Rep. Henry Cuellar has declared victory in Texas’s 28th congressional district despite the fact that the runoff was too close to call on Wednesday morning. If Cuellar prevails, it will be the third time he has fended off progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros.
Victory was also declared by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The United Democracy Project (UDP), a Super PAC launched by the lobbying group last year, spent almost $2 million on the race. “Congratulations pro-Israel Democrat Rep. Cuellar!,” tweeted AIPAC, “Our message is the same and transparent in any race that UDP is engaged — the pro-Israel community will stand by its friends who support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship and confront those who are detractors of that relationship.”
Cuellar’s staunch support for Israel and opposition to Palestinian human rights, has remained consistent since he was elected to the House in the mid-2000s. Last December, while the Biden administration was attempting to resurrect the Iran Nuclear Deal, he co-led a letter to Secretary of State Blinken, calling on the United States to hold Iran accountable for an alleged failure to comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Iran Nuclear Deal was infamously violated by the United States during the Trump administration. “Iran must comply with international nuclear obligations and regulations—there are no exceptions,” said Cuellar. “We cannot let an aggressive actor threaten Israel—our strongest ally in the Middle East. Any state that fails to comply with these regulations should immediately be subject to sanctions and the administration must hold Iran accountable. I urge the administration to push for more nuclear oversight at the next IAEA meeting.”
Earlier this year he co-founded “The Caucus for the advancement of Torah values” with Nebraska GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Neither lawmaker is Jewish. This political effort was initiated by Rabbi David Hofstedter, a Canadian philanthropist and founder of the international Talmudic group Dirshu. At the time of its founding Hofstedter declared that one of the caucus’s major focuses will be “the rise of anti-Israel bigotry.”
After Amnesty International released its historic report on Israeli apartheid in February the House member tweeted, “Israel is not an apartheid state. Full stop. These inaccuracies incite antisemitic behavior against the Jewish people. Lies that incite violence, but do nothing to help the Palestinian people. Let’s work together, not tear each other down.”
Israel certainly isn’t the issue where Cuellar has rankled progressives. The congressman has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and is the only anti-abortion Democrat in the House. Despite these positions, Cuellar was backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn. “Pelosi and Clyburn making 11th hour robo-calls for an anti-abortion candidate with an A rating from the NRA on the day of a horrific mass shooting as Roe is about to be overturned is an absolutely perfect summary of Democratic Party leadership,” tweeted The New Republic’s Kate Aronoff.
This year the FBI raided Cuellar’s home as part of an investigation connected to Azerbaijan. Cuellar has taken multiple trips to the country and co-chairs the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus. His lawyer insists that he not a target of the investigation.
AIPAC has already spent millions of dollars on the midterms, but it’s produced mixed results so far. UDP-backed candidates Valerie Foushee and Don Davis were victorious in North Carolina, but pro-Israel groups were unable to defeat Summer Lee, a progressive organizer running for Pennsylvania’s 12th District who has criticized Israel’s human rights record. Despite the loss, AIPAC was able to cut Lee’s 25-point lead to single digits and nearly propelled Steve Irwin, a pro-Israel local attorney and former GOP staffer, to a win. They spent almost $3 million on the race.
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“Zionist reaction was swift. Bnai Brith criticized MP Ayra for showing up. Honest Reporting Canada (HRC) attacked CTV for covering the protest at all, alleging that protesters were making ‘extreme & false claims’ including claiming that Palestinians live under ‘occupation’. (HRC seems to ignore that both the Government of Canada and the UN Security Council agree with the protesters that the Palestinians in the West Bank & Gaza are ‘under Israeli occupation’.)
In a public letter, Andrea Freedman, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Ottawa claimed that the school board is ‘allowing their students to be indoctrinated with hate under the guise of freedom & justice.’ Freedman says the Ottawa Federation gets ‘repeated complaints and concerns from parents and in most cases… extreme dissatisfaction with the (school board’s) actions to protect their students’ safety.‘
“Our demonstration is not against Jews or Judaism”, retorted Jabir X, another PYM organizer. ‘We are demanding that Palestinian students be recognized as having equal rights to their culture & freedom of speech.’
“In response to criticisms on social media, one of the PYM organizers responded on Instagram, ‘when we advocate for Palestine, we are not targeting Jews as the Jewish religion is of equal importance to us as Christianity and Islam.. etc. Additionally, we have a large group of supporters that are in fact Jewish, and their support means the world to us. Calling out Zionism and apartheid has nothing to do with religion:)”
‘..The [school]board will not interfere with students wearing Palestinian flag colors, displaying flags on their person or wearing a keffiyeh. The OCDSB values representation & is committed to ensuring that classrooms are places where all students are comfortable with their identities known & acknowledged.’
Adding insult to injury. I wonder if the EU or even the US for that matter, will dictate terms, or have many conditions before sending those billions of dollars to the OCCUPIER, who as we know, are able to buy food and medicine very easily, and live their wonderful lives.
