A New York Times travel piece about Jaffa describing it as an “ancient neighborhood” of Tel Aviv now revived by Israeli chefs so erased Palestinian history that the paper had to issue a correction about its lapses. But the Debra Kamin article still says there are “accusations” that the city’s Palestinian history is being erased, an implicit denial of the Nakba.
Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL will always cut Zionists a break on the standards he applies to others. Today he said of New Zealand mosque killings, “This act of violence really doesn’t have a precedent as far as we know, murdering people in a mosque.” He conveniently forgot the slaughter of 29 Muslims in Palestine by a Jewish settler in 1994.
In what may signal a major break in longstanding US policy, the State Department referred to the occupied Syrian Golan Heights as “Israeli-controlled,” as opposed to the usual “Israeli-occupied,” for the first time in their 2018 human rights report published Wednesday. In the report, the State Department also failed to refer to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as occupied territories.
In a political earthquake today, Democrats shelved a bill to denounce anti-Semitism, an apparent move to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar. Divides among House Democrats exploded into full view during a meeting with party leadership that was described as a “full-scale brawl.” In an amazing turn of events the bill was delayed indefinitely by early evening.
Hannah Arendt wrote in 1944 that by proceeding with contempt for their Arab neighbors, the founders of the Jewish state were setting up a situation in which Israel would be utterly dependent on Jews in the United States to maintain the superpower’s support for the state, thereby exposing American Jews to the charge of “double loyalty.” When Ilhan Omar questions the allegiance of some Israel advocates, she brings up a legitimate criticism of Zionism.
Amid attacks from Democratic colleagues in the House, Rep. Ilhan Omar says that she finds it “problematic” that “I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel.” And she knows many Americans agree with her. “I just happen to be willing to speak up.” The progressive base of the party is behind her, in a sign that the party is dividing on Israel.
Anti-semitism used to mean job discrimination in universities and leading industries and stigmatization of Jews as “kikes.” Today Jews are socially included, and the definition has shifted to mean any strong criticism of Israel. That’s because Israel supporters must do anything they can to prevent support for BDS from entering the political mainstream.
Saudi’s Prince Turki bin Faisal says Netanyahu is deceiving Israelis about warming relations with Arab monarchies. “Israeli public opinion should not be deceived into believing that the Palestinian issue is a dead issue. From the Israeli point of view, Mr Netanyahu would like us to have a relationship and then we can fix the Palestinian issue. From the Saudi point of view it’s the other way around.”
Ilhan Omar is accused of antisemitism in fostering a “hoary myth of dual loyalty” to Israel. But Jews from Joe Klein to Eric Alterman to Melissa Weintraub to MJ Rosenberg say that allegiance to Israel is actually an important factor in the support for Israel in the United States, to the point that some support Israel’s interests over America’s.
When the leading party in the Israeli elections, Blue and White, says it won’t work with “Arabs” to form a coalition, and the Labor Party announces its new agenda of “Three Paths to Separation” from Palestinians, you’d think there’s something wrong with the Israeli Jewish polity. But liberal Zionists can’t catch a clue…