Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: qualche domanda a JStreet

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/showdown-on-j-street/?print=1
J Street’s director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, published an open letter [1] to
Israel’s Ambassador Michael Oren in the Jerusalem Post this week
insisting that he appear at the J Street Conference at the end of the
month. Hopefully, Ambassador Oren will continue to deny the supposed
“pro-Israel” organization the legitimacy of his presence.
J Street’s goals and policies were revealed when Stephen Walt, co-author
of the venomous The Israel Lobby, recently proclaimed [2], “This is a
key moment in the debate. It will be important whether Obama gets enough
cover from J Street and the Israel Policy Forum so Obama can say, ‘AIPAC
is not representative of the American Jewish community.’”
It’s time to call out Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s director, to answer the
following questions:
1: You served as Fenton Communications’ senior vice president until you
established J Street, launched in 2008.  In early 2009, Fenton signed
contracts with a Qatari foundation to lead an 18-month long anti-Israel
campaign in the United States with a special focus on campuses. The
actual text of the contract [3] called for: “An international public
opinion awareness campaign that advocates for the accountability of
those who participated in attacks against schools in Gaza.”
Did you sever your ties with Fenton when you began J Street? Do you
retain any role or holdings in Fenton today? Did you play any role in
introducing Fenton to the Qatari agents or play any role in facilitating
the contract? Were you aware of the negotiations or the contract signed
on March 12, 2009?
These questions are relevant because it’s important to know if J
Street’s refusal to support Israel’s anti-Hamas military campaign was
influenced by your ties with Fenton, whose promotional material claims:
“We only represent people and projects we believe in.”
Were there discussions with Fenton prior to J Street’s refusal to
condemn the Goldstone Report on Gaza, a report that certainly serves the
Fenton/Qatari interests? Were there communications with Fenton
surrounding J Street’s support for Rep. Donna Edwards who refused to
sign a congressional resolution supporting Israeli actions in Gaza?
2: You were recently asked in an interview [4] about funds J Street
received from Palestinians, Arab-Americans, and Iranian-Americans, to
which you answered: “J Street does have some Arab and Muslim donors —
about five. These are individuals, not organizations, corporations or
foreign countries. Well over 90 percent of our money comes from Jewish
Americans and Christians.”
Did you really say J Street has only five Arab and Muslim donors? A
partial listing quickly extracted from the U.S. Federal Election
Commission shows [5] more than 30 contributors, many with ties to
Arab-American organizations.
So far, only J Street’s Political Action Committee has disclosed its
contributors, as mandated by federal law. But who are the donors to the
main J Street organization? Make that list public, and these pesky
inquiries will probably go away.
When asked about J Street’s funding by the Jerusalem Post — the
newspaper that ran the original exposé — you responded [6] “at most 3
percent” of contributors were Muslim or Arab.  Now you state that the
figure may be closer to 10 percent. One tenth of J Street’s budget of $3
million, or $300,000, is a substantial sum. Why do so many Arabs
contribute to an organization that purports to be “pro-Israel?”
3: Do any Israelis support J Street’s agenda? How many? Look at the list
of Israeli speakers appearing at J Street’s Conference, all losers in
Israel’s political arena: Ami Ayalon, Colette Avital, Amir Peretz,
Shlomo Ben-Ami, Yuli Tamir, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.  They have all failed
to secure support from the Israeli electorate or even from their own
parties, so they take their messages to the U.S. and plead with the U.S.
government to pressure Israel’s government, make the Israelis do things
that their citizens have already rejected. The tactic is patently
anti-democratic.
Two retired senior IDF officers, well-known members of the peace camp,
recently went to the U.S. to speak on J Street’s behalf. When they got
there they discovered that J Street opposed sanctions against Iran.
According to a JTA account, Brig. Gen.(res) Israela Oron called for a
“timetable that would be tied to punishing sanctions.”
“The thing that worries me and that worries other Israelis is that
[current negotiations are] not limited in time,” Oron said as the faces
of her J Street hosts turned anxious, adding [7]“I’m not sure I’m
expressing the J Street opinion.”
Maj. Gen. (res) Danny Rothschild discovered that he differed [8] with J
Street’s policies on an immediate freezing of settlements, the halting
of settlements’ natural growth, and opposing tough sanctions against Iran.
And then Labor MK Ophir Pines-Paz spoke to a Washington gathering in
early October sponsored by J Street’s co-founder, Daniel Levy, today of
the New America Foundation. When Pines-Paz was told he was wrong in
“assuming that everyone on the left is aligned on Iran’s nuclear
capabilities and threat, [and in agreement] with Israel’s assessment,”
he exploded. [9] “Wake up!” he shouted.
