NYT scores Emergency Committee v. J Street ads

 We cover the battle between the conservative Emergency Committee for Israel and liberal J Street, through their respective proxies, Pat Toomey and Joe Sestak, in their race to be Pennsylvania’s junior U.S. senator.

The New York Times assesses the TV ads that are the crux of the battle, and ECI seems to come out more wanting, although the assessment undercuts Sestak’s counterclaims as well:

ACCURACY Mr. Sestak and his aides have denounced the advertisement as false but have failed in their effort to remove it from the airwaves. They say Mr. Sestak did not raise money for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, but spoke only during a portion of a CAIR event in 2007 that he specifically demanded not be used for fund-raising. Right after his speech, however, council officials said the fund-raising portion of the evening would begin. In any case, CAIR had not been branded “a front group for Hamas” until later, and the group has never been charged with terrorism. However, some Jewish activists protested Mr. Sestak’s speech, because they perceived CAIR as having terrorist ties, and he himself said the speech would be risky. As for the letter accusing Israel of “collective punishment” on the Gaza blockade, he did sign a letter that included that phrase but it did not accuse Israel of using collective punishment (in fact, Mr. Sestak supported the blockade). Mr. Sestak has said on many occasions that Israel is “a vital ally” of the United States and has signed many bipartisan letters affirming America’s support for Israel.:

Here’s the passage from the letter concerning "collective punishment:"

We recognize that the Israeli government has imposed restrictions on Gaza out of a legitimate and keenly felt fear of continued terrorist action by Hamas and other militant groups. This concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip. Truly, fulfilling the needs of civilians in Israel and Gaza are mutually reinforcing goals.

The unabated suffering of Gazan civilians highlights the urgency of reaching a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts. The current blockade has severely impeded the ability of aid agencies to do their work to relieve suffering, and we ask that you advocate for immediate improvements for Gaza in the following areas

By contrast, this is how the Times assesses the J Street ad:

ACCURACY The statements in this advertisement are not in dispute.

Here are the ads:

ECI:

J Street: