{"id":120809,"date":"2026-05-19T08:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/120809\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T08:12:10","slug":"ambassador-leiter-slams-j-street-for-supporting-arms-embargo-on-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/120809\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambassador Leiter slams J Street for supporting arms embargo on Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter<\/a> sharply criticized J Street overnight Tuesday in Washington, accusing the liberal Jewish advocacy group of being \u201cduplicitous\u201d over its stance on US military aid to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst thing about J Street is it\u2019s duplicitous,\u201d Leiter said at a National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism<\/a> gathering at the Museum of the Bible. \u201cHow can you be pro-Israel and advocate for an arms embargo on a state that\u2019s fighting a seven-front war against Iranian proxies?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are like a cancer in the heart of the Jewish community,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

J Street, which describes itself as the \u201cpolitical home of pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans,\u201d recently changed its position on American security assistance to Israel and called for phasing out direct US military aid, including funding connected to systems such as Iron Dome.<\/p>\n

Leiter said the organization could not present itself as both pro-Israel and pro-democracy while opposing Israel\u2019s elected government and supporting members of Congress who seek to block weapons transfers to Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they said that they were pro-Palestinian, I wouldn\u2019t have a problem meeting with them. I meet with pro-Palestinian groups,\u201d Leiter said. \u201cBut when you come and say in such a two-faced manner, \u2018We\u2019re pro-Israel, we\u2019re pro democracy,\u2019 there\u2019s a democratically elected government in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t like Netanyahu<\/a>, make aliyah, vote in the next election, and express yourself. Don\u2019t say you\u2019re \u2018pro-democracy\u2019 and decry and defy the position of the democratic government of Israel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Leiter also criticized Jewish politicians in the United States who oppose Israeli policy, appearing to refer to Sen. Bernie Sanders without naming him.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be fooled by the fact that they appear to be Jewish,\u201d Leiter said. \u201cOne senator told me that the sponsor is a Jew. The sponsor is not a Jew. The sponsor is a Communist, who may have Jewish pedigree. That doesn\u2019t make him a Jew.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing that we have some of these people, who remember their Jewish pedigree only when they\u2019re bashing the State of Israel,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Leiter called on Israel supporters in the United States<\/a> to create a political environment in which candidates distance themselves from J Street and compete to show closeness to AIPAC.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to create an atmosphere where there\u2019s going to be competition among candidates who say, \u2018I don\u2019t have anything to do with J Street,\u2019 and have competition among candidates who say, \u2018I\u2019m proudly affiliated with AIPAC,\u2019\u201d Leiter said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter sharply criticized J Street overnight Tuesday in Washington, accusing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[2922,5143,10074,37,15920,51,8976],"class_list":["post-120809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-aipac","tag-diaspora","tag-embargo","tag-israel","tag-j-street","tag-united-states","tag-yechiel-leiter"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116600238479161849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}