It was another tragic week in Palestine. The Palestinian Authority visited Jenin and rubbed salt in the wounds of Israel’s onslaught on the refugee camp. The grotesque murder of Eyad al-Hallaq — an autistic man hunted down in Jerusalem– continues to traumatize those who loved him, three years later.
Yet, in the U.S.– it’s all farce! The mockery of U.S. policy in Israel grows plainer by the day. And I keep saying, something’s gotta give.
At the State Department, reporter Said Arikat pointed out the utter contradiction of U.S. positions on resistance in Ukraine and Palestine. “Don’t Palestinians have a right to defend themselves from an occupier too? Facing Apache helicopters, American-supplied weapons and so on.”
The spokesperson was flummoxed. No comparison at all, Matthew Miller said. But, “I am not going to litigate all the differences here at the podium.” Right, he won’t parse it, because he can’t. It’s blatant hypocrisy: arming violent resistance in Ukraine and calling the same actions in Palestine “terrorism.”
Tom Friedman, the longtime advocate for Israel at the New York Times, also let the mask slip. In his latest column aimed at saving Israel from itself, he finally used the word “apartheid” and then admitted that the two-state solution is just a “fiction” aimed at keeping things quiet in the West Bank. And please let’s restore the fiction soon, Mr. Biden, so the startup nation can keep giving Israelis one of the highest standards of living on the planet! It’s hard to imagine a greater expression of contempt for Palestinians.
Thankfully, American leaders are stepping forward to challenge the Friedmans and Millers.
Four Congresspeople say they’ll be boycotting Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s speech to a joint session of Congress this week. And Herzog is supposed to be a liberal Zionist hero.
Here’s the great thread from brave Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, explaining why there’s “no way in hell” that she will attend the speech of the president of an Islamophobic country that banned her and Rashida Tlaib from visiting.
There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma.WE SHOULD NOT BE INVITING THE PRESIDENT OF ISRAEL—A GOVERNMENT WHO UNDER ITS CURRENT PRIME MINISTER BARRED THE FIRST TWO MUSLIM WOMEN ELECTED TO CONGRESS FROM VISITING THE COUNTRY—TO GIVE A JOINT ADDRESS TO CONGRESS.
It’s time for Americans to face the facts about Israel, Omar said:
The government is openly promising to “crush” Palestinian hopes of statehood—essentially putting a nail in the coffin of peace and a two-state solution.
Yes, that’s Israel. The idea that there was ever going to be a Palestinian state was pure fiction. Israel’s story here is cracking up at last!
Thanks for reading,
Phil
When I watch the members of Congress jumping up and down like trained seals, applauding Herzog for Israel’s longstanding strategy of terrorizing the Palestinians to achieve their goals of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, using mass murder and mass land thefts, I will be wondering why each member is applauding.
Is it because:
A. they are being bribed?
B. they are being blackmailed?
C. they are being threatened?
D. they believe Jews are entitled to slaughter and rob Palestinians like in their ancient, 30 century old legend?
I would not presume each member has exactly the same motives, but respect their differences in my efforts to understand them.
“putting a nail in the coffin of peace and a two-state solution.”
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Congressional confusion for a hopeful future mirrors activist confusion and the ongoing lack of a consensus.