly anti-Zionist organization that works against the interests of the State of Israel," and therefore it would be proper to refrain from granting it legitimacy.
I set up a meeting with Im Tirtzu in order to better understand their viewpoint. Even so, I find it difficult to accept an approach that prefers boycotts to dialogue. The official website of the American organization defines its member as "American Zionists, pro-Israel and supporters of peace, who are acting out of love and deep concern for the future of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state." I too, like the overwhelming majority of Israel's citizzens, am a pro-Israel Zionist who supports peace. The argument between me and J Street, as with all other supporters of the Left, relates to the red lines on which we must insist during negotiations. It is important that the Likud's voice be clearly and unequivocally heard by them.
I don't believe in boycotts. Our camp was boycotted from the State's early days when Ben Gurion set a principle that was invalid at its core: Without Herut and Maki [two of the former parties that made up the Likud]! This is not our way. I prefer dialogue, strong arguments and mutual listening, especially when we are talking about part of our people.
Either Tzachi has no clue what J Street is, or he is playing dumb. As you can see by the title of this post, I believe that he is playing dumb.
Here are
some of the things that Tzachi didn't bother to learn about J Street:
3. J Street joined with the pro-Iranian lobby, the National Iranian
American Council (NIAC), to oppose congressional efforts to impose
sanctions on Iran. Ben-Ami and NIAC director Trita Parsi co-authored an
anti-sanctions article titled “How Diplomacy Can Work with Iran” in
Huffington Post in June 2009. At the Knesset, J Street Director Ben Ami
lied and said that J Street had never opposed sanctions against Iran.
4.
J Street received large contributions from one of NIAC’s directors,
Genevieve Lynch of New York. She serves on J Street’s Finance Committee,
and her J Street PAC contributions exceed $10,000 per year.
5. J
Street’s PAC received tens of thousands of dollars from one of the
leaders of the Arab American community, Richard Abdoo. J Street’s
relationship with the Arab American Institute is very tight.
6. J
Street PAC repeatedly took contributions from a Turkish American,
Mehmet Celebi of Chicago. The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign
dropped Celebi in 2008 when they discovered he helped produce Valley of
the Wolves, a viciously anti-American and anti-Semitic Turkish film.
7.
J Street recently sponsored a speaking tour for John Ging, head of
UNRWA in Gaza. The raison d’être of UNRWA is to perpetuate the
Palestinian refugees’ status, thus encouraging their “right of return.”
8.
J Street’s visit to Israel in February 2010 was cosponsored by an anti
Israel group called Churches for Peace in the Middle East, an
organization which supports the boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS)
efforts against Israel.
...
11. Anti Israel Career U.S.
Arabists are attracted to J Street, sitting on its advisory board or
contributing to J Street’s PAC. These include Ray Close, contributor to
the J Street. former CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia and then advisor
to the head of Saudi intelligence; Lewis Elbinger, contributor to the J
Street PAC a State Department foreign service officer who had been
stationed in Saudi Arabia but now serves as deputy political advisor
seconded to Gen. David Petraeus at CENTCOM; Nicole Shampaine,
contributor to J street PAC director of the State Department’s Office
for Egypt and the Levant; Amb. Ted Kattouf, members of the J Street
Advisory Board, former ambassador to Syria and the United Arab Emirates;
Ambassador Robert Pelletreau,member of the J Street Advisory Board.
former ambassador to Egypt, Tunisia and Bahrain; and Ambassador Philip
Wilcox, member of the J Street Advisory Board, former U.S. consul
general in Jerusalem and president of the Foundation for Middle East
Peace.
...
15. In January, J Street in Jerusalem held a special meeting to honor Israeli soldiers who refused to obey orders.
16.
In March, J Street lobbied the US Congress against a resolution that
condemned the blatant incitement in Palestinian school books and
Palestinian media, while J Street refuses comment on the curriculum of
the PA which openly promotes the violent struggle to liberate all of
Palestine.
More
here.
Their money isn't Jewish either.
Another lie that was exposed by Eli Lake on Friday was the claim that
most of J Street's money came from small donations by American Jews. In
fact, aside from the 15% that came from George Soros, 50% came from a
woman in Hong Kong named Consolacion Ediscul.
