Dear J Street: Time to End the Hypocrisy

Daniel MaelReprinted from JewishPress.com.

On Friday, April 25, on the way back to his dorm room, Brandeis student Daniel Mael passed a  group of his peers with whom he had previously engaged in civil discourse about the state of Israel and the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although they had often disagreed on many aspects of this issue, according to Mael, he felt that it was necessary to extend a hand of graciousness and respect to them in the name of civil and polite discourse. After all it was the Sabbath, and politics should never interfere with showing kindness to your fellow man.

And so, that Friday night, Mael wished these students a “Shabbat Shalom.”  Yet Instead of responding with the same respect and cordiality Mael afforded her, according to witnesses present,  Talia Lepson, a J Street U Brandeis board member, shrieked at Mael, “Jews hate you!” and “You’re a [expletive deleted]bag!” It was also reported that another unidentified male in the group echoed Lepson’s words, again hurling the vulgar epithet at Mael.

Understandably taken aback by this verbal lashing and feeling unsafe in such a hostile environment,  Mael filed an incident report with the university police. He also wrote at length about it on his Facebook page, wondering why this simple act of saying ‘Shabbat Shalom’ elicited such a hateful response. Yet by the time the Sabbath was over, he put the incident out of his mind.  Thinking it had passed, he began to focus on more important things like taking finals and finishing the semester.

But he was wrong.

That following Sunday afternoon, J Street National posted a blog on its website denying the incident had occurred. Moreover, they accused Mael of making up the story and claimed that he was the one harassing them. They wrote that he had engaged in a “campaign of personal intimidation and harassment” and implored others to distance themselves from “this blogger and others with a history of conduct driven by malice and deceit.”

But suggesting that Mael would make up a story which witnesses corroborated and then proceed to report that same story to the police is risible. He would not only be incriminating himself but the people with him who witnessed the incident.

According to Mael, he was deeply upset by this slander. It was bad enough to have been verbally attacked on campus. It was worse to have the perpetrators blatantly lie about it on a national forum and suggest that he should be shunned by the entire Jewish community. This bullying and  intimidation caused him great physical and emotional turmoil.

Unfortunately J Street’s behavior  is typical. Founded in 2008, J Street is an extreme left-wing national advocacy group that claims to be a pro-Israel organization. According to its website, J Street is committed to “fighting for the future of Israel as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people.”

But J Street has lobbied for anti-Israel legislation: it endorsed a North Carolina resolution proposed in 2012 by the North Carolina Democratic Party which called for negotiations with Hamas and it has supported efforts to divide Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.

J Street also has university chapters known as “J Street U” whose students have promoted anti-Israel activity. For example, at UC Berkley, J Street U students have supported the BDS movement, which calls for a boycott of the only Jewish state in the Middle East. Also, just last week at Swarthmore University, J Street U students co-hosted an event with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a rabidly anti-Semitic organization that calls for the destruction of the Jewish state and which also promotes BDS on campuses.

Moreover, J Street has had a history of attacking and maligning its opponents and then, when called out for such behavior, it accuses others of harassment and claims to be the victim. For example, J Street has hosted rabidly anti-Semitic speakers such as Sam Bahour on its national stage. Bahour peddles slanders against the Jewish people, accusing them of engaging in ethnic cleansing and genocide against Arabs. Yet when activists in the Zionist community reject allowing such an immoral group into the pro-Israel “tent,” J Street claims it is being bullied.

Additionally, J Street has hosted speakers who have justified and echoed the sentiments of Hamas and Hezbollah, like Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace. J Street thus promotes positions which are inimical to human rights, and yet claims its human rights are being violated when it is questioned and critiqued. This is a deliberate inversion of the truth that turns bullies into victims and vice versa, swapping fact for fiction and proclaiming that lies are axiomatic.

But does J Street even realize the paradox that it promotes?

In the blog on its website, J Street writes “We will not tolerate harassment of our student leaders, and we see no reason for us to have any further interaction … with those peddling in slander.” Yet J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami has said of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas that he has been engaged in “peace diplomacy and negotiation” the majority of his life. This is the same Abbas who has been serving in his post longer than he was elected to do so and has thrown Arabs in jail for critiquing him and his government on social media platforms.

