Progressive lawmakers urge Biden administration to defend Palestinian rights.

As U.S. State Department calls on Palestine and Israel to “deescalate” tensions in Jerusalem, the US progressive movement and several politicians blame Israel for the violence.

At its conference, J Street sought to triangulate support for the “Jewish state” and the progressive left as political bedfellows. But there is an inherent contradiction there, and simply hoping for the two-state solution to arrive some day — after Israel has rejected a Palestinian state for its entire existence — may get J Street access in the Democratic Party but won’t preserve its alliances on the left.

On March 29, activists with the Yemeni Liberation Movement (YLM) launched a hunger strike in Washington DC to demand that the United States end its support for the Saudi-led blockade on Yemen. Michael Arria spoke with spoke with YLM organizer Monica Isaac about the strike, the Biden administration’s response, and how activists have pushed ending the Yemen blockade into the political conversation.

“This makes President Biden the seventh consecutive US president to order strikes in the Middle East.” said Rep. Ro Khanna. “There is absolutely no justification for a president to authorize a military strike that is not in self-defense against an imminent threat without congressional authorization….I spoke against endless war with Trump, and I will speak out against it when we have a Democratic President.”

Ted Cruz: “Do you agree that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and do you commit that the United States will keep our the embassy there?”
Biden nominee for sec’y of state Tony Blinken: “Yes and Yes.”

This year has been a slog, but from the Squad to BDS victories there have also been things to celebrate in 2020.

Bari Weiss’s rage over Peter Beinart’s role in a panel on antisemitism with Rashida Tlaib and Marc Lamont Hill next month shows that Weiss is in a battle with Beinart about who will represent American Jews. Weiss represents a tribal perspective of sacred victimhood; and Beinart’s universalism and openness to the Palestinian story is a threat to her.

As expected, every member of The Squad was easily reelected. And this time they will be joined by even more left-leaning lawmakers.

Palestinian messaging about human rights is working. A rightwing Israeli thinktank says anti-Zionism is growing in the U.S. Jewish community. A “possibly significant minority (which may be up to 25%) appears to hold beliefs that are intensely critical of Israel and Zionism itself, including attitudes that Zionism may be a colonial and/or racist, apartheid movement as practiced in Israel today.” Even more, 31 percent, would vote for Rashida Tlaib because she is a progressive!