@YidWithLid: The Chuck #Hagel Video @JStreetDotOrg Tried To Keep From The Senate

In 2009 Chuck Hagel was a keynote speaker to the J-Street Conference (J-Street is the fake pro-Israel group created by George Soros to give cover to anti-Israel activists).
According to Jennifer Rubin, the Senate Armed-Services Committee which will evaluate Hagel's nomination was tipped off that Hagel departed from his prepared remarks and made controversial comments to the J Street Conference.

In exchanges with Senate Armed Services Committee staff, J Street volunteered the prepared remarks and said it decided not to provide the complete video for fear that Hagel’s remarks would be taken out of context.

Succumbing to the pressure, J-Street finally posted the video this afternoon.
In viewing the video (30 Minutes long-embedded below) we learn that Hagel is a believer in the meme created by former Secretary of State James "F**K The Jews They Won't Vote For Us Anyway" Baker as part of his Iraq study group.
This falsehood is that all of the United States' problems in the Middle East are caused by the Israel/Palestinian conflict--be it Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan--all of it would be easily solved if there could only be peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.  It has nothing to do with radical Islam?
When originally suggested by Baker's study group then Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joe Biden  stated that he rejects the linkage the study group made “Even if a peace treaty were signed tomorrow, it would not end the civil war in Iraq,” Biden said during a January 17 2007 hearing. But it is a falsehood Hagel perpetuates in his speech.
While specifying that Israel-Palestinian negotiations were key for US policy success in the region, Hagel ignores the fact that Iran may be the single most destabilizing influence in the Middle East. Hagel does say that Iran should be prevented from getting the bomb, but rejects both sanctions and the military option leaving engagement as the only option.
Another naivete' of Hagel's highlighted by the speech was the Senator's belief that the Syrian government was just sitting there waiting to be flipped from the "dark side" to peace makers. He  believed that through "engagement" Assad would reject Iran. I wonder how that worked out?
In this video, Hagel shows himself to have a naive' world view especially when applied to the Middle East and does not belong in such a key position defending the United States.
If you cannot see video below, Please Click Here


Note: I have downloaded the video and will repost myself should J-Street decide to take it down.

via yidwithlid.blogspot.com

The Vetting: Rabbi Arnold J. Wolf, the Socialist, anti-Israel Rabbi Who Taught Obama What He 'Knows' About Judaism

...along with radical MIT professor Noam Chomsky, Rabbi Wolf helped found the Committee on New Alternatives in the Middle East (CONAME) a philosophical grandparent to today’s faux pro-Israel group J Street.(Breitbart) CONAME was described by Time magazine as one of a number of Arab or pro-Arab organizations working in the United States. An investigation by the Near East Report revealed that CONAME’s signature appeared on telegrams urging Congress to send no arms to Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Israel was attacked by Syria and Egypt on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.In 1974, Rabbi Wolf joined his friend from the anti-war movement, self proclaimed rabbi Arthur Waskow, on the executive board of a new organization called Breira, according to Beinart:(MORE)

Poor deluded stubborn rabbi fool died a sucker

J Street Defends OWS’s Anti-Semitism

Omri Ceren

(IsraelJewsJudaism) It’s always difficult to untangle when J Street officials actually believe in the anti-Israel policies and anti-Semitic rhetoric that they push and defend, and when they’re just following the commands of donors. The group’s president Jeremy Ben-Ami raised eyebrows by voluntarily injecting himself on the side of anti-Jewish language during the “Israel-Firster” debate, and then later it turned out that J Street had a potential financial incentive to take that stance. On the other hand the group and its partisans seemgenuinely enthused about rolling out the red carpet for Peter Beinart and his exhortation to economically suffocate Israelis who don’t live where he tells them. As for J Street’s call on Obama to pressure Israel in the aftermath of the Flotilla even though the Israelis were in the right on self-defense, that simply had an incoherence borne of conflicted priorities.

So it’s impossible to know which dynamic — donor pressure or personal passion — was at work when J Street officials defended the Occupy Wall Street from criticism of its disgraceful and extensively documented anti-Semitism. In favor of the donor theory, there’s the fact that J Street funder George Soros backed Occupy. On the side of the labor of love theory, there turn out to be deep sociological, institutional, and personal ties between pro-Occupy radicals and J Street officials – so much so that those radicals are now officially “partnering” with J Street on this weekend’s conference.

Most likely it was a little of Column A and a little of Column B, with J Street officials being genuinely sympathetic but wary about the optics of supporting yet another group of anti-Semites.

The debate revolves around a statement by self-declared “Jewish leaders” who, per the statement title, set out to “Denounce Right-Wing Smears of Occupy Wall Street.” The piece specifically attacked the Emergency Committee for Israel, a J Street  bête noire and a major force behind the electoral wipe out of J Street candidates in the 2010 election. Ben-Ami’s name was one of about a dozen on the bottom of the statement, and the press contact for the entire release was J Street VP Carinne Luck.

The upcoming conference will have a core, recognized, pro-Occupy new media presence. The leftwing Jewschool site recently announced that it was going to “partner with J Street” on the conference, including dispatching sponsored bloggers to cover the events. Jewschool actively pushed Occupy and continues to do so, with the most recent sympathetic post getting published just last week. “We are the 99%,” declared another post. An admittedly inaccurate Google site search for “occupy wall street” turns up over 700 hits.

