dispicable J Street ad

By: Dan Halper
Weekly Standard
07/06/10 3:50 PM EDT

How does J Street welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to town? By politicizing American support for Israel. In a new ad said to air nationally (on al-Jazeera English maybe?), the group makes a silly attempt to ‘juxtapose’ those who say ‘yes’ to peace with those who say….well, it’s tough to find anyone in the U.S. who opposes peace, so J Street just slanders staunch supporters of Israel whose staunch support offends their delicate sensibilities.

The folks J Street places in the two camps are predictable enough. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and General David Petraeus are on the ‘yes’ team. (See? They even have a military guy on board!) As for the ‘no’ team, that would be Sarah Palin, Joe Lieberman, Congressman Mike Pence, and others.

Obama, who is quoted as saying, “Two states living side by side in peace and security,” represents the ‘yes’ team. But here’s the thing: Those named as part of the ‘no’ team are also in favor of a two state solution to end the conflict in Israel.

Here’s Lieberman’s position:

Advancing the Middle East Peace Process. Senator Lieberman believes that the United States should continue to take an active role in negotiating a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Specifically, he maintains that a two-state solution – in which Israel lives side by side in peace with a democratic Palestinian state – ultimately provides the only appropriate framework for resolving this longstanding challenge.

Here’s Sarah Palin, from the 2008 vice presidential debate with Joe Biden:

PALIN: A two-state solution is the solution.

So, what we’re left with is a totally dishonest ad.

J Street’s agenda isn’t hard to see. As reported in today’s Washington Post:

Israeli Ambassador Michael B. Oren said some moves in recent months, including a letter critical of the Gaza blockade signed by 54 congressional Democrats, have left the impression that Israel is “becoming a partisan issue,” with Republicans being uniformly supportive where Democrats are not.

Who circulated this letter critical of the blockade of Gaza around the House? That would be J Street, of course.

One might also note that the team behind the ad includes Meretz U.S.A. – the American arm of the hippy-dippy left-wing eco-party that holds all of three seats in the Israeli Knesset. Other members of the “Yes Community,” according to J Street, are “Congress” and “American Jews.” Funny, then, that more than 327 members of the House signed a letter to the administration this spring urging Hillary Clinton to do precisely what J Street attacks Joe Lieberman for in the ad – to settle any differences “quietly, in trust and confidence, as befits longstanding strategic allies.”

But perhaps the most despicable element of this ad is the use of an image showing General Petraeus in uniform and implying that he somehow supports J Street’s anti-Israel positions. In the past, the left has gone nuts whenever images of Petraeus were used in political ads to imply his endorsement or support — and the Pentagon hasn’t taken kindly to it either.