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Florida’s sweeping definition of anti-Semitism limits teachers’ freedom to discuss Palestine

Opinion
on 56 Comments

Ron DeSantis instructs a Florida teacher about Palestine, by Katie Miranda.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called Florida the most Israel-friendly state in the country and he demonstrated the friendship lately by going to the US embassy in Jerusalem to ceremonially sign a new law that prohibits expressions of anti-Semitism in Florida schools. (On that trip DeSantis also endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection, said Netanyahu could run in the U.S. if things didn’t work out over there, and held a meeting with Cabinet officials in Israel, triggering constitutional concerns).

The new law requires educational institutions to treat anti-Semitism as they would “discrimination motivated by race,” and it passed the Florida House by 114-0 and the Florida Senate by 40-0 in April, despite civil rights concerns. As the Sun Sentinel’s editorial said: “A student accused of anti-Semitism could be disciplined or expelled. A teacher or professor could be fired, entirely on the basis of constitutionally dubious language.”

The new law cites these supposed examples of anti-Semitism:

Applying a double standard to Israel by requiring behavior of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation, or focusing peace or human rights investigations only on Israel.

Delegitimizing Israel by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination and denying Israel the right to exist.

However, criticism of Israel that is similar to criticism toward any other country may not be regarded as anti-Semitic.

 

Katie Miranda

Katie Miranda is an illustrator, jewelry designer, calligrapher, and cartoonist living in Portland, OR. Her Arabic calligraphy jewelry and apparel are favorites of people in the Palestine solidarity community. Katie runs Palbox: a quarterly subscription box containing Palestinian goods benefiting the Northern California branch of the International Solidarity Movement. Connect on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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56 Responses

  1. LiberatePalestine on June 14, 2019, 11:59 am

    Disgraceful. Florida’s dolt of a governor, in his official capacity, went to occupied Palestine and endorsed a candidate for reëlection.

    Imagine the brouhaha if, say, Putin travelled to Miami and endorsed tRump for reëlection.

    • Citizen on June 14, 2019, 3:40 pm

      The difference is the US public is constantly told Russia is an arch enemy while Israel is our best ally.

  2. LiberatePalestine on June 14, 2019, 12:28 pm

    The political bias in that statute stands out as if written with neon lights. Anyone can see that the statute is a desperate attempt to squelch fair comment and insulate the Zionist entity from well-deserved criticism.

    → Applying a double standard to Israel by requiring behavior of Israel that is not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation, or focusing peace or human rights investigations only on Israel.

    First of all, «Israel» is neither democratic nor a nation; it’s an apartheid-based settler-colonial polity.

    Second, the language of the phrase quoted above reveals that something is amiss with «Israel», because otherwise there would be no need to legislate the scope of «peace or human rights investigations» and the like with respect to the Zionist entity.

    → Delegitimizing Israel by denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination and denying Israel the right to exist.

    One may freely delegitimate Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, or Ægypt, but not the criminal settler-colonial entity occupying Palestine. Cherchez l’erreur!

    Whatever «the Jewish people» may be, it does not enjoy a «right to self-determination», because it is diffuse. Self-determination is for «peoples» (the term is used but not defined in international law) concentrated in a territory. A hundred years ago, Yiddish-speaking Jews in northeastern Europe had a claim to self-determination, including a demand for part of the territory that they inhabited; many of them asserted that claim and tried to exercise it. But Jews in general do not have the right to self-determination and therefore cannot use any such right to found a territorial claim.

    Note that no mention is made of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, which they have asserted and defended vigorously ever since the criminal Zionist project took root under the imperialist auspices of Britain. The Palestinians actually are concentrated in one territory and do have a sound claim to self-determination, including the right to administer the territory of Palestine (all of it).

    States do not have a «right to exist». They exist or they do not. They come and they go. They exist only as long as they can be maintained—in other words, as long as they effectively monopolise the use of force in their territory. Eventually every state falls.

    → However, criticism of Israel that is similar to criticism toward any other country may not be regarded as anti-Semitic.

    We’re told that our criticism «may not be regarded as anti-Semitic» if we play according to certain prescribed rules. But why should we have to?

    With rare and unwelcome exceptions, the criticism coming from the anti-Zionist movement is fair and appropriate. Much of it, indeed, is too mild. We anti-Zionists don’t need to be policed, thank you very much.

