The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed to a detailed investigative report revealing that the anti-Israel George Soros-funded extremist, leftwing J Street, which falsely claims to be a pro-Israel organization, is endorsing for Congress legislators who possess poor records on Israel while working hard to unseat legislators who have strong records of support for Israel.

According to a report by investigative journalist Adam Kredo, “J Street is soliciting funds for congressional candidates who are openly hostile to Israel while simultaneously targeting for defeat explicitly pro-Israel lawmakers who do not agree with its radical Middle East agenda.” 

Kredo provides the following evidence:

• In a video that has since been scrubbed from the Internet, J Street’s vice president for campaigns admitted that the group has a small political constituency and explained that its ultimate goal is to “move Jews” farther to the left in order to place them more in line with J Street’s own views.

• At least six of J Street’s candidates have failed to affirm the U.S.-Israel alliance on the House floor, rejected Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorists, and backed a congressional letter demanding that Israel end its defensive measures against the terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. All of these positions place the candidates well outside the mainstream pro-Israel community.

• J Street has endorsed Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), who in 2009 refused to sign a resolution that both affirmed Israel’s right to defend itself and also condemned the Goldstone Report, a despicable United Nations report that wrongly accused Israel of committing war crimes—a claim that report’s author, Richard Goldstone himself, later retracted as false. Capps then declined to join 327 of her colleagues later that year in expressing support for a bi-partisan letter “reaffirming the U.S.-Israel alliance.” In 2010, Capps become one of the “Gaza 54” when she signed onto a J Street-orchestrated letter that asked President Obama to pressure the Israeli government to end its defensive measures against Hamas in Gaza. Later in 2010, Capps again bucked the majority of Congress when she refused to back a letter reaffirming Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” incident, in which Israeli soldiers were attacked and beaten by a delegation of pro-Palestinian terrorists.

• J Street has endorsed Rep. George Miller (D-CA), a fellow “Gaza 54” signer who would not support a congressional missive voicing “solidarity” with Israel. Miller also would not vote in favor of a letter that reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel and recognized Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian attacks.

• J Street has also endorsed Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WNI), a “Gaza 54” backer who voted against a 2009 Iran sanctions bill and condemned Israel defending against armed militants aboard the “Freedom Flotilla.”

• J Street has also endorsed Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who declined to join a bipartisan cadre of 76 senators who expressed the commitment of the U.S. government’s alliance with the Israeli government.

• J Street has also endorsed Reps. David Price (D- NC.) and Peter Welch (D-VT), both of whom endorsed the “Gaza 54” letter and spearheaded a letter asking President Obama to continue sending U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority despite its attempts to establish statehood at the United Nations.

• J Street has targeted for unseating Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), a first-term legislator who has been among Israel’s chief defenders during his two-year tenure in the House.Walsh attracted J Street’s ire earlier this month when he referred to the two-state solution as a sham. His call led J Street to issue a red alert to its supporters calling for Walsh’s ouster from Congress this November claiming, absurdly, that “The policies endorsed by Representative Walsh are not pro-Israel and are not endorsed by the Israeli mainstream. “It is time for the American Jewish community to call him out and make clear that he does not speak for us or for Israel’s democratic, Jewish future.” To this, Rep. Walsh has responded saying, “For a group like J Street who only claims to be pro-Israel to go after me for being pro-Israel makes no sense …. They hide under the cover of ‘pro-peace, pro-Israel,’ but they’re pro-Palestinian … No one from the middle to the right takes them seriously. They’re almost a joke. They’re extremely toxic and so loudly in your face to anyone who takes even a little bit of a pro-Israel stance.”

• In addition to Walsh, J Street has targeted New Hampshire Reps. Charlie Bass (R) and Frank Guinta (R), who both possess stellar pro-Israel credentials, as well as Rep. Judy Biggert (R., Ill.), co-sponsor of the America Stands with Israel Act and a regular defender of the U.S.-Israel alliance. 

• Bass co-sponsored the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, a bill passed by the House earlier this month despite the objections of several lawmakers affiliated with J Street. Conversely, His challenger, Ann McLane Kuster, who J Street has termed “a progressive hero,” has virtually no public record regarding Israel and is touted by J Street not as a pro-Israel stalwart, but as a “community activist, author, public policy advocate, and attorney.”

• Guinta, too, has taken a strong stance against Iran’s pursuit of nuclear arms and has vocally expressed support for the Jewish state (Adam Kredo,  “The Anti-Israel Lobby: ‘Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace’ J Street Backs Congressmen Who Do Not Support Israel,’ Free Beacon, May 23, 2012).

J Street’s latest activities have led Morris Amitay, a former executive director of AIPAC and a veteran supporter of Israel in Washington, to declare that “They’re showing their true colors … You can forget about what they’re saying, but look at who they’re supporting—it’s people most observers would consider to not be friendly to Israel. They sort of help the bad guys on this issue. Former National Security senior official Elliott Abrams said, “It is ironic that J Street turns out to want American Jews to be one issue voters … J Street supports candidates critical of Israel and opposes candidates who are very pro-Israel. Doesn’t much matter where they stand on anything else. Maybe we should salute J Street’s bipartisanship: They barely care what party you’re in as long as you think undermining the Government of Israel is a good idea.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “The news that George Soros-backed extremist J Street is not merely backing legislators and candidates which it falsely claims are pro-Israel, but is actually expending time and resources on defeating legislators who have incontestably strong records of support for Israel, gives the lie to its audacious and elaborate pretension that it is a genuinely pro-Israel body.

“One cannot work overtime to defeat strong supporters of Israel while claiming to be a pro-Israel body. It also gives the lie to J Street’s mendacious claim that it seeks to “broaden” the conversation on Israel. Clearly, it wants to narrow the conversation by removing from Congress those who have actually supported Israel.

“The fact of the matter is that J Street, as evidenced by the positions it takes, reflects only a very small minority of opinion among both American Jews and Israelis. Only very small minorities of Israelis and American Jews took the J Street view of opposing for over a year U.S. Congressional sanctions on Iran or opposing Israel’s Operation Cast Lead. We have written before in detail some of J Street’s anti-Israel positions.

“J Street needs to be recognized for what it is – a stealth, anti-Israel organization seeking to dissipate American Jewish support for Israel – and ignored.”