Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, November 2, 2019
Shabbat Shalom *|FNAME|*,
Welcome Marty and Misha Goetz to Shomair Yisrael.
Barry and Batya Segal have a very effective ministry called Vision for Israel. As a service they publish a weekly (or more often) newsletter that can be subscribed here. https://www.visionforisrael.com/en/updates . At the bottom of the page you can enter your email address.
They published this article on Thursday. It has political overtones, but one of our core beliefs is support for Jewish Israel, which trumps political overtones. (Did you catch my word choice there?) We’ve got to be informed so we know how to pray and participate in the democratic process. Everything Jewish is not kosher.
Special Note: I just saw on another website that Joe Biden is alone among the announced Democrat candidates in declaring that aid to Israel should not be conditional to any peace plan.
“The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.” Isa. 2:17
J STREET IS NOT ISRAEL’S FRIEND: J Street leaders, supporters and political backers are already demanding that the future of USA aid to Israel will be conditional on the Jewish state halting settlement expansion. They want the issue to be a plank for the 2020 presidential elections. “Our aid is not intended to be a blank check,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group’s president, said on Sunday evening, 27 October 2019, at the opening of the J Street annual conference. Ben-Ami called on candidates to reverse Trump administration policies that he claims have favored Israel over the Palestinians. He announced that the organization’s student wing, J Street U, has already launched a campaign to press the Democratic Party to include in its platform a call on Israel to end its “so-called” occupation of Judea & Samaria. Two former Obama administration National Security Council officials, Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor interviewed several Democratic candidates throughout the two-day conference held in Washington, D.C. including Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana; former Housing secretary Julian Castro; Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont; and Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado. (JNN)
PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS AT J STREET CONFERENCE VOW THAT ISRAEL WILL AGAIN BE PRESSURED TO REWARD ITS ENEMIES WITH A STATE: Five Democratic presidential candidates came in person this week to deliver a “peace message” before J Street, a left-leaning group that claims to be more in tune with American Jews. They pledged on Mon. 28 Oct. 2019, at the annual J Street conference, to sharply depart from Donald Trump’s unbreakable fidelity to Israel and to pressure [bully] Israel into a peace deal that would pilot the establishment of a Palestinian state. In short, these folks are gearing up to be the new team to trek around Peace Mountain – a thus-far fruitless, predictable venture undertaken dozens of times in the past two centuries without arriving at the coveted destination. Tragically, thousands have perished along the way. Senator Bernie Sanders, who rarely talks about his Jewish faith, rose from his seat on stage to give his campaign-style address. He accused both Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of fomenting division and then said, “We demand that the Israeli government sit down with the Palestinian people and negotiate an agreement that works for all parties.” Sigh…. Sanders went on to say his message to Israel would be, “if you want military aid, you are going to have to fundamentally change your relationship” with the Palestinians. He called for some of the $3.8 billion in annual military assistance to be turned into humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip in a “radical intercession” for the territory that has been under a blockade since it elected the Islamist terrorist group Hamas in 2007.
Meanwhile, Democratic frontrunners Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, both appearing before J Street in video messages rather than in person, said they would oppose any action that closes the door on a Palestinian state. “If Israel’s government continues with steps to formally annex the West Bank, (Judea & Samaria) the USA should make clear that none of our aid should be used to support annexation,” said Warren. She added that she would reverse two key measures of Trump – by resuming aid to the UN refugee agency for Palestinians and allowing the Palestine Liberation Organization to unshutter its Washington office. Biden, who had troubled relations with Netanyahu while vice president, said: “The two-state solution is the best, if not the only, way to secure a peaceful future for a Jewish, democratic state of Israel.” In truth, many of us here in Israel could perish from the tediousness of such political clichés. They merely serve to reestablish that members of the team of Democrats wanting to sign up for the next trek around Peace Mountain are sadly ignorant of those who have made the journey before them, as well as the cultural and historical quagmires they will encounter in the Middle East. Please Americans, plan now to get out and vote in 2020 lest teams like this get into power by default. (JNN) Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Few really anticipate that Donald Trump’s yet to be revealed, Middle-East Peace Plan will meet with success; in part, because Palestinian leaders have already said no to it, sight unseen. But at least the USA President and his aides have reportedly approached the impasse with some originality.
WHAT IS J STREET – WHO ARE ITS FINANCIAL BACKERS? If you are not aware of J Street and who supports this anti-Israel propaganda machine it is wise to familiarize yourself before the thick of the USA Presidential Elections gets underway in 2020. You will likely see the name J Street many times before and during next year’s political campaign so it’s important to know what it stands for and who backs it. J Street was established in 2008 as the first-ever federal political action committee (PAC) which describes itself as “the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans,” promoting American leadership to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. J Street is in fact, a virulently anti-Israel and anti-Zionist propaganda machine, founded by Jeremy Ben-Ami with money from virulently anti-Israel billionaire George Soros. George Soros gives billions to left-wing causes. He has manipulated USA presidential election outcomes with his resources, including giving $23.58 million to various 527 groups dedicated to defeating then-President George W. Bush in 2004, while financially jump-starting former president Barack Obama’s political career. Soros is also lavish in his financial support for the pro-abortion organization, Planned Parenthood.
J Street’s founding Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami is a former domestic policy adviser in the Clinton Administration. Ben-Ami refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He was accused of being a serial liar when despite his repeated denials, anti-Israeli George Soros was exposed as one of his major contributors. Meanwhile, Co-founder Daniel Levy has described Israel’s creation as “an act that went wrong.” Pro-Israel sources have commented that the tone set by J Street’s leadership is to “manipulate history and reality with dangerous rhetoric.” J Street’s approach has been described as being “arrogant and paternalistic” with its leaders having the chutzpah to claim that they know better than Israelis what is good for Israel. J Street collaborators have been sharply criticized for being out of touch with, or indifferent to, the existential threats Israel faces, ignorant of history and unwilling to grapple with the complexities of Israel’s situation – while comparing Israeli Jews to drug-addicted children who require “tough love” for their welfare. (JNN)
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL BACKERS OF J STREET: In addition to billionaire George Soros, among J Street’s list of major contributors is Richard Abdoo, a leader of the Arab Council; Wagih Abu-Rish of the Arab American Institute; Magdi Badawy, a Stop the Occupation activist; Nidal Ayyat from Dharam, Saudi Arabia; Farhan Bhatti, PR director for the Islamic Center. Also Genevieve Lynch, board member of the National Iranian American Council (ousted as a lobbying group for the mullahs), who is on J Street’s finance committee and who has contributed thousands of dollars to it. There’s also Nancy Dutton, an attorney who once represented the Saudi Embassy in Washington. And then there is Mehmet Celebi, the former president of the Turkish American Cultural Association, who co-produced the viciously anti-American Valley of the Wolves: a 2006 film that depicts a Jewish American doctor harvesting organs from prisoners in Iraq. It is estimated that 50% of J Street’s budget comes from outside the USA, from sources who are known for their anti-Israel stances. Among other facts to note concerning J Street is that ahead of a crucial congressional vote to either ratify or block the Iran deal, J Street in July 2015 took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times supporting calls to Congress to refrain from “sabotaging” the Iranian nuclear agreement. Sadly the dangerous J Street organization, which claims to be pro-Israel, is making many converts in synagogues and on college campuses across America. (JNN) Please intercede that J Street leaders, their destructive propaganda against the Jewish state, and their anti-Israel financial backers will be exposed and their harmful influence defused.