Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visited Washington and Democratic leaders embraced him and offered empty statements about the Palestinian future. Nancy Pelosi and the Israel lobby group Democratic Majority for Israel were thrilled by the restoration of bipartisan support for Israel that Trump and Netanyahu threatened.
Nina Turner lost a big lead in the Ohio-11 congressional race, apparently because of an onslaught of negative ads that were paid for by the Democratic Majority for Israel but that said nothing about Israel, just questioned Turner’s commitment to Joe Biden. Turner blamed “dark money,” but declined to make Israel an issue in the race. Even though the Democratic base overwhelmingly blames Israel and not the Palestinians for the latest fighting.
Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer’s statements celebrating Israel’s creation as a Jewish state in the ancient Jewish “homeland” are appalling in their anti-Palestinianism. They fail to say a word about the fact that 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled in Israel’s creation and not allowed to return to their homes.
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.
In a delusory column in the New York Times, Bret Stephens says Israel only wants to annex land because it has been “ostracized” in the West. And American Jewish status is “fragile,” unlike in Israel. These crazed claims show that Israel advocates cannot deal with an argument for Palestinian rights.
American liberal Zionists are panicked over the possibility of annexation of the West Bank under a governing agreement between Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu. Please Nancy Pelosi call Benny Gantz on the phone, Tal Shalev urges the Blue White leader on a J Street phone call.
Condemnation for the recently-published UN list of companies doing business in illegal Israeli settlements has been across the Zionist spectrum in Israel, and it’s pretty much the same in the US Congress.
Rep. Nita Lowey tells an Israel lobby group that she chose to chair a House subcommittee controlling foreign aid over a subcommittee controlling much larger funds for health care and education and child care because she went with her heart. Imagine a Congressperson saying they chose a committee because of love for Russia, what the fallout would be.
Trump’s decision to assassinate a leading Iranian official in Iraq yesterday has contributed to the split inside the Israel lobby in the United States. Republican Israel supporters celebrate the killing, and see it as destroying the last hope of saving the Iran deal. Many Democratic supporters of Israel are critical of the decision.
Conservative donors have skewed the American Jewish establishment to support the occupation, said many speakers at the J Street conference. The liberal Zionist organization is mounting a power struggle inside the Jewish community. But those efforts do not include sanctions in opposition to the occupation.