בס״ד supremacists embrace עש"ק פרשת אמור – ל"ג בעומר 18 Iyar 5781 ISRAEL NEWS Israel & anti-  April 30, 2021 Semitism.” Issue number 1343 A collection of the week’s news from Israel Over the years, Roth has also From the Bet El Twinning / Israel Action Committee ofof hired a number of experienced Jerusalem 6:39 Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation and dedicated anti-Israel Toronto 8:01 activists, such as Sarah Leah

Whitson, who was born in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Commentary… Old City (then under Jordanian occupation). Her family reportedly moved to the United States in 1960, but for whatever reason, her anti- Human Rights Watch Exploits its Mission for Hate Israel passion, often crossing the line into antisemitism, is well- By Gerald M. Steinberg entrenched. Prior to joining HRW in 2004 and heading their BDS In the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet bloc and the Arab league campaign, she had been active with the Arab-American Anti- combined forces in the United Nations to promote anti-Semitism and Discrimination Committee and, even then, ran campaigns attacking demonize Israel. This crescendoed into the infamous 1975 United Israeli “apartheid” and its “matrix of control.” (Whitson also raised Nations resolution labeling Zionism as racism. money in Saudi Arabia and suddenly left HRW in early 2020 when By the 1990s, the hatred had spread to powerful political those details were leaked.) organizations working under the banners of human rights and In 2016, Roth and Whitson hired Omar Shakir—the lead author international law. In particular, the propaganda war against the Jewish of HRW’s “apartheid” publication. Shakir is also deeply and state was and continues to be led by Human Rights Watch (HRW), an personally invested in vilifying Israel and spent many years as a NGO superpower working in close cooperation with other groups, campus activist speaking under headings like “Apartheid IsReal.” He including some in Israel. In 2009, HRW founder Robert Bernstein, has led HRW’s (failed) effort to press Airbnb and the FIFA soccer writing in The New York Times, criticized his own organization for association to join the anti-Israel boycott. For Shakir, who left Israel helping “to turn Israel into a pariah state.” after his work visa was not renewed and he lost a lengthy court battle, HRW’s latest contribution to the anti-Israel agenda was launched this is revenge propaganda. on Tuesday under the heading of “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli But perhaps this time, Roth, Shakir and HRW overshot their Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution.” With an target. After the report was criticized in media reports, such as in Le annual budget of almost $100 million (including some long-hidden Point (often quoting NGO Monitor), they tried to spin the message, donations such as from a corrupt Saudi billionaire), the organization claiming that they were not actually comparing Israel to South Africa was able to gain a great deal of publicity and media coverage. but instead were using a new definition of apartheid. But with the The headlines highlight the disingenuous equivalence that HRW long history, the 200 references and the title, even an NGO draws between Israel and the South African apartheid regime. HRW’s superpower will have trouble selling that canard. publication has 200 references to apartheid — approximately one per (JNS / NGO Monitor Apr 29) page—interspersed among false accusations and distorted (or invented) versions of international law, many of which were copied directly from other NGOs. HRW attacks everything from Israel’s 1950 Can J Street Stoop any Lower in Backing Anti-Israel Views? Law of Return, enacted in the shadow of the Holocaust, to counter- By David M. Weinberg terror measures, which, they claim, are used “to advance demographic First in sorrow, then in anger, for years I have tracked J Street’s objectives” and “have no legitimate security justifications.” This claim malignant metamorphosis from a “pro-Israel and pro-peace” is made easier by the fact that they fail to mention decades of organization into an anti-Israel mutant. Palestinian terror against Israeli victims. At its founding a dozen years ago, “pro-Israel and pro-peace” Why has HRW focused so much money and energy on viciously was taken to mean partnering with the mainstream Israeli political targeting Israel for more than 20 years? The answer is Kenneth Roth, Left to build support in Washington for a two-state solution between who has led HRW since 1993 and is the driving force behind the Israel and the Palestinians. Fair enough. organization’s obsession with Israel. Roth has not hidden his strong But since then, J Street has spent its time and money besmirching anti-Zionist compulsion. In 2004, an Israeli journalist asked him, Israel, lobbying for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas; “What’s a good Jewish boy from Chicago doing at the helm of HRW, smearing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Birthright the famous NGO that many accuse of singling out the Jewish state?” and