WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE

A bunch of left-wing Jewish supporters of President Obama’s pro-Palestinian policies recently formed a group to counter the pro-Israel lobbying efforts of AIPAC. J Street, a self-proclaimed pro-Israel lobby opened its first nationwide conference this week with 1,500 left-wingers in attendance. The lobby is largely funded by billionaire George Soros, a long-time adversary of Israel.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Soros is one of a "tiny minority of American Jews” who have played a role in undermining support for Israel in the Democratic Party, and they now seek "to undermine Israel’s position in the U.S. in general.” Soros invited Jewish billionaires Peter Lewis and the Bronfman brothers, Charles and Edgar, to join forces with him and left-wing Jewish American organizations – including American Friends of Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom – to construct a political lobby, J Street, designed to weaken the influence of AIPAC.

J Street supports the Arab demands for Israel’s withdrawal from all lands captured during the 1967 war and a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capitol. J Street also strongly supports Obama’s demand that Israel freeze all settlement building activities.

The new group has a significant number of Arab and Muslim donors. And Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s director, has a checkered past of doing business with Israel's Arab enemies.

Former Israel diplomat Lenny Ben-David, writing on his private blog last week, cited Ben-Ami’s having been a senior vice president for Fenton Communications, which signed a contract with a foundation in Qatar to lead an anti-Israeli campaign on American college campuses.

Ben-David also challenged J Street’s claim that “about five” of its donors are Muslims and Arabs. He wrote, “A partial listing quickly extracted from the U.S. Federal Election Commission shows more than 30 contributors, many with ties to Arab-American organizations.” Previous reports have stated that Arabs and Muslims contribute approximately 10 percent of J Street’s $3 million annual budget.

With left-wing Jewish friends like these, Israel doesn’t need any enemies.