NY Times Marks Six-Day War Anniversary With ‘Morally Wrong…Inaccurate’ Piece - by Ira Stoll

...It sure looks like Mr. Soros has gotten his money’s worth with his investment in the International Crisis Group and Mr. Thrall, who got a big Sunday splash in the New York Times to smear Israel, inaccurately.

Ira Stoll..
Algemeiner.com..
05 June '17..

The lead article in the New York Times Sunday Review section — the old “Week in Review” — is headlined “Israel’s Everlasting Occupation.”

The article claims:

official Israeli and Palestinian population statistics indicate that Jews have been a minority in the territory Israel controls for several years now, and with no repercussions: A majority of the world’s nations still speak of undemocratic rule by a Jewish minority as a hypothetical future, not an unacceptable present.

That’s not accurate. At year-end 2016, the Israeli Jewish population was 6.45 million and the Israeli Arab population was 1.796 million, and there were 345,000 “others.” The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, meanwhile, counted a Palestinian population of 2.9 million in the West Bank and 1.8 million in Gaza.

The key point here is that Gaza is not “territory Israel controls.” In fact, Israel withdrew from Gaza unilaterally in 2005, uprooting and evacuating the Jews who lived there. The place is now ruled by Hamas, a terrorist group opposed to the existence of Israel. If Israel controlled it, Hamas wouldn’t be in charge there. It is true that Israel patrols its borders with Gaza, but that doesn’t constitute “control.” The error would be like counting the Hispanic population of Mexico as part of that of the United States just because the United States maintains a border patrol along the Rio Grande.

Subtract Gaza, and there is unquestionably a Jewish majority. Even if you add together the entire West Bank and all of Israel, 6.45 million Jews are more than 1.796 million Israeli Arabs and 2.9 million West Bank Palestinians. It isn’t even close.

And that’s just the beginning of the problems with the Times article

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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From Israel: Not Out Yet

Arlene Kushner
Arlene from Israel
03 February '11




And who knows when or if Mubarak (or his regime) will be out, all worries and expectations notwithstanding.

The violent confrontation in Tahir Square in Cairo between those for and against Mubarak increased last night, with several hundred injured and several deaths ensuing.

Army tanks moved in, and while there was no direct intervention -- no shooting at the rioters or the like -- the army then began to act to separate the two groups.

Obama went into a rampage, carrying on about how this was unacceptable and demanding that Mubarak begin transitioning to democratic representation immediately.

~~~~~~~~~~

But what the hell does that mean? It's gibberish. And I have to assume that Obama darn well knows it's nonsense he's spouting; he is employing lingo that sounds high-minded to disguise his demands.

Peaceful, democratic government administrations go through a process of transitioning. When Obama was going to become president, we can assume, for example, that his accountants came in and met with Bush's accountants and learned about certain fiscal procedures in the White House, so they'd be prepared to take over.

But we are hardly looking at a peaceful democratic turnover in administrations here. We're looking at an attempted revolution, guys. Let's be clear on this.

~~~~~~~~~~

Obama wants Mubarak gone. This much is obvious. Though Mubarak seems disinclined to honor that demand.

Should Mubarak go, there are essentially two scenarios: Either the new vice president, Suleiman, who is part of the same military-connected ruling clique, takes over, in which case there would be no real transitioning -- Mubarak would be way gone, but everything else would remain pretty much the same, or perhaps a shade softer.

Or the whole regime goes. (And we can safely assume this is what Obama is aiming for.) He wants Mubarak to open up the door to the presidential palace on his way out, and say to the street, "Here you are. It's all yours now. Good luck."

In this case, we're not looking at a democratic procedure at all: we're looking at a power play from the street. It would not be a "transitioning," it would be a take-over.

In point of fact, an illegal takeover. This is something no one is mentioning. Among the values inherent in a genuine liberal democracy is respect for law. But I think this is something Obama would prefer not to hear about.