It turns out that J Street officials and Jewschool officials have demonstrably been cooperating to insulate Occupy. For instance, an early version of J Street’s toe-in-the-water press release was published on a site called Occupy Judaism (later versions had additional press contacts). Daniel Sieradski, founding publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewschool owns the site. I’d direct you to the original statement on Sieradski’s site but the whole blog was taken down some time this morning, after I searched for it and found it last night. Luckily it’s still cached here.

J Street officials and Jewschool activists have long worked together to paper over the anti-Semitism of Occupy Wall Street, albeit sometimes with each being once removed from their home organizations. It would be hard to think of two more appropriate “partners” for the J Street conference.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/03/21/j-street-clumsy-defense-occupy-w...

I had no idea that Daniel Sieradski and JewSchool were owned. I had been under the understanding they were just indie hipsters that were on twitter.

What JStreet considers Civilians

(Challah Hu Akbar)

Ahmad Hajjaj

Hazim Qureiqi

Fayiq Saad

Mahmoud Najim

Muhammad Hararah

Muhammad Maghari

Shadi Sayqali

Between Mecca and Jerusalem

(sultanknish.blogspot.com) The Middle East Policy Council, formerly the slightly more truthfully named American Arab Affairs Council, founded by two American diplomats who worked in the Middle East, is typical of how the Gulfies do things. Saudis and Emiratis don't do their own laundry or build their own buildings or pump their own gas, they hire foreigners to do it for them. The Saudi Lobby is their equivalent of the Filipino maids, British architects and Indian construction workers. Want someone to spread the smear that the Jews control America. Hire that boy who took our messages to the president, give him a budget and let's see what he can do.

You won't find politicians stopping by the American-Saudi Political Action Committee. Instead a whole bunch of former American ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, like Chas Freeman, explain their position to influential people, which just happens to be the position of the House of Saud.

That goes double when the target is the general public. In 2003, the Alliance for Peace and Justice ran a bunch of radio ads attacking Israel and calling for an end to the occupation. The "Alliance" was the end of a long tail that led through an ad agency to a public relations firm and to the Saudis. Qorvis Communications, founded a year before September 11, acts as the House of Saud's PR firm. Raided by the FBI back in 04, it's still out there and working hard for the kingdom, and has its own political action committee. Much like the way the Kuwaiti government used the law firm of Shearman and Sterling to run a campaign against Guantanamo Bay.

One Qorvis alum, Judith Barnett, another former diplomat, sits on the advisory board of J Street, the left-wing anti-Israel lobby. And the Finance Committee of the Democratic National Committee. Not to mention Amideast, formerly American Friends of the Middle East, originally the Committee for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land, an organization created to oppose the creation of Israel. Its co-founder *Kermit Roosevelt Jr had come out of the board of the Institute of Arab-American Affairs, which was headed by the same man who headed the Arab League's office in the United States-- proving that the Saudis were still playing the same game as far back as the 1940's.

Ms. Barnett's political activism aligns neatly with her business in The Barnett Group, which helps Middle Eastern companies overcome "trade and governmental regulatory barriers" to do business in the United States. This line of work isn't particularly unusual for her ilk. Barnett was formerly the VP of Georgetown Global Investments Corporation, which specialized in Middle Eastern investments. GGIC was started up by Marc Ginsberg, another former ambassador to the Arab world, who blogs at the Israel Policy Forum, yet another left-wing anti-Israel group.

Tying them all together is Ambassador Robert Pelletreau, another J Street advisory board member, the original contact man for the PLO and a member of the Board of Governors of the Middle East Institute, (funded by a collection of oil companies and the Sultan of Oman) and on the advisory council of the Israel Policy Forum-- and is also the treasurer of Amideast. In addition to all that, he's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and on the boards of the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce and the American-Iranian Council. The latter is part of the Iranian Lobby and has arranged meetings with Ahmadinejad. His former law firm, Afridi, Angell & Pelletreau is based out of the United Arab Emirates. (MORE)

It took a week, but J Street now regrets its board member's meeting with Hamas

(Israel Matzav) A week ago, the Washington Jewish Week reported that J Street founder and board member Kathleen Peratis met with Hamas.

That J Street board member is Kathleen Peratis (also an initial founder of the group), a partner at the New York law firm of Outten & Golden LLP. She also co-chairs the Middle East and North Africa Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch.
Peratis recounted her time exploring Gaza's illicit smuggling operation in a recent article for The Forward.
While Peratis was not in the Gaza Strip at J Street's behest, I can't help but wonder why a prominent member of the American Jewish community was canoodling with Hamas - a known terrorist group that you might recognize from its previous appearances in "The Bombing of Israeli Citizens" and "The Violent Kidnapping of an Israeli solider." (J Street did not officially sponsor Peratis' trip, but it was happy to circulate her article to members of the J Street family -- as well as reporters and others -- via the group's daily news round-up.)
Asked what to make of Peratis' eyebrow-raising article, a J Street official said that Peratis does not speak for the group on this issue.
J Street spokesperson Jessica Rosenblum, in fact, went on the record to say that "J Street believes that Hamas' consistent opposition to the peace process, its support for terror against Israeli civilians, its use of violence for political purposes and its denial of the Holocaust are reprehensible."
Peratis, however, recounts her experience as a fun-filled joy fest spent with friends. She quotes one smuggler as saying: "Please tell your friends that Hamas people are ordinary people. We are not barbarians."
Right. "Ordinary people" who routinely murder innocent men, women, and children -- and assassinate their own political adversaries. (Though not every resident of Gaza, of course, is a terrorist. Far from it.)

