Extremist J-Street Exposed:

J-Street Is Funded By Israel's Enemies
J-Street's Donors Are Extreme Leftists and Muslims Who Are Hostile to Israel

George Soros:  For three years, J Street's Executive Director Jeremy Ben Ami repeatedly and brazenly lied that billionaire anti-Israel tycoon George Soros was not a major J-Street funder and founder.  (Among other things, in a 2007 essay, Soros stated "I am not a Zionist" and condemned Israel, AIPAC, and the then-U.S. administration for refusing to recognize a Palestinian "unity" government with the Hamas terrorist organization, to be led by Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniya.)  

In September 2010, Ben Ami was forced to admit that his prior statements about Soros were "misleading" and retracted his false statements after The Washington Times obtained a J-Street tax return, which showed that George Soros and his children Andrea and Jonathan Soros gave J Street $245,000 in 2008.  Ben Ami also admitted in September 2010 that the Soros family gave J Street $750,000 in 2008-2010 (an average of $250,000 per year).  Ben Ami (falsely) stated that this was 7% percent of the $11 million that Ben Ami stated that J-Street had taken in since its founding in 2008.  The Washington Times and J-Street's 2008 tax return indicated that the Soros contributions were about one-third of J-Street's receipts from U.S. sources.  Also, J-Street's subsequently filed 2009 and 2010 Information returns reveal that J-Street's 501(c)(4) 2008 through 2010 contributions only totaled $4.6 million (not $11 million as Ben Ami stated), which means that the Soros contributions were a much higher percentage of J-Street's contributions than Ben Ami admitted in 2010; Ben Ami had lied again.  In addition to their contributions to J-Street's 501(c)(4) lobbying entitly,  the Soros family also contributes to J-Street-PAC.

J-Street's Foreign "Mystery Donor" Consolacion (Connie) Esdicul:  J-Street's 2008 tax return revealed that this mysterious Hong Kong resident donated the generous sum of $811,967 to J-Street - which was over half of J-Street's total 2008 receipts of $1,611,311.  (See J-Street's 2008 Form 990 information tax return including donor information on Politico here.)   In 2010, J-Street Executive Director Ben Ami stated that Ms. Esdicul's contribution was "raised" by Bill Benter, and also admitted that Bill Benter was "a major supporter of and contributor to J Street."  Benter has a history of contributing to anti-Israel NGO's such as the misnamed "Rabbis for Human Rights" which consistently condemns Israel and ignores violent Hamas and Palestinian attacks on innocent Jewish men, women and children.  

J-Street's Many Arab and Muslim Donors: J Street's Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami also lied that J-Street has only about five Arab and Muslim donors. In fact, J-Street's 2008 tax return and J-Street-PAC's Federal Election Commission filings show that J-StreetPAC received tens of thousands of dollars from dozens of Arab- and Muslim contributors, many with ties to Arab-American organizations and pro-Iranian advocacy groups that are hostile to Israel. Also, Ben Ami’s original lie that “at most 3 percent” of J Street’s donors were Arab or Muslim is now conceded to be closer to 10 percent. (J-Street-PAC is J-Street's fundraising arm for Congressional candidates. J-Street has still not disclosed many of its post-2008 donors to its J-Street 501(c)(4) entity, which may very well receive even heavier funding from hostile-to-Israel sources.)

J-Street Donors Tied to Palestinian, Saudi, Turkish Anti-Israel Islamist and Pro-Iranian Regime Advocacy Groups Include:   
- Genevieve Lynch, a board member of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), an apparent agent for the Islamic Republican of Iran. NIAC has worked closely with J Street to block Congressional sanctions against Iran. 
- Nancy Dutton, an attorney who worked for the Saudi embassy. She is also the widow of Fred Dutton, who served as a Saudi foreign agent in Washington for 30 years. (During the 1982 AWACS debate he was believed to be responsible for the line, “Reagan or Begin?” which strongly suggested American Jews’ double loyalty.)
- Ray Close, former CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia for 22 years and father of Kenneth Close, who is registered at the Justice Department as a foreign agent, working for Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, the author of the so-called Saudi ‘Arab Peace Initiative.’ 
-.Mehmet Celebi, a former fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign before being fired from it after it emerged that he was involved in the production of a virulently anti-American and anti-Semitic Turkish film, Valley of the Wolves. 
- M. Cherif Bassiouni, a "blame Israel" DePaul University law professor who wrote in the Harvard International Law Journal that “A large segment of the world population asks why Israel’s repression of the Palestinian people, which includes the commission of ‘grave breaches’ of the Geneva Convention and what the customary law of armed conflict considers ‘war crimes,’ is deemed justified, while Palestinians’ unlawful acts of targeting civilians are condemned? These are only some contemporary examples of the double standard that fuels terrorism.”

- Leaders of Muslim student groups; State Department officials (including Nicole Shampaine, Director of the State Department's office for Egypt and the Levant); and many others, including Arab individuals involvements in Arab organizations who were also on J-Street-PAC's influential finance committee, which required a minimum $10,000 contribution.  ​See Muslims, Arabs Among J-Street Donors, The Jerusalem Post, Aug. 14, 2009.  

