White House briefing
At a briefing yesterday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre seemingly compared Palestine activists to racists who marched in Charlottesville.
Fox reporter Peter Doocy, who frequently asks leading questions with a right-wing frame, asked Jean-Pierre whether “anti-Israel” protesters are “extremists.” The press secretary did not push back on the suggestion and invoked the Unite the Right rally in 2017:
Q Thank you, Karine. Does President Biden think the anti-Israel protesters in this country are extremists?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: What I can say is what — we’ve been very clear about this: When it comes to antisemitism, there is no place. We have to make sure that we speak against it very loud and be — and be very clear about that.
Remember, what the President decided — when the President decided to run for president is what he saw in Charlottesville in 2017, when we — he saw neo-Nazis marching down the streets of Charlottesville with vile, antisemitic — just hatred.
And he was very clear then, and he’s very clear now. He’s taken actions against this over the past two years. And he’s continued to be clear: There is no place — no place for this type of vile and despite — despite — this kind of rhetoric.
Q But we hear you guys, though, talk about “extremists” all the time. It is usually about “MAGA extremists.” So, what about these protesters who are making Jewish students —
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I have been very, very clear —
Q — feel unsafe on college campuses? Are they extremists?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I have been very, very clear: We are calling out any form of hate — any form of hate. It is not acceptable. It should not be acceptable here. And we are going to continue to call that out.
And let — and let me be very clear: This is a president that has continued to have that fight in his office, in this administration. You know, when he repealed Trump’s Muslim ban, on his very — in first — first day in office, that is something that this president did.
He also established an inter-policy committee to counter Islamophobia, antis- — antisemitism, and related forms of bias and discrimination.
We’ve taken this very, very, very seriously, from the President all the way on down.
Jean-Pierre’s comparison faced immediate backlash across social media, including a thread on the issue from Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA).
“After weeks of indiscriminate bombing in Gaza, 8k innocent civilians killed (including UN workers & journalists), 1 mil displaced, & countless internationally-condemned tactics & weapons, this stance is so dangerous. People are overwhelmingly protesting to save lives & stop war,” wrote Lee. “While antisemitic attacks are actually on the rise — we must be clear-eyed to root out hate and violence in our communities. There is no space for antisemitism in ours or any movement—period.”
“Our call for ceasefire isn’t fringe or hateful or extreme,” she continued. “We’re joined by international political leaders, rabbis, clergy, the UN, Amnesty Intl, Doctors without Borders, and even the Pope—who all recognize the dire humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.”
Cori Bush challenger
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) has an official primary challenger in Missouri. On Monday attorney Wesley Bell announced that he was ending his Senate campaign to run against her in the House.
Bush is one of the only consistent Israel critics in Congress, and in an interview with Jewish Insider, Bell made it clear that the topic will be a central component of his campaign.
“As a country, we have to be reliable partners. We have to stand by our fellow democracies, and we have to stand against terrorism,” he told the website. “Hamas is a terrorist organization and I will not waver in my support for Israel.”
“They want propaganda to try and create confusion and disinformation,” he continued. “I think it matters a lot. And then obviously how one votes. There’s certain things that we cannot politicize and that’s one of them, in my opinion. And as we see — Republicans and Democrats alike, one of the few issues that we all come together on.”
Yesterday the ADL attacked Bush over a recent tweet where she referenced Israel’s long history of ethnic cleansing.
Arkansas BDS law
Jewish American author Nathan Thrall is skipping a trip to the University of Arkansas as a result of the state’s anti-BDS law.
Thrall, author of the recently-published “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy”, says he was scheduled to speak at the school but refused to sign a loyalty pledge to Israel as part of the arrangement. The requirement is part of the state’s 2017 anti-BDS law.
Thrall also says advertising for the book has been scaled back on NPR and the BBC over “listener complaints”.
Earlier this year the Supreme Court decline to take up a challenge to the Arkansas law. The ACLU had been petitioning SCOTUS on behalf of Alan Leveritt, the publisher of the Arkansas Times. In 2017 Leveritt refused to sign a similar pledge in order to maintain an advertising contract with Pulaski Technical College. Leveritt sued the state over the requirement.
“We are obviously disappointed at the news today from the U.S. Supreme Court,” Leveritt told Mondoweiss at the time. “Permitting the State of Arkansas to withhold public contracts from citizens who voice dissenting opinions is abhorrent and a violation of our First Amendment rights.”
“Our newspaper is not boycotting anyone, we cover local politics and issues, not the Middle East – but we do not allow the state to dictate our political positions on any issue in return for advertising dollars,” he continued. “We have made changes to our business model to become less reliant on advertising revenue, and our newsroom is now 100% funded by readers and donors. Thanks to their support, we do not have to worry about signing any political pledges dictated by our legislature. The Supreme Court can ignore our First Amendment rights, but we will continue to vigorously exercise them.”
