Bowman and Iron Dome
Last year Jamaal Bowman stunned many political pundits by ousting longtime House member Eliot Engel in New York’s 16th district. Engel had fought harder for Israel than just about any Democrat in congress for more than three decades, and for six years he was the ranking member and chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. These positions gave him even more power to fight for the United States government’s greatest ally, as he helped dictate how legislation moved forward and what bills would come up for votes.
Pro-Israel lobbying groups spent big trying to stave off Engel’s progressive challenger, with DMFI spending $2 million trying to save him. In the end, it didn’t matter. Bowman prevailed by about 15 points and signaled that the success of “The Squad” was no fluke.
During the campaign Bowman made it clear that he wouldn’t be following in Engel’s footsteps when it came to Palestine. He said he supported conditioning military aid to Israel, a move that Engel referred to as “one of stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” In an interview with Jacobin in 2019 Bowman said, “I just don’t understand why American taxpayers are subsidizing the detention of Palestinian children while Democrats are criticizing child detention at the Mexican border. The principles of the Leahy Law should be upheld.”
These positions prompted Rabbi Avi Weiss to write Bowman an open letter shortly before the primary. Weiss was concerned that Bowman might support Palestinian rights a little too much and he wanted assurance that he opposed BDS, a nonviolent movement aimed at ending Israeli apartheid. In his letter Weiss stressed that support for Israel was very important to the district that Bowman was looking to represent. “Our community is proud of its commitment to American values including, of course, racial harmony and equality for all. And among the issues most important to us is the well-being of the State of Israel, one of America’s greatest allies. Unfortunately, your comments on Israel have fallen far, far short,” it reads.
Bowman wrote back to Weiss. He said he opposed BDS (“I personally oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. But, like civil rights leader U.S. Rep. John Lewis, I also will defend the rights of all people to express their First Amendment right to peacefully organize for political change”), was against further annexation, and believed that conditioning military aid could be effective. He also made direct parallels between the civil rights struggle in the United States and the Palestinian fight for self-determination.
“The struggle for pluralism and civil rights in diverse democracies, in the face of forces that want to divide us, will dominate our entire lives, and is likely beyond our individual capacities,” wrote Bowman. “But no one believes that the status quo is healthy, or can continue endlessly. While these conversations will sometimes include disagreements, I look forward to continuing them as your representative.”
There are very few House bills that would benefit Palestinians in any meaningful way, but insofar as they exist, Bowman has become a cosponsor on all of them since joining congress. He was immediate backer of Rep. Betty McCollum’s historic Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act for instance.
However, a couple weeks ago Bowman voted for an extra billion in Iron Dome funding. There has been a lot of focus on AOC’s terrible “present” vote and her confounding attempt to justify it, but if we accept that The Squad expanded last year, Bowman is the only member who straight-up voted in favor of the funding.
Mondoweiss reached out to Bowman’s office after the vote looking for an explanation. We didn’t hear back, but MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan was able to ask the congressman about the issue briefly during a recent episode of his show. This was Bowman’s response:
“It’s important for me to make sure I represent everyone within my district–not just some people within my district,” said Bowman. “This was an issue was very important to many people in my district. Secondly, voting in favor of the Iron Dome defense system is not going stop me from speaking out about Palestinian rights, and for Palestinian rights, and for Palestinian humanity. There’s inhumane treatment happening towards the Palestinians. That is a fact and that is something that we have to deal with in order to ensure the self-determination of Palestinians, and the safety and security of the people of Israel going forward.”
If you cut through Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s comments, she’s also effectively saying that her district expressed concern about the vote. Bowman and AOC both represent districts where there’s a lot of pro-Israel sentiment, but there’s an element here that renders a realpolitik analysis insufficient.
People like Avi Weiss presumably hate the fact Bowman backs the McCollum bill, hate the fact he wants military aid conditioned, hate the fact he talks about Palestinians like they’re humans, and hate the fact he defends the First Amendment rights of BDS activists. However, I’m expected to believe Bowman wins some sort of goodwill with people who think like Weiss if he okays an extra billion to Iron Dome?
