The Shift: Netanyahu is going back to Washington

“Time is a flat circle”, said Rust Cohle, and what better time to contemplate Nietzsche’s doctrine of eternal recurrence than another trip to Washington, DC from Benjamin Netanyahu?

The Israeli Prime Minister’s imminent speech will be the fourth time he’s addressed Congress, giving him the all-time record for a foreign leader. He’s currently tied with Winston Churchill at three. He was invited by the leadership from both parties. Who says bipartisanship is dead?

Back in 2015 Bibi showed up to Washington hoping to tank the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, if not his reelection. The Israeli government ironed out the details with then-House Speaker John Boehner and Netanyahu delivered the speech just two weeks before voters headed to the polls.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, stand with Israel because Israel is not just defending itself,” he told the assembled lawmakers. “More than ever, Israel is defending you.”

Netanyahu may have lost that battle, but one can argue that he went on to win the war. Obama ultimately secured the Iran deal, but the United States government broke the pact under Trump. Biden barely cited his former boss’s landmark foreign policy achievement on the campaign trail and The White House has failed to reestablish it. Israel has fought hard to impede any progress on the matter, a major story that has barely been covered by the mainstream media over the past four years.

This time around Netanyahu is trying to capture a win under much different circumstances. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are dead and Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Every day seems to be marked by a new horrifying, heartbreaking video or image. Over one million people are expected to face starvation by mid-July. Israel is a pariah state and its support is even beginning to crack in the United States, where college campuses are still holding protests despite the semester ending. On top of all that, the ICC is seeking an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over the war crimes of his government.

In 2015 about 60 Democrats boycotted Netanyahu’s speech. It’s unclear how many will sit it out this time around, but the move has already been harshly criticized by Congress’ more progressive members.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal,” declared Senator Bernie Sanders (VT-I). “He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend.”

The directness of Sanders’s position is obviously not common and, like most issues concerning Israel, most Dems have retreated to their standard blurbs of perplexing nonsense. So far the most comical response probably comes from Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois. Is Durbin concerned about letting a guy who should be in The Hague address Congress? Does he have anything important to say about the genocidal assault on Gaza?

No, he’s concerned that the whole could cause further division in Washington.

“That’s exactly the fear I have is that it would be politically divisive, it would not help Israel,” said Durbin, “I’m waiting for clarity on the two-state solution, I think that is a central part of our strategy and I’m waiting for him to commit to it.”

Rousing stuff.

Beyond the Durbins of the world, there are dozens of pro-Israel Democrats explicitly committed to standing by Netanyahu and protecting him enduring an legal consequences as a result of mass murder.

42 House Democrats just voted in favor of a GOP bill that would sanction the ICC over their arrest warrants for Israeli officials.

“The idea that they would issue an arrest warrant for the prime minister of Israel, defense minister of Israel, at the time where they’re fighting for their nation’s very existence against the evil of Hamas as a proxy of Iran is unconscionable to us.. the ICC has to be punished for this action,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

Here’s your list of House Democrats who agree with that sentiment:

Boyle (PA)	Democratic	Pennsylvania	YEA
Caraveo	Democratic	Colorado	YEA
Cartwright	Democratic	Pennsylvania	YEA
Craig	Democratic	Minnesota	YEA
Cuellar	Democratic	Texas	YEA
Davis (NC)	Democratic	North Carolina	YEA
Frankel, Lois	Democratic	Florida	YEA
Gallego	Democratic	Arizona	YEA
Golden (ME)	Democratic	Maine	YEA
Goldman (NY)	Democratic	New York	YEA
Gonzalez, Vicente	Democratic	Texas	YEA
Gottheimer	Democratic	New Jersey	YEA
Horsford	Democratic	Nevada	YEA
Landsman	Democratic	Ohio	YEA
Lee (NV)	Democratic	Nevada	YEA
Levin	Democratic	California	YEA
Manning	Democratic	North Carolina	YEA
McBath	Democratic	Georgia	YEA
Meng	Democratic	New York	YEA
Moskowitz	Democratic	Florida	YEA
Nickel	Democratic	North Carolina	YEA
Norcross	Democratic	New Jersey	YEA
Pallone	Democratic	New Jersey	YEA
Panetta	Democratic	California	YEA
Pappas	Democratic	New Hampshire	YEA
Peltola	Democratic	Alaska	YEA
Perez	Democratic	Washington	YEA
Peters	Democratic	California	YEA
Phillips	Democratic	Minnesota	YEA
Ryan	Democratic	New York	YEA
Schneider	Democratic	Illinois	YEA
Schrier	Democratic	Washington	YEA
Scott, David	Democratic	Georgia	YEA
Slotkin	Democratic	Michigan	YEA
Soto	Democratic	Florida	YEA
Stanton	Democratic	Arizona	YEA
Suozzi	Democratic	New York	YEA
Thanedar	Democratic	Michigan	YEA
Torres (NY)	Democratic	New York	YEA
Vargas	Democratic	California	YEA
Veasey	Democratic	Texas	YEA
Wasserman Schultz	Democratic	Florida	YEA

Israel’s Digital Campaign

This week the New York Times reported that Israel targeted at least 128 members of Congress as a part of a massive disinformation campaign designed to boost support for the assault on Gaza.

