The pseudo-Jewish anti-Israel lobby group J Street got slapped down on Saturday after it attempted to silence a pro-Israel group’s criticism of feverishly anti-Israel candidate Bernie Sanders, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The Democratic Majority for Israel, devoted to shoring up support for Israel in the Democratic party, currently under threat from Sanders and his antisemitic allies, ran an ad against Sanders’ candidacy.
J Street promptly blew its gasket, hilariously claiming that it represents a majority of American Jews and pro-Israel Democrats.
“DMFI, in reality, represents a minority of pro-Israel Democrats who seem more concerned with targeting progressives over Israel policy than with confronting the destructive agenda of Donald Trump,” said J Street’s head, Jeremy Ben-Ami.
“DMFI has every right to publicly criticize the views of any candidate or elected official,” he allowed, “but it has no right to claim to speak for a ‘Democratic majority’ of pro-Israel Americans as it takes sides in the Democratic primary.”
“This dishonest packaging deepens divides over Israel in the US and exacerbates the troubling trend of making Israel a political football — all while distracting from the absolute necessity of defeating Donald Trump,” he raved.
Ben-Ami was promptly slapped down by DMFI’s chairman Mark Mellman, who said, “Unlike J Street, DMFI PAC is explicitly committed to advancing the interests of the Democratic Party and to defeating Donald Trump. DMFI is independent of any other organizations, and its leadership has spent lifetimes in the trenches helping Democrats.”
“Like many other Democrats, we believe that Senator Sanders will not be able to defeat Trump, and his nomination would put Democratic candidates at risk up and down the ballot, and across the country,” he said.
“We have been crystal clear that we also have problems with Senator Sanders’ views on Israel, and his refusal to disassociate himself from antisemitic statements made by individuals he appointed to official positions in his campaign,” Mellman added.
“If J Street really cared about the Democratic Party, the US Israel relationship or combating antisemitism, they would join us, instead of protecting Senator Sanders and lying about DMFI’s positions and so-called partnerships,” he concluded, leaving J Street in a bloodied heap on the floor.