It took a week of handing out her article but J Street has finally decided that Peratis' meeting wasn't a good idea.

J Street strongly regrets the recent meetings by its Board member Kathleen Peratis with members of Hamas and the articles that she has written about her visit to Gaza.
J Street’s policy clearly states our belief that “Hamas’ consistent opposition to the peace process, its support for terror against Israeli civilians, its use of violence for political purposes, and its denial of the Holocaust are reprehensible.”
In our view, J Street leaders – directors and staff – should not meet with Hamas.
...
Ms. Peratis was advised prior to her trip of J Street’s view that its leaders should not meet with Hamas[1]. We deeply regret that she chose to meet with Hamas representatives anyway.
She did not represent J Street in the meetings she did have, and her writings do not in any way reflect the views of J Street.

But of course, they're not going to kick her off their board or something even though J Street leaders 'shouldn't meet with Hamas.' Think of all the money she's given them. I mean, what's important in life?

the blond next to Puff Daddy is the J Street spokes-bimbo?

...I took your story in a low key way... and then I ran across a name... just a name. I was wondering what about it struck me as familiar. Jessica Rosenblum,.... Jessica Rosenblum,.... who is that? why do I know the name. so I did a google image search. It is hard to believe that a serious spiritual organization would choose someone who has the lifestyle of Paris Hilton as a spokesperson. I know it is J Street... and I know most of us are no longer fooled or angered by what they say, but it is hard to believe that these people are taken seriously by even the most left wing of publications. It's beyond reason... it really is insane to imagine that a woman like her is considered a spokesperson for anything. I wouldn't trust her with a public relations job for a hair salon, let alone a religious ahem ...excuse me secular political elitist snobs... or whatever. whatever. whatever. whatever.

J-Street seeking rabbinic cover for anti-Israel activities

(EOZ: )Read this sickening pseudo-d'var Torah on the J-Street site by Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum, Congregation String of Pearls, a Reconstructionist congregation in Princeton, NJ that hold services in a Unitarian church. This is the most intricate pilpul on J-Street's site:

Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum

[T]he Torah itself places our textual tradition squarely in the realm of a literary, rather than a literal, tradition. The need for a lively symbolism trumps the need for historical accuracy. But throughout this literary masterpiece, perhaps most clearly in Deuteronomy, its fifth book, we can discern a political stance that takes the form of an arc toward justice, especially distributive justice. The Torah claims that justice and peace can not exist without economic parity. And we also find in it the radical notion... that land does not belong to any of us, that we are all its tenants. As the narrative’s protagonist, God, says in parshat Yitro: indeed all the earth is Mine, ki li kol ha’aretz. ...Right now we need to bring these resilient foundations of our tradition to bear on a seemingly intractable problem. Of course a sovereign state needs clear and verifiable boundaries, but let us remind ourselves that we come from a literary tradition in which land has long been revered for its symbolic value at least as much as its economic or strategic value; we do not come from a literal tradition. A literal interpretation would claim land ownership, down to the last hectare and dunam, based on our ancient ancestors’ understanding of what God wanted from them and from their descendants.

Yes - Reb Donna (which is what her temple's website calls her) takes God's words of "all the Earth is Mine" and applies it literally. But the eighth verse in Deuteronomy, the book she praises for its political stance, says quite clearly: Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them. (MORE)

She wanted to prove there was no truth: I have been known to pull guns out online when the concept of truth is questioned. It gets me into trouble, but I have to say it is worth it. It is supposed to be within the concept of the argument. The problem is when they take the gun out of context as well. When someone has a problem with objectivity it is best to stay away and not argue with them. Sadly there comes a point when dialog does no good. These people are out to hurt us. They understand reason; they make it seem like there is a debate, but the TRUTH is they are looking to trap whoever they can in their scheme. No, I'm not kidding. I leave a message on my blog for a reason: Because we can't always know the answer doesn't mean that Truth is subjective. Neither does it mean that Truth can be manipulated by data or manipulated out of context. When the Truth is obscured it fails to be Truth.

It is pointed out that all historical records are biased and inaccurate, or on the other hand, that modern physics has proven that what seems to us the real world is an illusion, so that to believe in the evidence of one's senses is simply vulgar philistinism.

...Did Orwell say philistinism? oh... just in case any authority wants to try that little trick again of taking my thoughts out of context. No, I'm not threatening Rabbi Donna.

Updated: Philistinism is to make the weapons and the Jews depend on the Philistine weapon sharpeners. It says this in Samuel 1

Israel Project lobbies for continuing aid to the Palestinians

....and now you know what kind of money the Israel Project has. This money was supposed to go to fighting the negative impression of Israel. A lot of very wealthy Jewish philanthropists who decided rightly, that there was a pressing need for a professional operation in Washington capable of getting out the truth about Israel to a hostile media. Sadly... the kind of money that can buy silly POP ART... can also be subverted to support J Street

Caroline Glick: According to a report in today's Jerusalem Post, the Israel Project is joining forces with J Street to lobby Congress to continue to fund the Palestinian Authority even after it has abandons the barest illusion of peacefulness by going to the UN to ask for statehood.