The group's 990 forms -- which I've also obtained and put online for the first time here
-- show the group's single largest contribution, in the odd sum of
$811,697 coming from one Consolacion Ediscul of Happy Valley, a Hong
Kong suburb. Ediscul, whose name is Filipino, has no presence on Google
or Nexis aside from this story, and people I spoke to in Jewish groups
left and right had never heard of her.
According to a source in Hong Kong, Esdicul is J Street donor Bill Benter's
secretary.
Someone needs to get to Tzachi and explain to him that J Street is not made up of or supported by American Jewish peace loving Zionists who are going to advance the one thing he cares about - his career. It's made up of people who are trying to destroy us. And he is about to help them.
Labels: Bill Benter, Consolacion Esdicul, George Soros, Iran, J Street, our friends the Saudis, Tzachi Hanegbi
J Street backer Bill Benter bankrolling pro-Hagel campaign
I guess George Soros is a little short on cash. Hong Kong based gambler Bill Benter, whose secretary, Consolacion Esdicul,
donated most of J Street's budget in 2008-9, is
bankrolling the fight to make Chuck Hagel the next Secretary of Defense of the United States.
But over the last two weeks, Hagel's friends in the
Democratic political world have come to his aid, principally by rounding up
senior former officials to write supportive op-eds and funding an advertising
effort to spread the world that Hagel does in fact have bipartisan support.
The
Cable has learned that a large chunk of that pro-Hagel
money is coming from one Democratic donor, gambling legend Bill Benter, who is working with the Podesta Group, a Washington lobbying
firm, to support pro-Hagel advertising. Podesta facilitated Benter's funding of a
week of ads in Politico's Playbook
must-read daily newsletter, written by Mike
Allen, a spokesman for Benter confirmed to The Cable.
"The Bipartisan Group issued its letter to set the
record straight on Chuck Hagel's character and on the positions taken by that
Group. One of the Group's long-time supporters, Bill Benter, paid for the
advertising so that the letter could reach a wider audience," the spokesman
said. "The public interest would be better served if those organizations
which spent much more on attack ads against Senator Hagel would also disclose
their donors."
The so-called Bipartisan Group is really just taking care of one of their own.
"The Bipartisan Group is an
informal grouping of leading foreign policy experts, most of them former senior
government officials, who are connected with various leading policy institutes
and academic institutions, such as the Atlantic Council, the Council on Foreign
Relations, the Aspen Institute, and the U.S./Middle East Project," a
representative of the group told The
Cable.
The group organized its first letter
in 2008 and its members include Zbigniew
Brzezinski, Thomas Pickering, Lee Hamilton, Brent Scowcroft, Paul Volcker,
Frank Carlucci, William Fallon, Sandra Day O'Connor, and ... Chuck Hagel.
"It was a group that got together (for
these kinds of things) and called themselves the Bipartisan Group," said Larry Korb, defense expert at the
Center for American Progress.
And of course the Left thinks this is wonderful.
Steve
Clemons, a long-time supporter of Hagel's, said there's
nothing wrong with Benter's activity and pointed out that the anti-Hagel crowd
is superbly well funded by undisclosed rich donors.
"Sheldon
Adelson and Irving Moscowitz are
regulars at this and I think it is great that progressive funders step forward
to support a fair and honest discourse on these issues," he said. "There's been
too little funding put behind candidates like Hagel and too much funding spent
on the smears. It's nice to see some balance."
Undisclosed? Adelson's donations were much more transparent than Benter's donation to J Street, which has not been acknowledged to this day. And isn't it funny that every time I see references to Adelson's business, they include words like 'mogul' or 'magnate,' while those words are never used about Benter?
Speaking of which, will we see the New York Times editorializing that it's
immoral to take money from Benter as they did about Adelson?
Who says there's no double standard in the United States?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bill Benter, Chuck Hagel, Consolacion Esdicul, J Street, Sheldon Adelson
J Street Funder Bill Benter paying MJ Rosenberg's salary at Media Matters?
I'm sure that many of you remember
Bill Benter, the mysterious, Hong Kong-based gambler who financed much of J Street's budget. Well, it seems that there's another US-based organization that has been the beneficiary of Benter's generosity: Media Matters. Specifically, Benter may have contributed money to
keep Jewish anti-Semite MJ Rosenberg on the payroll (Benter wouldn't confirm that part).