And since it would be a take-over, susceptible to a power grab by one particular part of the populace, there is no guarantee that it would provide the people with real "representation" either.

~~~~~~~~~~

"We hear your voices!" Obama told the protestors. This seems to me a grandiose populist gesture that he imagines will gain him traction with the Arab street more broadly. He wants to be some sort of hero. But he's falling on his face badly.

Squirm St. for Mr. Ben Ami

Hillel
Solomania
20 November '10

The embattled and embarrassed leader of J Street, Jeremy Ben Ami, found himself in the middle of a firestorm of attention - most not to his liking - when he was abruptly ejected from a Reform - yes, a Reform - synagogue last week near Boston. A group of congregants from Temple Beth Avodah in Newton, MA expressed their concern and outrage that a man whose organization has done so much to undermine the security of the Jewish State would be honored by an appearance at their synagogue.

Still reeling from the explosive revelation that George "Jews and Israel cause antisemitism" Soros was a major funder of J Street, Ben Ami, the consummate Washington insider and spinmeister, took those lemons and tried to make lemonade.

But try as he might to "turn the page" on the Soros affair, Ben Ami was dogged at every turn by pointed questions about the billionaire pirate's funding. Deborah Becker at - of all places - the local NPR affiliate, WBUR, pressed him on his obvious lying about the hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into J Street as did the editor of The Jewish Advocate, Steve Maas. The only people buying what J Street was selling, it would seem, were his lieutenants and the gathered faithful.

Squirm #1:



Anyone who believes that George Soros is "Pro Israel" deserves Ben Ami as Fearless Leader. As a lawyer, Ben Ami should know never to ask a question whose answer you are unsure of. Had the controllers of the evening permitted, virtually the entire Advisory Council of J Street would have been revealed as denigrators of Israel:

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As Virulent Antisemitism Grows, Jewish and Government Institutions Refuse to Name the Real Cause

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
19 November '10

At a time when antisemitism is at the highest point in the West and the world generally since 1945, the battle against it faces a terrible obstacle.

To a very large extent, the driving force of this hatred is revolutionary Islamism, whether it be in the form of attitudes promoted by many Muslim immigrants to the West, or from anti-Israel propaganda generated by Islamist groups and their (usually) leftist allies in the West (directly or indirectly), or from Iran or Arabic-language media in the Middle East.

The information in the above paragraph should not be surprising. Yet large sectors of Western society are in denial about these realities. To speak of it would require them to do something. Criticism of the left can be portrayed as right-wing. Criticism of powerful sectors in academia, media, and intellectual life can be costly to one's career. Criticism of insane slanders of Israel can be portrayed as cynically branding all criticism of Israel as antisemitic. And criticism of radical Islamists can be portrayed as some kind of "racist" bigotry.

I wrote "can be portrayed" but, of course, the correct phrase should be: is so portrayed on a daily basis.

Nobody wants to be portrayed as racist or bigoted; most people in academia, media, and intellectual life view being called "right-wing" as an equally horrifying assault; and the kind of people who could fight this battle are usually also engaged in building their careers.

Checkmate. Reality distorted. People shut up. Problem grows like a fertilized weed.

And, of course, that is the goal of the anti-Israel often anti-Jewish strategy that creates such responses to silence correction, complaint, or criticism.

(Read full article)

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ZOA: It's Troubling To See Jewish Leaders Defend Israel/U.S. Basher George Soros Against Glenn Beck's Criticism

Morton A. Klein
ZOA
16 November '10

Soros: 1944 (Nazi occupation) “was happiest
time of my life … adventure … fun”


The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has expressed its concern over the strong criticism that a number of American Jewish leaders and other prominent Jews in recent days have directed at Fox broadcaster, Glenn Beck, for his criticism of Israel/U.S.-basher, financier George Soros, regarding his behavior in Nazi-occupied Budapest in 1944.

In that year, George Soros’ father obtained forged papers and bribed a government official to save his son, George, then 14 years old, by taking him in as his alleged godson under a falsified Christian identity. In this capacity, George Soros accompanied his fake godfather on his appointed rounds as a government official, confiscating property from Jews who were to be deported to their deaths in Auschwitz. George Soros later said that he felt no guilt, remorse or difficulty whatsoever for being in this situation. In fact, he wrote in a forward to his father’s book, “these ten months [of the Nazi occupation] were the happiest times of my life ... We led an adventurous life and we had fun together.”

