Yesterday I wrote about the Birthright trip supposedly to be led by J Street U, the campus branch of the phony ‘pro-Israel’ organization J Street. I urged readers to write to Birthright and The Israel Experience, the ‘trip provider’ said to be organizing the tour for J Street.
Birthright responded to me that they were looking into the matter. An official of The Israel Experience responded to a reader, saying
Neither Birthright nor the Israel Experience are providing a JStreet trip. (rumors)
At first I thought that the press release from J Street U’s director, Daniel May, which appeared in several blogs (see here and here) was a hoax, because it didn’t appear on either the J Street or J Street U site. But one of the bloggers kindly pointed me to the signup page for the tour on J Street’s web site.
So here’s what I think:
Someone at J Street thought that it would be clever to trade on the good name of Birthright — after all, how could Birthright allow an anti-Zionist group to lead a tour? — and at the same time exploit the funding provided by truly pro-Israel donors and the Israeli government. The plan was to bring young people to Israel where they could meet with left-wing Jews and anti-Zionist Arabs, who would present to them J Street’s fundamentally anti-Zionist point of view.
But they apparently ‘forgot’ to ask Birthright before announcing the program!
This is a maneuver characteristic of J Street, which essentially exists to dishonestly use Jewish resources against Israel. So it accepts donations from well-meaning liberal Jews while also receiving funds from extreme left-wing sources such as George Soros and from individuals connected to Arab interests and Iran.
I have asked Birthright and The Israel Experience to publicly disavow any connection to J Street or J Street U. Email addresses are in my previous post, if you want to do the same.
Update [1126 PST]: I received the following (unsigned) email from Birthright:
JStreet has been asked to remove this page.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Birthright, J Street
My older boy visited Israel on a Birthright trip and was more than favorably impressed.
I would hate for parents to send their kids to Israel, thinking it will instill pride in Israel’s accomplishments and understanding of its predicament, only to be guided around by anti-Israel ideologues.
Needless to say, palming off is a form of unfair competition and trademark infringement. Perhaps, if JStreet does not back down, Birthright should have its attorneys politely bring the matter to JStreet’s attention.