This scoop is now all over the place, but nonetheless we’ll record it here. Over to Eli Lake at the Washington Times:
The Jewish-American advocacy group J Street, which bills itself as the dovish alternative to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby, has secretly received funding from billionaire George Soros despite previous denials that it accepted funds from the Hungarian-born financier and liberal political activist.
Tax forms obtained by The Washington Times reveal that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
The contributions represent a third of the group’s revenue from U.S. sources during the period. Nearly half of J Street’s revenue during the timeframe — a total of $811,697 — however, came from a single donor in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, named Consolacion Esdicul.
Consolacion Esdicul? As Jeff Goldberg exclaimed, “Who?”
Soros has often attacked both Israel and Zionism and is an enthusiastic proponent of the fable that the “Israel Lobby” runs U.S. foreign policy. And J Street’s problem - and boy, is this a problem - is that they’ve denied receiving funds from Soros.
Read Eli’s piece for all the details.
Jeffrey Goldberg has a revealing interview with Marcy Winograd, who is challenging Jane Harman in California’s Democratic primary on June 8th.
Here’s a collection of Winograd’s thoughts as shared with Goldberg:
- Why the US brought 9/11 on itself: “Most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and were angry at the proliferation of U.S. bases and forces in Saudi Arabia, so I think there’s a great degree of pushback over the presence of U.S. troops all over the world.”
- In answer to the question, “if we left Afghanistan, wouldn’t the Taliban shut down these women-led NGOs?” “Well, that would be the whole point in investing in women-led NGOS, to make them stronger and to help women emerge in leadership positions politically. Under the Soviet-influenced government in Afghanistan, women had far more freedom than they do today, after how many years of American occupation?”
- Why Jews are to blame for antisemitism. “Zionism categorizes Jews as a race, which makes it easier for Jews to be targeted.”
- Why a ‘one-state’ solution doesn’t apparently involve killing most of the Jews currently living in Israel in order to be workable. “I’m a believer in equality, one voice, one vote, Israelis and Palestinians, one voice, one vote, that’s my personal position.”
- And the customary “as-a-Jew” narcissism. “I’ve labeled myself as a Jewish woman of conscience who is compelled to speak out because of the suffering in the world.”
Awful. Just awful.
But here’s a question for J-Street. According to this puff piece about Winograd, one of her enthusiastic backers is Lila Garrett, a J-Street Board Member. Is supporting a candidate who, in her own words, reveals herself to be a Soviet apologist, an advocate of Israel’s elimination, a believer in the thesis that the US brought 9/11 on itself, a supporter of the equation of Zionism with racism, and an optimist on the Taliban’s attitude toward the rights of women compatible with the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” branding?
When cultural historians look back at this week’s J-Street conference in Washington, DC, they will observe that many of the participants invested its proceedings with an almost mystical significance: a Woodstock moment for Jewish politics in America which poked a finger into the flabby bellies of the establishment organizations by declaring, “change has come, move aside.”
Continue reading ‘J-Street’s Parochialism’
This is a guest post by Petra Marquardt-Bigman.
Some of the most interesting material on the controversy about J-Street that has developed in the run-up to the organization’s currently ongoing conference was provided by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who recently published an interview with J-Street’s executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami.
Continue reading ‘How to Make Life Easy for J-Street’s Detractors’
