What are the odds that Netanyahu backs out of the invitation to speak to Congress? Neocon Robert Kagan and liberal Zionist Martin Indyk both want the speech not to happen, lest it politicize Congress’s blind deference to Israel supporters
Why does there seem to be so much tension between Muslims and Jews? Sabith Khan suggests that while the tension between the two faith groups seems to be about religion, it is in fact a political discourse in which politics is intruding the territory of religion. In this particular case, he suggests that religious traditions and institutions can offer solutions, rather than political parties or ideologies.
Supporters of Israel from the White House to Foxman to J Street to Chris Matthews agree that the invitation to Netanyahu to speak to Congress and rebut Obama on Iran is damaging the special relationship between Israel and the U.S. Look for the speech to be cancelled.
Adam Horowitz interviews Norman Finkelstein on the work and legacy of Joan Peters, the author of “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict over Palestine”. Finkelstein says, “[The Lebanon war in 1982] was big setback and [Israel’s supporters] needed something to rally the stalwarts around the cause. “From Time Immemorial” fit the bill because its essential message was the Palestinians have no legitimate claim whatsoever because the heart of their claim is false, they don’t even exist.”
You’ve never seen such a straightforward account in the NYT of Israeli war crimes as today’s article on B’Tselem’s new report on Gaza. Brace for the hasbara counter-attack
Black Americans and Palestinians are similarly marginalized in the discourse, and blamed for their own oppression. But growing connections between the #BlackLivesMatter movement and Palestinian resistance will change these politics forever.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to both Houses of Congress to rebut President Obama’s Iran policy is a full-on fiasco. It keeps stirring things up and getting attention. Opposition to the speech is mounting on Capitol Hill, say both the US Campaign to End the Occupation and Jeffrey Goldberg. And any reasonable person has to wonder, Wait, why are the warmongering Israelis messing in our negotiations? Where did a rightwing foreign prime minister derive the power to take on the president on equal terms?
The emperor doesn’t wear many clothes in KY congressman John Yarmuth’s comments that AIPAC demands that Congress defers to Israel over the US and John Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu to speak to both houses was “close to subversion”
A portrait of a rightwing Israeli lawyer in the Times is a transparent effort to show Israel supporters who monitor the paper closely that the Times takes rightwing Zionists more seriously than it does leftwingers or Palestinians.
If it was outrageous and inappropriate and unprecedented for the Republicans to ask Netanyahu to speak to Congress, thereby undermining Obama’s Iran policy, those who oppose war should take action, and give Netanyahu the cold shoulder when he comes to Congress