For the second time in the last year, the rightwing Israel lobby– AIPAC and the Democratic Majority for Israel, which bragged of spending over $1 million — helped Rep. Shontel Brown defeat Nina Turner in Cleveland primary. What was Nina Turner’s crime? Expressing solidarity with Palestinians being thrown out of their homes and being bombed in Gaza. Though Brown doesn’t even mention Israel in her public priorities.
Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL says anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and as dangerous to Jews as white nationalism. His speech is strategic. Greenblatt’s core audience is the political establishment and the Jewish establishment. He is trying to make sure that Democratic Party doesn’t accept the growing number of human rights reports accusing Israel of apartheid. And he is trying to keep more young Jews from saying Israel has no right to exist.
As the Harvard paper stated, it’s Israel’s own murderous conduct that is giving it a bad reputation.
Acknowledging that support for Palestinian liberation means “you will be shunned from the newsroom, past accomplishments or legitimate arguments be damned,” Harvard Crimson editors “proudly” endorse the BDS campaign saying it is the best tool to liberate Palestinians from their “violent reality.” Harvard is a marker of establishment opinion; as recent Israeli apartheid reports have become a fad among human rights organizations, so too will BDS endorsements; and the Israel lobby is concerned.
More than 2000 Israeli Jews in the settler movement prayed on the Haram al-Sharif in recent weeks in violation of international agreements, and the government turned a blind eye. Because it is beholden to the right wing. And Labor and Meretz members of the coalition will stomach it all because they are finally in power and when Netanyahu disappears, they will be “in the desert again for God knows how long,” Michael Koplow says.
It’s O.K. in the Democratic Party to critique white supremacy in the U.S. but dare to bring up Jewish supremacy in Israel and cite apartheid reports and you will get railroaded as a supposed antisemite. Aided by megadonor Haim Saban, the Israel lobby group AIPAC has raised nearly $16 million in three months to take on Democratic candidates who might “undermine” the relationship with Israel.
Younger American and Israeli Jews have starkly different attitudes from each other in a new survey by the American Jewish Committee– 45 percent of US Jews say that it’s appropriate for them to influence Israeli policy while 70 percent of Israeli Jews say, Stay out of our business. Nearly half of the Americans don’t feel very connected to Israel and 22.5 percent believe that there should be one “bi-national” state in Israel and Palestine.
The number of experts who characterize Israeli rule over Palestinians as apartheid keeps growing. As for the latest to say, It’s apartheid– a new survey of Middle East scholars says 60 percent use that word for the Israeli regime in the occupied territories. While 65 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza say it’s apartheid, per the latest poll.
American media and politicians underplay how rightwing Israel is in order to salute it as a robust democracy. The reality is that Israeli politicians are under “brutal” pressure from the right– and legislator Idit Silman stepped down from the coalition government this month because she was getting physically attacked and threatened on the street for her participation in a government that wasn’t vocal enough in its support for “Judea and Samaria,” biblical terms for the West Bank.
“You were washing the floors just like any other prisoner,” NPR reporter Daniel Estrin says to former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert in a long and respectful interview. But more than 4,000 Palestinian political prisoners are held on different terms by Israel, conditions cited by human rights reports charging apartheid– a charge that was unmentioned by the radio reporter.