William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Orgs, jumps in to the smear campaign against Ben & Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal for daring not to sell ice cream in “occupied Palestinian territories” — which Daroff says is a meaningless term. The “grownups” at Unilever can override the Ben & Jerry’s decision by “just snapping their fingers,” Daroff proclaims, echoing the rightwing Israeli government position.
When Biden blamed Hamas for the Gaza war in May, he was ignoring Democratic voters who by more than 4 to 1 blamed Israel for the violence. “That tells you the story right there. Democrats were not understanding why Biden’s not at least criticizing both sides,” political scientist Shibley Telhami tells Americans for Peace Now.
As Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett launches a charm offensive in Washington to show he is not Netanyahu– but will do nothing about Palestinian human rights–Joe Biden should go along with the charade so as to overcome his loss of international standing from Afghanistan and to keep Israel a bipartisan issue, leading Israel lobbyists urge the White House.
AIPAC’s cancellation of its annual conference in 2022 shows that the Israel lobby is in complete disarray, with young American Jews distancing themselves from a country that 38 percent of them call an “apartheid” state. The liberal Zionist group Americans for Peace Now has repeatedly credited the “apartheid” charge against Israel, while J Street rejects the label.
Liberal Zionist groups ran away from a rally in DC equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism– as even an organizer admits that Israel is just too “divisive” an issue in the Jewish community these days. The event had a rightwing religious feeling. The Washington Post said “hundreds” attended the affair.
The Israeli government defused a political problem today by reaching a deal to evacuate illegal settlers from the outpost called “Evyatar.” The government wants no sources of tension with the Biden administration as the two governments commence a lovefest. But Palestinians cannot be happy with the deal, which allows a yeshiva to remain in the illegal colony.
Randi Weingarten, labor leader and liberal Zionist, is not condemning some locals’ backing for BDS. This is yet another sign that support for Israel is cracking among U.S. progressives. Joe Biden and Naftali Bennett want to keep Israel a bipartisan cause, but political forces here are against them.
The Human Rights Watch report accusing Israel of apartheid has gotten far more attention than similar reports in recent years. And it’s gotten an incensed vitriolic response from the right-wing Israel lobby. While the liberal Zionist lobby has tried to argue that the report is about the occupation. HRW’s finding was far more wide-reaching than just the occupation.
“The Palestinians have never had this kind of a card in their sleeve, that actually might restrain Israel.” Human rights attorney Michael Sfard says that there is “absolutely no way” for the ICC to evade an investigation of Israeli settlements as a war crime.
Dahlia Scheindlin’s comments on the “stability” of leftwing Jewish Israeli attitudes show the lengths that liberal Zionists will go to prove that the apartheid project possesses some sort of fundamental decency. Because young people’s hardline attitudes are just the “romantic spirit of the nation… militarist and nationalist.”