Regarding this circumstance, Mr. Beck said that Soros “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps. I am certainly not saying George Soros enjoyed that, even had a choice -- I mean, he’s 14 years old. He was surviving. So I’m not making a judgment, that’s between him and G-d.”

(Read full press release)

The Jewish People vs George Soros

Daniel Greenfield
Sultan Knish
13 November '10

I spent yesterday evening in the company of a man whose grandfather spent much of the Holocaust dressed in a Nazi uniform. The difference between him and George Soros, is that he used that uniform as a disguise in order to find Jewish refugees and lead them to shelter. And that difference is a profound one. It is the difference between a perpetrator and a rescuer. Between a collaborator and a hero.

Soros did not wear a Nazi uniform, but he might as well have, because he aided in the persecution of the Jews of Europe, without compassion, without guilt and without regret. Various excuses have been made for his actions, and none of them hold the least bit of water.

Yes Soros was only a teenager at the time. So was my father, who nevertheless escaped to join the partisans, rather than accompanying a Nazi officer in his search for Jewish property he could loot. He had no choice? He certainly had a choice. Even in the worst of times, people still can and do make moral choices. And the choice for everyone, for Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Poles, Frenchmen and so on down the line-- was to collaborate with evil, or to do the right thing.

George Soros made the wrong choice then. As he has made the wrong choice over and over again. And he has never regretted any of them. And the one thing that clearly emerges from that, is that he has no understanding that evil is wrong. That participating in the persecution and murder of Jews is wrong. He didn't know it back then, while the Holocaust was going on. He doesn't know it today, when he helps set up and fund organizations like J Street, whose sole purpose is to help the Muslim terrorists who are murdering Jews today.

The liberal media which is busy defending Soros as a victim of the Holocaust and a survivor should find the bare decency to remain silent for once. To call Soros a Holocaust survivor is an obscenity. Soros was not victimized by the Holocaust. He was never targeted by it. He was on the other side of the line. The side that was pulling the trigger, running the gas chambers and sorting the gold teeth. Soros was not a victim, he was a perpetrator. Yes, he was only a teenager, but we do jail teenagers as accomplices to crimes much milder than that of collaborating in genocide.

(Read full article)

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J Street: Lies Again, Gets Caught Again

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
12 October '10

In the wake of its lies about getting money from George Soros, trying to help anti-Israel campaigner Richard Goldstone lobby Congress, cooperating with Iran's lobby to try to protect Iran from sanctions, and on other matters, here's another one. J Street founder and its leading "expert" on Israel, Daniel Levy--one of the mass media's favorite people to interview about Israel--was caught saying that Israel's creation was wrong. J Street lashed back calling its critics "far right" and issuing a video purporting to show that Levy never said such a thing.

Levy made the statement near the end of his talk. J Street cut out the end. This could not have been a mistake. It had to be deliberate so they could say: See! He didn't say it, he's only speaking regrettably about the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem, these critics are lying, so you should all continue supporting J Street.

What? It's not there? Well, J Street: That's only because you edited it out of the video!

This is the moral level of these people.

(Read full story)

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J Street Self-Destructs: The Con-Game Unravels. But Where Was the Mass Media?

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
11 October '10

I have been writing about how J Street is an anti-Israel group pretending to be a liberal pro-Israel group while the truth has been shielded by the mass media. I pointed out how it had worked with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's lobby last year to try to block sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

A typical front group is one in which leaders use false claims to win followers who would never support the organization if they understood its true nature. In other words, those actually leading and guiding J Street are seeking to destroy the American Jewish support base for Israel. Many of the individual members have good intentions and no idea that this is so. Well, now they have the evidence.

