Congressional Democrats defended their meetings with Richard Goldstone and denied any J Street role in arranging the sit-downs.
Goldstone, the author of a controversial report on the 2009 Gaza War, and two senior aides to top Democrats denied J Street’s involvement. The denials followed a Washington Times report last week asserting that J Street facilitated the meetings.
An aide to Rep. Howard Berman (D–Los Angeles), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Mort Halperin — the director of the Open Society Institute who is also listed as one of five J Street directors on its tax returns — directly appealed to Berman as a friend and not as representing any group.
The account was confirmed by a senior aide in the office of another top Democrat and by Goldstone, a respected South African human rights prosecutor and judge.
Halperin, Levy and others were concerned over what they viewed as the demonization of Goldstone subsequent to his authoring of the report on the 2009 Gaza War commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Goldstone called for Israel and Hamas to investigate their actions during the war, alleging that both sides committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.
Goldstone had 10 or 12 meetings on Capitol Hill. The meeting with Berman took place two weeks after he helped secure passage of a congressional resolution condemning Goldstone’s report. — jta