Lake: J Street Admits Soros Support
Eli Lake reports:
J Street, the liberal Middle East policy advocacy organization, on Sunday issued a statement acknowledging what the group had earlier denied: J Street received financial support from billionaire George Soros.
"I accept responsibility personally for being less than clear about Mr. Soros' support once he did become a donor," Jeremy Ben Ami, J Street's executive director, said in a note to supporters on the group's website.
The Washington Times first disclosed Friday that J Street, a group that portrays itself as a progressive alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), had received $750,000 from Mr. Soros and his family, despite previous denials from the organization that it accepted funds from the Hungarian-born financier and political activist.
The story set off a wave of reaction on the Internet and in the U.S. Jewish press. James Besser, Washington correspondent for New York Jewish Week, wrote Sunday that J Street deceived him about receiving support from Mr. Soros.
"I was one of the many journalists who asked the question and received in return something significantly less than the truth," Mr. Besser wrote. "Okay, it was a lie."
Tax forms obtained by The Times show that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009.
The contributions represent a third of the group's revenue from U.S. sources during the period, which also covered the election season that brought Barack Obama to the White House. Nearly half of J Street's revenue during the time frame — a total of $811,697 — however, came from a single donor in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, named Consolacion Esdicul.
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