Palestinian lives at risk if EU continues to withhold aid: NRCEU has withheld $230M in aid until school textbooks are changed, leaving Palestinians unable to buy food and medicine.
A humanitarian organisation has warned that the European Union’s continued delay in distributing aid to vital sectors in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is putting Palestinian lives at risk, with dire consequences for patients needing treatment at occupied East Jerusalem hospitals.
Since 2021, the EU has withheld a large proportion of its funding to the Palestinians – nearly $230m – under the pretext that Palestinian school textbooks need to undergo revisions and changes.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/24/eu-withholding-aid-risks-palestinian-lives-rights-group-nrc
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Just received from Canada::
https://canadatalksisraelpalestine.ca/2022/05/24/palestinian-canadian-high-school-students-stage-walk-out-on-nakba-day-demanding-equal-treatment-by-ottawa-schools/
“PALESTINIAN CANADIAN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS STAGE WALK-OUT ON NAKBA DAY DEMANDING EQUAL TREATMENT BY OTTAWA SCHOOLS” by Peter Larson. Canada Talks Israel Palestine (CTIP)
“Over two hundred students from several Ottawa schools have come together to demand that Ottawa’s high schools treat their Palestinian students with respect & decency. The protest was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement of Ottawa (PYM) but included many non-Palestinians as well.
“In what appears to be an Ottawa first, Palestinian Canadian students in several Ottawa high schools walked off class publicly demanding that the school boards live up to their claimed values of equality & non-discrimination. The date was chosen to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba (Nakba Day was on the following Sunday) but the lively demonstration reflected some deeper issues with the school board.
“‘Palestinians are not respected by the Ottawa School Board,’ reported Tuleine X, one of the organizers of the protest. ‘For example, my school has flags from dozens of countries in our cafeteria, but I was told we were not allowed to have a Palestinian flag. We want to change that.’
“The protest was organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) of Ottawa, & started off in schools of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board but soon spread to some schools in the Catholic School board as well. One of the protests, at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic school was covered by CTV news which included a short video clip of the protest.
“‘We are not a political movement’, she continued. ‘We are only asking that the school board treat us equally, which is what the Board claims is a core value.’
“Local MP Chandra Ayra (Liberal, Nepean) appeared at the demonstration in support of the students. More information about the demonstrations, including photos & a full list of the demands, texts of chants, etc., is available on Instagram here. (cont’d)
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Two comments:
1) Pelosi & Co. continue to reveal just how disdainful they are of the Progressive electorate via their support for Representative Cuellar who:
Opposes reproductive rights for women
Worked to dismantle the Iran Treaty
Has an A+ rating with the NRA
Serves as a mouthpiece for Organized Zionism
Embraces IHRA and accuses those who oppose Zionism/Israel of antisemitism without evidence
Is openly disdainful of Palestinian human and political rights
He’s a Democrat?
Pelosi famously said: “We will never allow anyone to make Israel a wedge issue“.
Does she not see that with her arrogant dismissal of the Progressive wing of her party that she is doing exactly that? Democratic Party support for divisive candidates like Cuellar violates David Ben Gurion’s stern, sage advice to Zionists (like Speaker Pelosi) to never allow Israel to become a partisan issue in the US and yet…
Another ironic outcome of Pelosi & Co’s apparent indifference to making Israel/Zionism a wedge issue is backlit by their servile support of AIPAC/Big Zionism which is proudly announcing that it is contributing to the re-election campaigns of three dozen REPUBLICAN candidates who conspired to invalidate the election results on January 6th. Does she not see that by genuflecting to AIPAC that she is accelerating the likely irreversible process by which the US electorate comes to see Israel/Zionism as either a Republican or Democratic issue…but not both?
(cont)
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WTF?
Pelosi & Co’s actions divide not only the Democratic Party into rival factions, they also radically polarize the major parties and politicize support for Israel as no other American politician ever has. Paradoxically, Pelosi is actually carrying water for those who seek to diminish or destroy Zionism’s influence on Capitol Hill. Perhaps they are so panicked at their weak poll numbers in the coming elections that they are either mindlessly seizing any and all opportunities to keep seats or that they have forgotten Ben Gurion’s long-obeyed maxim?
2) Yet another unforeseen outcome of Pelosi and Co’s actions is the fact that the well-worn hasbaritic smear that those who condemn Israel for The Occupation, IDF brutality, as well as its disregard for international law and violation of Palestinian rights do so only because they are antisemitic dies by Pelosi’s hand. No longer can Big Zionism claim this rubbish to be evidence of anything. Hasbara has long claimed that if Americans did not condemn Burma, China, Syria and other countries where terrible things are occurring with the same intensity that they criticize Israel that they reveal themselves to be hypocrites and antisemitic. That was never true but now that Zionism has insinuated itself into the very fabric of domestic American elections to advance candidates who are openly subversive of the Constitution its ability to call into question the morality of American political dissent on Zionism evaporates. Forever.
Are these statements antisemitic according to IHRA?
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