Letters

No to J Street

I am confident Mr. Lurinsky’s  (What would Mom and Dad say?- February 28) WW2 veteran family members would reject his membership in J Street. After October 7th, J Street campaigned against two anti-Iran House bills that included sanctioning of Iran’s oil industry. The Biden policy of loosening sanctions against Iran’s oil industry provided Iran a windfall which it funneled to Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. J Street also lobbied for the 2015 Iran deal, which featured no Iranian military site inspections unless approved by Iran’s Supreme Council.

J Street opposed a House resolution condemning anti-Semitism on college campuses. J Street’s campus organizations have even helped student activists champion boycotts against Israel, according to a Washington Free Beacon report. Of course, all this anti-Israel activity shouldn’t be surprising given that George Soros provided J Street its start-up funding and Soros continues to finance it and a whole host of radical anti-Israel groups.

Mr. Lurinsky regurgitates the thoroughly discredited claim that President Trump’s “fine people on both sides” statement included Nazis. His assertion that VP Vance would back defying court orders is rich after Biden regularly flouted Supreme Court rulings on student debt cancellation which I am certain Mr. Lurinsky had no problem with. Lurinsky expresses ‘shock’ at Vance’s ‘foray’ into European politics, but I am certain he cheered on the Obama State Department handing money to a group (One Voice/V15) seeking the ouster of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

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Far-left individuals like Mr. Lurinsky consistently confuse friend from foe. A February 2025 Gallup poll showed just 33% of Democrats had a favorable view of Israel compared to 83% of Republicans. Unless Mr. Lurinsky’s heroic family members were Communists, I can’t imagine they would support J Street or Democrats in 2025.

Michael Milchen
New Milford

Republicans are good for the Jews

As a member of J Street, I am not sure Mark Lurinsky should be criticizing President Trump, Vice President Vance, Elon Musk or MAGA supporters in general as anti-Semitic. There is nothing pro-Israel about J Street, an organization that supported the Iran deal, pressured House Democrats to oppose a resolution that condemned support for Hamas on college campuses, has tried to undercut Birthright, joined Student for Justice in Palestine to criticize Hillel for accepting funds from The Maccabee Task Force, and supports a right for Palestinians to join international organizations in violation of the Oslo Accords. I could go on but I will save room to mention that Mr. Lurinsky felt the need to call Kanye West Trump’s friend but I guess he forgot about Obama’s friends, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Rashid Khalidi, two known anti-Semites, as well as his friendship with a terrorist, Bill Ayers or Biden’s friendship with KKK member Robert Byrd. In addition, the lie about Trump saying there were “very fine people on both sides” with reference to Charlottesville has been debunked and it is irresponsible to keep repeating it. Implying that Trump would not follow court orders is laughable considering the last 4 years (student loan forgiveness is one example of Biden defying the Supreme Court). There isn’t enough room here to even list all the things Trump has done for Israel and Jews in general in a mere few weeks. Throwing around words like fascist, dictator and Nazi is a typical scare tactic of Democrats with no basis in fact. The latest polls show only 33% of Democrats support Israel while a whopping 83% of Republicans support Israel. It’s pretty clear which party is better for the Jews.

Beatrice Baum
Bergenfield