A study of 100,000 headlines in the five leading US newspapers in the last 50 years shows that mentions of Palestinian refugees have declined by 93%, Israeli sources are nearly 250% more likely to be quoted as Palestinians; and the number of headlines centering Israel were published four times more than those centering Palestine. Edward Said was right, Palestinians lack the permission to narrate.
The Senate bill punishing support for BDS against Israel failed again yesterday. Israel has never been so openly politicized before, and many Democratic supporters are expressing the fear that the issue is going to divide the party leading up to the 2020 election.
The decision by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to withdraw an award to Angela Davis because of her support for BDS has become a giant embarrassment to the Institute and the Jewish groups that put pressure on it to reconsider. Both the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center and the Birmingham Jewish Federations have tried to walk back statements critical of the award.
Amos Oz was a great storyteller, and the last vibrant connection to the Shoah generation. In his work, he sought to ennoble Israel’s creation by using his parents’ story of fleeing Europe to show how unsafe Jews are in the west. He was an Israeli provincial, and his death is a great blow to Zionism, which has few idealistic lights left to uphold.
Jonathan Weisman, deputy Washington editor of the New York Times, dares to say that the two-state solution looks like “a cruel joke,” that some Jews regard equality in one state as a possible solution, and that BDS is gaining traction in the U.S. His article on the schism between US and Israeli Jews goes along with Michelle Goldberg’s column saying anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.
“Israel should not be the main thing that you rally around in your conversation with the African-American community,” former Israeli diplomat Ido Aharoni advises American Jewish groups. Because for American blacks, Israel is “defined by its problem” — its treatment of Palestinians. So — change the subject!
The ‘New York Times’ reports that Israel’s killing of Gazan paramedic Rouzan al-Najjar last June was “reckless at best, and possibly a war crime for which no one has yet been punished.” The paper understands that its reading public is growing steadily more informed about Israel/Palestine.
A wrenching image of a wounded Gaza protester being carried away by a horse-drawn cart is one of four commemorating the day of the massacre last May in Time Magazine’s list of the top 100 photos of the year.
Trump tore up the Iran deal for Sheldon Adelson and moved the embassy to Jerusalem. But the megadonor’s millions in the midterm elections had none of the magic they did in 2016, as even Republicans in his home state of Nevada were crushed. And the transactional president is expressing his displeasure by taking some key moves against Israel’s interests.
Three young Jews were reportedly kicked off their free trip to Israel sponsored by the pro-Israel Birthright program today because they asked questions about the separation wall Israel has erected on occupied Palestinian territory.