Multiple Democrats recently rejected the suggestion that aid to Israel be conditioned over human rights abuses, but a vast majority of voters back the idea.
Thoughtful people around the globe are awaking to the vengeful spirit and actions of the Israeli government, and they are aroused to unprecedented demonstrations and actions and prayers. They act knowing that our friends and colleagues in Gaza are subject to unending plagues and a nightmare of force very few of us have experienced.
In a recent interview billionaire and Democratic megadonor Haim Saban said that Bernie Sanders was a “self-hating Jew” and an “Israel-hater,” and defended his support for the lobbying group AIPAC.
The Israel lobby group ADL tried to stop the Nakba commemoration at the Capitol by saying that Rashida Tlaib had slandered Israel. The historic ceremony was carried off thanks to Bernie Sanders.
The fact of a one-state reality in Israel/Palestine has been obvious for years, but “those who spoke the truth out loud were ignored or punished.” Now that’s changed. So says a groundbreaking article in the establishment magazine “Foreign Affairs.”
Historic Congressional letter demanding cutoff in aid to Israel over human rights violations won broad support from progressive groups and even some liberal Zionists — and an attack by AIPAC.
After doing all he can to avoid confronting Netanyahu, Joe Biden called on him to halt judicial overhaul and said he’s not invited to Washington. Biden knows major Jewish groups have his back.
The Israeli government’s moves to hamstring the judiciary and to steal more Palestinian land for Jewish settlements are causing further breakup in the pro-Israel consensus in the United States.
Mainstream Democrats were shocked by the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but their calls for an investigation were vague, even suggesting that Israel could investigate itself– a recipe for “whitewashing,” says a human rights group. No mainstream leader approached the position of progressive Congresspeople, that the U.S. must investigate Israel, or the view of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, that Israeli “apartheid” is the context of the killing.
In an impressive appearance before a Pittsburgh pro-Israel group, Summer Lee, a progressive running for Congress, refused to back down on Palestinian rights. She supported conditioning aid to Israel over home demolitions and child detention. She did not rule out the idea that Israel is an apartheid state. She attacked the claim that Israel had a right to defend itself by storming the al-Aqsa mosque last year. And while she did not endorse the BDS campaign, she likened it to the Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. as a vital effort to change government’s conduct.