Jewish group falls from favor at White House

The Washington Times ^ | Deptember 27, 2010 | Eli Lake

[jazusamo]

Revelation about funding sources prompts distancing from J Street

The White House appears to be distancing itself from the liberal advocacy group J Street that it once embraced as its envoy to the U.S. Jewish community after disclosures that nearly half the group's funding for 2008 came from a single Hong Kong donor.

White House spokesman Thomas Vietor declined to comment when asked on Monday if the White House would continue its past practice of inviting J Street's leaders to take part in conference calls with senior White House officials and to other White House events, and whether senior Obama administration officials would take part in future J Street conferences.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, President Obama's national security adviser, was the keynote speaker at J Street's inaugural convention in 2009. At the convention, he said: "You can be sure this administration will be represented at all future conferences."

Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street's executive director, once described his organization as Mr. Obama's "blocking back" in Congress and a progressive alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Reaction to J Street's funding sources intensified in recent days after The Washington Times reported on Friday that the group received $750,000 from Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros and his family. The Times obtained copies of J Street's federal tax documents that also disclosed how nearly half of J Street's revenue from July 2008 to June 2009 - a total of $811,697 - came from a single donor in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, named Consolacion Esdicul.

J Street's Mr. Ben Ami said that Ms. Esdicul gave the money to J Street in multiple wire transfers at the behest of William Benter, a Pittsburgh-based philanthropist and the CEO of Acusis, a medical-services company.

[jazusamo]

Retired Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones, President Obama's national security adviser, was the keynote speaker at J Street's inaugural convention in 2009.

Give us a break, Obama and his national security advisor, James Jones didn't know Soros was funding them? LOL!

[jazusamo]

Earlier thread on J-Street and funding. Much info posted by kcvl, thanks!

Jewish lobby group admits Soros support--J Street previously 'less than clear'

[GladesGuru]

If communism/collectivism is antithetical to, and irreconcilable with, the Constitution, then the J Street bunch should be convicted of treason and drawn & quartered.

Regretfully, if that to occur across America, many a synagogue could not find enough members for a minyan.

[TopQuark]

"many a synagogue could not find enough members for a minyan."

Seems to me that the same would occur in many Catholic and Anglican churches as well.

[Nachum]

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[SJackson]

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[rockvillem]

Yeah, give me a break. Everyone who follows Jewish/Israel affairs with even half a brain knows that J Street has ALWAYS been a false-flag front attempting to hide anti-Israel forces. That made them useful for the Obamunists to try to claim to “support” Israel when everyone knew what the score really was - inviting J Street as a “Jewish” representative was just another deliberate provocation to show the world whose back Obama really has, and it sure isn’t Israel’s.

[Eleutheria5]

Of course they knew, but they knew the public didn’t know, so they pretended they didn’t, either. Now that the public knows, they can no longer pretend, so out they go. Send in the next phony front group.

[HearMe]

To JStreet:

“As usual, “if you are caught or captured, the Obama/Soros tag team will disavow any knowledge of your.......”