ZOA Urges Jewish Community to Boycott J Street over Support for Arms Embargo

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at the J Street Natio
Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States, urged Jewish community institutions to boycott left-wing J Street over its support for an arms embargo against Israel.

J Street, which took funding from left-wing billionaire George Soros and lied about it for years, often takes positions against the Israeli government in Congress, even though it claims to be both pro-Israel and pro-peace.

Recently, J Street supported a failed effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to restrict certain weapons from Israel.

ZOA President Mort Klein said in a statement Wednesday:

Blocking arms sales to Israel in the middle of an existential war and rising antisemitism means that more Jews will die. When Jewish groups block these arms sales, it’s downright treasonous and antisemitic. Yet, disgracefully, radical groups J Street, Americans for Peace Now (APN), T’ruah, Partners for Progressive Israel (PPI) and IfNotNow lobbied for and supported three joint Senate resolutions of disapproval to block $20 billion of U.S. arms sales to Israel, sponsored by Israel-hating Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Peter Welch (D-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Brian Schatz (D-HI). (S.J. Res. 111 (to block tank munitions), 113 (mortars) and 115 (JDAM precision munitions).)

Almost as horrifying is J Street’s director Jeremy Ben-Ami falsely proclaiming that the antisemitic ICC is “reasonable” in asserting that Israel “knowingly violated international law.” J Street falsely stated that Israel “uses starvation as a method of warfare and other horrific crimes against humanity.” J Street goes on to state that Israel “denies assistance to Arab civilians and Israeli leaders intentionally forge ahead with further illegalities.” J Street has now exposed themselves as not “pro-Israel, pro-peace” as they allege, but anti-Israel and pro-many of the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people.

ZOA strongly urges that JCRCs and Hillels immediately remove these hostile-to-Israel groups J Street, APN and others from any official affiliation. We also urge that the Conference of Presidents remove APN from its membership. Furthermore, all rabbis and cantors on J Street’s board or advisory committees should resign in protest of their endangering Israel and Jews.

As Breitbart News recently reported, J Street has been fundraising over what it calls the “nightmare scenario” of President Donald Trump taking office again while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in office in Israel.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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