On August 12, Twenty-one Israeli lawmakers sent a letter to members of Congress criticizing a bill that condemned the boycott of Israel because it endorsed a two-state solution.
House Resolution 246 (H.Res.246) overwhelmingly passed in the House last month, with just 17 members voting against it. The resolution condemns the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, identifying it as a roadblock in the quest for a two-state solution. “We would like to make our position clear that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be far more dangerous to Israel than BDS,” the letter reads. Signatories include Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan (United Right), Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter (Likud), and MK Gideon Sa’ar (Likud).
The letter is addressed to the cosponsors of the bill–Rep. Brad Schneider (D-CO) , Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO), all of whom are staunchly pro-Israel. According to The Jerusalem Post, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan helped develop the letter. Dagan has even criticized The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for promoting a two-state solution. “Unfortunately, in the last few years, AIPAC is independently advancing the two-state solution,” he told the paper, “AIPAC portrays the two-state concept as an Israeli interest to elected officials in America and as the official position of the Israeli government, even though this is untrue. The two-state concept is not the policy of the current government coalition, nor is it stated as policy in the agreements between the coalition partners. Furthermore, this is not the policy of the Trump administration, which has even removed it from the National Security Strategic Report.”
AIPAC lobbied for the House to pass H.Res.246 and referred to it as a “top priority” on their website. “It’s ironic that Israeli right-wingers are blaming AIPAC for pro-two state solution language in the recently passed congressional resolution opposing the Global BDS Movement,” tweeted J Street’s Dylan Williams, “because AIPAC tried really hard to strip out that language before introduction (and obviously failed).”
The letter also asserts that the resolution impedes the objectives of the Trump administration. “Pressure to establish a Palestinian state contradicts President Trump’s position, which he has stated many times — that the solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict shall be determined by the parties,” it reads. It declares that a Palestinian state would “undoubtedly be a dysfunctional terrorist state.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the only Republican to vote against the resolution. On Twitter, he shared the aforementioned Jerusalem Post article and wrote, “I took some heat for being the only Republican to vote NAY on this bill. I stand by my vote. 21 members of the Israeli Knesset had an issue with this bill, because they read it too.”
When asked about the letter by Jewish Insider, a spokesperson for Rep. Zeldin said, “The Congressman supports a strong U.S.-Israel partnership. The text of the resolution as it relates to negotiated peace on the ground in and around Israel is entirely consistent with longstanding policy. That part of the resolution was not new.”
“Whatever one’s views on BDS, the idea that it’s more deserving of censure than an Israeli occupation whose intended purpose is to prevent a [two-state solution] is obviously absurd,” tweeted Bernie Sanders foreign policy advisor Matt Duss in response to the letter, “But that’s Congress for you. In closing, anti-BDS hysteria is a con and Democrats should stop being suckers.”
That’s entirely unfair. There’s no reason to believe that a Palestinian state can’t be as oppressive, colonialist, (war) criminal and religion-supremacist as Israel.
“On August 12, Twenty-one Israeli lawmakers sent a letter to members of Congress criticizing a bill that condemned the boycott of Israel because it endorsed a two-state solution”
A poster at a site I visit has been to hear Mazin Qumsiyeh who is I think touring the UK here are his impressions
” I posted over a week ago that I went to hear Mazin speak at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester. I raised a point at the end of his talk that Palestinian rights hold a special and unique place at the heart of British politics because of Corbyn’s support. Hence the establishment and the Zionist supporters have joined forces to stop JC at all costs. No other European nation has this degree of involvement in Palestinian affairs.
Like Mary, what impressed me most of all was Mazin’s calmness and equanimity in the face of Israel’s brutal intransigence. Myself, I would be spitting blood if I were in his position, railing against the oppression his people face on a daily basis.
He told one story that nearly had everyone (me included) in tears. He was returning home on a coach trip with a group of young people — they might have been his students, I’m not sure. Mazin was upset by something they had witnessed on the trip and was looking and feeling very depressed.
A young girl seated behind Mazin and his friend (I think he said she was 9 years old) saw how dejected he was and said, “Don’t be upset. We will win one day.” Mazin asked his friend about the girl and was told that her mother had been killed by Israeli soldiers a few weeks previously. He said then he began to realise that it was foolish and wrong-headed to hate his oppressors and that one had to think in the long-term of years and decades rather than days and months. That a grieving nine-year old girl could sustain such hope and belief changed his perspective.”
scrabb
I’ve long believed Israel’s hysteria with security was a con and Palestinians bought into it at their own expense. If it were not a con, why would the boot stomp so hard on the neck? The ceasefires get broken.
Now we have to consider that “anti-BDS hysteria” is another con and that works for Greater Israel. In my judgment, BDS, with its ambiguous demands, if not coupled with a campaign for freedom or equality, will work quite well for Greater Israel. Moral suasion is far more powerful than force in this public relations war.
I don’t know how much more time the universe, the gods, whoever, will allow the people of the earth to continue in this manner, destroying something (the earth) they had no hand in creating, killing its beautiful natural creatures it deems without a purpose or benefit (and in doing so displaying a breathtaking lack of ignorance regarding the fragile balance in nature) and last but not least, the continual murder of people who don’t look like the ‘superior race’, practice a faith that is misunderstood, devalued, disrespected and always used to defame and libel the innocent for the actions of a few. If there is intelligent life in a world beyond ours, please help us. The ones in charge are only interested in death and money.
Don’t you love the breach between AIPAC and the Israeli government? though if AIPAC tried to take that language out of the resolution, there’s no breach – but there is a loss of power by AIPAC, since they failed to get everything they wanted.
And do the Israelis really still think a Palestinian state is possible? Such ignorance is to be expected from Americans, but not from Israelis. If they don’t, and I don’t see how they can, what are they really upset about? The possibility that American politicians see Palestinians as real people, with real rights?