other truly pro-Israel organizations; pumping former US Roth did not deny his hostility toward Israel, but instead referred to his president Barack Obama’s dangerous deal with Iran (and supporting father’s “stories of life in Nazi Germany until he fled in summer its renewal) and backing political candidates for whom the Boycott, 1938.” For many years, Roth’s official HRW biography cited his Divestment and Sanctions movement is a badge of honor and father’s experience in Germany, as if this somehow explained singling antisemitism is part of their repertoire. out Israel for attack. To this shameful list can now be added: lobbying to restrict US In addition to his obscure personal factors, Roth also promotes a military aid to Israel and possibly moving toward advocacy of a condescending worldview known as post-colonialism that “confederated state” to replace Israel all together. automatically treats supposed victims of the West as innocents who The organization’s descent into anti-Israel iniquity started when it can do no wrong, in contrast to the West—particularly the United supported the evil Goldstone Report (the UN’s hatchet job on Israel States—which he always paints as guilty. After 1967, when Israel was following the 2009 war with Hamas), advocated open diplomatic no longer in danger of being destroyed by Arab armies, was receiving talks with Hamas but not military action against it and then endorsed increased support from the United States and became an “occupier,” the Palestinian Authority’s drive for unilateral recognition of the Jewish state became a primary target for the post-colonialists, statehood at the UN. including Roth. J Street also began wrapping its confrontation with Israel in pious Many years ago, Roth also understood the value in comparing spiritual claptrap. Its leaders earnestly broadcast their “profound Israel to the heinous South African apartheid regime. He sent HRW Jewish and spiritual identities,” to besmirch the mainstream Jewish officials to play a central role in the 2001 U.N. Conference in Durban, community and engender a distancing in US-Israel relations. South Africa, and defended this comparison as part of the Peter Beinart launched his notorious book, The Crisis of Zionism, organization’s agenda of countering what he referred to, even then, as at the 2012 J Street conference too, promoting a “progressive vision “Israeli racist practices.” In interviews and on Twitter (Roth posts of American interests and liberal Jewish values.” We all know where every hour, seven days a week), he frequently promotes the apartheid Beinart ended up: Openly calling for the dissolution of Israel. and racism theme. (Judging from this year’s J Street conference, the organization may In 2017, after the white supremacist march and violence in not be far behind Beinart.) Charlottesville, Roth tweeted a link to a propaganda piece headlined In 2012, J Street became a shill for Obama’s Iran policies. It “Birds of a feather: White supremacy and Zionism.” He included a started a campaign to “Stand up to those beating the drums of war picture depicting a Confederate and Israeli flag, commenting, “Many against Iran,” meaning those nefarious, radical Israelis led by Prime rights activists condemn Israeli abuse & antisemitism. Some white Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his knee-jerk, incautious, ra-ra cabal of American Jewish supporters – like the 13,000 American Jews solution” which focused on Israeli-Palestinian “confederation.” You who attended that year’s AIPAC conference and lobbied for can argue that “confederation” is just a twist on the two-state concept. restrictions that would permanently end Iran’s nuclear bomb program. But I view this as an insidious slide away from support for the “It is not as if we’re seeing Iran develop a specific plan for the sovereign Jewish state of Israel towards the nihilistic one-state elimination of the Jewish people,” soothed J Street’s president and “solution” now advocated by Beinart and other post-Zionist founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami. Consequently, his pro-peace angels propagandists. marched on Washington “to stand up to those who talk loosely about The most inflammatory talk at the conference was given by war with Iran” and to support Obama’s spineless policy regarding Iran. Warren, who reiterated her call to condition US aid to Israel, and then In 2017, J Street launched its “StopDemolitionsBuildPeace” campaign, implored Israel’s opposition parties to unite and oust Netanyahu so designed to “challenge our communities to wake up to the omission that the US could facilitate the creation of a Palestinian state. (Talk and erasure of Palestinian perspectives and narratives, which create the about blatant foreign interference in Israeli politics!) environment that make it easy to ignore demolitions, settlement Warren then repeated the blood libel about supposed Israeli expansion and occupation.” “apartheid” in denying or blocking coronavirus vaccinations to In 2018, younger J Street-yites (sounds like “Trotskyites”), newly Palestinians. “Jewish settlers in the West Bank are receiving organized under the rubric J Street U, hosted teach-ins and sleep-ins on vaccinations, while few Palestinians have any access to life-saving university campuses and marched on Israeli embassies to protest shots,” she fumed. Israeli policy in Judea and Samaria. (Of course, J Street calls Judea No J Street leaders reproached Warren for such defamation of and Samaria by its UN moniker, the OPT – “Occupied Palestinian Israel. The slander slid smoothly down J Street throats and spread Territories.”) widely across J Street frequencies. It probably would have been met J Street U also launched a vigorous campaign to undermine with roaring applause had J Street-yites been physically present in the Birthright recruitment drives on campus, arguing that the Birthright room with Warren. (Jerusalem Post Apr 23) program serves “the right-wing annexationist agenda.” Birthright – one of the American Jewish community’s most successful initiatives, a lifeline in the difficult struggle to keep young Israel Must Not Stand Idly By By Danny Danon American Jews Jewish and to give them some Zionist foundations – The nuclear talks in Vienna feel like a flashback. The U.S. was for J Street a source of “omission and erasure.” Its trips to Israel, administration is yet again eager to join the dangerous Iranian nuclear wailed J Street, “omit Palestinian narratives in their programming and deal, and Israel is left to wage a rear-guard battle alone. erase Palestinians and the occupation from our collective It seems that Washington will rejoin the Joint Comprehensive consciousness,” and “perpetuate the attitudes and politics that help Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in its original form, without any changes make demolitions and occupation possible.” Such trips “might lead our or additions to the way it was worded in 2015 during the Obama communities to feel no compulsion to speak out on behalf of administration. Palestinian rights.” Iran is playing a sophisticated game and is winning. Since the In 2019, J Street ramped-up its anti-Israel campaigning with a new 2015 deal was concluded, not only has the Islamist regime enriched initiative to condition US military aid to Israel on an end to Israeli uranium to a boggling 60 percent purity level, but it is also home building in Judea and Samaria, and more generally on “an end to threatening to go up to 90 percent unless the United States returns to the occupation.” the agreement as is. “As Israel receives that $3.8 billion in US foreign aid, what is it There is no doubt that attempting to resolve the Iranian issue via being used for?!” roared Ben-Ami at the conference opening. “For too diplomatic means is a legitimate approach. However, such long, American taxpayers and lawmakers have been asked to provide negotiations must be conducted from a position of strength. military assistance to Israel without questioning whether the material The Trump administration increased pressure on Tehran and acquired with that aid was being used as a blank check to further applied sanctions on its economy. The United States is the great Israeli policies and actions that the US opposes, including the superpower of the world. It should be the dominant party in entrenchment of the occupation.” negotiations. Sure enough, throughout the 2020 election year, J Street activists Israel is in contact with Washington, trying to make a case ambushed Democratic presidential and congressional candidates at against the U.S. reentry into the nuclear deal. However, it seems that campaign events, posing the new J Street litmus test, that candidates Americans are intent on rejoining it. That is my impression after outright condemn Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank and declare talking to diplomats in the United States and Europe. they would consider withholding aid from Israel to get it to change its Meanwhile, Israel is using other means to prevent Iran from policies. This was a shocking, contemptible new low for J Street: developing nuclear weapons. This is something Israel does actively campaigning to cut US military aid to Israel. Even the most- continually and will continue to do as long as the Iranian nuclear unfriendly-to-Israel and pro-Palestinian president of the US, Obama, threat persists. did not seek to harm Israel’s security by cutting military aid to Israel. If the United States does rejoin the nuclear deal, we cannot let it (In fact, he signed a 10 year military aid deal with Israel). Moreover, deter us. When the world embraced Iran in 2015, Israel stood its the J Street initiative rests on baseless libel. The US State and Defense ground and warned of the impending danger and that the Tehran departments always have ensured that American security assistance to government was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Israel is used only for legitimate self-defense and internal security. Just like we did then, we must also now assume the duty of Alas, J Street started getting results. Several Democratic standing up for the truth. We shall not hesitate to tell the world that presidential candidates cozied-up to J Street’s foul formula, including