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
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
J Street pot calls kettle black
J Street has called on House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) to return contributions she received from Irving Moskowitz and his wife. At least Moskowitz is an American citizen, and Ros-Lehtinen has made no attempt to hide his contributions, unlike a
certain organization named after a street in downtown Washington which takes money from from foreigners and tries to hide it.
Pot calls kettle black.
Labels: Consolacion Esdicul, George Soros, J Street