J Street lied in claiming not to have received large-scale funding from George Soros, the billionaire financier for left-wing and anti-Israel causes. There are other really shady things going on to conceal where their money comes from. It is possible the group broke the law by using money from a resident of Hong Kong to support American political candidates.

Now, too, it has come out that it wanted to organize the Capitol Hill visit of Richard Goldstone, author of the extremely flawed anti-Israel UN report on the Gaza Strip. As a result, Colette Avital, a Labour Party politician, has resigned as the group's representative in Israel. By the way, J Street is once again lying but the conversation about Goldstone is on tape. Incidentally, Avital also denied telling the reporter anything about Goldstone. The tape also shows her to be a liar.

(Read full article)

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J Street Co-Founder Daniel Levy: Israel’s Creation “An Act That Was Wrong”

Omri Ceren
Mere Rhetoric
05 October '10

Quite the few days that J Street had last week, what with all the admitting they’re foot soldiers in Soros’s anti-Israel army after lying about it for years and then trying to get ahead of the story by lying about it some more. Most of the criticism has focused on co-founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, who did not exactly fall on his sword and instead tried to hamfistedly change the subject. But it’s probably unfair to blame him for all of J Street’s failings, from rigging polls to being more anti-Israel than the Saudis to expressing fake confusion about Hamas’s intentions.

Per Eli Lake’s first story, Ben-Ami seems to have been the one who did most of the “misleading” about J Street’s fundraising, from furtively squirreling away Soros’s cash to opaquely raising 50% of the group’s 2008 money from a single foreign source.

But per Lake’s second article, when it came time to shuttle Goldstone around DC and peddle his endlessly inaccurate and venomously biased libels around the Hill, J Street delegated the task to one of the adults in the organization. It was J Street co-founder, advisory board member, and international socialite Daniel Levy “who accompanied the judge to several of the [10-12] parleys” with Congress. It was also Levy’s New America Foundation that hosted a high-caliber lunch for Goldstone with “a group of analysts and Middle East wonks.”

The Goldstone tour wasn’t the first time that Levy willingly served as a channel for de facto Hamas propaganda. He’s been a tireless advocate of pro-Hamas diplomacy, and sees the Iranian proxy as an integral part of Palestinian civil society. A few years ago Noah Pollak took him out to the woodshed for historical revisionism that seemed jarringly anti-Israel and borderline anti-Zionist.

(Read full post)

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J Street Under the Searchlight

P. David Hornik
frontpagemag.com
04 October '10

J Street, the American Jewish advocacy organization that describes itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace”—clearly implying that other pro-Israel organizations are not pro-peace—is in hot water these days. Washington Times reporter Eli Lake has revealed that J Street has been lying—big-time—about its funding. Then, in a follow-up report, Lake revealed further J Street lies about its connection with Judge Richard Goldstone, author of the infamous Goldstone Report.

Lake’s first story on September 24 disclosed that J Street—in direct contradiction to a longstanding claim on its website—had received generous funding, to the tune of $750,000 over three years, from controversial financier George Soros and his family. Moreover, J Street had received a total sum of $811,697 from a mysterious donor in Hong Kong named Consolacion Esdicul, who in turn was solicited—J Street claims—by a non-Jewish, American horse-race bettor named Bill Benter.
J Street, of course, had good reason to cover-up its support from Soros, whose “views”—if one can dignify them by calling them that—on Jewish and Israeli matters put him outside the discourse of decency. In 2003 Soros, who is of Hungarian Jewish background, said in a speech that:

There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that. It’s not specifically anti-Semitism, but it does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well. I’m critical of those policies.

If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish. I can’t see how one could confront it directly.

(Read full article)

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J-Street unmasked

Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem
01 October '10

Two years ago, when I first condemned J Street’s anti-Israeli agenda, I tagged George Soros, the billionaire Hungarian born currency speculator, as one of its major sponsors. Yet J-Street founder and executive director Jeremy Ben Ami, on repeated occasions, adamantly denied this. He even said that he wished that Soros was a funder adding that “we got tagged as having his support without the benefit of actually getting funded.”

It has now been disclosed that some $750,000, amounting to almost a third of J-Street’s 2008-2009 US revenue, was provided by Soros.