Dave Neff Photographer:
Salam Fayyed, Prime Minister of the Palestinean Authority and TIP President Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi in a Roy Lichenstein scene.

Grassroots revolt against Jewish Federations’ support of Israel’s enemies

The winds of change are blowing across the landscape of American Jewish institutions, fanned by grassroots revolts against local Jewish Federation leaderships for their support of positions and programs that threaten Israel. This is not simply a right-wing versus left-wing divide, but rather a demand that local leaderships either change or find themselves with seriously reduced support, popular and financial.

On August 10th, the Jewish Telegraph Agency published an opinion piece by Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) titled, at least on the ADL site, “Shout Down the Sharia Myth Makers.” Within a few weeks, the Foxman op-ed, which attacked those who who are wary of the inroads sharia law is making in the United States, had been, in lockstep fashion, printed in more than two dozen Jewish weeklies subsidized by Jewish Federation charity organizations, ranging from North Jersey’s Jewish Standard to Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent to Wisconsin’s Jewish Chronicle to Los Angeles’s Jewish Journal.

The ADL has been taken to task for this, including by this writer and by Jewish Culture Examiner himself. Similarly, the ADL has received considerable recent criticism for, among other reasons, its eager support of the construction of “mega-mosques” throughout the United States, including New York, Tennessee and California. The following are some examples of the grassroots revolt taking place:

In Orange County, California, local activists of Ha’Emet (The Truth), have mined state public records and, in the process, unearthed details of how the local Federation funded more than $60,000 in grants to U.C.-Irvine for student trips to meet with Hamas representatives on the West Bank.

In Indianapolis, a new group, the Jewish American Affairs Council of Indiana (JAACI), has opposed local Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) interfaith dialogues with a leading Muslim Brotherhood front group, the Islamic Society of North America, headquartered in nearby Plainfield.

In Manhattan, JCCWatch.org has been very critical of the current UJA-Federation executive director, John Ruskay, for both his high-six-figure compensation and for his support of pro-Palestinian programs.

The Russian Jewish Foundation of Boston, which represents 70,000 (generally politically conservative) Russian-Jewish émigrés, has taken exception to JCRC’s invitation of the local J Street chapter to join. J Street, which Orwellianly operates under the mantra of “Pro-Peace and Pro-Israel”, supports the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. Moreover, J Street had secured significant funding from controversial anti-Israel financier George Soros (born to a Hungarian-Jewish family as György Schwartz).

Then there is the Buffalo Federation, which engaged in planning “dialogue” efforts in Syria with a notorious anti-Semitic imam, via local community terrorism supporters. This was exposed by Dr. Charles Jacobs of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

In March, 2011, the public learned of the slaughter of five members of the Fogel family in Israel by teenage jihadis. A group of activists dedicated a pledge in memory of the Fogel family, requesting that local Federations oppose sponsorship of speakers supporting boycotts of, sanctions on and divestment from Israel. To date, only the Federation in Sarasota-Manatee County, Florida has signed the Fogel Pledge.

More has to be done to reform local Jewish Federations and JCRCs, as well as the national group, the Jewish Council on Public Affairs. Merely reducing or withholding donations is not enough. Alternative grassroots organizations like JAACI should be established in local communities to become the “go to” Jewish representatives for support of the State of Israel.

Additionally, American Jews can no longer afford to ignore Christian–Zionist organizations, such as Christians United for Israel, which represent tens of millions of believers in the sanctity of G-d’s covenant with his people.
Jerry Gordon (senior editor of New English Review), NY Jewish Culture Examiner (h/t Doc's Talk)

The Jews in the Basement

We have an angry Jewish feminist writing about Pamela Waechter. I hear her anger, but she blames Jewish men...

The coming week marks five years since the murder of Pamela Waechter. Who? If the name doesn't ring a bell, here's a brief reminder: She was shot in the head by Naveed Afzal Haq, as she tried to crawl down a flight of stairs and escape, after Haq shot her in the chest.

....Still not jogging your memory? How about this: Waechter was the 58-year-old director of the annual campaign of the Jewish Federation of Seattle. Sometime around 4 PM, on July 28, 2006, Naveed Afzal Haq grabbed a 14-year-old girl and thrust a gun in her back. He used her to gain entry to the Federation, and then rampaged through the building, shooting six women -- Layla Bush, Christina Rexroad, Cheryl Stumbo, Dayna Klein (who was five months pregnant), Carol Goldman, and, fatally, Pamela Waechter. Tammy Kaiser jumped from a second-story window to escape, and was hospitalized with injuries.

Pamela Waechter

What was Haq's motive? Well, here's an interesting clue: As he stormed through the halls, shooting and killing, he shouted, "I'm a Muslim-American! I'm angry at Israel!"

...And yet, the images of the Seattle women under attack are so unbearable that the question must be shrieked from the rooftops: Where are the men?

