Amnesty USA chief to lawmakers who criticized him: 'I regret' speaking for US Jews about Israel

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The director of Amnesty International’s U.S. branch apologized to Jewish lawmakers for claiming to speak on behalf of American Jews.

“I regret representing the views of the Jewish people,” Paul O’Brien said in a March 25 letter, first reported by Jewish Insider, to all 25 Jewish Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, who had joined to condemn his remarks at a Washington, D.C., luncheon in which he rejected polling that showed the vast majority of U.S. Jews are pro-Israel.

“What I should have said,” he added, “is that my understanding from having visited Israel often...