After being exposed as an outright serial liar, Ben-Ami tried to weasel his way out of his shameful behavior by “accepting responsibility for being less than clear” about J-Street funding.

In fact Soros and J-Street make a perfect match. Soros has proudly proclaimed “I am not a Zionist, nor am I a practicing Jew.” He believes that Israel is largely responsible for anti-Semitism. Much of his venom is concentrated on AIPAC, and he has consistently been attacking all-pro Israeli institutions. He also calls for the recognition of Hamas. His “Open Society Institute” pours vast funds into organizations whose prime objective is to undermine elected governments of Israel. Only last month ago, he contributed a record $100 million towards Human Rights Watch, the purportedly human rights watchdog, which no longer bothers to disguise its blatant bias and hostility towards Israel.

(Read full article)

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Fear and Survival: The Tragedy And Threat That Is George Soros

Barry Rubin
The Rubin Report
29 September '10

I’ve long pondered the bizarre doings of billionaire financier George Soros, who's become the single biggest funder of left-wing and often anti-Jewish (certainly, anti-Israel) causes in Europe and North America. Most recently, it was revealed that Soros was a huge contributor to the anti-Israel J Street group even though the organization had lied about that connection.

But how can one explain the behavior and motives of Soros? For me, finally, the missing piece of the puzzle has fallen into place.

The first key bit of evidence was Soros’s interview with the December 20, 1998, “Sixty Minutes” television show in which he recounts his experiences as a 14-year-old boy in Nazi-occupied Hungary, a time when he said his “character was made.” Soros’ father had sent him to live with a bribed Christian government official who was involved in confiscating Jewish property.

A lot of the discussion about this interview has been misdirected over whether Soros was in some way a war criminal. This is clearly untrue since he was barely a teenager and didn’t actually do anything but observe. He was as he describes himself, a “spectator.”

Let’s get a more sophisticated, accurate understanding by examining what Soros actually said about the experience long afterward. What did he learn from being a spectator, watching both sides but truly being on neither side?

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J Street's Crooked Road -- Lies and Misdemeanors

Lenny Ben-David
I*Consult
16 September '10

Bravo to The Washington Times' national security correspondent Eli Lake for his exposé of J Street over the weekend. The so-called "pro-Israel" organization is bursting with overripe scandals about the identity of its contributors, its decision-making process, conflicting policies on Iran sanctions, ties to pro-Iranian and Arab American organizations, and more. But many reporters have been reluctant to shine a spotlight on them, fearful of running afoul of the White House for whom J Street proudly serves as Obama’s “blocking back” or the extreme "Journolist" guild of "progressive" reporters and bloggers in Washington who promote J Street and attack its critics. [See Journalists in the Service of J Street]

When J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami went to temple on Yom Kippur I hope he concentrated on the verse, "Forgive us for the sins we committed by fraud and falsehood.” Since J Street’s founding, Ben-Ami repeatedly and boldly lied about his organization’s dependence on the super-critic of Israel, George Soros. Lake revealed that J Street’s U.S. tax records prove that Soros and his family are major contributors.

(Read full article)

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Beware The Mark Of Soros! Soros And J Street From The Beginning

Daled Amos
26 September '10


Soccer Dad reminds me that I started posting about Soros and J Street before there even was a J Street--back in November 2006: A Kinder, Gentler Alternative To AIPAC?:

A kinder, gentler alternative to AIPAC may be in the works.

On board with this is George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and major contributor to MoveOn.org, who sent a top staffer to a meeting in September to explore the possibilities, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency:

The September meeting — and other related meetings — focused on how best to press the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration to back greater U.S. engagement toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how to better represent American Jews who don’t buy into AIPAC’s often hawkish policies.

At the time, I wrote that some of the inspiration was based on the success of IPF, APN and Brit Tzedek in killing the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which would have cut off US aid to the Palestinian Authority until it renounced terrorism and recognized Israel. The groups successfully lobbied to to revised the bill, added exceptions for assistance to Mahmoud Abbas,and gave the president greater power to waive the sanctions and remove parts of the bill that would have restricted aid to NGOs working with the Palestinians. In the end, the differences between the Senate and House versions were considered so irreconcilable that the bill was never signed.