By Stella Paul via americanthinker.com 

she goes on...

....And the Jewish men are very busy, you see, cowering in the basement.  In 1903, the great poet, Chaim Nachman Bialik, was sent to report on the Kishinev massacre of Jews in Russia.  Bialik was shocked by what he learned of the men's passivity, as their women were raped and murdered before their eyes.  He wrote a searing poem, "The City of Slaughter," excoriating the men hiding in the cellar, who silently watched their loved ones' destruction:

In that dark corner, and behind that cask
Crouched husbands, bridegrooms, brothers, peering from the cracks,
Watching the sacred bodies struggling underneath
The bestial breath,
Stifled in filth, and swallowing their blood!

where are the Jewish men in Seattle five years later? In jail and first amendment rights were taken away... not to mention other rights like right to be read my rights on arrest or right to avoid being a Jew put in a cage with a bunch of skinheads. Physical intimidation to plead guilty. A right to a fair trial when virtually tarred and feathered on the news. told by Muslim guards  named Mohammad before extradition that we can not pray in Hebrew because it is elitist. Of course Palestinian sympathizers couldn't possibly be involved because the judge doesn't believe that has anything to do with it... it isn't like there isn't violence associated with it's sympathizers. and it isn't like as if we might have any documents that just might prove that a non Jew was very preoccupied with what she called, "Nazi Sympathizing Jews". It isn't like as if a woman left it completely vague as to who these Jews were.... maybe the Jews she knew or the Jews she knew in the past? You know? Zionists? But she leaves it vague... leaving it to her listener to attack any Jew. the truth is only the accused know. It couldn't be... that could not of happened... because as we all know... It could not be written about... because how ? ...the right to blog is was taken away from us.  Arrested for writing without a previous arrest. Writing on a private facebook profile. Prior Restraint? It could not be that which happened. There could not of been evidence that a person was insane making the allegations and the authority ignored that anyway. There could not of been evidence that the woman was a stalker.... nah... could not of happened. Should this little excerpt be a reason to arrest again... it may not be this person talking... it might be someone else. How could anyone know the context of all of this? of course they will jump to a conclusion anyway... because we are talking about a man... and we are talking about Washington state... where the ladies have problems with men... how do they expect us to stand up for women when we can't even legally talk about gender online without being censored and arrested? So is this the MAN IN THE GLASS HOUSE? I hear he dresses in the basement.  Washington State men are second class citizens. Yes the ladies get violated... sometimes even killed. And now our rights as men are taken away. We can not stand up for our community if you deny us men fairness because of our gender.

What Are BDS Proponents Complaining About? Aren't They Getting What They Want?

The Boycott Bill, stipulates that anyone calling for an economic, cultural or academic boycott against the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria will be unable to participate in government tenders. In addition, any person who considers himself a victim of a boycott could sue the boycotter for compensation. Court gives state 60 days to explain Boycott Law.  Z Street is wondering what all the fuss is with Israel's new anti-BDS law:

An interesting precedent is in Germany dealing with Holocaust deniers without physical boundaries. The lawyer Eugene Volks sees this as a threat to Democracy. The delegitimizers, i.e. the BDS practitioners and their enablers (NIF, J Street, Peace Now) immediately attacked it as a gross violation of free speech... ...Many central to further right-leaning pro-Israel organizations are also expressing criticism... Also recently the United States declared that effected markets has no boundaries to prove cause of information crimes. The law does NOT criminalize speech and it does NOT restrict free speech. BDS practitioners can continue to say whatever vile things they want about Israel, but they simply are not eligible for government contracts if they do. Well goodness, isn't that what they want? NOT to engage in financial transactions with the "evil ZioNazi government"? image via Israeli BDS Activists Call on Artists to Boycott Music Festival h/t Daled Amos

Vote to kick J Street out of the JCC

Boston's Jewish Advocate has a poll that asks "Should the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston keep J Street as a member organization?"
Go here and vote no.
At this writing (several hours before you're seeing this post), the no vote is winning 55-44.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

JStreet Refused to Help Rescind Goldstone

their values are sickening....

To the Editor:

Within hours of the posting of the JTA item "Senate unanimously calls for Goldstone rescission," a J Street Facebook fan posted a strong condemnation of the decision. Last week, I had asked the J Street leadership to endorse rescission. They wrote back saying they would not because nothing really happened as a result of the report and anyway, it was also critical of Hamas.
They do not seem to realize the strong support Goldstone’s report gives to the delegitimization and BDS campaigns.
Robert Gutman
Durham, N.C.

via challahhuakbar.blogspot.com @ JTA

Anyone need to be convinced about JStreet's politics? They are not liberal. They are not open minded at all... they are orchestrating hatred.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

What is J Street?

The Bash-Me Bunch or Beat Them and They Will Thank you, Thank Them and They Will Beat You

Welcome to the J Street Conference at the Washington Convention Center, where "more than 2,000 registered in advance," according to a smiling lady welcoming the press.
"What do you have more of here, Jews or Arabs?" I ask the smiling face.
"That is racial profiling," her smile evaporates.
"Isn't J Street 'Jew Street'?" I ask.
"That is your interpretation."
"I'm so sorry. Could you please explain what the 'J' stands for?"
"It is the letter that's missing in the Washington street names."
"Is it the only one missing?"
"There is no Y Street, no Z Street. J is just the start from the top."
Why choose to call your organization for a street, existing or not? But "J," we must admit, sounds less like a "racial profiling" than any spelled-out "Jew," "Jewish," or "Judaism."
Welcome to J Street, the street of the Js.

via hudson-ny.org

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

JCC Watch rips JCC of the Upper West Side

For those of you wondering why the
JCC logo has been censored, go here.

At a press conference in New York on Sunday, JCC Watch ripped the JCC of the Upper West Side of Manhattan for cooperating with organizations that promote boycott, divestiture and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

The JCC of the Upper West Side, notes the watchdog group, is a beneficiary agency of the UJA-Federation. BDS was launched in 2005 by various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which seek to demonize, delegitimize, and ultimately destroy Israel by the spread of misinformation, incitement, and promotion of various boycotts.
In a news conference held Sunday afternoon in front of the JCC offices, JCC Watch reported that the organization is partnering with a number of pro-BDS organizations.
Among those listed were the leftist organizations New Israel Fund, B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch, and J Street.
JCC Watch founder Richard Allen called on the JCC board of directors to establish public and transparent guidelines regarding BDS.
“It’s time that the board of directors of the JCC in Manhattan take action. It’s simple: all they have to do is stop supporting groups that partner with, fund, or support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel,” Allen said.

read more via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

I know the rabbi of that JCC. I had my Bar Mitzvah at a Reconstructionist Synagogue called B'nai Keshet in Montclair NJ.  Joy Levitt is a very sick woman. this is not political for me. this is personal.
Joy had me thrown out of Hebrew school at B'nai Keshet ...if I remember correctly. I drew a picture of my teacher when I was 13 years old. for the record I was wrong... and it wasn't a female teacher it was a male teacher, but I was 13 years old. I had to train for my Bar Mitzvah with the Orthodox because the Reconstructionist synagogue would not allow me to go to Hebrew school. These women are out to hurt Western men. It is their agenda. The girls are coddled and groomed and the boys are given hairy eyeballs. I have pictures of girls dancing with each other at my Bar Mitzvah party. at the time it didn't mean anything to me. now I realize they were reinforcing Anti-Social behavior. Very few of the kids still talk to each other. Just about every girl who was in my Bar Mitzvah class is now a lesbian. The one straight girl there in my class was known to be promiscuous. when they elected Obama president... it felt like Montclair NJ started running the government. I used to get beat up by black kids and my parents would take me to a shrink and the guy would say... "you don't know how to read people". yeah right... I read the hate just fine

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

J Street Traif #jstconf

I was invited to the Sabbath
at a Reform shule in Poughkeepsie.
It is called Vassar Temple
and the invite was from Beth El...
the Conservative Temple's Rabbi.
And when I arrived there after
prayer was a lecture by a man
from Dallas
(a Reconstructionist Male Rabbi)
who said we should make a big tent
for J street and then used the
Daily Beast as a reference.
I walked out and said this was pathetic
and it was not Judaism.
It isn't... to ask to include haters on the Sabbath
is not Kosher. Debate is fine during rest,
but the debate that happened at Vassar Shule
was intended to humiliate
and had no place on Friday nights.
I was reminded that I was a guest.
(also it is odd, but they have their own lame tunes
for common songs that have had great tunes for centuries.
I'm talking about basic prayer.  and what was with the organ
and the female cantor in a performance?)
I was bewildered by the situation...

and then it seems to be an epidemic:

Please distribute this film
that Tzippy Livni must see!

This film reveals in only
2 minutes the truth about
the anti-Israel organization,
Jstreet. At the end of this week
Knesset members, Hasson,
Schwartz, Shai, and Mola,
from Kadima,
traveled to the United States,
for the annual conference
of this organization,
all expense paid.

While the Government of Israel
has cut all ties with J Street,
Kadima Knesset members
are vacationing on J Street's account.
Kadima head Livni, must
disassociate herself from this
ethical corruption, at the least,
rebuking these members of her party.

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

...J street isn't KOSHER!

@mere_rhetoric : So nice of @jstreetdotorg
to bring BDS organizers all together
at #jstconf in run-up to Israel Apartheid Week.
Helpful!

This past weekend, J Street held a conference.

Plenty of  bloggers and others covered the event,

and there are some very good articles

that discuss exactly how J-Street

is not even close to being "pro-Israel."

Here is one simple proof.

Starting next week

we will see the annual Israel Apartheid

Week at colleges and universities worldwide.

Every pro-Israel organization on campus

is gearing up to counter the avalanche

of anti-Israel vitriol and lies

that attack the very legitimacy of the Jewish state.

But at the J Street U site,

there is nothing but silence.

No pro-Israel programming,

no pamphlets to distribute,

no flyers or posters to counter the hate.

Nothing.

(They do have

some statements

that are against BDS.)

When pressed, J-Street

will mouth some words of support

for the existence of Israel.

But on their own, they

do not do anything to actively defend Israel

without carefully calibrating the message

to equally defend "Palestine."

How can a supposedly

pro-Israel organization

not lift a finger

to defend Israel

when it is under

the most withering attack?

(For an example of what a pro-Israel
campaign looks like, check this out.)

