Is David Friedman Blowing Off Pledge To Meet With J Street?

By Dave Goldiner March 9, 2017

As David Friedman prepares for a first Senate test of Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel on Thursday, J Street accused him of reneging on a pledge to meet with its leaders.

“Senators and other pro-Israel Americans should know before the final vote on your confirmation whether you stated willingness to meet with those you disagree is merely a ‘hearing room conversation,’ or whether you intend to make good on your representations to lawmakers,” J Street chief Jeremy Ben-Ami told Friedman in a letter.

Politico reported that J Street never heard back from Friedman after he told lawmakers he was open to a meeting.

Friedman faces an initial vote in a Senate committee Thursday on his nomination. Several Democrats have said they will vote against him but Republicans have the votes to approve him.

Friedman once branded J Street “kapos” and called the Anti-Defamation League “morons” for criticizing Israel and Trump.

But he mounted a charm offensive during Congressional hearings, claiming he changed his mind about those charges and asserting that he was open to pursuing a two-state solution, which he had repeatedly derided over the years.

Dave Goldiner is the Forward’s director of digital media. Dave is a veteran journalist who has spent two decades working at newspapers in the United States and Africa. A native New Yorker, Goldiner wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered some of the biggest stories of our time, including the attacks of September 11, along with thousands of stories of hope and heartbreak. He also studied and worked in Southern Africa and has written for publications in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He holds masters degrees in journalism and public administration from Columbia University. Dave can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @davegoldiner

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO