Israeli leaders believe that Donald Trump has set the new normal for US-Israel relations: total acceptance of Israeli expansion. And if Joe Biden is elected president today, Israelis will expect compliance from him; and Biden will likely do little to take Netanyahu on. That’s the view of Israel lobbyists as the pageant of democracy unfolds in the U.S.
One of Joe Biden’s political achievements this year is that he has taken what seemed to be a big issue for Trump– Israel — out of the campaign. The Israel lobby trusts Biden because he promises to use American force overseas and try to end the politicization of the Israel issue here. Biden and Harris have actually run against their own Democratic base on Palestinian rights.
Michael Arria is on vacation this week, and Phil Weiss is filling in on trendspotting.…
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!
Trump’s Bahrain-Israel pact is a power politics move and has been embraced by Israel lobby groups, Democratic reps, and the NYT, all of which bash Palestinians. But in fact it only advances the one-state struggle for democracy inside Israel and Palestine.
Rabbi Sharon Brous implies that Republicans are influenced by autocrats in trying to divide the Democratic Party by getting American Jews and Muslims to argue about Israel. “What is happening right now is straight out of the autocrats’ playbook. We turn communities against each other, so that there’s no time to look together at what our shared values are and our shared interests are and work toward a better future together. “
The American Jewish community should make Peter Beinart a “pariah” just like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar; because like a Holocaust denier, he has questioned a “fundament of Jewish history,” the fact that 2000 years show Jews can’t be safe unless they have sovereignty and control their own destiny. So says Israeli author Daniel Gordis.
Rob Malley says that the young Democrats are pushing an “inflection point” on U.S. policy in Israel/Palestine, questioning pro-Israel policy now that the peace process has “failed.” And Peter Beinart sensed this generational moment, and jumped, his editor says.
Peter Beinart’s abandonment of belief in the Jewish state has caused Congress members to question two-state belief. Why such influence? Because Beinart was part of the liberal Zionist Israel lobby, and his loss of faith threatens the lobby’s power politics not to mention a solemn commitment by the west to a Jewish state.
Eliot Engel’s defeat has shocked the Israel lobby and Congress. They understand that the tide is turning, and the Israel Palestine issue is like gay marriage 25 years ago, with progressives on one side and conservatives on the other. The Democratic base wants change. So says longtime DNC member Jim Zogby.