‘Sprinkle magic dust and change their situation’ — Rep. Trahan’s response to witnessing Palestinian persecution

Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts visited occupied Hebron in February with a congressional delegation of 15 Democrats and was shocked to see the segregation and persecution of Palestinians in a city that has been taken over by Jewish settlers. Trahan’s answer? Sprinkle magic dust, she told a Boston temple two weeks ago.

Hebron was the toughest day for all of us. I think we all had this very vivid memory of standing in the street and looking up at doors boarded up so [Palestinians] folks couldn’t exit or enter or exit from the street. Looking up at the balconies and seeing children the age of my daughters and younger. And just the backdrop of 800 Israeli soldiers… almost in a 1 to 1 ratio with the Palestinians who were living there, and how incredibly orienting that is — when you’re standing there and how you just want to sprinkle magic dust right there upon the spot and change their situation. I think we all had a really difficult time even reflecting on it as we were getting ready to depart.

Trahan’s delegation was led by the pro-Israel group J Street. The members of Congress met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even though Netanyahu refused to meet members of the J Street staff because the group is liberal Zionist.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts told the Temple Israel of Boston audience on June 11 that he “violated” his policy of shunning foreign officials if they refuse to meet the group he’s with. Because J Street told him to meet Netanyahu.

I violated a principle that I uphold when I travel with any group anywhere. If I go to Latin America and the President of Colombia will  meet with me but not the Washington Office on Latin America, I usually say, ‘Thank you very much I will not meet with you.’

Netanyahu did not want to meet with the J Street people. He didn’t want them in the room. So we were told. So I was prepared not to go to the meeting. Then I was encouraged by some of our J Street friends — you should go to the meeting anyway because it’s important to make a point.

Rep. Trahan bragged to the temple audience about meeting the charismatic prime minister, then said that Netanyahu lied to the Congresspeople in that meeting.

You all know better than us — and I’ve only been 4 years in Congress, but I’ve gotten to meet with the prime minister a couple of times, and he is bright, he is articulate, he does not lack charisma. But when asked about the settlements — which we were very direct in terms of framing their threat to the 2 state solution — “No new settlements” was his response. That afternoon, new settlements. And so it is really important that we hold people accountable to the things that they say.

(I asked J Street for a response to these “insults,” but didn’t get one as of this morning.)

During 45 minutes of discussion at the Boston temple, McGovern and Trahan — and the J Street official moderating the comments — never said the word “apartheid.” Even though there is wide consensus on this point among liberal groups. All the leading human rights groups have said it’s apartheid. Nearly half of Democrats say that Israeli rule amounts to apartheid. Many leaders, including Jimmy Carter, Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum, and Cori Bush, say it’s apartheid. Ban Ki-moon said this week that he saw apartheid for himself. The young Jewish group IfNotNow calls it “apartheid,” in line with a large number of young Jews. But J Street is committed to blocking that word from the U.S. discourse.

Though McGovern — who was only on his second visit to Palestine in 27 years of Congressional service — came close to stating that he had witnessed apartheid, when he described different roads for Palestinians and Jews.

When you drive on the West Bank and you see a highway for Israelis and then a highway for Palestinians. And we can get to a place really quickly because we’re on the Israeli side, but on the Palestinian side, there are many checkpoints — it’s humiliating. Anyone of us if we were subjected to multiple checkpoints would be humiliated. It’s a question of dignity. It’s a question of human rights.

Trahan had similar impressions of visiting racially divided Hebron, and of seeing Susiya, a village in the Hebron Hills that Israel is trying to remove to make way for Jewish settlements. “These were families just like us, incredible hosts, so articulate,” Trahan said, “living with the fear and the threat, that the land will be taken away at any moment, they will be displaced.”

McGovern faulted U.S. ambassador Tom Nides for not talking about Palestinian human rights:

Tom Nides, our ambassador, was a nice guy in a previous life. But I feel like what is missing in our diplomacy is oftentimes a recognition of the human condition, about what is really happening on the ground…If we stand for anything, as the United States, we should aspire to stand four square for human rights. That ought to be what we are all about. I feel that too often, With regard to Israeli politics, we push that to the back.

The reason Ambassador Nides does happily talk about Israel and doesn’t talk about Palestinian human rights is the same reason that J Street won’t talk about apartheid. Neither Biden nor J Street wants to alienate the establishment Jewish community, which they know is still supportive of Israel and has political force as the Israel lobby.

And the Israel lobby is personified in that room. Though the talk was sponsored by many progressive Jewish groups and was billed as “Israel at a crossroads,” the Democratic leadership believes that the Jewish community, especially the older, wealthier members, are all for Israel’s continued support by the U.S. That’s why Trahan praised Netanyahu, a fascistic rightwing leader. So did another member of the J Street trip back in February: Rep. Katie Porter of California gushed that Netanyahu was “very impressive.”

Trahan and McGovern insist that they are for a two-state solution. They said it in the temple over and over again, just as the State Department does when it is asked about Israeli killings of Palestinians in occupied territory. McGovern even suggested that Palestinians need to “have their own homeland” in order to secure their human rights. Why not now?

In fairness to Trahan and McGovern, they seem to know very little about the issue. Good Massachusetts liberals, they go to Israel with a “progressive” Israel lobby group on the left of the political establishment that tells them a two-state solution is possible, and necessary.

That’s the tragedy of this trip. J Street has real traction in the Democratic Party as a pro-Israel group — 15 members on its trip — but it is peddling a fantasy.

There is broad consensus among progressives and realists that there will never be a two-state solution, that the possibility for it ended many years ago. Even experts at the Council on Foreign Relations say there won’t be a Palestinian state, and say White House officials know as much. There’s a one-state reality — the presence of over 700,000 illegal Jewish settlers east of the Green Line long ago barred the creation of a real Palestinian state.

And Netanyahu and all his ministers vow that there will never be a Palestinian state, and humiliate the J Street delegation, but J Street sucks it up because it is clinging to its fantasy of preserving a “Jewish democracy.”

McGovern did venture that there should be consequences for Israel for its bad behavior.”We may have to do some things that are tough love if it gets to that. I hope it doesn’t get to that,” he said. Two days after this session at Temple Israel, McGovern signed on to the McCollum bill that would defend the rights of Palestinian children.

McGovern is one of only 26 co-sponsors, which goes to show how distant the political establishment is from the Democratic street, thanks to the Israel lobby. (And J Street has endorsed McCollum without pushing the bill).

Trahan is not one of the sponsors — maybe because it does not include magic dust.

[For the record, Jewish Insider reported that the J Street trip included in addition to McGovern and Trahan: Alma Adams of North Carolina, Troy Carter of Louisiana, Sharice Davids of Kansas, Teresa Leger Fernandez of New Mexico, Kim Schrier of Washington, Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, Colin Allred and Veronica Escobar of Texas, and Jimmy Gomez, Mike Levin,  Eric Swalwell and Mike Thompson of California.]