Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud) excoriated the left-wing Middle East policy think-tank and pro-two-state solution lobby group J Street, after the organization’s Twitter account retweeted an unflattering photograph of the minister with the word “Shame.”
The photograph was taken last week by Forward reporter Jacob Kornbluh, while a group of anti-judicial reform protesters in Manhattan demonstrated against the participation of Israeli government officials in the annual Celebrate Israel Parade.
When a group of protesters harangued him, Chikli responded with an exaggerated grin while holding finders on either side of his mouth, in an expression he later explained was intended to signal to the protesters to smile. Critics, however claimed the minister was in fact making an obscene gesture.
On Monday, Chikli responded to J Street’s retweeting of the image, dismissing the group as unimportant and accusing it of being anti-Israel, rejecting J Street’s claim of being a “pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy” organization.
“It’s not an important organization, it’s hostile Chikli told Kan, blasting J Street’s support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was condemned by parties from both the Israeli Left and Right. “It’s a hostile organization that harms the interests of the state of Israel.”
The minister also noted J Street has received financial support from billionaire hedge funder and left-wing donor George Soros’s Open Society Foundations.
“I have no expectation of J Street, which George Soros funded with $1 million, there’s no turning to him.”
J Street responded to Chikli’s comments, claiming they reflected the “extreme right” government’s frustration with opposition to the judicial reform.
"What a clear sign of how utterly out of touch this government is with the vast majority of American Jews, represented by J Street, who are deeply worried about their attacks on Israeli democracy and angered by their extreme right agenda," J Street Vice President of Communications Logan Bayroff told Ha’aretz.