“I have been a contributor to Media Matters for many years and am proud to support the important work that it does fighting for truth in media, working for more honest political discourse and promoting our shared progressive values,” Benter told TheDC in a statement.
A source told TheDC that Benter donated to Media Matters, at least in part, so the liberal organization could bring MJ Rosenberg on board as its foreign policy voice.
Rosenberg has become a lightning rod for questioning the loyalty of American supporters of Israel by calling them “Israel firsters,” and for taking other radical positions. Alan Dershowitz, the liberal Harvard Law School professor, has denounced him in a series of recent interviews and articles, saying that Rosenberg’s rhetoric and ideas are similar to what neo-Nazi and pro-Hezbollah websites offer.
According to tax documents obtained by TheDC, the Media Matters Action Network paid Rosenberg $129,568 in 2010, plus $4,505 in other compensation. That organization is one of Media Matters’ political arms. It is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.
TheDC wasn’t able to independently confirm the source’s claim that Benter donated to Media Matters with the intent of endowing Rosenberg’s salary, and it appears that Benter contributed directly to the 501(c)(3) — not to its affiliated 501(c)(4) group.
When TheDC asked Benter’s intermediary, Matt Dorf of Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications, whether Benter was in any way involved in bringing Rosenberg on board, and whether Benter possibly solicited funds for Media Matters’ (c)(4) affiliate to help pay Rosenberg’s salary, Dorf said the latter question was “exactly the right question” and that he would ask Benter.
Dorf later replied that Benter would not be providing any further statement.
Read the whole thing. Gee, you think J Street and Media Matters could have the same sources of funding? What a shock that would be.
/sarc
Labels: Bill Benter, J Street funding, Media Matters, MJ Rosenberg
EXCLUSIVE: Who is J Street's mystery donor?
Last September, I published a post in which I asked "
who the heck is Consolacion Esdicul?"
Another lie that was exposed by Eli Lake on Friday was the claim that most of J Street's money came from small donations by American Jews. In fact, aside from the 15% that came from George Soros, 50% came from a woman in Hong Kong named Consolacion Esdicul.The group's 990 forms -- which I've also obtained and put online for the first time here -- show the group's single largest contribution, in the odd sum of $811,697 coming from one Consolacion Esdicul of Happy Valley, a Hong Kong suburb. Esdicul, whose name is Filipino, has no presence on Google or Nexis aside from this story, and people I spoke to in Jewish groups left and right had never heard of her.
Spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick tells me the same thing the group told Lake: She is a business associate of Bill Benter, another J Street supporter from Pittsburgh who solicited Consolacion's gift. It's a large gift, but it should be put in the context of the $11.2 million the J Street family of organizations has raised over the last 2.5 years (full details below).
Esdicul's contribution was just about half of the $1.6 million the group received during the year in question. Spitalnick says that they haven't received any other contributions from Esdicul , and that their operating budget over the last three years for the group's "family of organizations" is $9.5 million.
It is, to say the least, unusual that a group would get half its budget from a foreigner doing a favor to a business associate. I left a message for Benter, who heads a medical transcription company, to ask about how that came about.
Benter, as it turns out, is one of the world's most successful betters on horse races, and Happy Valley, a Hong Kong suburb, is the location of one of the world's largest horse race tracks.
I did a lot of speculating about Connie Esdicul
here and
here. I theorized that she might be the sister of Benter's wife, Vivian Fung, or the widow of Benter's former betting partner Alan Woods. In the course of my research, I discovered that Benter was also a donor to Barack Hussein Obama, the Democratic party of Virginia and
Rabbis for Human Rights.
But the truth came to me from a source I found while in the US. The answer is really quite simple according to my source: Consolacion (Connie) Esdicul is Bill Benter's long-time secretary. She has been his secretary for the last 25 years, and may have been even more than his secretary at one time. So Benter (surprise, surprise!) is the likely source of all that money, which may not have been reported as such to the appropriate US authorities.
Just so you know that the source is authentic, here's a picture of Benter's office building:
I have the address and the phone number. Google Street View did the rest.
When you are a rich man you can buy a lot of things. But honesty cannot be bought.
Hmmm.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bill Benter, Consolacion Esdicul, George Soros, J Street funding, Jeremy Ben Ami, Rabbis for Human Rights
