Incoming White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is facing criticism over a 2019 Newsweek op-ed where she wrote, “You cannot call yourself a progressive while continuing to associate yourself with an organization like AIPAC.”
Former ambassador David Friedman says that Judaism is Zionism. “So if you do not support the state of Israel you do not support Judaism, therefore you are antisemitic.”
Then Friedman seemed to echo Ben Shapiro’s call for building a synagogue on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif in occupied Jerusalem, though he said the last time he did so, he’d “started a riot.” The two extremists spoke at an event kicked off by the Florida governor, who is considered a likely presidential candidate.
By giving hundreds of millions to Bush and Trump, the late Sheldon Adelson helped destroy the peace process and crush peace with Iran. Sadly the media never sought to expose and discredit his antidemocratic power, bigotry and extremism, because his mere presence fed antisemitic stereotype, of the puppetmaster, as even Trump referred to him.
The Israel lobby expects that Joe Biden will name a Zionist Jew as ambassador to Israel, continuing a tradition that Bill Clinton began 25 years ago. But as Dems call for greater diversity in ambassadorial appointments, this is one post that would benefit from a nod that does not seem loaded on one side of a conflict.
The Capitol riot is a liability to Israel’s Trump lovers. “Netanyahu’s complete identification with Trump will return like a boomerang,” says Ahmad Tibi. But Netanyahu hasn’t woken to the new reality and apparently plans to take on Joe Biden from Day 1.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US ambassador David Friedman announced amendments to US accords, sought by Trump’s biggest backer, Sheldon Adelson, that will allow US taxpayer money to be spent in Israeli settlements. Adelson seems to want to get as much out of Trump in what time remains.
The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has campaigned for Donald Trump in the Middle East, saying a Joe Biden victory would be bad for Israel and Gulf States, in what appears to be a violation of the law saying federal employees must be nonpartisan. Though it’s hardly the first time Friedman has engaged in such actions.
European opposition to Israeli annexation plans mean nothing to Trump or Israel because Europe hasn’t articulated “a single concrete sanction,” says Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. And Democratic opposition to annexation is just as “soft,” she says, and therefore if you hope that annexation can be turned back, “hope would be deeply, deeply misplaced.”
Trump administration divide over Israeli annexation, between Jared Kushner and David Friedman, will be resolved in “symbolic” acceptance of annexation, first step being Ma’ale Adumim and Gush Etzion bloc, predicts former Israeli ambassador Danny Ayalon.
Dennis Ross says Netanyahu is deluded about Joe Biden’s potential support for annexation. “[Netanyahu’s] view of the gains unfortunately is not very real. You only establish an international baseline if in fact everyone is prepared to adjust to it. Now maybe if Trump has a second term, there is more of an impulse to adjust to it. But if Trump doesn’t have a second term, no one else internationally of any meaning is going to recognize this new baseline. And if Joe Biden comes in and says, ‘I was opposed to it, I still believe in the two-state outcome, I want negotiations, I saw what Trump did was antithetical to achieving that, so we’re not recognizing that as a baseline…”