the Iranian nuclear agreement is a threat not only to Israel but to the Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and US Transportation entire world. The Jewish state, in turn, will do what is needed to Secretary Pete Buttigieg. They said they were open to cutting or protect its citizens. (Israel Hayom Apr 28) conditioning US military aid to Israel as a way of forcing Israel to The writer has served as Israel’s 17th ambassador to the United bend to their will. Nations, Minister of Science and Technology and Deputy Minister of At this week’s 2021 virtual J Street national conference, J Street Defense. He is currently chairman of the World Likud. announced its support for a new House bill (introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum and some 20 other Democrats including “the Squad” – Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Did Hell Just Freeze Over at ‘Haaretz’? By Ruthie Blum Ilhan Omar) specifying various actions Israel may not finance with US In its editorial on Monday, the Israeli daily Haaretz called taxpayer funding, while also calling for additional oversight of how Yamina Party chairman Naftali Bennett’s efforts to form a national- aid is distributed. unity government “cause for optimism.” J Street’s endorsement and inclusion of the bill in its advocacy Lest loyal readers of the far-left newspaper gasp at the mere work gives the legislation backing that McCollum’s previous attacks suggestion that any move made by Bennett should be seen in a on Israel lacked. Haaretz celebrated this moment, calling it a “victory positive light, they can relax. Where the attempt to “put an end to the lap” for J Street, and “a notable moment for drawing criticism of toxic regime of [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu” is concerned, Israeli policy out of the fringes and into mainstream conversation.” siding with an ideological nemesis is rendered kosher. A sign of where J Street may yet stoop in its radical opposition to To ensure that no more of their dwindling subscriptions are Israel was the conference session on “creative paths toward a two-state canceled, Haaretz justified the softening of its stance towards a figure it used to trash as a dangerous fanatic by invoking the pragmatism Arab neighbors and waging the world’s most enviable COVID-19 card. This method enabled it to launder other political foes—unofficial vaccination campaign—some of the public is experiencing weariness Yamina co-chair Ayelet Shaked, New Hope Party leader Gideon Sa’ar at the length of his tenure. and Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman—each of whom it Paradoxically, however, as the fervor among his detractors usually describes as individual and collective stains on liberal thought. grows, so does the enthusiasm of his fans. This is another element As if to commiserate with its audience, the editorial stressed that conveniently missing in most analyses these days. nobody on the left “has any illusions” about the above right-wingers. The going mantra, then—that if only Netanyahu would step aside Indeed, it acknowledged, “The ideological gaps between the people of and let somebody else take the reins of the Likud, a stable, right-wing the center-left … and Bennett, Shaked, Sa’ar, Lieberman and their government could be had in a flash—is not at all certain. In addition, colleagues are fundamental and considerable.” it runs counter to the results of the last party primary, which he won Nevertheless, the editorial stated, “We must hope that Bennett and by a landslide. The naysayers bemoaning the “demise of democracy” Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid succeed in their mission to enlist them all to a ought to ponder that for a moment. unity government … because it’s critical to end the rule of a criminal Third, Netanyahu’s history of personal rivalries with Bennett, defendant who knows no restraint and who puts himself before the Shaked, Sa’ar and Lieberman may have finally come back to bite him state.” irredeemably. His reportedly imminent offers to Bennett and Sa’ar to But that’s not the only reason to wish for such a coalition, go first in a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office will give some according to Haaretz. More importantly, if said government is formed, insight into whether or not this is the case. On the other hand, every it will include Yesh Atid, Labor, Meretz and Blue and White, with the trial balloon flown during coalition negotiations could be seen as a backing of Ra’am and maybe even some members of the Joint Arab ploy ahead of a potential, if not likely, fifth election. List. This, claimed the editorial, is “good and hopeful news” in spite of Finally, even Netanyahu’s enemies grudgingly acknowledge his the “right-wing views” of Bennett, Shaked, Sa’ar and Lieberman. gravitas. As one member of Meretz recently said (in private, of The group in question, the editorial said, shares positions on course), “Our trouble isn’t with our ideology; it’s that we don’t have “annexing the territories and the solution to the conflict with the an equivalent of Bibi on our side.” Palestinians, and thinks similarly about Israeli policy toward the Gaza This is the same Meretz, by the way, whose chairman, Nitzan Strip and Hamas. The four are convinced of the need for a judicial Horowitz, stated unabashedly in March that there was “room” for the revolution, believe that the state should be tough on asylum-seekers, International Criminal Court’s decision to investigate Israel for war identify with the so-called nation-state law and are hostile to human- crimes. It’s a party that would be included in the national-unity rights organizations—everything that must be fought in normal times.” government prescribed by Haaretz. Never mind that this depiction of the Israeli right, lacking in all Though it’s false that Meretz’s ideology isn’t the problem—after nuance, discredited the majority of the electorate in one fell swoop of all, it’s precisely the post-Zionism of the left that has been defeated customary snobbery. Haaretz is a publication for insulated bubble- time and again at the ballot box—the realization that it doesn’t have dwellers who bask in what they believe to be their intellectual and anyone in Netanyahu’s league is accurate. And everybody knows it, moral superiority. including Haaretz. (JNS Apr 27) As such, the editors needed to explain how it is possible to favor a government ruled by and containing people whose positions “must be fought.” Israel has No Choice But to Act on its Own to Stop Iran Their answer to the eyebrow-raisers: “[T]hese are not normal By Jonathan S. Tobin times. Israel needs political change like it needs air to breathe. After 12 The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and the straight years of the Netanyahu regime, three indictments and four government’s national security adviser is in Washington this week on elections in the past two years, Israel deserves a prime minister who is an important mission that has failed even before it began. free to address national issues full-time, not only when he is not in White House spokesperson Jen Psaki made it clear last week that court … [one] who does not undermine the systems of the state and the Israelis are wasting their time. When asked if Israeli pleas about incite against its institutions in order to evade justice … who acts for the danger to the region if the United States rejoins the 2015 nuclear the benefit of the citizens rather than setting them against each other.” deal would have any impact on President Joe Biden’s plans, Psaki In conclusion, they wrote, “Israelis deserve a government that answered “no.” She went on to say that the Israelis are free to keep focuses on them, on their welfare, on solving their problems and “challenging” the administration’s goal of returning to a weak pact thinking about their future, rather than being devoted entirely to that gives Tehran a legal path to a nuclear weapon by the end of the ensuring the future of Netanyahu and his family. We can no longer decade, but the best they could hope for is to be “kept abreast” of allocate resources, subordinate the legal system, distort the ruling America’s plans. structure, dedicate public energies and exhaust the public’s attention That contemptuous attitude was of particular significance for the benefit of one man. The shared recognition that Netanyahu is because the day before the Israeli security officials arrived, news harming the state, its institutions and its social fabric is the basis for broke about how former Secretary of State John Kerry had shared the growing unity among the right, the center and the left. At this intelligence with Iran about Israeli covert operations seeking to stop stage, it is the best option for Israel.” their nuclear program. According to an audiotape of comments made Encountering this and similar editorials in the Hebrew press, a by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif that were obtained by stranger to Israeli politics would not know that Netanyahu’s party won The New York Times, he said, “It was former U.S. Foreign Secretary far more seats on March 23 than any of its competitors. Nor would [sic] John Kerry who told me Israel had launched more than 200 such a person realize that every poll that measures suitability for the attacks on Iranian forces in Syria.” premiership puts Netanyahu at the top. There is a lot to unwrap in that one sentence and not just because The focus on his inability to form a government in the past two the Times buried this revelation at the bottom of its story. years, despite his repeatedly garnering a majority of the mandates, is Kerry, for whom Psaki served as spokesperson during the nuclear also a fallacy since he did join forces a year ago with Blue and White negotiations from 2013 to 2015, currently acts as President Joe Party leader Benny Gantz to establish the “national emergency” Biden’s special presidential envoy of climate. We already knew that coalition, created mainly to combat the coronavirus crisis. in 2018, Kerry consulted with Zarif advising his former negotiating That it failed should serve as a lesson to Haaretz and anyone else partner not to work with the Trump administration, which withdrew praying for a “bloc of