    It is hard to find parallels between «Israel» and «any other country», precisely because the former continually perpetrates depravity so far beyond what is accepted anywhere else in the world. The closest analogy is to Azania under apartheid. (Not coïncidentally, the Zionist entity was the closest ally of the apartheid-based régime occupying Azania.)

    • Nathan on June 14, 2019, 2:24 pm

      There is no fair or appropiate criticism “coming from the anti-Zionist movement”. I would imagine that you are using the word “criticism” instead of “hostility”; hence, what you mean to say is that the hostility coming from the anti-Zionist movement is (in your eyes) fair and appropiate.

      Here’s a little example to help you understand the hard-to-notice difference between “criticism” and “hostility”. If you tell someone that he needs a shower, that would be criticism. If, on the other hand, you would tell this someone that he should just drop dead, that would be hostility.

      So, it’s obvious that you are hostile to Israel. There’s no reason to pretend that your hostility is merely fair or appropiate criticism. Actually, the use of the term “criticism” instead of the more fitting word “hostility” is not even lowly propaganda. It’s just a lie.

      • JWalters on June 14, 2019, 8:32 pm

        It’s obvious that you are trying to hide your blindness by shuffling words around.

      • LiberatePalestine on June 14, 2019, 8:52 pm

        Yes, I am hostile to the Zionist entity. Prove that my hostility is inappropriate.

        And whether I am hostile to the Zionist entity or not, I can (and do) make responsible criticisms of it. It is the Zionists who are often irresponsible, as when they label any criticism «anti-Semitic». You do much the same when you deny that the anti-Zionist movement makes any fair or appropriate criticism at all.

      • eljay on June 14, 2019, 9:38 pm

        || Nathan: … Here’s a little example to help you understand the hard-to-notice difference between “criticism” and “hostility”. If you tell someone that he needs a shower, that would be criticism. If, on the other hand, you would tell this someone that he should just drop dead, that would be hostility. … ||

        Zionists sure are hostile.

      • Donald on June 15, 2019, 9:21 am

        People have to understand that for Nathan a demand that Palestinians have the same human rights as Israeli Jews is like asking him to drop dead. For him it is a dehumanizing demand.

        Speaking of an inability to process, I am not sure it is such a great idea to try and teach extremely controversial political topics to a bunch of sixth graders whose families probably teach them wildly different things. Unfortunately there are no doubt private schools that fill their students’ heads with all sorts of nonsense, but public schools have to deal with children from widely different backgrounds. Imagine a student who is told by her parents that her previously loved teacher is a terrible antisemite who must hate her because she is Jewish.

        I don’t think the world’s problems need to be tackled and solved in grade school. Sixth graders should be learning the basics and not dividing into political factions.

        Twelfth graders would be a different story.

        Not sure what grade level Nathan is in, but it is probably closer to sixth.

      • Misterioso on June 15, 2019, 9:59 am

        @Nathan

        Enjoy your gloating. It will not last.

        What we actually have is another pyrrhic victory for Zionists. As with similar laws passed in other states, the Florida version will be challenged in court and ruled unconstitutional. In short, another example of Zionists being short term “smart,” but long term stupid. It is becoming increasingly evident that their attempts to degrade the constitution are backfiring and causing more and more loyal Americans to realize that the essence of their democracy is under attack from within by the pro-“Israel” lobby and its “bought and paid for” political lackeys such as Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis.

        All of this brings to mind George Washington’s Farewell Address in which he admonished his fellow citizens to steer clear of a “passionate attachment” to another nation, as it could create “the illusion of a common interest…where no common interest exists.” When it comes to parasitic “Israel,” America will inevitably have no option other than to act upon the wisdom of its founding father.

      • OldWhig on June 15, 2019, 11:09 am

        Nathan: are you delusional or just a bald faced pathological liar?

      • wondering jew on June 15, 2019, 11:13 am

        Donald- You write, “People have to understand that for Nathan a demand that Palestinians have the same human rights as Israeli Jews is like asking him to drop dead. For him it is a dehumanizing demand.”

        I do not come to defend Nathan regarding this accusation, I come to unpack the Israeli Jewish fears regarding Palestinians getting the same human rights as Israeli Jews. I wish to unpack this in the context of reference called the one state solution.

