Anti-BDS Legislation
New year, new round of legislation aiming to stifle criticisms of Israel.
S706 has been introduced in New York’s Senate. The bill would prohibit the state from contracting with any companies that boycott Israel. This is being sponsored by Long Island Sen. Anna Kaplan, who told the New York Post that BDS is an “orchestrated movement to weaken and delegitimize Israel.”
In 2020 when DSA sent a questionnaire out to NY political candidates asking them to skip PR junkets to Israel, Kaplan was one of the politicians who attacked the socialist organization. “Israel is the only Jewish state,” she said. “And the exclusion of every other country with this questionnaire, just targeting Israel, is a very anti-Semitic position.” New York already has some existing anti-BDS legislation, thanks to a 2016 executive order from disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
HB 239 (or the Israel Anti-Discrimination Act) was introduced in Alaska’s state legislature earlier this month. The standard playbook is being implemented here. Companies with ten or more employees and contracts over $100,000 are prohibited from boycotting the country.
In the case of Alaska, it’s always helpful to revisit a 2019 study, that was carried out by Center for Public Integrity and USA TODAY, about these specific bills. The copycat legislation has made its way to dozens of states. Here’s a write-up about that study:
A network of pro-Israel Jewish and evangelical Christian advocacy groups have quietly but forcefully pushed the anti-boycott legislation, marketing it as a solution to address a growing trend of anti-Semitic incidents. Among the leaders are well-known organizations such as the Jewish Federations of North America as well as smaller groups such as the Israeli-American Coalition for Action.
The groups pushing the bills are building off goodwill generated from years of courting state officials with — sometimes free — trips to Israel. And the Israeli government then writes to thank state officials instrumental in passing the measures.
As we’ve mentioned in the newsletter before, this model is often implemented to push other kinds of legislation. Lara Friedman of Foundation for Middle East Peace identified a couple recent examples on twitter. Two bills designed to protect the fossil fuel industry were just introduced in West Virginia, both modeled on anti-BDS legislation. In Oklahoma legislation developed with the same anti-BDS framework has been introduced to….(wait for it…) combat “discrimination” against firearm trade associations.
They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but many of the connections often appear pretty seamless.
Torah Caucus
Say hello to something called “The Caucus for the advancement of Torah values.” The political group was unveiled this week, a bipartisan effort cooked up by two members of Congress. Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas (you’re free to make your own conclusions about his values) and GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska. Yes, one of the people who started a caucus allegedly inspired by The Torah is named “Bacon.”
What is this thing? It was developed to “discuss ongoing issues of concern to Jews in the United States, Canada and around the world.” Ok, what do these lawmakers perceive those issues to be? Well, you probably guessed that Israel sits atop the list. “The rise of anti-Israel bigotry”, to be more specific. One assumes this will include any effort to boycott the apartheid state, hold the Israeli government accountable for its human rights violations, or draw attention to the fact that United States taxpayers fund the ongoing destruction of Palestine.
This political effort was spearheaded by Rabbi David Hofstedter, a Canadian philanthropist and founder of the international Talmudic group Dirshu. Here’s Jacob Kornbluh writing about the caucus at The Forward:
Josh Nass, a spokesman for Dirshu, said the caucus was designated as a platform for congressional leaders to speak out when members of the Jewish community are targeted, which he described as a biblical value. But he didn’t explain why it was themed Torah values.
Nass maintained that the congressmen both were “a natural fit” given the close relationships they have developed in Congress. “They are both friends of the Jewish community and they have a proven track record on Israel,” he said. “And part of what this is about is bringing people together from both sides of the aisle on an issue that should be unifying.”
Back to Cuellar for a second. You’ll recall that he was barely able to fend off a 2020 primary challenge from young progressive Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th district. Outside money poured into his reelection campaign and Nancy Pelosi even showed up in the Lone Star State to stump for the incumbent. Cuellar was also backed by a number of pro-Israel lobbying groups, including Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) and Pro Israel America.
After he squeaked out a victory, DMFI CEO Mark Mellman declared that it “was a good night for the pro-Israel community in Congress” and celebrated the fact that DMFI helped protect the “pro-Israel incumbent that was threatened.”
Cisneros will try to unseat Cuellar again this year.
Odds & Ends
?? Rep. Rashida Tlaib has a Democratic primary challenger in Michigan’s freshly redrawn 12th district: former state legislator Shanelle Jackson. In a recent interview with Jewish Insider Jackson made it clear that she is leaning into the Israel issue and attempting to use it against Tlaib. She even accuses the incumbent of “antisemitic rhetoric”, a smear that has been implemented by Republicans and members of Tlaib’s own party. “She obviously is carrying the water of Palestine in all that she does,” Jackson told the website. “Meanwhile, Detroiters, we don’t have a voice. It’s just the truth.”
