Social Equality and Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli on Monday told Kan11 host Ayala Hasson that J Street is a “hostile organization,” and charged: “J Street made an edit in Photoshop and sent around to sabotage my meetings. I have no expectations of them. It’s an unimportant organization, it’s a hostile organization that harms the interests of the State of Israel.”
השר עמיחי שיקלי ל-@AyalaHasson על הטענות כי ביצע תנועה מגונה לעבר מפגין: “לא חושב שמי שיש לו שכל ישר ראה סימן לחייך ותנועה מגונה” #שבעעםאיילה pic.twitter.com/2MJprImb5W
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 12, 2023
At the core of the dispute between Chikli and J Street is an image of the minister at the Israel Parade on Fifth Ave. that was originally tweeted by Jacob Kornbluh of the Forward. Chikli argued that all he was doing was gesturing to the anti-Israel anarchists in the crowd to smile, using the fingers of both his hands. He also called Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid loathsome for running the image to make him, Chikli, look brutish.
The anarchists and J Street, for their part, suggested it was an expression of Chikli’s “utter contempt for American Jews and Israelis who care about Israel’s democratic future.”
Tomatoes tomatoes?
Of course, if Chikli insists he was only stretching his mouth into a smile, why the talk about a Photoshop edit? Anyway, here’s the image as retweeted on Monday by the nice Israel-hating folks at J Street. I should note for the record that I asked for special permission from our editor to run it in our family publication, just in case the fingers were, indeed, fingers.
On Tuesday morning, Chikli tweeted a lengthy message that included newspaper clips about the relationship between George Soros and J Street (see below). He also explained:
“Everything you need to know about the ‘pro-Israeli’ organization J Street:
1. J Street supported the ‘war crimes’ indictment of the UN commission led by Goldstone.
2. The organization received an extremely generous grant from one of the greatest Israel haters of our generation, George Soros.
3. The members of the organization are behind the harassment and violent attacks against members of the Knesset and ministers, which the BDS movement itself has never permitted itself to do.
4. The organization works aggressively to distort and thwart the definition of antisemitism according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance IHRA, which also includes the definition of antisemitism as the demonization of the State of Israel and the denial of its right to exist.
5. The organization tried to thwart (unsuccessfully) my meetings with various parties in the US.
כל מה שצריך לדעת על הארגון ״הפרו ישראלי״ ג׳יי סטריט:
1. ג’יי סטריט תמכה בכתב האישום של “פשעי המלחמה” מצד ועדת האו’ם בראשות גולדסטון.
2. הארגון זכה למענק נדיב ביותר מגדול מאחד מגדולי שונאי ישראל בדורנו ג׳ורג סורוס.
3. אנשי הארגון עומדים מאחורי הטרדות והתקפות אלימות כנגד חברי… pic.twitter.com/7ZvEFq6UBN
— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) June 13, 2023
