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J Street’s Two Faces on Pro-Hamas Protesters
Dear Editor:
In public, J Street says it’s horrified by the anti-Semitism of pro-Hamas protesters. But in private this week, J Street’s president pressured Jewish Democrats to stop accusing the protesters of being anti-Semitic. Why the two faces?
After last month’s pro-Hamas protests in Washington, D.C., J Street issued a statement denouncing what it called “the hateful, anti-Semitic, protests and harassment.” The July 25 news release said it was “vile and abhorrent” for the protesters to use “pro-Hamas slogans” and charged that their behavior “instills fear and fuels hate.” J Street said anybody “associating with the brutal terror organization Hamas must be condemned.”
But J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami sure sang a different tune at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. During a meeting with Jewish Democrats, Ben-Ami said the pro-Hamas protesters outside the convention “don’t intend” to offend Jews and merely need help understanding “the history of the Jewish people and the things that they can and can’t say that will rub the wrong way and trigger us in ways that they don’t intend.”
As if the problem with cheering for gang-rapists is that their loud cheering might rub a few people the wrong way!
The J Street president emphasized: “I think it is so important that we not adopt a position that holds those who are wearing a keffiyeh, or carrying a Palestinian flag, or chanting a stupid slogan, that they are all somehow anti-Semitic or even anti-Israel.”
A few blocks away, those protesters were waving Hamas flags, burning American and Israeli flags, calling for Israel’s destruction and chanting pro-Hamas slogans such as “Victory to the Palestinian Resistance!” and “Intifada Revolution!”
So what’s J Street up to? How come one minute it’s calling pro-Hamas slogans “hateful, antisemitic, vile and abhorrent,” and the next minute it’s saying that such slogans are “not anti-Semitic or even anti-Israel”…?
The answer is that the two faces of J Street were for two different audiences: one public, one private.
J Street was forced to say something about the pro-Hamas protests in Washington, DC: they took place practically in J Street’s back yard. Plus, even President Biden condemned those protests and said that “celebrations of October 7” are an example of “anti-Semitism.” So J Street had no choice but to condemn them. Hence the moderate face of J Street in public.
But in private, behind closed doors, J Street’s president expressed his true feelings. He doesn’t really want the Jewish community speaking out against the anti-Semitic pro-Hamas protesters. That would discredit the protesters—and those protesters are Jeremy Ben-Ami’s biggest ally right now.
How so? The screaming flab-burners enable Ben-Ami to play a good cop-bad cop game. He can say to the White House: “Look how angry these people are. You better pressure Israel, otherwise you’ll lose Michigan.”
The pro-Hamas protesters whom J Street pretends to condemn actually give J Street a weapon that it would not otherwise have. But if Jewish Democrats, like the ones Ben-Ami met with last week, start denouncing the protesters as anti-Semitic, it could undermine the Biden administration’s policy of trying to appease them by pressuring Israel.
For J Street, it’s all part of a cynical political strategy. Say one thing in public, say something different in private. Manipulate Jewish leaders, ply sympathetic reporters with well-timed leaks, and think up new ways to embarrass and pressure Israel. It’s a cold and sometimes brutal game played along the shores of the Potomac. But for Israelis, it’s a matter of life and death.
Sincerely
Moshe Phillips
National Chairman – Americans for a Safe Israel
Biden-Harris Admin Funds the PA
Dear Editor:
In his August 21 letter in the Jewish Voice, Moshe Phillips, the new national chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel, makes an excellent point about the absurdity of the Biden-Harris administration continuing to fund the Palestinian Authority, when the PA has signed a “unity agreement” with Hamas, which is still holding Americans hostage. We need to communicate our outrage about this situation to our elected officials, both in the White House and Congress. They need to know that we are fed up with our tax dollars being given to anti-American dictators like Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. it’s disappointing that many leaders of Jewish and Zionist organizations are afraid to speak up on this and other controversial issues; but it’s encouraging to know that the new leaders of Americans For a Safe Israel are rising to the challenge.
Sincerely,
Mendel Kleinerman
Brooklyn
Disappointed in Today’s Jewish Leaders
Dear Editor:
There was a time when we could count on our Jewish leaders. Even during the Holocaust, when so many Jewish groups were silent, 500 Orthodox rabbis marched to the White House to protest FDR’s abandonment of the Jews. I don’t see anybody marching to the White House today. All I see are a bunch of extremely well-paid Jewish functionaries who issue long-winded press releases and do a lot of name-calling, but not much else.
Sincerely,
Morton Kohnberg
Boynton Beach, Fla
Jewish Officials Who Went to Qatar Should Apologize
Dear Editor:
The latest extreme anti-Israel statements by the government of Qatar reminded me of that very troubling episode a few years back, when several leaders of so-called American Zionist organizations accepted luxurious all-expenses-paid trips to Qatar, courtesy of the Emir. Then they came back to the U.S. and assured us that Qatar was becoming moderate and maybe wouldn’t support Hamas so much in the future. Well, that all turned out to be false. I think every Jewish official who took part in those trips to Qatar owes the Jewish community an apology.
Sincerely,
Ethel Dubiner
Brooklyn
The JV’s “Hard Hitting” Coverage of Israel
Dear Editor:
Thank you for your hard-hitting coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. I particularly want to extend well deserved plaudits to the editor, Fern Sidman, and the rest of the hard working news staff for producing such accurate, non-biased, and exceptionally well written pieces. Ms. Sidman’s cover stories never fail to enlighten and inform me, and for that and much more, I am quite appreciative. During these difficult times, when both the president and our own Jewish organizations keep letting us down, it’s good to know that we can count on The Jewish Voice to keep telling it like it is!
Sincerely,
Zissy Weinblatt
Flatbush
