Jewish Groups Plan Ads for Bibi Visit

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A number of Jewish groups are planning wide-reaching ads in time for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington.

J Street is paying for a New York Times ad featuring an appeal by about 90 leading Israelis, including retired generals, noted scholars and prize laureates, calling on Israel to recognize Palestinian statehood and negotiate a deal with the Palestinians based on 1967 lines.

Netanyahu has adamantly rejected recognizing statehood absent negotiations, and his offers do not reach the 1967 lines. The ad has already appeared in Hebrew in Israeli newspapers.

The Anti-Defamation League is planning an advertisement in the New York Times calling on the Palestinian Authority and the international community to demand that Hamas renounce anti-Semitism.

The Hamas charter is rife with anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish world control and corruption, and the recent P.A.-Hamas pact led Netanyahu to say he cannot deal with the P.A. unless the pact ends or Hamas reforms.

The Israel Project is running ads in New York and Washington on cable news outlets highlighting statements by Netanyahu and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair touting Israel's commitment to peace.

Another Israel Project TV ad describes Hamas' alliance with Iran and praise for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and concludes by noting the P.A.-Hamas alliance.

A number of left-wing Jewish groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, have launched public transport ads calling for an end to U.S. assistance to Israel. Those ads are timed for the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee convention, which Obama and Netanyahu will address.