        Once upon a time in the PLO charter the solution to the conflict was described and included a demand for the expulsion of all Jews whose roots in the place could not be attributed as earlier than the British occupation. (Rhetoric of expulsion does not reach back merely to 1918, but to 1897 the official birth of the Zionist movement. such rhetoric is on display in the comments section as well.)

        that the idea of expelling all Jews (who cannot trace their migration to before 1918) would persist even if the official rhetoric is now more progressive is only natural. To fear that it would become the policy of a government that is majority nonJewish is not outlandish, but if this one state came through the result of some sort of a pact, one imagines that the pact would prohibit such an expulsion. But one would also imagine that despite this prohibition, it is not unnatural to fear that this idea would persist and the attitude would find its way into public policy.

        Thus when Ali Abunimah predicts after the establishment of this new Palestine a migration of Jews who will find themselves unable to tolerate equality, I think it is not unreasonable to fear that it is really going to be public policy and attitude that goes beyond equality that would play a part in such an anticipated migration. (Am I wrong to call it in some a gleefully anticipated migration?)

        When benny Morris predicts a one state solution leading to large scale jewish emigration, do you feel that his fears are racist or ahistorical?

        Let us for a moment consider the Copts of Egypt. Have their numbers decreased over the last 70 years? Did they feel safe under Morsi or do they feel safer under el-Sisi?

        How is it to live in Lebanon? Does the Christian adjustment to Hezbollah having an army independent of the state reflect real equanimity or is it merely acceptance of a sad reality?

        There was and is white migration from south africa, which is primarily because of outlandish crime rates. This is another factor, which would probably not be a precise copy of the South Africa situation, but the lack of security of the future Palestine for its Jewish population would not be an outlandish fear.

        Regarding the flag and symbols of the state and holidays, these totems of statehood may be unimportant, but who will control the army? The establishment of a Jewish army and the acquisition of a territory on which that Jewish army is in control is in my conception at the basis of the Zionist reaction to the European cataclysm. Will there be worldwide peace and kumbaya at the same time as the Palestinians become the majority of voters in the new Palestine? Obviously not. Humans will still fight wars. Only there will be no Jewish army defending the Jews, but now a Palestinian army with Jews and Palestinians serving in this army and defending the populations of this new Palestine. But instead to anticipate the continuity of the binary us versus them that exists between Arabs and Israel, seems to portend that this army situation would be a bit more complicated than the equality that is described.

        I do not scoff at Judah Magnes’s concept of a Jewish/Arab joint polity. (In his day the Arabs did not refer to themselves as Palestinian as a rule.) But I do not feel that fear of the realities involved are farfetched. And thus the equal human rights that you tout are just a cover for the reality that will encourage the migration of the majority of Jews, because it will not be a situation of equality, but one of continued conflict with the majority imposing their will on a minority.

        That some Palestinians and some of their advocates might be pure of heart in their proposal of equality is likely.
        But surely there are also some Palestinians and their advocates who anticipate the future and use the word equality to describe a situation that would cause mass migration, that they are pleased to anticipate. That Jewish Zionists and nonZionists fear that this proposal of equality will have devastating effects on the Jewish population seems reasonable. And it is not equality that they fear, it is a situation that wears the name equality, but will be aimed at their migration.

      • Mooser on June 15, 2019, 12:31 pm

        And “Nathan” wins a handsome “Jews sui generis” lapel button.

      • eljay on June 15, 2019, 4:09 pm

        || wondering jew: … I do not come to defend Nathan regarding this accusation, I come to … ||

        …reiterate – using very many words – your belief that the religion-based identity of Jewish grants to those who choose to hold it the “right”:
        – to be supremacists;
        – to have a religion-supremacist “Jewish State” in as much as possible of geographic Palestine; and
        – to do “necessary evil” unto others.

      • Donald on June 15, 2019, 4:33 pm

        Yonah—

        That’s a reasonable response. I think advocates of a 1ss have to be clear that equal rights for all really and truly means equal rights for all, and that ethnic cleansing should not be answered with ethnic cleansing. AFAIK the leaders of BDS are serious about this, whatever you might see from a few commenters. . Possibly I am naive, but I think we would be better off if people spoke about their real desires and fears and how those could be overcome. I think so long as antizionists are constantly hit with accusations of antisemitism it’s impossible to get past the angry mudslinging stage. That is assuming people of good will are involved. Of course, if people think that mudslinging works for them then they will continue to use it

        Also, of course in the real world outside of blog comment sections Israel has most of the power and most of the suffering is inflicted on Palestinians. I’m not jumping on you because I thought your comment was useful, but on this topic in the English speaking world the conversation almost inevitably gets turned into a discussion of antisemitism and just how far one can go in criticizing Israel before one becomes a Nazi. I find this really annoying and can’t imagine what it must be like for Palestinians who see it happening.