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J Street Unmasked

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
24 September '10

It’s been a mystery: what sliver of the electorate is J Street representing? Where is the market for virulent left-wing, anti-Israel propaganda disguised as tough love? It is hard to believe there is a significant segment of American Jewry that this group represents. Actually, we now know that J Street, for all intents and purposes, represents the views and is a wholly owned subsidiary of one individual — George Soros, the gazillionaire who seems to think anti-Semitism is caused by pushy Jews. In 2003, JTA had this report:

“There is a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. The policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon administration contribute to that,” Soros said. “It’s not specifically anti-Semitism, but it does manifest itself in anti-Semitism as well. I’m critical of those policies.”

“If we change that direction, then anti-Semitism also will diminish,” he said. “I can’t see how one could confront it directly.” That is a point made by Israel’s most vociferous critics, whom some Jewish activists charge with using anti-Zionism as a guise for anti-Semitism.

Eli Lake has the scoop. J Street is not so much a “group” as it is a front for Soros (shouldn’t it really be “Soros Street”?), who has funded J Street to the tune of $750,000 over a three-year period.

(Read full post)

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Selling Out to Soros

Gerald Steinberg
NGO Monitor
NY Post
13 September '10

In accepting a huge grant from George Soros, Human Rights Watch has spurned the public advice (and warning) offered nearly a year ago by its founder Robert Bernstein. Rather than grapple with the serious problems of credibility and bias, HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth has cemented relations with Soros -- a partisan ideologue who also supports Moveon.org, a controversial advocacy group.

Bernstein severely criticized HRW in a New York Times oped. To "resurrect itself as a moral force in the Middle East and throughout the world," he warned, the organization must return "to its founding mission and the spirit of humility that animated it." In its earlier days, he noted, "to create clarity in human rights," HRW aimed to "draw a sharp line between the democratic and nondemocratic worlds."

Over the years, HRW lost its moral compass and substituted ideology and an Israel-obsessed agenda. Bernstein was trying to awaken the group's leaders to the decayed state of what was once a human-rights superpower.

Instead, Roth has opted to accept Soros' $100 million grant -- which should offset nicely the income lost from core donors who've walked away in the wake of a host of scandals. It won't, however, address the root problems.

In May 2009, HRW launched a fund-raising drive in Saudi Arabia, using its anti-Israel record to solicit funds from "prominent members of Saudi society." That September, HRW "senior military analyst" Marc Garlasco was "outed" as an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia -- a troubling hobby for the main author of a number of HRW reports that accused Israel of "war crimes" and other violations.

Add to this the recent work by NGO Monitor, the watchdog group that I lead, and others on the severe ideological biases at HRW's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division. The systematic research in NGO Monitor's report and articles in The New Republic and the Sunday Times detail the severe ideological biases of MENA director Sarah Leah Whitson and deputy director Joe Stork.

(Read full article)

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More NIAC

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
13 November 09

Ben Smith, following on Eli Lake’s blockbuster story, has a must-read post on the emerging scandal concerning the mullahs’ favorite front group, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). The issues go far beyond whether NIAC has been illegally operating without registering as a foreign agent, and have ensnared NIAC’s close ally, none other than J Street.

First, NIAC is a Soros-backed group. Soros is of course the money behind MoveOn.org and got J Street up and running. He is also paying “the $90,000 annual salary of the NIAC staffer, Patrick Disney.” The Left’s moneyman is plainly in the mullah’s corner.

Second, Smith details NIAC’s ongoing meetings and elaborate plans to scuttle the appointment of Middle East adviser Dennis Ross. And NIAC has plenty of company:

The minutes of a series of meetings including NIAC and other coalition members offer a glimpse of the strategy and tactics involved in the push for a rapprochement with the Islamic Republic, from an attempt to undermine the appointment of Dennis Ross as Iran envoy to a planned “Send Hillary to Iran” campaign.

The minutes include almost no mention of a human rights agenda inside Iran, which has more recently been on NIAC’s agenda. Participants in the discussions include NIAC as well as the liberal Jewish group J Street, anti-war groups like Peace Action and the American Friends Service Committee, and the business lobby that opposes Iran sanctions, USA*Engage.

This is curious indeed given J Street’s ostensible support for the Obama administration. Publicly running interference and quietly conspiring with the mullahs’ legmen in the U.S. to get Ross dumped. Moreover, NIAC’s own website, under a “myths and facts” post, takes up sides with none other than — you guessed it — Dennis Ross, who is supposedly under attack:

NIAC is not the only organization that is under attack. In fact, almost every distinguished American policymaker, intellectual and administration official that supports Obama’s pro-engagement policy in the Middle East is being targeted. This includes:

• Ambassador Dennis Ross — Currently serving in the U.S. National Security Council
• Vali Nasr — Senior Adviser to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Tufts University Fletcher School Professor and Middle East Scholar
• Ambassador Thomas Pickering — Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Clinton, and former Ambassador to Israel
• Ambassador Susan Rice — Ambassador to the United Nations
• Barbara Slavin — Editor for World and National Security at the Washington Times
• Ambassador Richard Haas – President of Council on Foreign Relations Committee

Well yes, Ross was under attack — by NIAC. Slavin, who is Lake’s editor, is also curiously on the list. I suspect she’ll come off.

Also on the agenda for the J Street-NIAC gang, as Smith details: fending off any military action against Iran and cutting off aid to pro-democracy groups within Iran. The rationale they offer — they want to prevent a crackdown by the regime — is the sort of propaganda we’ve heard for decades from totalitarian regimes.

Third, we see once again the presence of Morton Halperin. He is both on J Street’s advisory board and a senior adviser to Soros’s Open Society Institute. He was recently fingered as the actual author of a letter by Richard Goldstone defending his infamous report and opposing a congressional resolution condemning the report. He too is part of the cabal to get Dennis Ross. And NIAC sought a White House meeting for Halperin and NIAC officials. Again, all one big happy family.

It seems as though the issue as to whether J Street is “pro-Israel” has been superseded by another. Now we must ask: is it pro-mullah?

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Now I'm Not Going to Be as Nice as My Partner...

posted by parrhesia

Jstreetjive.com

14 October 09

The BAD COP just walked into the interrogation room. Ben Ami buddy and beneath- the- radar J Street operative, M J Rosenberg got tag-teamed by his boss to apply the brass knuckles to Ambassador Michael Oren. Screeding on the Huffington Post, Rosenberg, who, like his comrade, Jim Gerstein, pretends not to be intimately connected to the nexus propelling the anti-Israel group, delivered the "or else" message to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. There are obviously serious doubts about the existence of The Israel Lobby, but now there are no doubts concerning the existence and influence of The
Anti Israel Lobby.

Imagine the effrontery of the distinguished scholar and statesman, Michael Oren, declining to attend a three day lynching of the country that he has put his life on the line for multiple times. Imagine his reluctance to hobnob with phony "supporters" of Israel who appear to be more supportive of Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs than of the democratically elected government of Israel. Imagine the gall of this man hesitating to attend the "destroy the settlements" soiree directed by Obama and carried out by his toadies. What nerve for Ambassador Oren to not lend his prestigious name to a group of "Pro Peaceniks" who want fair play for Iran.

Rosenberg is a Senior Fellow for the George Soros funded (via his Democracy Alliance group) Media Matters hard left organization. Among other accomplishments, Rosenberg was a staunch defender of the unqualified supporter of the Walt/Mearsheimer conspiracy canard, Chas Freeman, whose nomination for head of the National Intelligence Council by Obama was derailed when his intense anti-Israel and pro Chinese track record came to light.

Ben Ami delivered the condescending "plea" to Ambassador Oren while his bad cop partner applied the rubber truncheon.

Heady days for J Street, flush with funny money, Saudi lobbyists and State Department Arabists. Look for the background involvement of the shadowy Tides Foundation and the Grass Roots Policy Project (Anne Bartley) all interlocking with the puppet master, the bizarre and deep pocketed Soros.

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The Soros-Axelrod Axis? The J-Street Gang

Ed Lasky

American Thinker

