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ADL’s Foxman Voted for J Street
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On May 1, 2014 @ 10:20 am In The Point | 8 Comments
Despite Abe Foxman, J Street lost the vote to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
And that’s a major victory. I thought that J Street would win considering how far the radical left had gotten into the leadership of Jewish groups.
In what many observers will see as the de facto expression of mainstream U.S. Jewry’s outlook on J Street, members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Wednesday voted 22-17 (with three abstentions) to reject the membership application of the self-labeled “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby. J Street secured the votes of only about a third of the Conference’s 50 members.
J Street fell significantly short of the required threshold of a two-thirds affirmative vote from the Conference’s full membership. The result that 25 organizations either voted against J Street or abstained meant that half of the Conference’s members declined to support J Street’s application.
J Street was questioned over donations it has received from liberal billionaire George Soros—whose foundations have come under scrutiny for allegedly funding anti-Israel groups—and over the lobby’s support of the United Nations-sponsored Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of war crimes against the Palestinians. Furthermore, J Street was accused of collaborating with anti-Israel groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine.
The vote breakdown was not too surprising.
Many members had been very closed-mouthed on how they planned to vote in the days leading up to the ballot, but confirmed “yes” votes as of Wednesday morning included big players such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Union for Reform Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly. Other organizations included the Jewish Labor Committee, the Jewish Council for Political Affairs, Workmen’s Circle, the National Council of Jewish Women, Ameinu and Americans for Peace Now.
Having Peace Now enter was already a major defeat for the pro-Israel camp. And liberal theological groups tend to have even more radical clergy. More conservative religious groups however differed.
Farley I. Weiss, president of National Council of Young Israel and another “no” vote, echoed Klein’s words about J Street’s past actions toward the Jewish state.
“I think that what J Street is doing is trying to play down their actions and statements to get in,” Weiss told the Post. “They’re trying to say they’ll be part of the community, and won’t do these things they’ve done in the past. I think they have to stand by their record. But instead of running on their record they’re trying to play it down.”
Somewhat surprisingly, Abe Foxman who recently has been trying to play right on Israel, backed the anti-Israel group.
“We will support the admission of J Street not because we agree with them, not because we support their views, but in order to ensure the integrity and credibility of American Jewish advocacy and of the Conference of Presidents,” he said.
What Foxman is saying is that if J Street joins, maybe Obama will take the Conference seriously. Of course Obama’s determination to shove J Street down the throats of the Jewish community helped contribute to the backlash.
Backers of J Street’s admission say they have reached “critical mass” for J Street’s entry — 34 of the conference’s 51 members.
No, no they did not. To my pleasant surprise, not everyone in there is a Foxman. And this didn’t exactly help...
In stark contrast to the pro-Israel community, J-Street defended Kerry’s “apartheid” accusations as accurate. In addition, J-Street attacked the Jewish organizations which had pointed out how offensive Kerry’s remarks were. The extremist J-Street lobby stated: “Instead of putting energy into attacking Secretary Kerry, those who are upset with the Secretary’s use of the term should put their energy into opposing and changing the policies that are leading Israel down this road.”
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