        So in that context it is hard to get people to listen to your concerns. If people generally recognized that Israel is practicing something similar to apartheid, then the next step would be thinking about what a truly just solution would be. I don’t think the international community will jump to the conclusion that it should be another Nakba with a different set of victims. Even if one is cynical about the morality of the international community ( perhaps rightly), I can’t see a situation where Israeli Jews are forced to accept a solution where they are powerless to prevent the scenario you fear.

      • annie on June 15, 2019, 6:18 pm

        yonah, in the current environment of palestinian suffering, the topic of jewish fear is jewish centric. Ilhan was right, you can’t really discuss anything about palestine without it turning into a jewish pity party. ok, she didn’t say it like that. take a back seat.

        nathan:

        There is no fair or appropiate (sic) criticism “coming from the pro-Israel movement”. I would imagine that you are using the word “criticism” instead of “hostility”; hence, what you mean to say is that the hostility coming from the pro-Israel movement is (in your eyes) fair and appropiate (sic).

        Here’s a little example to help you understand the hard-to-notice difference between “criticism” and “hostility”. If you tell someone that he needs a shower, that would be criticism. If, on the other hand, you would tell this someone that he should just drop dead (basically what zionists have been telling palestinians to do for 70 years), that would be hostility.

        So, it’s obvious that you are hostile to Palestine. There’s no reason to pretend that your hostility is merely fair or appropiate(sic) criticism. Actually, the use of the term “criticism” instead of the more fitting word “hostility” is not even lowly propaganda. It’s just a lie.

        (end copying nathan’s little rant)

        the colonialists are fretting over their fear that those whom they dispossessed of their land and lives will be as genocidal and mean spirited (in return) as they themselves have been.

        somebody grab the smelling salts. seriously, so what? of course they fear this. that’s a perfectly natural response to ones own criminal behavior (similar to how criminals fear being caught and brought to justice). maybe they should try being decent people.

      • lonely rico on June 15, 2019, 7:29 pm

        > Nathan

        If you tell someone that he needs a shower, that would be criticism.

        Thank you Nathan for your clarification.

        So it would be criticism to demand that Israel stop murdering unarmed Palestinians in Gaza.

        And it would be criticism to demand that Israel stop the heartless imprisonment and torture of Palestinian children.

        As well, it would be criticism to demand that Israel respect International and humanitarian law.

        And it would be criticism to demand that Israel act with decency –
        rather than ugly violence and disdain.

        Got it.

      • gamal on June 15, 2019, 7:35 pm

        “Ilhan was right, you can’t really discuss anything about palestine without it turning into a jewish pity party”

        wow Annie, you know freddy pick up a tune by one black woman, oh no, Annie you too good, let freddy tell you, only power lets them talk nonsense while the rest of us have to come correct even to claim, not keep but claim what is rightfully ours…but freddy oh no…not my baby

        https://youtu.be/mzNd84pXCtE

      • echinococcus on June 15, 2019, 8:19 pm

        Donald,

        Fredman’s overlong rant has one single message: how dare anyone oppose invasion and theft an ask for restitution? Nothing more.

        To you, that’s “a reasonable response”

      • Donald on June 15, 2019, 10:16 pm

        Echino—

        I think Yonah is afraid that there will be an ethnic cleansing of Jews. I think he is sincere about his fears and it is a good thing for people to get their fears out in the open. I don’t see Yonah denying the crimes committed against Palestinians. It would be a step forward if Yonah represented mainstream Israeli opinion. It would be a step forward in Western discussions if Israel supporters stopped denying Israeli crimes and moved on to discussing what a truly just solution would look like.

        That said, concern over a hypothetical future oppression of Israeli Jews could be best addressed by stopping the current ongoing actual oppression of Palestinians.

      • eljay on June 16, 2019, 7:55 am

        || Donald: … concern over a hypothetical future oppression of Israeli Jews could be best addressed by stopping the current ongoing actual oppression of Palestinians. ||

        I couldn’t agree more. But ending the oppression of Palestinians implies respecting the human rights of Palestinians. Nathan may think you’re suggesting he should drop dead.

      • echinococcus on June 16, 2019, 9:46 am

        Donald,

        Thanks for the as always thoughtful answer, even though my perception is different.

        “I think Yonah is afraid that there will be an ethnic cleansing of Jews. I think he is sincere about his fears.”