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Ben Sales went hungry at the J Street Conference.
Why?
No kosher food.
Really:-

Some people say J Street is too far to the left; others complain that it’s too far right. But there’s another, more basic reason for Jews to doubt J Street’s kashrut:
Its food is literally not kosher.
Of course, plenty of Jewish organizations serve non-kosher food at their events, and that’s fine. Given that the vast majority of Jews don’t keep strict, certified kosher, there’s no reason to foot that bill. But almost all Jewish organizations, and certainly all major ones, make the effort to provide kosher options for those Jews who do require a hekhsher. At the very least, they would offer kosher food for purchase.
Not so with J Street.
When I arrived at the conference this morning, before 8 a.m., I asked a staff person if the breakfast would include kosher options. She told me it would. But when the food arrived, there was nothing kosher to be found–not even fruit. I sufficed with coffee and decided to wait for lunch, when–with an hour of free time–I could rush on the metro to a kosher restaurant.
When that time came, I got ready to hurry out of the conference room only to be told by multiple J Street staffers that there were sandwiches for purchase across the building and yes, some of them were kosher.
You can guess what happened next. I arrived at the sandwich cart and requested the kosher option. I got a blank stare in return, and when I asked the manager she told me she had no idea what I was talking about. She hadn’t heard anything about kosher sandwiches. The best they could do, they said, was a regular turkey sandwich with the cheese taken off. No good. I bought a Clif bar, a Nature Valley, a Kit Kat, an apple and a banana. I filled the feast out with some mini Twix I found at a conference table.
Maybe I’m making too much of this, but I think that an intentionally Jewish organization that bases its platform on Jewish values should make more of an effort to respect a basic traditional Jewish practice. This is especially true for J Street, which emphasizes pluralism and acceptance...

My, my.  There was this in September 2009:

...The average age of the dozen or so staff members is about 30. Ben-Ami speaks for, and to, this post-Holocaust generation. “They’re all intermarried,” he says. “They’re all doing Buddhist seders.” They are, he adds, baffled by the notion of “Israel as the place you can always count on when they come to get you.”

I guess they are also baffleds by the concept of "kosher".
But, to be pluralistic, there's this clarification: 

The "Buddhist seders" meme comes from NYT article about J Street where Jeremy Ben-Ami is cited as saying "We all hold Buddhist seders" and "We are all intermarried". Ben-Ami is not intermarried. His wife, Sara, is a daughter of a Rabbi and descendant of a family which co-founded Petah Tikva more than 120 years ago. And of course "Buddhist seder" was just a joke.

Nevertheless, many people harped on that Buddhist seder bit but I didn't locate any J Street corrections but one J Street sympathizer who was quite pro-Buddha. 

via myrightword.blogspot.com
Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

pig image via angelahart.org 

Alana Goodman reports at contentions that Republicans were a No-Show at the J Street Gala.

J Street doesn’t like to describe itself as a “left-wing” organization, but its gala dinner last night failed to attract a single Republican member of Congress. The only two GOP lawmakers listed as attendees at the gala — Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Jeffrey Fortenberry — have both clarified today that they didn’t actually go to the event.
The Washington Jewish Week’s Adam Kredo published a list earlier today of 56 members of Congress who attended...

via bokertov.typepad.com

-Representative Tammy Baldwin
-Representative Xavier Becerra
-Representative Howard Berman
-Representative Marsha Blackburn
-Representative Bruce Braley
-Senator Sherrod Brown
-Representative Lois Capps
-*Representative Russ Carnahan (Couldn't attend)
-Representative Andre Carson
-Representative Wm. Lacy Clay
-Representative Steve Cohen
-Representative Gerry Connolly
-Representative John Conyers
-Representative Jim Cooper
-Representative Danny Davis
-Representative Susan Davis
-Representative John Dingell
-Representative Lloyd Doggett
-Representative Donna Edwards
-Representative Keith Ellison
-Representative Anna Eshoo
-Representative Sam Farr
-Representative Bob Filner
-Representative Jeff Fortenberry
-Representative Charles Gonzalez
-Representative Raul Grijalva
-Representative Martin Heinrich
-Representative Rush Holt
-Representative Sheila Jackson Lee
-Representative Marcy Kaptur
-Senator Herbert Kohl
-Representative Dennis Kucinich
-Representative Barbara Lee
-Representative David Loebsack
-Representative Betty McCollum
-Representative Jim McDermott
-Representative Gregory Meeks
-*Senator Jeff Merkley (Couldn't attend)
-Representative Brad Miller
-Representative Gwen Moore
-Representative James Moran
-Representative Chris Murphy
-Representative Bill Owens
-Representative Bill Pascrell
-Representative Donald Payne
-Representative Chellie Pingree
-Representative Jared Polis
-Representative David Price
-Representative Nick Rahall
-Representative Jan Schakowsky
-Representative Jackie Speier
-Representative Chris Van Hollen
-Representative Maxine Waters
-Representative Peter Welch
-Representative Lynn Woolsey
-Representative John Yarmuth
-*Senator Maria Cantwell (Didn't RSVP, but attended.)
-*Representative Earl Blumenauer (Didn't RSVP, but attended.)
-*Representative Charlie Rangel (Didn't RSVP, but attended.)
I'll update and amend this list as need be.
It's also worthwhile to note that on Tuesday, more than 700 J Street activists took to Capitol Hill to cap off the four-day conference by lobbying lawmakers on several pro-Israel fronts.
During 240 separate meetings with lawmakers, J Street's citizen lobbyists urged their members of Congress to keep U.S. funding to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority robust.
UPDATE: Soon after posting this list, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry's office called me up to clarify his inclusion. They say he neither RSVP'd for, nor attended J Street's conference.
Amy Spitalnick, J Street's spokesperson, maintains that Fortenberry's office said he'd attend. (There was no e-mail confirmation, as I incorrectly indicated earlier.)