According to the Arab based Independent Commission For Human Rights (ICHR), the Palestinian Authority has sanctioned death to apostates who leave Islam. Its report,which was released in January of this year,  also indicated that the Palestinian Authority has engaged in torture of its own citizens and, according to the Boston Globe, the Palestinian Authority  has sanctioned the systematic rape of and honor killings perpetrated against Arab women in the region.

So J Street will not tolerate “harassment” from a student who disagrees with its viewpoints but it will indulge a soft tyrant who has oppressed his people, embezzled billions of dollars, and dictated that selling land to a Jew is punishable by death.

For J Street, engaging in civil discourse over relevant issues is apparently reflective of “consistently and consciously cross[ing] that line” that must never be crossed, yet investing billions of dollars into a propaganda campaign that broadcasts to Arab children descriptions of Jews as apes and pigs elicits no such outrage.

According to its website, J Street has no problem engaging with Hamas since “one makes peace with one’s enemies not one’s friends.” Thus,  J Street is willing to engage in dialogue with a genocidal Islamist internationally recognized terrorist organization that calls for the annihilation of all Jewry,  hangs homosexuals in the public square, and perpetrates human rights abuses against women. But God forbid people should ever speak to a 21-year-old junior at Brandeis University who commits the egregious crime against humanity  by blogging about politics.

The absurdity would be comedic if it wasn’t so morally reprehensible.

One thing is certain. Because of its clear disregard for human rights as well as its shameful adoption of bullying tactics to silence its critics, J Street has no authority to dictate who should and should not be spoken to.  If it sincerely desires to stand for the values it claims to represent–”Peace” “Israelis” and “Palestinians”—it would behoove J Street to not promote organizations that engage in murder, anti-Jewish, and anti-Arab activity.

In the meantime, it is time to end this hypocrisy. People’s lives are literally at stake.

Chloé Valdary is a pro-Israel activist at New Orleans University, where she founded “Allies for Israel.”

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  • Tradecraft46

    Anything relating to J Street is a lie, but a lot of Jews have put a lot of money into it.

    • Gee

      Most of the money for JStreet comes for Soros, the US State Department and Saudi Arabia

      • Tradecraft46

        So true so true. The problem is a Marxist desire to manage events, which really just destroys your freedom.

  • The Facts

    1) Chloe Valdary is from nowhere near Brandeis.
    2) Daniel Mael is a political activist who runs to the police when women yell at him in public disagreement.
    3) Frontpage thinks this kind of interloping and effeminacy is news.

    • steven

      But i bet you’re a brave guy.I know your kind would hit a girl but a normal man doesn’t

      • tickletik

        Those weren’t girls bro. ;)

    • nomoretraitors

      Are you anywhere near Brandeis? On what authority do YOU speak?
      It’s news because it showcases the utter hypocrisy of a left that claims to champion free speech and debate. Sorry if that escapes you.

      • ahad_ha_amoratsim

        Do not feed The Made-up Facts troll. Flag him and move on.

      • The Facts

        Yeah, dingleberry, I am. I even had an art showing there a couple years ago.

        • SCREW SOCIALISM

          You’re an “artist”?

          BS “artist” of course.

      • tickletik

        Watch out nmt! You might be guilty of INTERLOPING! Ahhhhh!

    • 95Theses

      Scroll past the troll.

      • Habbgun

        Don’t scroll past the troll. Watch what happens when you remind him that he’s only a left wing white trash bucket crapper. It’s pretty funny and helps his mother with the argument he needs to talk to the nice man.

        • ahad_ha_amoratsim

          But don’t forget to flag The Fiction, whether you reply or ignore him.

        • 95Theses

          And at that point she can put an ad in the paper: “Basement apartment for rent”.

      • ahad_ha_amoratsim

        First flag him, then scroll past.
        He wouldn’t know The Facts if they bit him.

    • tickletik

      He ran to the police because a woman yelled at him? Oh no! I guess he’s not a REAL MAN like you is he you spindly pencil necked can’t get a date to save his life ugly unwanted little nerd.

    • Fritz

      Facts is about as factual as Baghdad Bob was about the “successes” of Saddam’s army during the Iraq War

  • SCREW SOCIALISM

    J Street – a Wolf in Sheep’s clothing

    Jihad Street advocates for the enemies of Israel.

    Who should we believe, Jihad Street or our lying eyes?

