RUTHFULLY YOURS

Jan Schakowsky is one of the top recipients of campaign cash from J Street, the far-left organization that opposes Israel at every opportunity. It turns out that J Street has taken $750,000 from George Soros, despite the earlier denials of J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami. And J Street took even more money–almost half of its budget–from a foreign donor in Hong Kong. The organization has lost any credibility it may have had.

Thus far this election cycle, Schakowsky has received tens of thousands of dollars from J Street–close to $50,000, according to OpenSecrets.org, and perhaps twice as much in reality. J Street has made me their #1 target in the 2010 election, because I have taken on their leaders and their misguided policies–and also because I received the endorsement of Alan Dershowitz, whom J Street attacks, among other Jewish leaders.

The Obama administration, which is now backing away from J Street, has used the group to divide the Jewish community and to push Congress away from its traditional support for Israel. Though there are some who support J Street out of sincere–if often misinformed–conviction, many of those who hate Israel with a passion have delighted in J Street’s emergence as a Washington project under the administration’s protection.

I recently received a bizarre anti-Israel and anti-Jewish screed from an organization calling itself “Goals for Americans,” and run by a certain “Paul Flum” from Missouri. Evidently “Mr. Flum” has been sending his materials to as many political candidates as possible, with the note: “If you need any more evidence that Israel (with American help) is the Oppressor of the people of Gaza and Palestine and the civilized world–Here it is!”

The “evidence” is a pair of glossy, colorful propaganda pamphlets, one of which is an ode to Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). The Kucinich pamphlet also features a plainly disgusting antisemitic cartoon which portrays a giant beast with several arms, tentacles, and horns that is meant to represent the global Jewish conspiracy to control humanity. Kucinich is lauded for supporting the Goldstone Report and hence fighting the “beast.”

In addition to celebrating Kucinich and Richard Goldstone, the pamphlet singles out J Street and its executive director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, for unique praise. On one page, Ben-Ami is depicted as “Saving the Jewish Heritage.” On the next, he is pictured beneath a figure waving a banner that reads “J Street,” shouting: “HEY! Stop This!” The figure, and Ben-Ami’s face, appear with the captions: “‘J Street to the Rescue!’ ‘Humanity May Win!’”

No doubt Ben-Ami would condemn the pamphlet, and had nothing to do with it. Yet his organization has nourished a culture of ignorance about and malice towards Israel that has become entrenched in elite society today. In February, Jan Schakowsky boasted: “I’ve been a supporter of J Street since its inception.” In June, she thanked J Street for its money. Today, it’s time for her to cut her ties to J Street and give back the cash.