In 2001, there were almost no alternative online sources of truths about Israel/Palestine. Thankfully, ‘Electronic Intifada’ launched — and just celebrated 20 years of success.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s withdrawal last Friday from an October memorial to Yitzhak Rabin is an act of irreverence for an Israeli leader we’ve not seen before at her political level; and the drama has roiled the pro-Israel community. Even the Biden campaign spoke up, an aide saying that AOC’s decision was “problematic” for the Democratic Party.
Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations has an article at Foreign Policy saying that the U.S. should phase out aid to Israel and “end the special relationship” because the peace process has attained its real objective: Israel is established as a secure country with a standard of living rivaling the UK and France, and no real military threat.
The Israel Policy Forum in a report bearing Ambassador Dan Shapiro’s name says Palestinian birth rate “jeopardizes” Israel’s Jewish character. This explicitly racial argument is also put forward by the American Jewish Committee. Shouldn’t they be ashamed?
“I am convinced that the loss of legitimacy of the Zionist idea, of the idea of a special state for a special people, is irreversible, that that cannot be resurrected in the 21st century, a time when we at least preach if not practice universal rights and equality,” the writer Ali Abunimah said in a landmark speech ten years ago, and his remarks have proved to be prophetic in describing the anti-Zionist movement inside progressive life.
Numerous voices on the left responded, “apartheid” after Sen. Amy Klobuchar described Israel as a “beacon of democracy” in the Democratic debate. The first reference to Israel in four debates shows that the issue is truly divisive inside the Democratic Party.
On the basis of alleged “anti-Semitic tropes,” numerous critics of Israel, many of them writers of color, have been accused of bigotry for their criticisms of Israel. The latest is Ali Abunimah, accused by Matt Seaton of NYRB. Meantime, you can say anything you like to dehumanize Palestinians and no one in the mainstream will call you out.
In a disingenuous ‘NYT’ column Roger Cohen presents a fawning interview of Tzipi Livni and blames the Palestinian Authority for the Spring 2014 collapse of peace negotiations. The article is a recitation of standard Israeli talking points and fails to include Palestinian or American viewpoints which squarely put the failure of negotiations on continued Israeli settlement construction.