This must be progress. Nancy Pelosi spoke at the Israel lobby group AIPAC today and said:
As I have often said, the founding of the state of Israel was one of the greatest political achievements of the 20th century.
That’s not true. House Speaker Pelosi has on countless occasions called Israel THE greatest political achievement of the 20th century.
Just three months ago, Pelosi told another Israel lobby group:
I believe that the establishment of the state of Israel was the greatest political accomplishment of the Twentieth Century.
Last spring Pelosi said on her website before bringing a delegation to Israel:
There is no greater political accomplishment in the 20th Century than the establishment of the State of Israel.
It is my firm belief that the establishment of the State of Israel—and you’ve heard me say this at other AIPAC meetings—the 20th Century had some horrible -isms, terrible things were done to people, but it is my firm belief that the establishment of the State of Israel is the greatest political achievement of the 20th Century this great beacon.
Back in 2014 Pelosi welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington in fulsome terms:
As you know, Mr. Prime Minister – I’ve said it to you so many times – I’ve long held the belief that the establishment of the state of Israel was the most spectacular political achievement of the 20th century.
But today Israel is just one of the greatest political achievements…. Pelosi is surely hearing footsteps on the left.
BTW, Pelosi’s speech was filled with contempt for Palestinians. Though she called for supporting Israel fervently and affirmed “the right of Jewish people to national self-determination,” she said nothing about Palestinian rights, nothing about the Palestinian right to defend themselves or have freedom of movement.
And while Pelosi spoke of countering bigotry against Jews in the US and everywhere, and saluted the several Jews who lead House committees — Nita Lowey, Jerry Nadler, Eliot Engel, Adam Schiff, Ted Deutch, and John Yarmuth– Pelosi had zero to say about Islamophobia, and denounced Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s criticisms of Israel as anti-semitic, though she did not mention the Muslim congresswoman by name.
Pelosi also said nothing critical of Benjamin Netanyahu or the Israeli government. Despite the urgent appeal by J Street to call out Netanyahu’s bigotry against Palestinians, Pelosi was silent.
And though she called for a two-state solution, she did so in the name of Israeli security. “A two state solution is not a solution without guaranteed security for Israel. Security security security.” She said not a word about Palestinian security. Pelosi was thus expressing racism against Palestinians.
Yup, Zionism was (and is) horrible and it did (and is still doing) terrible things to people.
The (deliberate?) obliviousness of Zionists is truly astonishing.
They will probably say theat she is abandoning Israel. If she doesn’t rectify then she will be labeled an anti-semite.
Any way she says it, her devotion shown to Israel through her speech is embarrassing, and I wish she had the decency, to NOT attend this annual AIPAC love fest. It’s that time of the year, when members of our Congress exposes their endless gratitude, admiration, and love, for an alien nation, disliked by the rest of the world.
True, but she did state her support for “a viable democratic Palestinian state”. I thought it was interesting here that her exact words were not the standard “the right of the Jewish people” (Jews as a collective unit, a Volk in the original German) but “Jewish people”, which is a concept more familiar to Americans. Her own grandchildren include Jewish people, so I guess they have this right of national self-determination that she herself does not.
Did you notice that early on she said that her father had pushed for a Jewish state “in Palestine” back in 1942? That was pretty gutsy (well, relatively) in front of this audience.
Remember that 2-minute Trump ad where a voice intoned about an international group of powerful shady operators and showed scenes of many such people at international gatherings? It was criticized as being antisemitic on the grounds that 3 of the people it showed were Jewish, even though most Americans probably didn’t recognize them, and even if they did recognize who they were, probably didn’t know they were Jewish. Well, with Pelosi’s list of Jewish House committee chairs, this video provides great material for the other party to say that the Democrats are controlled by Jews. But what are the Republicans saying? That the Democrats hate Jews! Of course the Dems could respond to that criticism by loudly pointing out how many Jews chair House committees and how 14 of the top 15 donors (or whatever it was exactly) to the party are Jews, but not much chance of them doing that.