Over 2,000 accounts produced comments attacking human rights organizations, questioning Palestinian suffering, and praising Israel’s military campaign.

Here’s Sheera Frankel in the NYT:

The operation began just weeks into the war in October, according to Israeli officials and the documents on the effort. Dozens of Israeli tech start-ups received emails and WhatsApp messages that month inviting them to join urgent meetings to become “digital soldiers” for Israel during the war, according to messages viewed by The Times. Some of the emails and messages were sent from Israeli government officials, while others came from tech start-ups and incubators.

The first meeting was held in Tel Aviv in mid-October. It appeared to be an informal gathering where Israelis could volunteer their technical skills to help the country’s war effort, three attendees said. Members of several government ministries also took part, they said.

Participants were told that they could be “warriors for Israel” and that “digital campaigns” could be run on behalf of the country, according to recordings of the meetings.

Hypocrisy arguments about the U.S. government have always seemed a little too obvious to me and I try to avoid stuff like, “Imagine if Russia did this?,” but for the love of God, imagine if Russia did this! Liberal pundits have been bleating on about alleged election interference for almost eight years, with some even suggesting that foreign countries are funding pro-Palestine protests. Here you have actual, definitive evidence showing that Israel is intervening in our politics (weeks before their outlaw leader addresses Congress) and the story has barely made a dent on the discourse.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was asked about the issue by multiple reporters at a briefing this week. Here’s part of an exchange between him and The Intercept’s Prem Thakker:

Thakker: If the U.S. does find that this reporting does bear out – and this is not meant to be like a hypothetical; this is meant to be more of a commitment towards norms – will the U.S. act in accordance with how it has before, and how it has with Russia? That’s not a hypothetical; it’s —

Miller: It is – so it is somewhat of a hypothetical, only because you have to actually look at the facts of every case and see what the appropriate response is. But as is always the case, we look at violations of our law – a lot of that is carried out by other agencies within the United States Government – and develop the appropriate response. But I just – I can’t respond with any level of detail here, because the – it is always very fact-specific.

This isn’t Israel’s first attempt to manufacture consent with the help of social media. For years they funded an anti-BDS app that rewarded users with various prizes for denouncing the boycott movement.

Odds & Ends

🏫 San Jose State University professor says she was suspended over her Palestine activism

🇺🇸 Understanding Biden’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire

⚖️ The political and moral consequences of hallowing Trump’s verdict while nullifying the Hague

🇮🇱 Biden won’t set red lines for Israel so long as AIPAC is ‘top’ Democratic campaign funder

🗳️ Reuters: NAACP asks Biden to halt weapons to Israel as he seeks to shore up Black voter support

🗳️ New York Times: Rep. Jamaal Bowman Loses Support of an Ex-Colleague Over Israel

🖥️ New York Times: Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War

🗳️ Semafor: ‘It’s disgusting’: Progressives seethe after Mondaire Jones backs Jamaal Bowman challenger

👀 The Jewish advocacy group Bend the Arc has broken its longstanding policy of not engaging on Israel/Palestine and sent President Biden a letter calling on him to end “offensive munitions” sales to Israel.

🗳️ Politico: AIPAC ramps up attack on Jamaal Bowman with ads on antisemitism

🇵🇸 Truthout: Columbia’s Gaza Encampment Gave Students Firsthand Experience of Mutual Aid

🗳️ Politico: What the ‘uncommitted’ vote says about Biden’s reelection

🚫 Detroit Public Radio: Hamtramck City Council passes BDS resolution to cut financial ties with Israel

🏫 New York Times: Police Arrest 13 After Protesters Occupied Stanford President’s Office

🇮🇱 The Nation: It’s Never Been About Freeing the Hostages

💰 Truthout: Some of AIPAC’s Biggest Donors Are Also Financing Attacks Against Labor Rights

🏫 Common Dreams: To Repair Trust, Harvard Must End the Palestine Exception and Let Seniors Graduate

🇺🇸 Financial Times: US students face recruitment challenges after Gaza protests

🐘 Jewish Currents: The Right’s Anti-Israel Insurgents

🇺🇸 Electronic Intifada: Biden admits Israel’s defeat in Gaza

🇺🇸 CBS News: U.S. Army officer resigns in protest over U.S. support for Israel

🇮🇱 Counterpunch: The Attack on the USS Liberty Symbolizes Israel’s Duplicity and Deceit

💰 In These Times: The Corporate Power Brokers Behind AIPAC’s War on the Squad

Stay safe out there,

Michael