Odds & Ends
???? Palestine Legal’s Radhika Sainath in Boston Review:
At a time when Israel has ordered 1 million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza—the literal definition of ethnic cleansing—and continues to mount air and ground assaults, it’s important to understand that the underlying erasure of Palestinian suffering that undergirds all of this is a form of anti-Palestinian racism. In cases where university administrators have tried to support Palestinian students by expressing symmetric concern for lives lost in both Israel and Gaza, big donors and lobby groups complain that there is not enough sympathy for Israeli victims of Hamas’s attack. While universities have been swift to condemn Russia’s occupation of Ukraine and to support Black or Asian students faced with racist attacks, there is often radio silence when it comes to the suffering of Palestinians. Palestinians, and those who believe they are human beings deserving of rights, are appalled at their institutions’ double standards.
???? Anti-war protesters interrupted Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Senate hearing yelling, “Ceasefire now!”
???? The xenophobic immigration rhetoric of GOP presidential candidates has been given an anti-Palestinian twist in recent days.
“I don’t know what Biden’s going to do, but we cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during a recent event. “If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist.”
“We aren’t bringing in anyone from Gaza,” said former President Donald Trump.
????️ In a new poll from the Arab American Institute just 17% of Arab-Americans say they will vote for Biden in 2024, down from 59% in 2020.
“Arab Americans should not be put in this position by President Biden,” New Generation for Palestine president Amer Zahr told Time. “And I think if [Democrats] now turn and say, ‘Well, you got no choice—it’s us or Trump,’ if that’s the best argument they have, well, that’s a verdict on this administration too. I don’t find that to be a very inspiring bumper sticker.”
???? Mondoweiss Palestine News Director Yumna Patel was on The Katie Halper Show talking about the war on Palestine.
???? ‘Palestine is the exception to free speech and academic freedom at Barnard’
???? ‘We are witnessing the largest U.S. anti-war protests in 20 years’
???? Activist and attorney Dan Kovalik was shoved and kicked out of a campaign event for Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) after asking the lawmaker why he opposes a ceasefire.
????️ The Biden administration announced that its unveiling new actions to combat antisemitism on college campuses. From NBC News:
The departments of Justice and Homeland Security are partnering with campus law enforcement to track hate-related threats and provide federal resources to schools, according to the plan, which was shared exclusively with NBC News.
Some of what they will be assessing includes specific and credible threats that are flagged online.
Dozens of cybersecurity and protective security experts at DHS have been detailed to engage with schools as they navigate incredibly tense environments, a White House official said.
???????? At The Intercept Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw report on the U.S. expanding its “secret” military base in Israel:
The U.S. Army is quietly moving ahead with construction at Site 512, a classified base perched atop Mt. Har Qeren in the Negev, to include what government records describe as a “life support facility”: military speak for barracks-like structures for personnel.
Though President Joe Biden and the White House insist that there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Israel amid its war on Hamas, a secret U.S. military presence in Israel already exists. And the government contracts and budget documents show it is evidently growing.
???????? The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on President Biden to “stop the madness” after Israeli forces tortured naked Palestinian prisoners on camera, used a tank to blow up a fleeing civilian vehicle in northern Gaza, and massacred more than 100 Palestinians in bombings of Jabalia refugee camp.
CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad: “Enough is enough. President Biden must end our nation’s complicity in Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly genocidal campaign of violence against Palestinian civilians in both Gaza and the West Bank. Every new massacre that the Israeli government commits further stains our nation’s reputation and refutes the claim that our nation supports human rights. If our leaders truly do view Palestinians as human beings worthy of life and freedom, we must stop this madness.”
Holy cow! A former director of Shin Bet, former Chief of Staff to Ehud Barak, and an Israeli tech entrepreneur are Charlottesville fascists because they are saying that after the smoke clears there needs to be a Palestinian state! They’re even advocating for a modified version of the 2002 Arab Peace Plan!!
[Israel’s] security and prosperity will turn on whether it creates a new political horizon for its region and makes serious advances toward an eventual two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians… one of these realities remotely justify or pardon the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7. But the horrific events that day do demonstrate just how unsustainable, and volatile, this abnormal reality is. It only helps create fertile soil for the flourishing of the most inhumane forms of terrorism… Once Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been removed from power, it will be incumbent on Israel to reboot its entire approach to the civilian Palestinian population, including in Gaza…Netanyahu’s defenders claim that he never had other policy options because he had no good Palestinian negotiating partner. This is simply not true…This transition could tee up the negotiations for a two-state plan modeled on the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, subject to modifications….
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/why-netanyahu-must-go
Karine Jean-Pierre continues to be a shameful defender of genocide.
She is a lesbian woman of colour. She should have empathy for the oppressed, not the oppressor.
IMO, had Palestinian citizens of Israel taken the opportunity to carry out a campaign for equal rights, we may well have now a much healthier world….. especially for all Palestinians.