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Would all these anti-Israel groups and individuals be giving large sums of money to J-Street if J-Street was truly a pro-Israel group?  

See "Take the J-Street Challenge: Follow the Money" video on J-Street's finances here:

Extremist J-Street Exposed: J-Street Leader's Qatari and Other Anti-Israel Connections

J Street's Executive Director, Jeremy Ben Ami, served as senior vice-president of Fenton Communications which, in March 2009, signed contracts with a Qatari foundation to lead an 18-month-long anti-Israel campaign in the United States with a special focus on university campuses. The contract called for “An international public opinion awareness campaign that advocates for the accountability of those who participated in attacks against schools in Gaza.”  

Ben Ami also previously was the Communications Director for the extremist left-wing New Israel Fund ("NIF," an NGO which funded numerous groups supporting BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) against Israel and other anti-Israel activities).  NIF is also a client of Ben Ami's consultng firm, Ben Or Consulting, discussed below.   

Ben Ami is also the founder and 15% owner of "Ben Or Consulting," a company that provides "strategic guidance," PR and (false) "public information development" to extremist anti-Israel NGOs.  Ben Or works closely with and coordinates anti-Israel NGOs' activities.  For instance, Ben Or coordinated a press conference by 9 anti-Israel NGOs in January 2009 (during the Gaza war which was precipated by thousands of Hamas rockets targeted at innocent Israeli civilians).  At the conference, the NGOs accused Israel of "blatantly violat[ing] the human and humanitarian rights of civilians in Gaza."  See NGO monitor report and links therein.  

Extremist J-Street Exposed:

J-Street Helps Israel's Enemies

Don't let this anti-Israel group join the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations!

“J-Street is not an organization with which I wish to be associated . . . The [J-Street] decision to endorse the Palestinian and Arab effort to condemn Israel in the U.N. Security Council is not the choice of a concerned friend trying to help. It is rather the befuddled choice of an organization so open-minded about what constitutes support for Israel that its brains have fallen out. . . . [The Palestinians] sent peace talks into a dead end. But astonishingly,it is Israel that J-Street would put in the stocks in the public square.”
        - Liberal Democrat former Congressman and Chair of the Mideast Subcommittee Gary Ackerman (D-NY), explaining why he cut ties with J Street, Jewish Lawmaker Slams J Street for Position on Anti-Israel U.N. Resolution, Fox News, Jan. 26, 2011.

“At a time when a million Israeli citizens have been living in bomb shelters for four days and four nights, have not gone to school or work and anxiously await the next siren, the terrorists firing on them are getting encouragement and support, not just from Iran and Hezbollah, but also from the left-wing Jewish American organization J Street … The anti-Israel and anti-ethical statement of J Street should serve as a warning for Israeli politicians and left-wing activists, including members of my party, against supporting and identifying with J Street, as they have done in the past.”
 - Knesset Member Otniel Shneller, of the left-wing Kadima Party, "MK slams J Street for statement on Gaza," Jerusalem Post, March 14, 2012).

"J Street . . . calls itself pro-Israel and pro peace but . . . always seems to be taking positions that are anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian. . . . [I]t is imperative that J Street’s hypocrisy be exposed. . . . J Street invites BDS* supporters and those who oppose Israel’s right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people to speak at its events . . . J Street only wants people to hear views [of] the anti-Israel hard left . . . . It categorically refuses to allow its members to hear views that are more centrist and more pro-Israel, such as my own."

     - Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, "Dershowitz Eviscerates Jeremy Ben Ami and J Street," Haaretz, March 29, 2014

* BDS = Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions against Israel

Above photo:  9-year old Israeli boy who lost his legs in a rocket attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza.   J-Street gives aid and comfort to Israel's enemies who commit these heinous crimes, by, for instance, promoting the Goldstone report that falsely accused Israel of commiting war crimes against Hamas' constituents in Gaza.   Hamas' own charter calls for the murder of Jews.

"J-Street's claim to be pro-Israel is completely phony.  J-Street's goal is to destroy Israel." 

  - Stanley Tate (Political guru, presidential adviser, former owner of Studio 54, and former head of Resolution Trust Corp.)

J-Street is an organization giving cover to those “inherently opposed to Israel’s existence.”

 - Carolyn Glick (Jerusalem Post columnist)

J Street is “a left-wing lobbying group that also claims to be pro-Israel even while promoting positions that treat Israel as the cause of the Middle East’s problems.” - Bill McGurn, The Wall Street Journal (Aug. 8, 2012)

Israeli activist on video: J-Street is heavily funded by Muslims and other anti-Israel entities; J-Street seeks to destroy Israel.

More Congresspersons Disassociate Themselves From J-Street:

After learning of J-Street's anti-Israel extremism, these Senators and Congresspersons all asked to have their names removed from the 2009 J Street Conference host committee to which they had originally signed up: 
 - Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
.- Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
 - Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
 - Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)
 - Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE)
 - Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR)
 - Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX)
 - Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
 - Rep. John Salazar (D-CO)
 - Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY)
- Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC)