Ted Cruz Slams J Street In Debate With Beto O’Rourke
Image by Getty Images
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Ted Cruz called J Street, the dovish pro-Israel policy group, “rabidly anti-Israel” in the Texas Republican’s debate with his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.
“Congressman O’Rourke is fond of saying he doesn’t take PAC money, but the truth is different,” Cruz said Tuesday after O’Rourke accused the incumbent of accepting big money from political action committees. “For example, the J Street PAC, which is a rabidly anti-Israel PAC, has raised over $160,000 for Congressman O’Rourke because of his many votes against the nation of Israel.”
O’Rourke has said and J Street has confirmed that O’Rourke accepts money from individual donors who route it through the J Street PAC, but does not accept money from the PAC itself. Donors sometimes route individual donations through PACs in order to emphasize to the candidate the issue that they favor.
J Street immediately seized upon Cruz’s jibe in a fundraising email.
“You know what? We honestly don’t care if Ted Cruz wants to insult us. If anything, being attacked by Ted Cruz is a badge of honor,” the group said in an appeal Wednesday with the subject line “Ted Cruz Attacks J Street.”
“What we care about is that extremists like him — elected officials who undermined the Iran deal, demonize Palestinians to score political points and believe the only way to be ‘pro-Israel’ is to support every policy of the Netanyahu government — hold power in Washington right now,” the appeal said.
This month, O’Rourke released a statement saying that he backs defense assistance for Israel because he “believes Israel is critically important to the United States because it is the home of the Jewish people, because it is an exemplary democracy that shares our values, and because it is a crucial contributor to our national security objectives in the region.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