change” coalition—made up of a mixture of from the nuclear deal as part of a “maximum pressure” campaign to diametrically opposed parties—is delusional. If it manages to get off force the Iranians to agree to a new tougher agreement that would the ground, it will collapse in a very short time, requiring the fifth eliminate sunset clauses, as well as include bans on Tehran’s role as round of elections that voters and politicians are insisting must be the world’s leading state sponsor of international terrorism and its avoided. illegal missile-building. Kerry told Zarif to simply wait out Trump The truth about the current situation is fourfold. For one thing, as and then deal with a more pliant Democrat that he hoped would be Haaretz noted, Netanyahu has been in power for a dozen years (15, elected in 2020. when counting his stint from 1996 to 1999). That’s exactly what happened, and now the Iranians are reaping Secondly, regardless of his vast accomplishments, which the paper the benefits. Biden’s foreign-policy team, composed almost entirely omits due to its rejection of them—keeping Tehran at bay, building a of veterans of the administration of former President Barack Obama, flourishing macro-economy, forging peace deals with Israel’s anti-Iran are again resuming their past practice of appeasing the Iranians with concessions in the works in order to entice Tehran to return to a deal existential threat to their existence. with little hope of improving upon it. Kerry’s collusion with Iran is important because it comes in the context of the growing tension with Israel over its efforts to sabotage J Street Embraces Mahmoud Abbas; How Will US Jews the Iranian nuclear program. Unlike in the past, when it was clear that Respond? By Moshe Phillips the United States and Israel were cooperating in a joint effort to derail J Street’s decision to feature Mahmoud Abbas at its “first-ever the Islamist regime’s nuclear ambitions, the administration went out of virtual national conference” earlier this week, demonstrates just how its way to disavow any role in Israel’s recent successful attack on far J Street is from it being the firmly pro-Israel, Zionist group it Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. wants American Jews to believe it is. The implication of these off-the-record comments from “senior Just three years ago this month — on April 30, 2018 — Abbas administration officials” is that the administration regarded Israel’s stood before the Palestine National Council’s opening session (PNC) efforts as seeking to forestall an American push to re-engage with Iran. and delivered a blatantly antisemitic speech. A news analysis published in The Washington Post filled with quotes Abbas stated that Jews have “no historical ties” to the Land of from anonymous American and European sources, as well as some on- Israel, because they are actually descendants of the Turkish Khazar the-record potshots from former Obama administration figures, said tribe (a bizarre and long-discredited conspiracy theory). the Jewish state was trying to play “the spoiler” in order to undermine Abbas also said there has never been an antisemitic incident Biden’s diplomacy. The liberal magazine Slate labeled the attack as an against Jews in Arab countries — “Not even once,” he declared. “Do act of a “sneaky saboteur,” as if there was something inherently you think I’m exaggerating? I challenge you [to find] even one illegitimate about actions that sought to prevent a terrorist theocracy incident against Jews in over 1,400 years.” from acquiring a nuclear weapon that could fulfill the ayatollah’s Then, Abbas insinuated that the Holocaust was caused by the genocidal threats against Israel. Jews’ own “social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) fulminated about the attack, saying matters.” he would demand a full security briefing on it while sending a message Abbas’ previous claims about the Holocaust — described in to the Israelis that he—and other members of his party—take it as a detail in his 1982 doctoral dissertation and subsequent book — matter of faith that diplomacy is the “only” acceptable path for include that only a few hundred thousand, not six million, Jews were relations with Iran and that Israel’s efforts were bound to fail. killed by the Nazis; and that David Ben-Gurion collaborated with the As Martin Peretz pointed out in Tablet, while Secretary of State Nazis to kill Jews, to garner world sympathy for creating a Jewish Antony Blinken’s messaging on Iran has sounded a moderate tone, he state. has essentially outsourced the nuclear issue to Robert Malley, Biden’s What did J Street — which now speaks of “moderate Palestinian special envoy on Iran. Malley was not only one of the chief architects leaders” — say about Abbas’ speech? of the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran; he is a veteran appeaser and In a May 1, 2018, press release, J Street said that it “strongly critic of Israel. condemns remarks made by President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday In essence, right now the United States is asking Israel to back off that featured absurd