Zionist lobby groups in Canada have been on an anti-Palestinian rampage in the last two weeks.
Pro-Palestine activists have repeatedly been beaten back at Harvard, and sure enough, today the school paper’s endorsement of BDS is facing intense backlash. But this time round the pro-Israel arguments feel familiar, and have lost their bite. Faculty and alumni letters claim the endorsement will cause Jewish students to feel alienated. One alum warns angrily that Harvard will lose Iron Dome protection. Gosh.
Days before Israel announced that it is going ahead with 4,000 new settlement units, U.S. ambassador Thomas Nides — who was reportedly briefed on the plans — says “I really respect this government… they really want to do the right thing,” and he is “thrilled to work with them.” And Joe Biden is a Zionist, and so is Nides: ‘Everything I do is about strengthening a democratic Jewish state’ As for Palestinians– they should “believe in their heart that there’s still an opportunity for a two-state solution.”
For the second time in the last year, the rightwing Israel lobby– AIPAC and the Democratic Majority for Israel, which bragged of spending over $1 million — helped Rep. Shontel Brown defeat Nina Turner in Cleveland primary. What was Nina Turner’s crime? Expressing solidarity with Palestinians being thrown out of their homes and being bombed in Gaza. Though Brown doesn’t even mention Israel in her public priorities.
Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL says anti-Zionism is antisemitism, and as dangerous to Jews as white nationalism. His speech is strategic. Greenblatt’s core audience is the political establishment and the Jewish establishment. He is trying to make sure that Democratic Party doesn’t accept the growing number of human rights reports accusing Israel of apartheid. And he is trying to keep more young Jews from saying Israel has no right to exist.
More than 2000 Israeli Jews in the settler movement prayed on the Haram al-Sharif in recent weeks in violation of international agreements, and the government turned a blind eye. Because it is beholden to the right wing. And Labor and Meretz members of the coalition will stomach it all because they are finally in power and when Netanyahu disappears, they will be “in the desert again for God knows how long,” Michael Koplow says.
It’s O.K. in the Democratic Party to critique white supremacy in the U.S. but dare to bring up Jewish supremacy in Israel and cite apartheid reports and you will get railroaded as a supposed antisemite. Aided by megadonor Haim Saban, the Israel lobby group AIPAC has raised nearly $16 million in three months to take on Democratic candidates who might “undermine” the relationship with Israel.
The United Democracy Project, the new super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has begun spending in Democratic primaries. It has unveiled four television ads set to run in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The new ads do not mention Israel once. The spot for Rep. Shontel Brown in Ohio mainly focuses on progressive challenger Nina Turner, who squared off against Brown in a special election last year.
Younger American and Israeli Jews have starkly different attitudes from each other in a new survey by the American Jewish Committee– 45 percent of US Jews say that it’s appropriate for them to influence Israeli policy while 70 percent of Israeli Jews say, Stay out of our business. Nearly half of the Americans don’t feel very connected to Israel and 22.5 percent believe that there should be one “bi-national” state in Israel and Palestine.
Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom does the right thing for J Street at Passover by admitting that the Tantura massacre of Palestinians took place in the early days of Israel’s existence. But he cannot acknowledge that Israel was then and is now an apartheid state that continues to push Palestinians out of their homes. The rabbi’s view that “Israel’s challenge is to reclaim the ‘child we prayed for'” is simply a delusion, especially in light of rightwing governments that are all committed to maintaining military occupation.