A couple weeks ago, the comedian Sarah Silverman used her podcast to go on a perplexing rant about Iron Dome. Pretty much nothing she said was factual, so it’s not worth breaking down in any detailed way, but it’s worth nothing that she kept citing AOC as one of the lawmakers who voted against the bill. But AOC didn’t vote against the bill! She voted “present”, angering the left and doing so little for the pro-Israel crowd that they’re not prepared to give her any credit. So, what was the point?
On Twitter a pro-Israel community leader named Yaacov Behrman shared a photograph of himself with Bowman. “I bumped into Jamaal Bowman today,” he tweeted. “I thanked him for his vote to support the Iron Dome. He said, in addition to it being a defensive system, he was concerned that a vote against the Iron Dome could be interpreted as license to kill Jews. I agree. That’s exactly how I see it.”
What’s interesting here is the word “interpreted.” Even speaking to a local pro-Israel voter, Bowman isn’t admitting that it’s actually a license to kill Jews. He’s concerned about the potential backlash from some people in his district, but is he concerned about backlash from the activists who propelled him to victory? Feels like he should be.
Nike
Corporations will very rarely admit when BDS has an impact on their actions. This enables critics of the movement to insist that it has racked up very few victories, but what else do you possibly call a global behemoth like Nike pulling its business out of Israel?
“Following a comprehensive review performed by the company and considering the changing marketplace, it has been decided that the continuation of the business relationship between you and the company does no longer match the company’s policy and goals,” the company apparently wrote its Israeli retailers.
Nike has been shutting down stores across the world for over a year, but it’s hard to think that the Israel decision was a complete coincidence. If people were huddled at the Beaverton headquarters making a Pros and Cons list for each set of stores, it’s not likely that “there is a vast international campaign aimed at highlighting this country’s human rights abuses” end up in the Pros column.
The departure of Nike from Israel also shines more light on the campaign targeting Puma over its sponsorship of Israel’s football league.
BDS Boston had a nice thread on this after a Twitter user asked what Nike’s move had to do with BDS:
Nike stated to Israeli store owners that its relationship with them “no longer matched the company’s policies and goals.” This statement is ambiguous as to whether Nike’s decision was the result of Israel’s apartheid practices having become an economic liability to Nike.
However, historically when companies have chosen to cut ties with apartheid-Israel, they have rarely stated that their decision to do so was the result of BDS pressure or moral considerations [with some exceptions].
Regardless, this decision by Nike will have a negative economic impact on Israeli retailers (as noted in the article). So whatever Nike’s internal motivations were, their decision will contribute positively to the broader goals of the BDS movement.
Odds & Ends
?? Former United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has created something called “The Friedman Center for Peace through Strength.” It’s holding a kickoff event at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, where Mike Pompeo will be presented with something called the “Peace through Strength Award.”
The event will also debut a television series celebrating the Abraham Accords, which was produced by Friedman and the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN).
?? At The Intercept, Andrew Quilty and Matthew Cole have an article about the CIA prioritizing the evacuation of Zero unit members from Afghanistan: “Most coverage of the CIA’s efforts has been laudatory. But the Zero units were known for deadly night raids that killed an untold number of civilians across Afghanistan. The Intercept documented 10 raids conducted by 01 in Wardak Province, southwest of Kabul, in which at least 51 civilians, including children, were killed — many at close range, in execution-style assaults. Most 01 missions were led by a small number of CIA ‘advisers,’ as their Afghan fighters knew them, or U.S. special forces borrowed from the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command.”
?? The Jewish Federations of North America held its Global Assembly over webcast last weekend. One of the featured speakers was New York 15th district Rep. Ritchie Torres. Bret Stephens favorite Democrat said he worries about the “Jeremy Corbynization of politics in America” and the rise of BDS.
“There’s nothing in the American experience thats remotely comparable to the volatility that confronts Israel,” he told viewers. He also asserted that antizionism is “its own form of antisemitism.”
?? From Democracy Now!: “The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case brought by Abu Zubaydah, the Guantánamo prisoner who was the first subject of the CIA’s torture program. Zubaydah’s legal team has spent years trying to obtain testimony from two psychologists who helped the CIA design and implement his torture, and the Biden administration is continuing the Trump’s administration strategy to keep key information about Zubaydah’s torture in Poland classified despite the fact that the two psychologists are willing to testify. Several justices contradicted the Biden administration, suggesting Zubaydah, the only witness besides the psychologists to the torture in Poland, testify himself, and expressing frustration that Zubaydah is still being held incommunicado at Guantánamo. We speak with Abu Zubaydah’s attorney, Joe Margulies, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Raymond Bonner, who has long followed the case. ‘The legal justification for continuing to hold [Guantánamo detainees] has disappeared,’ says Margulies.”
You can watch DN’s whole segment on this at their website.
? Microsoft intends to hire between 2,000-4,500 research and development employees in Israel over the next four years.
?? From Alex Kane at Jewish Currents: “Ahead of a Senate vote that is expected to authorize an extra billion dollars in military aid for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, Senator Bernie Sanders’s office says Sanders has secured a commitment from Democratic leadership that the US will also send additional humanitarian funds to Palestinians in Gaza, the coastal enclave devastated by Israel’s aerial assault this spring.
A letter to Chuck Schumer obtained by Jewish Currents indicates that, “Sanders is..planning to vote ‘yes’ on Iron Dome, leveraging his vote in exchange for leadership’s backing of the humanitarian relief.”
?? The Iron Dome Senate vote is currently being held up by Rand Paul, to the frustration of Democrats and Republicans. Paul’s move doesn’t stem from some concern for Palestine or a critique of Israel. He simply wants Iron Dome funded with the money that’s been earmarked for Afghanistan aid. As far as I know Paul hasn’t received any death threats or been accused of antisemitism. Almost makes you think something else is going on with stuff like that.
?? Donna Nevel on the boycott of Duty Free Americas:
The South Florida Coalition for Palestine, a coalition of social justice organizations, has called for a campaign to boycott Duty Free Americas because of the role its owners play in funding the settler movement’s expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and land. The coalition felt a particular responsibility to initiate this campaign given that the headquarters of Duty Free Americas and its owners are based in South Florida.
At the launch of the boycott campaign against Duty Free Americas, South Florida Coalition for Palestine member Ken Barnes, who is also a South Florida representative with Jewish Voice for Peace, said, “We are boycotting Duty Free Americas until they stop funding Israeli apartheid.”
?? From the New York Times: “In interviews, three weapons dealers in Kandahar said that dozens of Afghans have set up weapons shops in Afghanistan’s south, selling American-made pistols, rifles, grenades, binoculars and night-vision goggles. The equipment was originally provided to the Afghan security forces under a U.S. training and assistance program that cost American taxpayers more than $83 billion through two decades of war.”
? In NYC a Jewish Voice for Peace member told Chuck Schumer to stop funding ethnic cleansing in Palestine. The Senator enthusiastically declared that he supports a two-state solution and walked away.
? Human rights groups have renewed a campaign pressuring PayPal to stop excluding Palestinians from using its services: “PayPal denies Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, and Gaza its services, while providing full access to users in Israel and illegal settlements in the West Bank, which are in violation of international law. As such, PayPal’s policy not to provide services in Palestine appears to be discriminatory on the basis of their national or ethnic origin rather than location.”
?? Al Jazeera has a short film about the four towers in Gaza that were destroyed by Israel in May. Among the offices destroyed in those towers was APA Images, whose pictures our site regularly uses. We recently partnered with our friends at The Electronic Intifada and the Middle East Children’s Alliance to help replace APA’s destroyed equipment, and promote journalism in Gaza. Thanks to everyone who donated, as we reached our goal. If you still want to contribute, anything you donate will be used to support journalism in Gaza. You can do so at MECA’s website.
Stay safe out there,
Michael