antisemitic tropes and deeply offensive on its efforts to stop Iran and to trust Biden’s team to deliver a comments on the history of the Jewish people and Israel.” J Street diplomatic solution to the problem. But given that Malley has called Abbas’ speech “incendiary,” and argued that “there is demonstrated no interest in strengthening the nuclear pact so as to absolutely no excuse” for what he said. forestall an Iranian bomb or stop the regime’s terrorism, that’s a leap If less than three years ago, Abbas was — according to J Street of faith that no responsible Israeli government can make. — an antisemite, how is he now acceptable as a featured speaker at More to the point, Zarif’s revelation about Kerry’s sharing of intel their national conference? Does antisemitism have a shelf life and an about their anti-Iran operations makes it clear to the Israelis that the expiration date? Or does J Street simply think it is now acceptable to administration isn’t merely wrongheaded in its approach but may partner with Abbas to advance his radical, antisemitic agenda? actively be seeking to undermine their country’s security and that of its And is J Street simply hoping that the rest of us will not notice regional allies. that under Abbas, antisemitism still fills both the Palestinian Not only did Psaki refuse to answer a question about Kerry’s Authority (PA)-controlled media and its school textbooks? astonishing betrayal during her regular press conference on Monday, Or does J Street acknowledge that Abbas is still an antisemite? she didn’t even make an attempt to say something that might reassure And if so, why was he invited to speak? And what about the fact that the Israelis that the administration regarded this as an issue of concern, Abbas’ PA continues to pay salaries to imprisoned terrorists and the let alone something about which an apology should be forthcoming. families of dead terrorists? Is the PA’s policy of naming parks, An investigation into this scandal is imperative. So is Kerry’s streets, and other venues after terrorists something that J Street resignation from his current post. endorses? The implication here is something that advocates for Obama’s J Street’s May 2018 condemnation of Abbas was a rare and signature foreign-policy accomplishment have always been at pains to impressive criticism of a figure whom J Street had almost never contradict. Democratic apologists for the deal have spent the last six previously criticized. For J Street, though, that honest perspective years trying to claim that the agreement was the best way to safeguard seemingly lasted just for a moment. Israel against an Iranian nuclear weapon. However, critics pointed to Recently, J Street has tried to take advantage of the Jewish the way the deal empowered and enriched a rogue regime, and asked community’s desire to have a big tent, and gain legitimacy in the eyes whether the goal was very different from the one Obama had of the independent organizations that govern much of Jewish discussed. establishment life in America. Obama said it was a chance to give Iran the opportunity to “get But J Street should not be offered safe harbors within our right with the world” by giving up its nuclear ambitions. Instead, the federations and councils. J Street’s giving a platform to Abbas is all deal may have been part of an effort to shift American policy in the of the evidence for this that we need. region from one of an alliance with Israel and the Gulf states to one in No one is demanding that other far left groups such as Americans which Iran would supplant them as America’s best friend in the region. for Peace Now, a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major Few would have believed this claim in 2015. And yet, the impact of American Jewish Organizations for decades, be put outside the tent. J the agreement on the region, coupled with Kerry’s actions and the Street, however, through its embrace of Abbas, and its other actions, efforts of Obama alumni to return to the deal on Biden’s watch, lend has put itself in a far different category — much closer to extremists some credibility to this theory. like Jewish Voice for Peace, Neturei Karta, and IfNotNow. American Whatever Obama intended or what Biden may want now, the Jews who support Israel’s security must have red lines, and J Street inescapable conclusion from these events is that the Israelis should be has violated them. in no doubt about the fact that they are being abandoned by the United I hope that American Jewish individuals and organizations who States with respect to Iran. This leaves Israel with no good options. are blessed with morality and common sense will soon find their Nevertheless, the Jewish state has no choice but to proceed as if its voice and speak out forcefully against J Street, and put them outside future safety lies solely in its own hands. If the Biden administration or the tent. (Algemeiner Apr 22) the Democratic Party don’t like that, they can reverse course and start acting as if they take the Iranian nuclear threat seriously. Otherwise, they should pipe down and let the Israelis do what they must to stop an