US ambassador Friedman meets with J Street ‘kapos’

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman earlier today met with the leader of the left-wing American Jewish group J Street, the organization he once referred to as being “worse than kapos.”

Following the closed door meeting between Friedman and J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group released a statement emphasizing the importance of maintaining “an open line of communication” with people of “different political backgrounds.”

“We value Ambassador Friedman’s willingness to meet with Congressmen as part of the pro-Israel lobby J Street. We believe it is vital to keep an open line of communication between Jewish American and Israeli leaders with different political backgrounds,” media outlets quoted J Street as saying. “Its significance is that it symbolizes the will and desire to maintain a dialogue among the pro-Israel community, even with those that do not agree with J Street.”

The group also said it stressed to the US ambassador “the urgent need to advance the two-state solution.”

In a 2015 op-ed for the right-wing Israel National News website, Friedman called J Street supporters “smug advocates of Israel’s destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas — it’s hard to imagine anyone worse.”

“They are far worse than kapos – Jews who turned in their fellow Jews in the Nazi death camps,” he added.

— Alexander Fulbright