In leaked email, a Democratic official in Las Vegas cites objections of Jewish community for decision to strip 3 pro-Palestinian planks from 500-plank platform. The planks would divide Democrats, not unite them, he warned.
The Trump peace plan was brought to you by the Jewish community. Over the last 20 years, vigorous opposition to the pro-Israel right inside the US Jewish community has been quashed, and liberal Zionists have enforced that line by refusing to organize as equals with the community Israel is oppressing: Palestinians.
Benny Gantz support for annexing the Jordan Valley shows that the left is completely feckless in Israeli politics, and the only liberal hope is in Palestinian politicians. American liberal Zionists should accept that the two state solution is dead, and they should abandon the ideology that created apartheid: Zionism.
Norman Finkelstein says that the International Criminal Court crossed a “Rubicon” when it announced a formal investigation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza and its ongoing settlement project, but that the ICC will likely use a technicality, that Palestine has no standing as a state, to throw out the case. The real battle will be in public opinion, and the case may help force the reckoning inside the Democratic Party.
Israel would have reached a deal with the Palestinians and allowed a Palestinian state years ago if it did not have blind American support to go on taking more and more Palestinian land. The Israel lobby, which has prevented criticism in both parties in the U.S., is the root cause of the conflict, and the lobby’s role as Israel’s supporter in western capitals is a fundamental principle of Zionism.
Elizabeth Warren’s plan for Palestine is boilerplate two-state rhetoric that includes restoring the U.S. role as “credible mediator.” That’s a reference to the Obama administration, which only increased aid to Israel while refusing to hold it accountable for settlements and massacres. The Democratic base has moved on.
A long NYT Magazine article on Netanyahu’s influence on the White House buys the Israeli premiere’s line that his power comes from “the ability to sway public opinion in the United States against the regime in Iran,” and leaves out the millions that Sheldon Adelson, Netanyahu’s friend, has given to Trump and Republican causes. Leaves out AIPAC too, though author Ronen Bergman has spoken to the Israel lobby group and lavished praise on it.
Netanyahu’s latest ad bashing President Obama is making liberal Zionists angry, but it’s a reminder of a simple truth: Israelis dislike Obama and love Donald Trump. So there is good reason that the bipartisan consensus on Israel is breaking up here.
Many Democratic candidates for president are skipping the AIPAC conference because it’s offering a red carpet to a racist, Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israel prime minister’s explicit slurs of Arabs have alarmed American progressives. But Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bill de Blasio and the New York Times haven’t noticed.
Liberal Zionists have set out rules for how to criticize the Israel lobby without offending them. They are trying to obscure a 70 year pattern of Zionists influencing U.S. policy, from the recognition of Israel’s establishment by Truman, who depended on Zionist donors, to Trump trashing the Iran deal in deference to Sheldon Adelson.