    • kieraeastedi321

      before I saw the paycheck four $4212 , I accept that
      my neighbours mother woz like they say really receiving money in there spare
      time from their computer. . there brothers friend has done this 4 only about
      seventeen months and at present paid for the loans on their place and got a
      great Mazda MX-5 . navigate to this website F­i­s­c­a­l­p­o­s­t­.­C­O­M­

      • carpe diem 36

        where did you lean grammat??

  • SCREW SOCIALISM

    Just like there are regressive progressives in the US and Eurabia, there are regressive progressives in Israel – both back radical islam over their home countries.

  • Hard Little Machine

    J-street is a front group for Iranian, Arab and terrorist money.

    • ahad_ha_amoratsim

      What amazes me is their ability to dupe well meaning Jews who do consider themselves pro-Israel (and I know a couple of them) into believing that J Street is a pro-Israel and not a transparently anti-Israel organization. What would they have to do for their dupes to see the light?

      • Hard Little Machine

        Probably it’s impossible. They will sing the praises of Chairman Obama as he personally marches them off to the death showers. This is truly the nature of Jew hatred and hero cults.

  • Bert

    Chloé Valdary is a courageous gentile who also puts the cowardly Jewish establishment to shame. Brandeis U. is a disgrace and so are the mainline Jewish organizations who maintain their cowardly silence. As in France and elsewhere we in America can look forward to an escalation in anti Jewish and anti-Israel agitation. This will overtake the Obama-supporting Jewish majority and chase them down wherever they may choose to hide out.

  • Seek

    J Street is the essence of Jewish self-hatred masquerading as Jewish assertiveness.

  • carpe diem 36

    israel should tell those eediots that it does not want or need their support, they should find someone else to “support” like the PA. they could use their “help”.

    • Drakken

      I wish we could sent the jihad street traitors to the PLO controlled areas, I hear Rachel Corrie is screaming for company. Better yet, we should send them all to go negotiate with Boko Haram, I’ll grab a bourbon and smile as reality comes to bare.

      • tickletik

        I like that phrase – jihad street. That is what will hang them. We have to use that phrase as often as possible

      • SCREW SOCIALISM

        Saint Pancake wants to make a stack.

  • antioli

    Seems as if the ADL is very much against J Street. Who is for J Street? The socialist paper Forward. You might expect a socialist paper to be against Israel. It is not unusual for socialist to want to extinguish Judaism. The soviet union did much to destroy strong Jewish identity . Jew from that era living in New York still believe them selves to be Jewish but they are very a religious compared to American Jews. Assimilation has been a doctrine of socialists for some time.
    In this respect they resemble the main line church hierarchy. But what is behind the assimilation urge. That is still unexplained except by those who promote assimilation.

  • Reuven

    PA tyrant Abbas was also the terrorist financier of the Munich Massacre of Israeli athletes. That’s the piece of garbage which J Street says positive things about! Mahmoud Abbas is simply another Arafat. The only difference between him and the late Father of Modern Terrrorism, Yasser Arafat, is that Abbas wears clean suits and apparently showers.

  • tickletik

    Make sure to always refer to j street as “jihad street”. The insult has to become fixed in the mind of the public

  • Fritz

    J Street should be required to change it’s name to Juden Frei Strasa , since they obviously want Israel, college campi, and likely the world, to be Jew free, to do otherwise is false advertising. Why have these Jew hating fifth columnists not been drummed out of Brandeis I will never know.

    • SCREW SOCIALISM

      Jihad Street is a proper appellation.

  • jennifer_ashcroft1967

    Unfortunately, the UK has its own version of J-Street called Yachad. Their way of ‘celebrating’ Israel’s Independence Day last week was to host an event by the ferociously anti-Zionist organisation “Breaking the Silence”:

    http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/yachad-statement.html

  • FactsRule

    Dear Chloe, you didn’t mention that Abbas was involved in the savage mass murder of children in Maalot & that he has consistently promoted genocide in many, many ways for a very long time, while lying about his motives to Israelis willing to accept his lies. All of this & far more has been documented for decades at palwatch.org

  • PaulD

    Anybody who associates or receives filthy money from darth-vader-Soros is simply an enemy of the Jewish people. J-Street and all the Leftists would dance and rejoice if the ovens started burning again for Nationalist, proud Jews.