The New York Times is actively whitewashing the U.S. role in Syria with a childish piece of propaganda telling its readers we armed only honest trustworthy Boy Scouts, not these current horrible racist murdering dregs.
Every year, without fail, Palestinians mark the beginning of autumn with the olive harvest. A sacred cultural event, families from across the country leave their towns and cities and head for their olive groves, passed down to them from the generations before.
And every year, without fail, much of the harvest is characterized by attacks on Palestinian farmers and families by Israeli settlers and armed soldiers. This year is no different.
Voters want aid to Israel conditioned over humans rights violations. Elizabeth Warren has become the third candidate to address the idea: “Right now, Netanyahu says he is going to take Israel in a direction of increasing settlements, [but] that does not move us in the direction of a two-state solution. It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution, and if Israel is moving in the opposite direction, then everything is on the table…Everything is on the table.”
Nearly half of American voters (46%) support conditioning aid to Israel in an effort to stop its inhumane treatment of Palestinians. For Democrats it’s even higher, 65%. “We found that voters’ attitudes stand in stark contrast to the hesitation demonstrated by elected leaders to enact major shifts in national-security policy,” Data Progress said in releasing the data showing bipartisan support for progressive proposals on foreign policy.
The two state solution is dead. Sen. Chris Murphy on the Senate floor, Yousef Munayyer in Foreign Affairs, and Ian Lustick in a new book are the latest public figures to acknowledge as much. But Democratic presidential candidates liberal Zionists want to deny the one-state reality so as to maintain the dream of a Jewish democracy. Amplifying Palestinian voices is the only answer to this logjam.
In an interview with Israeli press, US Ambassador David Friedman indicated support for maintaining Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank when he said evacuations of Jews or Arabs as part of a US peace plan would be “inhumane.”
Numerous voices on the left responded, “apartheid” after Sen. Amy Klobuchar described Israel as a “beacon of democracy” in the Democratic debate. The first reference to Israel in four debates shows that the issue is truly divisive inside the Democratic Party.
The decades-long struggle by tens of thousands of Israelis against being uprooted from their homes – some for the second or third time – should be proof enough that Israel is not the western-style liberal democracy it claims to be.
In August, a group of GOP lawmakers quietly went on a tour of West Bank settlements sponsored by a right-wing Evangelical organization. Following the tour they spoke on the floor of the House about why they now oppose the two-state solution.
The Dortmund City Council was set to award the novelist Kamila Shamsie its Nelly Sachs Prize until it learned she supports BDS. The council rescinded the honor which brought the author to Richard Falk’s attention, and he is thankful it did. “Selfishly, I cannot thank the Dortmund City Council enough for its outrageous behavior,” Falk writes, “In her novels, she has manifested an uncannny awareness, more so than any writer I have encountered, of the precarious existence of ethnic, gender, and civilizational outsiders, especially Muslims, if they happen to reside in the supposedly once more tolerant West.”
The young Gaza writers of We Are Not Numbers could not ask for a more responsive audience than you, the Mondoweiss community. “What I’m mostly concerned with when I write is to show reality as it is, portraying what precisely happens in Palestine from within, without exaggeration,” Fadi says. You can help spread Fadi’s writing far and wide by participating in the current challange: as of now, we will receive $100 for every new donor who signs up for a monthly gift at any level by October 16 — up to 50 new donors. Sign up today! Your gifts will support both Mondoweiss and the young writers of We Are Not Numbers.
Samer and Noura Arbeed dropped their kids off at school and were on their way home when they noticed that they were being followed. As their car stopped, four armed men wearing civilian clothes and holding guns beat Samer, including blows to the neck, and then forced him into their vehicle. After more abuse during interrogation, he now is hospitalized with kidney failure and broken ribs.
Batya Ungar-Sargon, the opinion editor of the Forward, issues extraordinary claims: 97 percent of Jews are Zionists, anti-Zionists in the Jewish community are as anomalous as Trump supporters who are black; she is the “number one publisher of Palestinian voices in America”; and intellectuals who cheered demonstrators at a pro-Israel panel bear responsibility for the spike in anti-semitism and even synagogue murders.
Two years ago 100 Massachusetts faith and civil rights organizations formed a coalition called Freedom to Boycott to oppose a House bill targeting BDS supporters. The bill was ultimately shelved, consigned to “study,” but the same exact bill is back again.
US Ambassador David Friedman blatantly lied to Congress when he said he would oppose Israel’s annexation of West Bank lands and support a Palestinian state. He should be impeached for those misrepresentations, as well as for helping to block the visit to Palestine of Congress members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar.
I am proud that Mondoweiss supports movement organizations like We Are Not Numbers, which helps young Palestinians not only to survive, but to grow and contribute to the struggle for freedom. Our goal this week is to sign up 50 new monthly donors to Mondoweiss, and a loyal supporter has offered a $60 match for every new subscriber — at any level! We will share the proceeds of this drive with We Are Not Numbers. Please read on to understand why.
Some commentators are predicting Netanyahu is about to be betrayed by a “broad” coalition of Israeli centrists. But the race-baiting against Palestinian legislators continue unabated. And one likely replacement says Netanyahu has been soft on Gaza and Israel must speed up “targeted killings” of Palestinian leaders.
Palestinians are expressing outrage after hunger-striking prisoner Heba al-Labadi, 24, revealed new details surrounding her interrogation by Israeli forces, and numerous torture tactics used on her in order to force her to end her strike. Her case, along with several other young Palestinians arrested in recent weeks, are garnering attention locally and on social media.
Many insist there is a free speech crisis on campus, however the campaign by the U.S. Department of Education’s Kenneth Marcus against academic freedom when it comes to Palestine are predictably omitted from the debate.
Bari Weiss has been everywhere lately promoting her book that says that anti-Zionism is dangerous anti-Semitism, and oh by the way, white nationalism is also a threat to Jews. She says anti-Zionist Jews are just trying to blend in with the “cool group,” when they should be celebrating Jewish specialness, and our “radical ideas” that still “drive people crazy.”
Israel’s Minister of the Interior says he is taking action to force Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, out of the country.
Mahmoud Abbas called for the first general elections in 13 years. However, many analysts and Palestinian citizens remain skeptical fair elections will be held any time soon.
American Jews who condemned Israel’s slaughter of Gaza protesters don’t understand that Judaism is now the Jewish state and it won’t survive if Palestinian refugees are allowed to return, which is why no Israeli Jews questioned the slaughter, Daniel Gordis writes, urging American Jews to stick by Israel to stay Jewish.
10-year-old Abdul Rahman Shteiwi was shot in the head by Israeli forces in July. Three months on, he’s still in the hospital, and the Israeli army still claims no wrongdoing.
Demi Lovato implied she was given a free trip to Israel in exchange for social media posts. The singer recently hired a manager who has been honored by an anti-BDS organization.