J Street produced a film clip for its site and for YouTube [10] showing
prominent Israelis who “speak out in support of a two-state solution and
J Street.” But do they actually support J Street? View the clip
carefully and discover that only three out of 11 Israelis mention J
Street at all — former minister Ami Ayalon and Uri Savir. The third is
former MK Colette Avital who is a J Street employee in Israel. Not quite
the ringing endorsement J Street had in mind.
Even the leaders of Israel’s opposition have refused to appear at the
Conference, according to sources in Jerusalem.
4: How extensive is your interlocking directorship? I believe that is
the correct characterization of J Street and its allied organizations. J
Street’s contributions from the heads of the Arab American Institute and
Iranian lobby NIAC have been documented in these pages. They serve on J
Street’s Finance Committee which has a minimum requirement of $10,000.
As research continues in the files of various federal agencies, we found
that the interlocking relations continue into the second tiers as well.
Take for example, the case of Rebecca Abou-Chedid. She appears in the
federal elections records as contributing to J Street’s PAC. Her
occupation is listed as “consultant” for “USUS LLC.” But until recently,
she was also the national political director at the Arab American
Institute where she “was responsible for formulating AAI’s positions on
foreign policy … and represented the Arab American community with
Congress as well as the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and
State.” Today, Abou-Chedid is the director of outreach at the New
America Foundation’s Middle East Task Force. [11]
J Street co-founder and Advisory Council member Daniel Levy serves as
co-director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation,
an institute that benefits from George Soros’ largess and membership on
its board.
Heads of other pro-Arab organizations, such as AMIDEAST, and Arab
foreign agents are contributors to the PAC. But Mr. Ben-Ami claims that
no organizations or foreign governments contribute. They don’t need do;
their representatives do.
5: Who drives policy at J Street? It’s difficult  to imagine that the
unwieldy J-Street 160-member board of advisors directs policy. Some of
those members are also foreign agents who worked for Egypt and Saudi
Arabia. It also seems unlikely that your big bucks, 50-member Finance
Committee provides decision-making guidance. That’s where the heads of
the pro-Iranian and Arab-American lobbies sit.
So who directs policy? A hint was provided by a left-wing blogger,
Richard Silverstein, who heard the pre-launch spiel in Seattle given by
you and “co-founder” Daniel Levy 18 months ago.
“It’s always important with efforts like this to examine the board
member names,” Silverman wrote. [12] “There are of course leaders of the
main American Jewish peace groups. There are rabbis and academics. But
most important there are heavy hitter political donors (Alan Solomont),
policy wonks (Rob Malley), U.S. ambassadors to Israel (Samuel Lewis),
high level political operatives (Eli Pariser of Moveon), Hollywood
liberals (Robert Greenwald), business leaders, George Soros’ top aide
(Morton Halperin), and even a former Republican senator (Lincoln Chafee)
and former Congressman (Tom Downey). … The group founders believe that
Barack Obama and his staff “get” J Street’s perspective while they
believe a Clinton candidacy might not advance J Street’s mission as
aggressively.” [Note, the briefing was given at the height of the
Democratic primaries.]
Soros, the National Journal reported, was present [12] at J Street’s
initial strategy sessions.
Anyone reading Soros’ 2007 manifesto, “On Israel, America and AIPAC
[13],” will understand that he is the spiritual godfather of J Street,
if not its silent sugardaddy.
“I believe that a much-needed self-examination of American policy in the
Middle East has started in this country,” Soros proclaimed, “but it
can’t make much headway as long as AIPAC retains powerful influence in
both the Democratic and Republican parties. Some leaders of the
Democratic Party have promised to bring about a change of direction but
they cannot deliver on that promise until they are able to resist the
dictates of AIPAC. Palestine is a place of critical importance where
positive change is still possible. Iraq is largely beyond our control;
but if we succeeded in settling the Palestinian problem we would be in a
much better position to engage in negotiations with Iran and extricate
ourselves from Iraq. The need for a peace settlement in Palestine is
greater than ever. Both for the sake of Israel and the United States, it
is highly desirable that the Saudi peace initiative should succeed; but
AIPAC stands in the way. It continues to oppose dealing with a
Palestinian government that includes Hamas.”
So it appears that Soros has created an organization that competes with
AIPAC, calls for inclusion of Hamas, and opposes sanctions against Iran.
His people sit on J Street’s board, and his other offspring from the New
America Foundation and the National Iranian American Council, work in
lockstep. It’s a scary scenario that should attract the attention of the
best investigative reporters from national news outlets, but the modern
day Lotus Eaters have been lulled and ensnared by J Street.
But just because they won’t ask the tough questions doesn’t mean that
they don’t have to be answered.

 if not its silent sugardaddy.
e allora? Soros è antisemita?