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Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, released a statement where he sought to clarify his comments in a Washington Post article reporting on accusations that staffers from the Center for American Progress used anti-Semitic and anti-Israel language to attack pro-Israel activists. In The Washington Post article, Ben-Ami was quoted saying that he had "no problem" with the term "Israel-Firster" and emphasized that it is "a legitimate question" if an individual was "putting the interests of another country before the interests of the United States." In his new statement, Ben-Ami said that "the use of the term 'Israel Firster' is a...

The left-wing lobby group J Street has a problem. On the one hand, their leadership has been trying hard to portray itself as just another liberal pro-Israel Jewish group that deserves a place at the communal table. On the other, the radical instincts of much of its leadership and many of its supporters are so alienated from mainstream Jewish opinion about Israel and the Middle East conflict, the organization often finds itself lurching about trying to square two points of view that are incompatible. J Street first condemned Israel’s counter-offensive against Hamas terror in December 2008

After J Street announced its opposition to the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations, the leaders of the leftist pro-Israel group recently launched a new campaign lobbying members of Congress to support a new Congressional letter urging President Barack Obama to ensure that the U.S. will not cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority. The letter to Obama was initiated by Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Peter Welch (D-VT), in which they express their concern about recent proposals to cut assistance to the Palestinian Authority, saying that such a step “would diminish prospects for peace and regional stability in...

Majority of US Jews disapproves of Obama's Arab-Israeli conflict policy; separate poll shows Muslims blame West for domestic problems. WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama handily defeats his current Republican presidential opponents among Jewish voters, according to a poll put out by J Street Thursday. At the same time, the majority of American Jews disapproves of his handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the poll found. Obama currently enjoys 63 percent of the American Jewish vote compared to 24% for Mitt Romney and 67% when facing off against Michele Bachmann, who received 19% support, according to the poll. Romney, the former...

Despite enjoying a hearty welcome at the US Congress recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to meet with a delagation of representatives organized by J Street, the liberal Jewish lobby said Sunday. Congressmen cheered Netanyahu on enthusiastically 50 times during his speech, 29 of those being standing ovations. However when five of those same Congress members planned a visit Israel, requesting a meeting with the prime minster or any other official representative of the state, not a single one complied. The delegation, composed of Democratic Congress members, was set to arrive in Israel on Monday. The trip was initiated...

The Knesset’s Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee held a special discussion on Wednesday on the subject of J Street, the supposedly pro-Israel organization which in fact is sympathetic towards terror groups such as Hamas. “The committee’s conclusion is very loud and clear,” committee chair MK Danny Danon told Israel National News. “You cannot be pro-Israel if you work against the interests of the State of Israel.” Danon noted that “J Street is pro-Palestinian. It’s not a pro-Israeli organization. We told the people who came to the discussion, especially those who came from Washington, that they have to be Zionist...

Knesset committee scheduled to debate on whether J Street is sufficiently 'committed' to Israel to be called a pro-Israel organization. The leftist pro-Israel lobby J Street launched a petition and letter writing campaign on Sunday calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to treat J Street and other pro-peace movements as allies. The Knesset committee is scheduled to debate this Wednesday whether J Street is sufficiently "committed" to Israel to be called a pro-Israel organization. J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami, who arrived in Israel in order to participate in the debate, said in a letter that the petition is intended to...

The J Street national conference in Washington, D.C. has emphasized that they are pro-Israeli. Yet they didn’t say anything about being pro-Jewish. This morning Jikileaks reports that the J Street organizers at the Washington Convention Center are not offering Kosher food at its Jewish conclave with more than 2,000 participants. J Street boasts that hundreds of their attendees are rabbis. The Jikileaks person on the ground at the J Street extravaganza explained his dilemma: “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...

When we last heard from J Street, the liberal Jewish group founded by the left to counter the influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) and has strained diplomatic relations with Israel, they had been caught lying about receiving funding from left-wing patron George Soros: 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...

