An Oct. 19 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein is another attack on the Jewish lobbying group J Street, whom Klein claims is “accused of working against the Jewish state.”
It’s at least a slightly less antagonistic description of J Street than his previous outing, in which he called it “a far-leftist Mideast activist organization.”
Klein seems to have lifted much of his “research” on J Street from right-wing blogs such as Powerline and Hot Air, neither of which he identifies as right-wing — even though he makes sure to point out that J Street “mostly is led by left-leaning Israelis.” Klein also complains that “far-leftist Israelis are influential in the J Street leadership,” offering as an example former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg. Interestingly, Burg was injured in a 1983 grenade attack that killed Israeli peace activist Emil Grunzweig. The attacker, Yona Avrushmi, has been described as a right-wing activist. (And we know how Klein loves his violent right-wing activists.)
At no point does Klein explain why Burg is defined as “far-leftist” beyond having once stated that “to define the State of Israel as a Jewish state is the key to its end.”
Also, at no point does Klein indicated that he contacted J Street to give it an opportunity to respond to the attacks he published. As a poor substitution, he quotes from a J Street “e-mail to supporters blaming ‘neoconservatives and their Swift Boat tactics'” for causing some members of Congress to drop out of attending an upcoming dinner.
Of course, with this unfair, unbalanced attack, that’s exactly what Klein is doing.