The Jewish National Fund is a thriving relic of Europe’s colonial past, even if today it wears the garb of an environmental charity. As recent events show, ethnic cleansing is still what it excels at.
The demolition of a fishing shack belonging to a local fisherman in the Palestinian village of Jisr al-Zarqa highlights the discrimination Palestinian citizens of Israel face on a daily basis.
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.
Minutes from a 2016 board meeting of the JUF, a leading Jewish philanthropic group in Chicago, detail an anti-BDS presentation in which the increasing number of U.S. Muslims was identified something to “watch and worry about.” The presentation also expressed concern that the message of pro-Palestine organizations was resonating because Arab and Muslim immigrants were becoming “more sophisticated and integrated into America.”
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.
Biden defers to rightwing Israel lobby on Israel, blocking use of word “occupation” in the draft 2020 Democratic Party platform. He is clearly worried about losing Florida, and donors, to Trump. And you wonder why his Jewish outreach aide has endorsed a Republican over Ilhan Omar, or why Chuck Schumer paid no price for betraying Obama on the Iran deal.
Earlier this week, Israeli forces issued an order threatening to demolish a field hospital in Hebron, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the occupied West Bank.
Bari Weiss’s exit from The New York Times is good news for Palestinian news and opinion. Weiss has made a career as a Zionist warrior, often smearing anti-Zionists in ways that she is quick to call McCarthyism when others employ the same methods.
Among all the headline-grabbing stories in 2020 another movement has been gaining traction: the effort to end the United States’ support for Israeli apartheid.
An open letter published by Harper’s magazine, and signed by 150 prominent writers and public figures, has focused attention on the apparent dangers of what has been termed a new “cancel culture”. It is easy to agree with the letter’s generalized argument for tolerance and free and fair debate, but the intent of many of the letter’s signatories is the very reverse of their professed goal: they want to stifle free speech, not protect it.