In response to a highway billboard that StandWithUs describes as “anti-Israel,” the pro-Israel education nonprofit has announced it is placing its own billboard near the Walnut Creek-Pleasant Hill border beginning Monday, Feb. 22.
The billboard, which SWU said will be in place for four weeks, will feature the message that Israel and the United States have “shared values” of freedom, democracy and equality. It urges viewers to find out more at www.sayyestopeace.org.
The billboard paid for by StandWithUs will go up on Interstate 680 near the off-ramp for Geary Road and Treat Boulevard, where the “anti-Israel” billboard recently appeared (“Billboard in Contra Costa County raises eyebrows,” Feb. 12). Slated to be up for one more week, according to the Jewish Community Relations Council, that billboard reads, “We give Israel $10 million per day! That money could send our kids to college.” It is co-sponsored by If Americans Knew, an organization that many Jewish organizations classify as anti-Israel.
Similar billboards have appeared in several U.S. cities, according to StandWithUs, and each time the pro-Israel agency has responded with a targeted message. In the Bay Area, this is the seventh time since 2011 that SWU has countered billboards and bus ads that put a negative spin on either Israel or the U.S. relationship with Israel.
“StandWithUs will continue to challenge the lies and misinformation perpetuated by these anti-Israel groups who attempt to erode American support for Israel,” Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, wrote in a press release. “Their ads hope that well-meaning viewers will conclude that the cessation of U.S. support of Israel will result in peace or that the money will be spent in the U.S. The reality is that the funds are earmarked primarily for defense with contracts to U.S. manufacturers, thus creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in America.”
StandWithUs is a 14-year-old Israel education organization with chapters in the United States (including the Bay Area), Canada, the United Kingdom and Israel. — j. staff