Jennifer Bing of American Friends Service Committee reflects on recent trip to Gaza: the destruction alongside the hope, the children killed since she was there last, her obligation to change the politics of Palestine back in the States
Bill de Blasio’s trip to Israel is being funded by a Zionist. No wonder he told AIPAC his job is to defend Israel. And Kelly Ayotte of NH, Marco Rubio of FL, and Lindsey Graham of SC– all of them politically ambitious–are also beholden to rightwing supporters of Israel.
The absolute unwillingness of the current Israeli government to engage in a meaningful dialogue with its Palestinians neighbors, with the view to urgently ending the occupation and creating a viable Palestinian state, is at the root of the language of force that, alone, is speaking today.
Brandishing their typical black and yellow flags and Hebrew signs boasting “Kahane was Right” and “There is no co-existence with cancer,” hundreds of right-wing activists took to the streets of Jerusalem Thursday night in a growing phenomenon of public demonstrations led by the country’s leading fascist groups such as Lahava and La Familia. The march and the Israeli extremists willingness to resort to violence against their state’s security forces testify to the impact that incitement is having on Jewish youth throughout the country, and portends an ever-growing threat of entrenching the current spiral of bloodshed.
At dusk Thursday evening nearly 200 right-wing Israelis took to the streets of Jerusalem, chanting racist anti-Arab epitaphs and nationalist songs. The march came at the end of day that saw Israeli forces kill two Palestinians and Palestinian attackers wound nine Israelis, including two soldiers, in four separate attacks, the highest number of serious injuries inflicted on Israelis in recent weeks. At the time of publication the right-wing group was marching from West Jerusalem into Palestinian East Jerusalem.
Ben Goldstein from Memphis says Israeli soldiers need American help to fight Hamas and Al Qaeda cells, for God’s land of Israel. He has a big gun
Israeli peace camp group linked with Molad says that rightwing MK Bezalel Smotrich is a demagogue for saying Hamas is an asset; but in fact that has been the policy of all Israeli governments.
According to data collected by the PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department there over 130 Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians during the first week of October. See a timeline of the attacks.
Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat, who was recently spotted holding a Glock in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, today suggested Israeli citizens prepare themselves for vigilantism and called for all Israelis with valid gun licenses to carry weapons following soaring tensions.
