Free Republic

J Street, the liberal Middle East policy advocacy organization, on Sunday issued a statement acknowledging what the group had earlier denied: J Street received financial support from billionaire George Soros. "I accept responsibility personally for being less than clear about Mr. Soros' support once he did become a donor," Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street's executive director, said in a note to supporters on the group's website. The Washington Times first disclosed Friday that J Street, a group that portrays itself as a progressive alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), had received $750,000 from Mr. Soros and his...

A year ago J Street — the putatively progressive fledgling counter to the Israel lobbying group AIPAC — was riding high. They had just received a write up in the New York Times Magazine that was somewhere between a press release and a love poem and, with a complaisant Obama in the White House, the tiny organization seemed poised to be a significant player in the Middle East discussion. My, as grandma said, have times changed. For starters, J Street’s director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, has shown himself to be a Junior Beltway Pinocchio, serially denying his organization had the financial backing...

Revelation about funding sources prompts distancing from J StreetThe 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...