Weekly Briefing: Zionists are losing it in New York

I’ve long contended that the political battle over the future of Israel and Palestine will be decided in the United States, because that is the seat of Israeli power, and this week brought encouraging signs that the battle is on.

For one thing, Zionists are turning against one another. The fight between liberal Zionists and rightwing Zionists inside Israel came to the New York streets this weekend.

On Friday night, Israeli Jews who are trying to “save democracy” over there– whatever that means in an apartheid state— followed a legislator in Netanyahu’s governing coalition to his hotel, heckling him through a megaphone; and the lawmaker, Simcha Rothman, simply lost it in his rage and tore the megaphone out of the arms of one of his pursuers. (The demonstrators said they were filing a complaint against Rothman with the police.)

Rothman is a member of the fascistic, racist party Jewish Power party. He is in New York to attend a Celebrate Israel parade Sunday. And liberal Zionists promise more demonstrations today to “save democracy” at that parade.

Also this week, a fixture of that parade, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, declared his opposition to Democrats who want to cut off tax benefits to illegal Israeli settlements. They are threatening Israel’s existence, Cuomo said, at the worst time for Israel in the U.S. “Americans more and more are opposing the state of Israel, Democrats primarily are moving to a negative place vis-a-vis Israel,” he said, though he pointed out that the U.S. government is ignoring the people (indeed, Biden is doing all he can to avoid the issue).

Cuomo saved his sharpest words for American Jews who criticize Israel. He said they are giving permission to non-Jews to say to themselves: “Even the Jewish people are upset with Israel. Oh well then I shouldn’t support Israel either.”

Of course, anti-Zionists have a lot to say about all these questions; and this week an anti-Zionist speech made big news in New York.

Law graduate Fatima Mohammed had given a commencement speech at CUNY Law School last month denouncing the legal system’s role in sustaining white supremacy globally, and saying that support for Israel was an example. In the face of the “ongoing Nakba… our silence is no longer acceptable,” Mohammed said. “Palestine can no longer be the exception to our pursuit of justice.”

The speech was publicized this week, and the 24-year-old immigrant from Yemen was smeared by New York politicians and then the trustees of the school itself for alleged hate speech. And like Roger Waters, Fatima Mohammed refused to back down.

The good news was the amount of support Mohammed got. “The crowd cheered her on,” the Institute for Middle East Understanding reports. And many progressive groups supported Mohammed’s right to express her views– including the CUNY Jewish Law Students Association, which issued a stirring statement in solidarity with our “friend and classmate Fatima.” The JLSA statement was co-signed by numerous other student groups.

Most surprisingly, Mohammed gained sympathetic coverage in the New York Times, which said she was the target of “nearly nonstop, consistently furious international tabloid coverage.”

Yes, the battle is coming to New York, and that is good news for all who care about Palestinian freedom.