24 September 09

(This article turned out to be quite a surprise. It details the formation and threat of J-Street and its creators, potential model for the creation of other front groups by the Soros clique in the U.S.)

George Soros is one of the big sugar daddies of the Democratic Party. He also is the ruler of an archipelago of so-called 527 groups that pose as non-partisan activists groups, but in fact are often hyper-partisan (such as MoveOn.Org), and are often employed by Democrats to influence elections. Soros, for years, has been the top funder of such groups. His influence among Democrats is widespread and enduring (and was well-documented by David Horowitz and Richard Poe in their book, The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party). His pet think-tank, the Center for American Progress, has been the idea factory and employment agency (think Van Jones, among others) for President Obama.

There is no proof, but there certainly is reason to suspect that Soros also has been working in cahoots with David Axelrod, Obama's former campaign strategist and now his numero uno domestic policy adviser. Soros has expertise in influencing our nation's foreign policy by forming faux astroturf groups that operate under the guise of being independent. Soros, the hedge fund billionaire, is one of the world's most astute investors. He has mastered the art and science of politics and invests in a panoply of think tanks, 527 groups, politicians, astroturf groups, and the Democratic Party to provide himself with the tools to influence our nation's policies. In this administration , he may have reached the pinnacle of his power. Now many of his groups are starting to look like tools the White House is using to drive policy.

A little background might help to tease out the possibility that Soros may have established an early working relationship with Axelrod. Soros was an early and ardent supporter of Barack Obama, even using a loophole in federal campaign laws to funnel outsized donations to him for his Senate campaign. The various think tanks and 527 groups that Soros funds have provided advisers and de facto campaign help for Barack Obama. Naturally, Soros and Axelrod would have crossed paths.

Soros and Axelrod are natural allies. For years, Axelrod ran not just a political consultancy firm (AKP & D Message and Media) but also had a lucrative business operating under the rubric of ASK Public Strategies. The latter firm specialized in creating so called astroturf groups: well-funded activist groups that have the façade of being grassroots phenomena, but are merely tools of moneyed interests. Astroturf groups are a mirror image of 527 groups, of which, to repeat, Soros is the nation's top donor. Is it possible that Soros has worked hand in hand with Axelrod to create such an astroturf group -- this time not to win elections, but to carry out Barack Obama's policies?

A model for this type of strategy might be J Street, a recently-formed lobbying group that bills itself as being a pro-Israel group but whose policies and principles belie this claim. J Street has been run in ways that resemble a political campaign -- one that Axelrod himself might appreciate. J Street has an arm that raises campaign money for candidates, is skilled at public relations and using the internet to generate support, chants the change mantra, and even uses such campaign tactics as phony push-polls to promote its views. But J Street is not just promoting its views, it is promoting President Obama's as well, and is working within the Jewish community to peel away support for the American-Israel relationship. They may well be "protecting the Quarterback in the White House" as Lenny Ben-David writes in the Jerusalem Post.

In fact, it can be seen as having "Obama's back" when it comes to the pressure he is exerting on Israel.

Others concur with Ben-David's views.

James Kirchick , assistant editor of The New Republic, characterized J Street as all but being Obama's Lobby to the Jewish community.

And who better to counter the influence of the so-called "Israel Lobby" than other Jews? J Street and the constellation of far-left "pro-Israel" organizations put a kosher stamp of approval on Obama's bizarre hectoring and moral equivalence. By casting Israel as the obstructionist, as the "drunk" driver whose car keys need to be taken away (as Ben-Ami put it in one of his more candid moments), Obama will have a free hand to compel the parties to the peace table. And once gathered there, another Oslo accord can be forced upon a recalcitrant Israel (whereupon the disastrous consequences of that agreement -- the erection of terrorist infrastructure, a deterioration of the Palestinian economy, deepening mutual distrust -- will be repeated).

The New York Times agrees that "J Street shares the Obama administration's agenda" including opposition to settlements and sanctions on Iran. Is this a coincidence? Very few things are coincidences when it comes to politics -- especially as practiced by George Soros and David Axelrod.

(Full Article)

Related: Peeling Off J-Street's Invisibility Cloak