        Well, if we are talking “Jews” worldwide and he is sincere, he would be demented.
        If, on the other hand, this is exclusively about the Zionist invader population occupying all of Palestine, he is right. Because, first, when you say “It would be a step forward … discussing what a truly just solution would look like”, you should realize that “truly just solution” is only getting a full restituion of the country, sans invaders –other solutions may be more compassionate, more realistic or even better, but “truly just” is only restitution; second, because the character of Zionist settler colonialism does not accept compromises but the whole nine yards –no South African compromises accepted.

        Finally, you say ” I don’t see Yonah denying the crimes committed against Palestinians”. That’s a strange statement. All his writing, no exception, is to reject all consequences of the Zionist crime. If invaders are not to pay, that’s the denial of their crime.

      • LiberatePalestine on June 16, 2019, 12:16 pm

        → “truly just solution” is only getting a full restituion of the country, sans invaders

        Restitution of the whole country plus damages for seventy-odd years of Zionist terror, settler-colonialism, and apartheid.

        The Zionist entity could never pay the requisite damages, just as the US, Canada, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Japan, and various other states could never pay adequate damages for the harm caused by their respective colonial, imperial, and genocidal projects. But that doesn’t mean that those damages are not owed.

        You are right about a «truly just solution». Even by accepting the borders of 1948, the Palestinians would be getting a decidedly unjust solution.

      • Mooser on June 16, 2019, 2:30 pm

        “and that ethnic cleansing should not be answered with ethnic cleansing.”

        Question: Is the investigation, indictment, prosecution and possible sanctions or penalties of criminals the same thing as “ethnic cleansing”?

      • bcg on June 17, 2019, 12:12 pm

        @Nathan: I’m hostile to Israel in the same way I was hostile to South Africa when they had apartheid. When apartheid was dismantled in South Africa I stopped being hostile.

      • Nathan on June 17, 2019, 7:52 pm

        bcg – The topic that I raised was the misuse of the term “criticism”. The anti-Israel crowd is not critical of Israel. When one is critical, one has the intention of correcting a situation. So, for example, you can tell someone that he’s a bad driver, and your intention is that he improve his driving. You don’t mean to tell him that you wish he hadn’t been born (which would be hostility, not criticism). With the anti-Israel crowd, there is no policy that Israel could adopt that would win their approval. In short, an “illegitimate” political entity cannot have a legitimate policy, nor can it even defend itself. Anti-Israel activism (such as BDS or Mondoweiss or JVP) is part of a struggle that aims to bring about the end of the State of Israel – not to improve her ways. So, if someone here tells us that he has criticism of Israel (when in reality his position is that the state should cease to exist, period), then he’s lying to us.

      • eljay on June 17, 2019, 9:08 pm

        Nathan: … The anti-Israel crowd is not critical of Israel. When one is critical, one has the intention of correcting a situation. … ||

        The anti-Israel crowd has the intention of correcting the situation of Israeli colonialism, (war) criminality and religion-based supremacism. By your own definition the anti-Israel crowd is critical of Israel.

        || … With the anti-Israel crowd, there is no policy that Israel could adopt that would win their approval. … ||

        I disagree. But the real problem is that there is no policy which comprises justice, accountability and equality in I-P that Zionists or their “Jewish State” construct would ever consider adopting.

      • Mooser on June 18, 2019, 12:15 pm

        Shorter “Nathan”: ‘Consequences are anti-Semitic!’

    • JWalters on June 14, 2019, 8:35 pm

      LibPal, Good points all. Now we need to get MSM outlets (e.g. PBS Newshour) to allow them on air.

    • LiberatePalestine on June 16, 2019, 9:45 am

      → I think Yonah is afraid that there will be an ethnic cleansing of Jews. I think he is sincere about his fears and it is a good thing for people to get their fears out in the open.

      I agree, and I do acknowledge that some Israëlis, Jews, or others sincerely harbour that fear. I don’t necessarily consider it realistic, but I do acknowledge its existence. And I’d far sooner hear candid talk about emotions or sincere concerns than the usual hasbara.

      Would the Palestinians, if they came to power in Palestine, perpetrate an ethnic cleansing of Jews? Consider the following:

      1) Very few Palestinians have that in mind. The great majority want to share the land equitably and responsibly. It would be difficult indeed to mobilise Palestinians for a project of ethnic cleansing.

      2) The rest of the world would stop any such effort, and the Palestinian national movement would consequently be set back.

      3) People who worry about becoming the victims of ethnic cleansing should not be the culprits. Expelling, killing, and subjugating others on ethnic grounds is no way to encourage favourable treatment of one’s own group.

      4) The ball is in the Zionists’ court. They can solve a lot of problems unilaterally, such as by withdrawing from the West Bank and removing their settlers.

    • wondering jew on June 16, 2019, 10:17 am

      People who pride themselves in never conversing with a Zionist face to face are obviously not the audience for explanations of the mindset of the enemy. I feel that the “fear of equality” accusation needs to be answered. There are many in Israel who denigrate the idea of equality, while there are others who fear that equality is merely a banner which covers the truth of vengeance.

      The lack of any answers regarding Christians in Lebanon (re: Hezbollah) and Copts in Egypt is noted. Smooth talkers skip these facts, need not deal with the realities of the region, can concentrate their fire on the Zionist enemy. All else is distraction.

      • Mooser on June 16, 2019, 2:33 pm

        ,” can concentrate their fire on the Zionist enemy. All else is distraction.”

        And who are you counting on to save Zionism from the situation it made for itself? Judaism, maybe?

      • Donald on June 16, 2019, 2:52 pm

        I haven’t replied on the Copts in Egypt and Christians in Lebanon because I don’t know enough. I used to have a friend who was a Copt, back in the 90’s, living in the US. He hated the Muslim fundamentalists. The Arab Spring in Egypt didn’t turn out well. I can’t say much beyond that. I know even less about current day Lebanon. But I understand your concern that an attempt at a fair and just 1ss might disintegrate into something ugly. In a way it already has, since what we have now is essentially a very ugly 1 ss.

        Personally, Yonah, I think well- intentioned Zionists like yourself should be talking to Palestinians about their oppression and the solution to it all. Currently you should be working towards ending Palestinian oppression. I am now using “ you” in a general sense, not saying you in particular. ( I’ve never quite understood your situation— do you live in Israel or the US or both? No need to answer. Not really my business.)

        There was this writer David Shulman who wrote some pieces at the New York Review of Books. Haven’t seen him lately. My impression is that he was a very liberal Zionist, maybe with one foot out the door. Anyway, he seemed to spend time going to demonstrations alongside Palestinians, trying to prevent demolition of homes and expulsions. Not saying you should be doing that exact thing, but it seems to me that if Israeli Jews want the best chance of a happy ending for everyone, they should be working side by side with Palestinians fighting for their rights.

        Beyond that I have nothing.

      • Mooser on June 16, 2019, 3:42 pm

        “Yonah” does it ever occur to you that claiming Zionism can be successful while simultaneously declaiming that Israel policy is entirely a reaction to the malevolent forces around it is incompatible?

      • LiberatePalestine on June 16, 2019, 11:13 pm

        → I think well- intentioned Zionists like yourself should be talking to Palestinians about their oppression and the solution to it all.

        How many Zionists would deign to speak with a Palestinian?

  3. Kay24 on June 14, 2019, 1:14 pm

    What some people will do to get those Jewish votes, and Israel’s support. Shame.

    • JWalters on June 14, 2019, 8:26 pm

      Be careful. Criticizing politicians for taking Israeli money and trashing the Constitution’s freedom of speech may soon be considered “anti-Semitic”.

      • Citizen on June 21, 2019, 11:16 am

        Hence the attacks on Omar.

  4. eljay on June 14, 2019, 9:49 pm

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has called Florida the most Israel-friendly state in the country and he demonstrated the friendship lately by going to the US embassy in Jerusalem to ceremonially sign a new law that prohibits expressions of anti-Semitism in Florida schools. (On that trip DeSantis also endorsed Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection, said Netanyahu could run in the U.S. if things didn’t work out over there, and held a meeting with Cabinet officials in Israel, triggering constitutional concerns). …

    It’s funny how Zionists say that Israel shouldn’t be “singled out” for special treatment even as they “single out” Israel for special treatment.

    It’s funny how some (most?) American politicians seem to care more about Israel and Israelis than they do about America and Americans.

    • Donald on June 15, 2019, 9:34 am

      “It’s funny how Zionists say that Israel shouldn’t be “singled out” for special treatment even as they “single out” Israel for special treatment.”

      What’s even funnier ( or even more depressing) is how effective their nonsense is in framing the debate. Simply by accusing critics of Israel of antisemitism they shut down any discussion of their own anti Palestinian bigotry. On the very subject of Palestinian human rights you hear a thousand times more discussion of when criticism of Israel becomes antisemitic than you ever hear of anti Palestinian racism.

  5. Ossinev on June 15, 2019, 2:39 pm

    “It’s funny how Zionists say that Israel shouldn’t be “singled out” for special treatment even as they “single out” Israel for special treatment.”

    A little gem from the Times of Israel which neatly highlights the “special treatment ” which Zioland receives from the US:

    “Speaking of his own achievements and the historical connection between Israel and America, Oren remarked, “Israel is a country in which 40 years ago, a young American could arrive in the middle of a rainy night with nothing more than a backpack, serve in the IDF, raise a family, always struggling, and yet that former American could someday be sworn in as an elected member of Knesset, help represent Israel to the world. A man who would one day interact with not one, but three American presidents. And I cannot tell you how many times I was in the White House with meetings and the only non-Jew in the room would be the president of the United States. All the rest of us, Israelis and Americans, were Jewish. What a testament to the power of Jewish history.”
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-insiders-daily-kickoff-june-13-2019/

    Foir “history” read “control”.

    • LiberatePalestine on June 16, 2019, 9:21 am

      → Israel is a country in which 40 years ago, a young American could arrive in the middle of a rainy night with nothing more than a backpack,

      A young Jewish American, that is. Whereas a Palestinian driven out of her homeland by terrorists from Europe could not enter.

    • Peter in SF on June 16, 2019, 4:23 pm

      And I cannot tell you how many times I was in the White House with meetings and the only non-Jew in the room would be the president of the United States.

      Of course he cannot tell us; if he did, he would be promoting anti-Semitism.

      • Citizen on June 21, 2019, 11:24 am

        Counting Jews of influence in host country is friendly “Jewish Geography.” Non Jews doing the same is “antisemitism.”

    • eljay on June 17, 2019, 7:50 am

      || Ossinev: … “Speaking of his own achievements and the historical connection between Israel and America, Oren remarked, “ … I cannot tell you how many times I was in the White House with meetings and the only non-Jew in the room would be the president of the United States. All the rest of us, Israelis and Americans, were Jewish. What a testament to the power of Jewish history.” ||

      Shame on Mr. Oren for anti-Semitically “counting Jews” and daring to suggest that Jews have influence.

  6. Hemlockroid on June 16, 2019, 10:25 am

    we have dumped down 25,000 promiscuous people on the shores of Palestine, many of them quite unsuited for colonizing purposes, and some of them Bolsheviks, who have already shown the most sinister activity.

    https://www.jpost.com//Arts-and-Culture/Books/Churchill-and-the-Jewish-state

  7. Kay24 on June 16, 2019, 11:45 am

    It seems the MSM and our zionist Americans are ignoring the fact that Sara Netanyahu has admitted to being dishonest. i have read comment from the Hasbara brigade accusing Palestinian leaders of being dishonest, but the irony is, their leaders have been investigated for corruption, and one served jail time too. People in glass houses throwing stones.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-netanyahu-wife-idUSKCN1TH097

    Crooked Bibi is supposedly going to be indicted too, but the love still flows from those who support him, including Kushner. Kushner loves murderers and war mongers. Take a look at his devotion to Bin Salman.

  8. James Canning on June 16, 2019, 4:03 pm

    If Israel fails to end to end the occupation of the West Bank, will it still be a “democracy” ?

    • oldgeezer on June 16, 2019, 10:57 pm

      @James Canning

      Will it still be a democracy? Laughable.

      Israel is not a democracy now.

      Claiming territory and some of the people living on it does not a democracy make. Especially after you spent time. money and lives forcing some of the areas inhabitants out.

      There is not one single thing that makes Israel democratic. Not one single thing.

      • Tuyzentfloot on June 17, 2019, 4:01 am

        I consider Israel a democracy – for a part of the population, the Jewish part. Historically democracy was always restricted to only part of the population.
        Also it’s a representative democracy like in Europe so you get to vote which part of the elite gets to represent you and then they can decide to do whatever they feel like.

      • eljay on June 17, 2019, 8:05 am

        || oldgeezer: … Israel is not a democracy now. … ||

        de·moc·ra·cy: Democracy … is a system of government where the citizens exercise power by voting. …

        Israel is a democracy. It just happens to be a deliberately and unapologetically oppressive, colonialist, (war) criminal and religion-supremacist “Jewish State” democracy. Which isn’t surprising given that the majority of Israelis are hateful and immoral Jewish supremacists (Zionists).

