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Cruz slams J Street: ‘Rabidly anti-Israel’

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accused his Democratic opponent of taking money from J Street’s political action committee, which is “rabidly anti-Israel.”

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

Texas Senator Ted Cruz slammed the far-left Middle East advocacy group J Street as “rabidly anti-Israel” during a debate for the U.S. Senate with his Democratic opponent, Congressman 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 him of accepting funds from political action committees, JTA reported. “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.”

J Street has confirmed that O’Rourke accepts money from individual donors who route it through the J Street PAC, adding that he does not accept money directly from the committee itself.

“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.

Cruz’s comment about O’Rourke’s “many votes against the nation of Israel” apparently refers to the Democratic congressman’s vote in 2014 against emergency funding for the Israeli-developed Iron Dome defense system, which occurred at a time when Israel had just concluded its counter-terrorism Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, in which the Iron Dome was a key player.

O’Rourke claimed that his vote was in objection to to how the funding was rushed through.

O’Rourke was also one of 49 Congressmen who boycotted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in 2015, a crucial speech made prior to the signing of the nuclear deal with Iran.

Cruz, a strong supporter of Israel, called for the US Embassy to be moved to Jerusalem in 2017.