Twice in the last two years, a Jewish history teacher has been forced out of a private NY high school due to anti-Zionist statements. Now: J.B. Brager at Fieldston. In Brager’s case and Joel Doerfler’s before, outraged Jewish donors to the schools are said to have pushed the school administrations to take a stand against anti-Zionism.
Noted Israeli peace organizations are closing, and Yossi Gurvitz thinks this is a good thing. “We’ll need to talk about 1948,” Gurvitz writes. “This will not be easy to Israelis, but we won’t get anywhere without it. And we cannot bring it up if we keep speaking of peace instead of justice. So let the old organization dismantle.”
The Department of Education is investigating another university over pro-Palestine events. The move comes just one month after President Trump signed an executive order that effectively allows the government to crack down on pro-Palestine campus organizing.
On January 9, Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced H. Res. 782. The legislation, which is cosponsored by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and David Kustoff (R-TN), would encourage “public schools to design and teach a curriculum about the history of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and the vital and historic importance of the Jewish State of Israel.” The bill also cites the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which it claims is spreading “rampant anti-Semitism” across college campuses.
86% of right-wing Israelis, 67% of Israeli centrists, and even 37% of “left-wing” Israelis say they trust Trump. Israel was also the only country where a majority of respondents said they agree with his administration violating the Iran Nuclear Deal. Just 23% of those surveyed opposed the move. 74% of Israelis back his decision to move the United States Embassy to Tel Aviv.
Yossi Beilin, a leader of the co-called Israeli peace camp, has ideas for how Israel can dodge the recent ICC decision to investigate Israeli war crimes.
The Modi-Bibi bonhomie rests on much more than personal chemistry, or even the Israeli military-industrial complex’s significant role in servicing Indian needs. It is rooted in the profound admiration of generations of Hindu nationalists for Zionism and its product, Israel, whose model of nation-state they seek to emulate in India.
“Grey Rock,” a play by Amir Nizar Zuabi about a Palestinian television repairman who is secretly building a rocket in his shed to reach the moon, is about the right of Palestinians to escape their oppression and dream of great achievements. It is at the Public Theater in NY then at the Guthrie, and you should see it if you can.
A new University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll gives us further insight into what Americans think about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. One obvious conclusion is the high-profile BDS battles of 2019 have raised awareness for the movement, and that awareness has come with increased support.
Israel needs to change its economic doctrine which sees water as nothing more than a commodity to be sold or traded, and a political ideology that is fixated on holding on to as much water as possible.