Why did a freshman senator with so little seasoning rise as a plausible presidential candidate? Marco Rubio has the backing of the rightwing Israel lobby, and is said to be in contention for Sheldon Adelson’s millions.
Haggai Segal was convicted of blowing off the leg of a West Bank mayor and permanently blinding an Israeli policeman in 1984 when he was a member of the notorious “Jewish Underground.” Today, he is a respected journalist, despite the fact that he has never expressed remorse for his crimes.
New York human rights advocates released a parody video of a Taylor Swift song that called for the pop star to publicly distance herself from Israeli diamond and settlement mogul Lev Leviev. The video release followed a Saturday afternoon musical protest at the Leviev diamond store in Manhattan in the run-up to Valentine’s Day, with protesters arriving for the third time in a row to find the store closed on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
More censorship of Palestinians by a leading NY institution. The Public Theater cancels a production it had scheduled for May of The Siege, a show about freedom fighters in the second intifada, produced by the Jenin Freedom Theatre in occupied Palestine.
Hat’s off to Thomas Friedman. The New York Times columnist states what the New York Times news reporters failed to report to America (notably Jodi Rudoren, the former Jerusalem bureau chief) and that we have reported: The two state solution is over, there will never be a Palestinian state, let us move on to the one state reality.
Benjamin Netanyahu: “Will we surround all of the State of Israel with fences and barriers? The answer is yes. In the area that we live in, we must defend ourselves against the wild beasts.”
Israeli settlers from illegal colonies south of Hebron assaulted a 65-year-old Palestinian shepherd, Khader Hamad, as he was tending his sheep on hills occupied by the Israeli government, and left him badly bruised.
Nobody in the media pointed out that Bernie Sanders was the first Jew to win a primary because a, they’re used to Jews being all over the power structure and b, Bernie’s assimilated.
Basim Usmani reports from an appearance by Hillary Clinton at New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire where the presidential candidate took questions from undergrads and grad students in an effort to expand her appeal to youth. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work.
With November seemingly around the corner, the GOP candidates have honed in on cultivating Islamophobia as a sound strategy for drumming up their base. While the media focuses on the demagoguery of Donald Trump, the war-mongering of Ted Cruz and the sheer-unhinged nature of Ben Carson – the reality is that even “moderate” candidates, such as Marco Rubio are riding a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment, in order to seem tough on national security.