Is J Street pro-mullah?

Earlier today, in a post about the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), I mentioned the likelihood of a connection between that group — which lobbies on behalf of the interests of the tyrannical and murderous Iranian regime — and J Street — which claims to be a pro-Israel organization. NIAC’s internal emails and other documents have been uncovered in the discovery process of a defamation case it brought against an Iranian who accused NIAC of lobbying. These materials not only support the lobbying charge, but provide an invaluable window into NIAC’s machinations, as well as its associates.
Ben Smith of Politico, who is mining the emails, confirms the collaboration between NIAC and J Street. He reports that the minutes of a series of meetings that included NIAC and J Street “offer a glimpse of the strategy and tactics involved in the push for a rapprochement with the Islamic Republic, from an attempt to undermine the appointment of Dennis Ross as Iran envoy to a planned ‘Send Hillary to Iran’ campaign.”
J Street, in short, is working hand-in-glove with NIAC to press a pro-mullah agenda on the Obama administration. And part of that agenda consisted of trying to prevent Dennis Ross’s selection as envoy to Iran. Ross is hardly a neo-conservative, but he is Jewish. Thus, it makes sense that the Iranian regime and its lobbying arm didn’t want him for the envoy job (although, as Jennifer Rubin notes, NIAC’s website embraces Ross, calling him a “distinguished American policymaker” who has come under attack for supporting the Obama adminstration’s Middle East policy). But it’s disgusting that J Street worked with NIAC in an attempt to block Ross.
As Rubin aptly puts it, “It seems as though the issue as to whether J Street is ‘pro-Israel’ has been superseded by another: is it pro-mullah?”

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