via washingtonjewishweek.com

via elderofziyon.blogspot.com

J Street and George Soros Damage Control

The so called "Liberal Jews" that are a sock pocket for financial sharks ARE looking to rebrand

J Street's chief failing, according to Pollak, is that it has mistakenly assumed that because American Jews tend to be progressive, they want the United States to get tough with Israel, as do many other progressives. "But the syllogism doesn't work," Pollak said. "U.S. Jews may be liberal, but they're not anti-Israel." J Street officials, who acknowledged that some of the organization's wounds have been self-inflicted, maintain that although the group has taken its lumps, it patiently forges on, gathering supporters and gaining political influence.

The event is scheduled to take place Feb. 26-March 1 at the Washington Convention Center in D.C., where panelists will discuss topics ranging from "Do Israelis 'Care About Peace' " to "The Revival of the Israeli Left" to "The Campus Challenge: Changing the Conversation in an Environment of Extreme Polarization."

The list of speakers numbers at least 60 and includes Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund; and journalists Peter Beinart, Eric Alterman and Gershom Gorenberg.

Among the more controversial speakers is Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voices for Peace, which advocates the use of BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) against Israel. BDS has been roundly condemned in the mainstream Jewish community because it serves to demonize and deligitimize Israel.

J Street, too, opposes BDS, noted Ben-Ami, who said he is not concerned that the appearance of Vilkomerson might legitimize BDS. Rather, she was invited to air her views, he explained, so that conference attendees who might be "tempted" to embrace BDS will think otherwise after they see its moral and tactical failings exposed in debate. (Vilkomerson is scheduled to appear Feb. 28 on a panel along with three opponents of BDS.)

via washingtonjewishweek.com

J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami addresses the crowd at the organization’s first national conference, held in 2009 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the District.
Photo courtesy J Street

there is a lot of oil money floating the self haters.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Will J Street invite me? - "We think it's important to hear from experts on our issue that speak from many perspectives, even if we don't necessarily agree with everything they have to say."

I particularly noted this line in the letter: We think it's important to hear from experts on our issue that speak from many perspectives, even if we don't necessarily agree with everything they have to say. In that spirit, I offered myself to J Street as a guest speaker and wrote them my own letter:

Yisrael Medad is the Director of Information Resources at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, was previously the Director of Israel's Media Watch

via blogs.jpost.com

J Street and J Street U are sponsoring a number of events around the country featuring UNRWA’s Gaza Director John Ging.
Are these people aware of the seriousness of what they are doing in hosting Ging?
With assistance from friends, I have learned that during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009, Ging hid the fact that Hamas fighters were firing weapons near a UN school compound that was hit by IDF fire, and also fed the propaganda claims of deaths inside the school. Only after the war did he admit that there were fighters right outside the grounds (more or less where the IDF fired) and that nobody was killed in the school. (CAMERA has a summary of the media's accounts, including some of Ging's statements.) In NGO Monitor's report on NGO mis-statements about the incident, it is shown how Ging's statements were responsible for the demonization of Israel on this incident.
A quick Google search will show similar occurrences of Ging repeating the Palestinian narrative of demonizing Israel and de-legitimizing self-defense measures. He also has some statements in support of flotillas into Gaza. (See, for example, here, and also here and as well, here, too).
David Bedein’s site provides additional information like here and here.
There are these reports.
But, to be fair, Ging was threatened by Hamas.
As an historical aside, UNRWA was, right after its establishment, responsible also for Jewish refugees from the area of the Palestine Mandate, which included Judea, Samaria and Gaza.  However, according to a memo from the UN I received in October 2003, it was in July 1952 that UNRWA was requested by Israel to cease its assistance to the Jewish refugees of Palestine which numbered about 17,000 "internally displaced Jews coming from the original mandate Palestine" and with other nationalities, the number Israel begin to assist independent from UNRWA was 19,000.  If Israel had no so acted, after the 1967 war, it is conceivable that the UN would have had to assist in the rebuilding of Jewish communities in Gush Etzion (Kfar Etzion, Revadim, Tzurim and Massuot Yitzhak), north of Jerusalem (Atarot and Neveh Yaakov) and along the Dead Sea (Bet HaArava)
But now, to return to J Street’s Ging connection, a letter (I reproduce it below) relating to the John Ging lecture has come to my attention.
I particularly noted this line in the letter:

We think it's important to hear from experts on our issue that speak from many perspectives, even if we don't necessarily agree with everything they have to say.

In that spirit, I offered myself to J Street as a guest speaker and wrote them my own letter:

via blogs.jpost.com

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous