It’s a first: The Emergency Committee for Israel has launched a major ad buy against a Republican.
True, it’s running the ad as the incumbent, Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), faces a primary challenge in May — so ECI isn’t quite at the point where it’s (even implicitly) endorsing a Democrat.
More to the point, the most vivid portion of the ad, cast against footage of burning U.S. and Israeli flags, notes his endorsement by J Street, ECI’s bête noir. “He’s endorsed by anti-Israel group,” the ad says.
J Street won the agreement of a couple of Republicans in Congress to accept its political action committee’s endorsement at the PAC’s outset in 2009 — but they bolted a year or so later, when it became known that J Street had concealed its fiduciary relationship with uber-liberal billionaire George Soros. For a few years the group was all Dem in terms of its political action committee’s endorsees.
Now, ahead of the 2014 midterms, J Street’s PAC has added two Republicans to its lineup: Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, and Jones.
Jones over his congressional career has turned from a hawk into an ardent anti-interventionist. Jones enthusiastically endorsed the Iraq War at its outset — he’s the “freedom fries” guy — but then as he saw its effects on his constituents who served in the military, he did a 180.