The dual loyalty charge is an interesting one and Yonah Lieberman makes a good point about this line of attack on Twitter: “Can you imagine the uproar if someone said that a Jewish, pro-Israel politician was ‘carrying the water for Israel in all that she does’? This is the casual anti-Palestinian racism that exists in our politics.”
?? Ethnic cleansing is escalating in Sheikh Jarrah again, where Palestinian families are being forcibly removed and their homes destroyed. Predictably U.S. lawmakers (including the ones who have a lot to say about international human rights lately) have remained widely silent. One of the exceptions has been Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan. “Last night, in the cover of darkness & freezing cold, the homes of the Salhiyeh family in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, were destroyed by Israeli forces leaving 15 people homeless,” he tweeted. This is unacceptable and must end. #SaveSheikhJarrah”
?? Katrina vanden Heuvel was on DEMOCRACY NOW talking about the Biden administration’s hawkish approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict:
What’s clear is that three presidents — Obama, Trump and even Biden — have said that Ukraine is not a national security, vital security interest of the United States. No president at this moment is going to send men and women to Ukraine to fight. It has become a proxy war, however. It’s been geopoliticized, when in fact it’s a civil war. And there is this relationship between Russia and Ukraine, and it also goes back to the bigger issue, Amy, of NATO expansion. In 1997, there was a vigorous debate in this country about NATO expansion, and key people who knew Russia well warned it would lead to a new Cold War.
Gregory Shupak has a good piece at FAIR about the pundits pushing for war in the region:
In the Washington Post (12/24/21), Republican Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen jointly contended in Orwellian fashion that the Biden administration should take “military measures that would strengthen a diplomatic approach and give it greater credibility.” They wrote that “the United States must speed up the pace of assistance and provide antiaircraft, antitank and anti-ship systems, along with electronic warfare capabilities.” The authors claimed that these actions “will help ensure a free and stable Europe,” though it’s easy to imagine how such steps could instead lead to a war-ravaged Europe, or at least a tension-plagued one.
Indeed, US “military measures” have tended to increase, rather than decrease, the temperature. Last summer, the US and Ukraine led multinational naval maneuvers held in the Black Sea, an annual undertaking called Sea Breeze. The US-financed exercises were the largest in decades, involving 32 ships, 40 aircraft and helicopters, and 5,000 soldiers from 24 countries (Deutsche Welle, 6/29/21). These steps didn’t create a “stable Europe”: Russia conducted a series of parallel drills in the Black Sea and southwestern Russia (AP, 7/10/21), and would go on to amass troops along the Ukrainian border.
?? ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt attacked a Mohammad El-Kurd tweet condemning Israel’s ethnic cleansing. Greenblatt smeared The Nation writer as antisemite and somehow connecting it it to the recent Texas synagogue hostage situation. Shameful stuff.
?? The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights has a good thread calling out the Progressive Caucus over the situation in Palestine:
In May 2021, Members of Congress spoke out against the forced displacement of Palestinian families in #SheikhJarrah. 8 months have passed & Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people continues – (Progressive Caucus) stick to your word and keep up this pressure…you can’t call yourself progressive if you’re silent when Palestinian people are being ethnically cleansed by the Israeli military that the U.S. funds. What do you support: justice for the Palestinian people or the Israeli apartheid regime?…ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities in Sheikh Jarrah, the Naqab, & Massafer Yatta is escalating…your inaction is complicity.
?? At Truthout Malak Shalabi wrote about the case of Omar Abdulmajeed Asad, the 80-year-old man recently killed by the Israel Defense Force in Palestine:
Omar Asad was an American citizen, a fact that has garnered his story much more media attention than it might have otherwise received. However, this fact shouldn’t matter — and in many ways, it doesn’t matter. Regardless of a Palestinian’s national protections as a typically stateless person, Israel exhibits a reckless disregard for Palestinian life. And its strongest ally, the United States, has responded apathetically to the killing of Omar Asad. On January 13, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the department got in touch with Asad’s family to express their condolences, and that it has also “been in touch with Israel to ‘seek clarification’ about ‘this incident.’” Somehow, the United States managed to “two-sides” the beating and killing of an 80-year-old man — a standard feature of any commentary they provide on Israel’s violent actions.
?? In 2017 the U.S. bombed a massive dam in Syria that was on a no-strike list. The military denied it happened and a U.S. general called the allegations “crazy reporting.” Now we know it definitely happened thanks to a New York Times report.
⏰ “Today, the members of the Science and Security Board find the world to be no safer than it was last year at this time and therefore has decided to set the Doomsday Clock once again at 100 seconds to midnight.”
Stay safe out there,
Michael