Jeremy Ben-Ami, the leader of the far-left, George Soros-backed J Street, who lied for years about whether his group had taken money from the billionaire, now says Israel’s war of self-defense in Gaza is a “genocide.”
Ben-Ami, who had no problem kissing the terror-supporting, Holocaust-denying, genocide-supporting leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has a history of supporting radical anti-Israel activism. Even though J Street bills itself as “pro-Israel, pro-peace,” it avoids embracing Israeli symbols and has promoted libels against Israel before — such as the discredited Goldstone Report of 2009, later recanted by its author.
That report falsely accused Israel of war crimes in another war of self-defense against Hamas. In the current situation, Ben-Ami claims in a Substack post, Israeli soldiers are “[d]enying food and basic necessities of life to civilians” (when in fact they are facilitating the delivery of thousands of truckloads of aid) and “shooting at civilians trying to get food” (which has never happened but has been falsely reported by Hamas and mainstream media outlets).
Ben-Ami provides no facts, but simply says that he has read other sources he considers reputable. He also shows no evidence of genocidal intent, a key factor in distinguishing the great crime of “genocide” from the hardships of war on the losing side. In a supreme irony, Ben-Ami claims he was inspired to write by the Jewish memorial day known as Tisha B’Av, which commemorates the destruction of the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem.
In 2010, Ben-Ami threw a cocktail fundraiser for J Street on Tisha B’Av, showing the true contempt with which he regards that day (except as an example to emulate).
Later that year, Ben-Ami had to admit that his organization had received funding from Soros, despite years of denials. “Ben-Ami for years has given statements denying Soros had a role in founding the group and strongly implying that he continued to have no role,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. However, after an exposé by the Washington Times, Ben-Ami had to admit that he and J Street had lied about their funding.
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 Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. 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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