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.
Dropping bombs on the Middle East is a rite of passage for modern Presidents and last week Joe Biden officially joined the club.
“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.”
Israel arrested 69 children last month, do Democrats care?
David Lloyd writes that congressional resolutions that affirm the duplicitous language of Zionist lobbies and apologists for apartheid will have little impact on the continuing growth of the BDS movement, “but ‘progressives’ who endorse them stand to lose sight of what is crucial to all fundamental political change: the moral force of social movements out of which, from abolitionism to civil rights to BDS, all substantial transformation has come.”
Imagine the Russians having the power over Congress the Israel lobby has. Imagine a wildly lopsided Congressional vote condemning a grassroots campaign for human rights in Russia. Trump, contrary to liberal fantasies, has done things that Putin doesn’t want, including opposing a pipeline to Germany from Russia. He has given Israel almost everything it wants except an actual US war against Iran.
Notable progressives backed the House resolution condemning BDS, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). Both faced intense criticism on Twitter for their votes. Khanna responded, Lincoln was not an abolitionist “early in his career”. While Pressley said, “Voting yes on this resolution affirmed to my constituents raised in the Jewish faith Israel’s right to exist.”
Congressional Progressive Caucus leader Rep. Ro Khanna doesn’t believe BDS should be criminalized, but he’s backing legislation that many believe will be used as a weapon against BDS supporters.
As Trump escalates the confrontation with Iran, we must remember the Vietnam war was based on a lie, so was the Iraq war, Bernie Sanders says, joining a wide array of voices from Rand Paul to Elizabeth Warren to J Street that are trying to stave off a calamity in the Middle East.