Kadima MK Schneller: Don’t Support JStreet

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned the extremist, anti-Israel organization J Street, first, for falsely claiming that Israel killed “over a dozen” Palestinian civilians last week in military strikes targeting terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza, when in fact all of the 16 killed were terrorists, not civilians; and second, for issuing a phony and misleading retraction that implied J Street had merely got the number of dead “civilians” wrong, when in fact no civilians were among the 16 Palestinians killed by Israeli military action up until that date.

In a statement issued on March 11, J Street falsely stated that “Israel Defense Forces… have killed over a dozen Palestinian civilians.” In a undated revision of the original statement, there is now no reference to the number of civilians killed in the Israeli operation, merely a new sentence preceding the statement expressing “regret” at having “misstated the number of civilian casualties” (‘REVISED: J Street Responds to Recent Violence Between Israel, Gaza,’ J Street, March 11, 2012). However, J Street did not avail itself of the opportunity to correctly state the number of killed civilians, presumably, because the number was zero. Thus, its ‘correction’ too is a falsehood, as the 16 Palestinians killed up until March 11 were all terrorists, a list of whose names and affiliations has been provided by the blog, Challah Hu Akbar, and are as follows:

Popular Resistance Committees: Ahmed Hanani, Zuhir al-Qaisi, Mahdi Abu Shawish, Mansour Kamal Abu Nuseira, Hussein Barham Al-Breim, Ahmad Deeb Salem. Islamic Jihad: Fayiq Saad, Muatasim Hajjaj, Ahmad Hajjaj, Shadi Sayqali, Ubeid Gharabli, Muhammad Maghari, Hazim Qureiqi, Muhammad al-Ghamry, Muhammad Hararah, Mahmoud Najim. 

In its statement, J Street, while claiming to “unequivocally support Israel’s right to protect its citizens from attack” largely neutered itself by also “urging all involved to exercise maximal restraint,” implying equivalence between Israeli forces targeting terrorists and terrorists deliberately firing rockets into Israeli cities and towns.

The JStreet statement has also outraged MK Otniel Schneller from the left-wing Kadima Party who said in the Knesset that, “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” (Jeremy Sharon, ‘MK slams J Street for statement on Gaza, Jerusalem Post, March 14, 2012).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Yet again, J Street has shown itself to be false and slippery with the facts and hostile to Israel. 

“We have seen this many times before, such as when: 

• J Street urged the Obama Administration to support a UN Security Council condemnation of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as ‘illegal’: 


• JStreet refused to condemn the UN Goldstone Report;


• JStreet opposed Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009-10, despite the operation enjoying overwhelming Israeli public support, including even from the far-left Meretz party.


• JStreet falsely claimed that ‘at most 3 percent’ of its donors were Arab, rather than something like 10%; 


• JStreet posted a Youtube video purporting to show prominent Israelis speaking in support of J Street when in fact, of the eleven interviewed, only three mentioned J Street at all, one of whom – Colette Avital – is a J Street employee; and 


• JStreet cited polls inaccurately to bolster its claim that Israelis and American Jews want greater Israeli concessions and agree with President Obama’s pressure on Israel to stop Jews building in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

“Making false and unsupported claims of Israel killing civilians; ‘correcting’ that lie with a further lie about having ‘misstated’ the number of civilians killed by Israel when in fact J Street’s claim of Israel killing civilians was entirely false; bracketing Israeli military measures whose legitimacy J Street itself purports to ‘support’ with outright Palestinian terrorist assaults; are not actions that any genuine pro-Israel organization would take.