Ron DeSantis comes sputtering into the Republican primary claiming that he can make America as inhospitable to minorities as Florida. His commitment to Israel is unwavering, and he’s framed it as the touchstone of his foreign policy agenda. He’s visited the country multiple times as a congress member and now as a Governor. He was there last month, delivering a keynote address at the Museum of Tolerance, which was erected atop a Muslim cemetery. “Israel stands tall as a beacon of freedom in a troubled region, an engine of economic growth and opportunity and center of innovation and technology, that is the envy of the world.”
“Israel is also one of America’s most valued and trusted allies,” he told the crowd. “Maintaining a strong Israel relationship has been a priority for me during my time in elected office, and I know it’s been a priority for the overwhelming majority of the American people.”
In 2019 DeSantis signed an antisemitism bill that would censor some criticisms of Israel throughout the state. He celebrated the legislation during a ceremonial cabinet meeting in Israel that ended with Florida lawmakers issuing a declaration of support for Israel. The delegation included the late pro-Israel megadonor Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam. You can imagine the reaction if such a thing happened in any other country on earth, but because of the “special relationship” this moment was barely covered by national media. A group of organizations actually filed a lawsuit against Florida’s government, claiming the meeting violated Florida’s transparency laws by taking place in a foreign country, but that didn’t get a whole lot of press either.
Running to the right of Trump on Israel might seem nearly impossible, but DeSantis is apparently going to try. A recent Haaretz piece from Ben Samuels breaks down the Governor’s strategy. For starters, he’s claiming that he’s the one who pressured Trump to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. “When we were trying to cajole the previous administration to do it, I actually launched a very small delegation over here,” he declared in Israel. “We looked at a bunch of different sites. We had a big press conference to announce that this was going to happen. We were confident, and there was a plethora of possibilities to be able to do.”
He’s also criticized Trump’s “deal of the century” talk because the plan involved a two-state solution, which is good indication of how extreme the party has become on the issue.
DeSantis’s humiliating campaign launch featured a number of individuals accused of antisemitism. He made the announcement alongside Elon Musk, who recently declared that George Soros “hates humanity.” Radio host Steve Deace, who once shared an antisemitic propaganda video claiming Jews are responsible for multiculturalism, was one of the guests. So was former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, who in 2010 tweeted, “I bet Rick Sanchez was fired by a Jew” and declaring that “everybody that runs CNN” is a lot like Jon Stewart.
There’s nothing particularly shocking here, but it’s a good reminder of what lawmakers like DeSantis mean when they rail against antisemitism. They’re not talking about Jewish people, they’re talking about Israel. That’s it.
Project Nimbus
Workers, activists, and shareholders presented resolutions at Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting this week. Here’s Palestinian-American Laith Abad, who is a software engineer at Amazon Games:
“I’m here to present Resolution 7 on behalf of the American Baptist Home Mission Society and co-filers. The proposal calls on Amazon to commission an independent third party report on its process for customer due diligence to determine whether customer use of its surveillance products and services contributes to human rights violations.
As an Amazon employee I can say confidently that my co-workers and I want to work at a company that stands for the human rights of all people. Proponents again offer this proposal to encourage the company to meaningfully assess the impacts of its high-risk technologies and contracts with government agencies, and strengthen due diligence processes in areas where there are gaps.
Technologies like the Ring doorbell, facial recognition, and AWS can be used increase widespread surveillance, which furthers racial discrimination in policing, infringes on privacy, and violates the civil liberties of communities of color.
As a Palestinian-American I’m especially concerned with Amazon’s contract with the Israeli military and government, known as Project Nimbus. This contract provides powerful technology to an army accused of war crimes and a government that’s enforcing a repressive system of apartheid, a crime against humanity according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, the United Nations, and other groups. Palestinian families live every day under deeply intrusive surveillance, fear of violence, being forced out of their homes, and even death.
My own father was ethnically cleansed from his homeland of Palestine by the Israeli government, as well as many other relatives of mine. This is deeply personal and I know I’m not alone. As Amazon employees we want to ensure the technology we build and sell does not harm our own communities and those of our users. Shareholders and employees want to see Amazon take responsibility and lead the way in ending tech-driven human rights abuses. Amazon’s business should support human dignity and a fair and just society for all people, not amplify, oppression, division, and discrimination.
For more on Project Nimbus, check out our ongoing coverage at the site.
Odds & Ends
???? ADL boss “both sides” the “Death to Arabs” march.
???????? “Though the US remains a strong supporter of Israel, there are some indications that the supposed ‘unbreakable bond’ with Tel Aviv is faltering, though more in terms of language than deeds.”
???????? ‘It’s a bad idea for Biden to broker Saudi-Israeli normalization’
???? The Times of Israel published and deleted an article calling for the genocide of Palestinians.
???? ‘Jewish teens, led by Ezra Beinart, are gathering on Zoom to meet prominent Palestinians‘
???? Joe Vogel, a 26-year-old state legislator in Maryland, is running for an open congressional seat there. Vogel calls himself a pro-Israel progressive. “When it comes to Israel, I have faced pushback before for my views, but I don’t see being progressive as being in conflict with being pro-Israel. I actually think those are overlapping viewpoints,” he told the Jewish Insider recently.
???? ‘Reclaiming CUNY as a People’s University: Fighting against repression, censorship, and anti-Palestinian racism‘
???????? Mitchell Plitnick on the Nakba denial at the heart of pro-Israel lobbying: “But it is the view that the Nakba, a purely Palestinian experience, needs to be seen through the lens of Israel that is so profoundly hateful. These same people would never tolerate Israel’s creation being seen exclusively through a Palestinian lens. But more than that, the Nakba, being so central to Palestinian identity, history, and national consciousness, is a Palestinian experience that Israel’s supporters are trying to strip away.”
???? We published an interview with Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir: “The analogy I have used is the emperor wears no clothes. People know its apartheid. Many just didn’t feel it was okay to say it. Our report was in some ways a permission slip of a sort for people who were worried about the reaction. They could say Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, have said this. It makes it easier to say so…. Yes, we face some pushback. But we’ve been under attack from way before this report was issued. Yes, we have lost supporters over the years because of our work on Israel and Palestine. Is it significant? Absolutely. But is it anything compared to what Palestinian NGOs who are outlawed face? Absolutely it is not.”
✉️ 16 Democratic Senators signed a letter suggesting that Israel falls short of Visa Waiver Program requirements.
???? ‘US Senate Republicans reintroduce bill to sanction enablers of ‘terror groups’ in Palestine’
To white racist Republicans like DeSantis, Zionist colonial settler treatment of us Palestinians is a model for treatment of non-whites or non-Euros in the USA.