"How can a left-wing group like J Street call itself pro-Israel when..." Learn the truth about J Street - if you dare! (Video at link)

Ben-Ami: Appearance of unfavorable stories is part of concerted effort to undermine J Street and its message at a critical time in negotiations. Critics of J Street rebuked the dovish advocacy group on Friday after it emerged it had considered facilitating meetings between Judge Richard Goldstone and congressmen. The Washington Times reported on Thursday that J Street approached several US lawmakers in November 2009 asking whether they would be interested in meeting the author of the UN report on the war in Gaza, to ask him questions on his findings.

Groups says they support "religious freedom" and "tolerance." Following protests against the planned construction of a mosque close to the site of the former World Trade Center in New York, Washington-based left-wing group J Street launched a petition Monday in support of the project. A statement on the organization's website said: " Appalled by the opposition to plans by American Muslims to build a community center in lower Manhattan modeled after Jewish Community Centers (JCC's) and Y's all over the country, J Street is collecting petitions in support of religious freedom and against anti-Muslim bigotry.

J Street mixes its views on Israel with domestic party politics, and now, before midterm elections this is not the time to escalate partisan rhetoric around a two-state solution. J Street, the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby, ran its first television commercial last week in the United States. Watching the ad online (it can be viewed via a link on my own organization's website, www.rethinkme.org) confirmed my worst suspicions about this new organization, which likes to portray itself as the "real voice" of the mainstream American Jewish community. The commercial makes J Street's particular bias quite obvious. It begins with overt political...

WASHINGTON (JTA) – J Street has called for an investigation into American charities that fund Israeli settlement activity. J Street, the self-proclaimed political home for “pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans,” launched a campaign on Monday calling on the US Treasury Department to look into whether organizations named in a July 6 New York Times report have broken the law. The report identified more than 40 US organizations that have collected over $200 million in tax-deductible contributions for schools, synagogues and recreation centers in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. The organizations support Jewish settlements in the West Bank and receive tax breaks...

American Muslim leaders at the J Street Conference this week know exactly what J Street's real agenda is: bringing about a distancing in US-Israel relations and besmirching the mainstream Jewish community, under the guise of morality and justice. The pious spiritual claptrap that characterizes J Street's conference in Washington this week is both a conceit and a new form of Jewish apostasy. Conference speakers earnestly broadcast their "profound" Jewish and "spiritual" identities in order to besmirch the mainstream Jewish community and engender a distancing in US-Israel relations. This certainly does not fool the American Muslim leaders who are speaking at...

J Street's university arm has dropped the "pro-Israel" part of the left-wing US lobby's "pro-Israel, pro-peace" slogan to avoid alienating students. That decision was part of the message conveyed to young activists who attended a special weekend program for students ahead of J Street's first annual conference, which began on Sunday. Students are seen as a key component of the 18-month-old organization's constituency base and the conference itself. The multi-day event has incorporated new technology and interactive forums to harness their energy and garner feedback from the audience, which swelled to 1,500 on Monday and created overflow plenary and breakout...

The Obama administration appears to be welcoming the efforts of the left-leaning Jewish lobby in Washington, J Street. While Israel's ambassador to the U.S. will probably not be attending the group's October 25 conference, senior U.S. administration officials who have confirmed their participation include James Jones, national security adviser in the Obama administration. J Street was set up more than two years ago to offer an antidote to the large and powerful America Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC enjoys substantial support in both the Democratic and Republican parties and is identified with a more "rightist" line on the peace process....

A BRIT who spent two years in Guantanamo Bay as a terror suspect is cashing in with a computer game based on the US detention camp. Moazzam Begg, 41, will appear as himself in the Xbox 360 game, which could rake in £3million. Rendition: Guantanamo, due to go on sale in October, lets players control a detainee trying to shoot his way out. Begg, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, is shown in the game as head of an organisation helping the suspect to escape. Human rights activist Begg was thrown into the camp on Cuba in 2003 after the CIA held him...

FORT HUACHUCA — In January, Sgt. 1st Class Tim Kurczewski saw Tristian J. Slade off, as the 19-year-old headed for basic training. Monday, the former Army recruiter was at Chaffee Parade Field as he and other soldiers and civilians bade farewell to Slade, a private first class. Slade, of Charlotte, N.C., died Friday morning of unknown causes. Not feeling well, he went to a post medical clinic, where he collapsed, was treated by medical personnel and rushed to the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The cause of his death is under investigation. Kurczewski...

Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job...