      • oldgeezer on June 17, 2019, 10:12 am

        I simply disagree.

        If the mere act of voting defines it as a democracy then communist china and the old soviet block was democratic.

        Israel is not a state for all of it’s citizens. The ethnic cleansing which it perpetrated fully disenfranchises roughly half of those who should have citizenship. The half is plucked from thin air. Whether it be 30% or 70% or any other significant number of voters it fails. 70% of jobs are off limits to the non Jewish sector due to fallacious security concerns.

        It may be a ethnocracy but it simply does not meet the modern definition of a democacy. The historical racist crap abandoned, from a political and legal perspective, by democracies isn’t relevant except to show that Israel is a state similar to ones which we currently look back on and deplore.

        Nope it is not a democracy.

      • LiberatePalestine on June 17, 2019, 10:34 am

        Voting exists just about everywhere. The question is whether «the citizens exercise power by voting». In occupied Palestine, they do not. In the US as well, they do not.

  9. Peter in SF on June 16, 2019, 4:50 pm

    This is new (June 12). Check it out: “Jason D. Hill is a professor of philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. Below is his Open Letter to Attorney General, William Barr making the argument to disband Students for Justice in Palestine and all BDS movements.”
    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273966/disband-students-justice-palestine-and-all-bds-jason-d-hill

    He informs his readers of how enormously effective BDS has been:
    “BDS movements are immoral largely because they use slander, libel and defamation of Israel and, by association, the United States, to bring Israel to the brink of economic and political disaster.”

    Did you know that “Operating under the guise of a movement directed at what they claim are egregious policies of Israel, the BDS movement is an insidious body of nefarious characters funded by organizations linked to terrorist networks and largescale organizations“?

    Here is the professor’s prescription for improving civil discourse on college campuses:
    “I call on you and the Department of Homeland Security to consider revoking the student visas of all members of SJP who are not US citizens, to halt the citizenship applications of its green card holders, to continue further investigations into the links between the SJP and terrorists organizations, and to eventually declare them illegal on campuses.“

    • oldgeezer on June 16, 2019, 9:30 pm

      @Peter in SF

      Having read several of his articles and checked out his social media profile I have formed the opinion that Hill is one of the most virulent and potentially violent racists of our time. A truly depraved individual. Not a moral bone in his body

    • LiberatePalestine on June 16, 2019, 11:34 pm

      → BDS movements are immoral largely because they use slander, libel and defamation of Israel and, by association, the United States, to bring Israel to the brink of economic and political disaster.

      Wow! We’ve achieved that much, have we? The Zionist entity is on the brink of œconomic and political disaster because of BDS? Why, we’ve accomplished far more than I had expected! Time to chill a bottle of Champagne.

      → Operating under the guise of a movement directed at what they claim are egregious policies of Israel,

      Oh, sure, it’s all just a put-on. We’ve cooked it all up for our nefarious ends.

      → the BDS movement is an insidious body of nefarious characters funded by organizations linked to terrorist networks and largescale organizations

      Suppose that we are indeed insidious and nefarious. (Talk about slander, libel, and defamation.) What does that prove? We may still be right.

      Strikes me that Hill’s characterisation applies far better to the Zionist entity than to BDS.

      → I call on you and the Department of Homeland Security to consider revoking the student visas of all members of SJP who are not US citizens,

      Those who are US citizens do not have student visas for the US. And the Department of «Homeland Security» does not have authority over such matters.

      → to halt the citizenship applications of its green card holders,

      Few people in the US realise that people applying for naturalisation are already scrutinised as to their politics. For instance, they have to account for any past or present communist associations. And Hill wants to step up the McCarthyism.

      → to continue further investigations into the links between the SJP and terrorists organizations,

      Which «terrorists [sic] organizations» are those, pray tell?

      → and to eventually declare them illegal on campuses.

      Freedom! Democracy! The rule of law! Sweet Land of Liberty™!

      What’s the next step? Legislation requiring everyone in the US to purchase goods from settler-owned firms in occupied Palestine and present proof of purchase upon demand of the political police?

      This Hill person sounds unhinged.

  10. Qualtrough on June 18, 2019, 1:05 am

    I have asked this questions a number of times and on a number of different forums and never received an answer. Not once. Perhaps I will get lucky this time. Can anyone supporting Israel/Zionism please provide some links to criticism of Israel by non-Jewish/Israeli/Zionist sources that you find acceptable, e.g. not anti-semitic?

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