In fact actual anti-semites are some of Israelâs strongest allies. The lionâs share of forceful support for Israel in the United States comes not from Jews but from Christian Zionists who support Israel because they believe it will bring Jesus back so he can damn all non-Christians to eternal hellfire. Televangelist John Hagee, who believes Hitler was sent by God to help create Israel, had a prominent speaking spot at Tuesdayâs âMarch for Israelâ in Washington DC.
While people who hate Jews so much they want them to writhe in eternal hellfire are warmly embraced as allies of convenience by Israel and its supporters, healthy leftists who oppose racism in all its forms are attacked by Israel apologists as Nazis and Jew-haters. This is because their actions are not designed to protect Jews or reduce anti-semitismâââtheir actions are to facilitate the strategic objectives of the Israeli government and its allies.
Really whatâs happening in Gaza right now isnât about Jews or Judaism at all; itâs about using violent force to take land and resources away from an indigenous population, as history has seen happen time and time again in situations that had nothing to do with Jews. Itâs a profoundly unhealthy impulse thatâs been causing immense human suffering for centuries, and people whoâve noticed the same patterns in Israel that theyâve seen in all the other settler-colonial projects over the last 500 years are being shouted down and bullied into staying silent using some of the most unethical manipulations ever devised.
Palestine
False Accusations Of Anti-Semitism Exploit A Healthy Impulse To Advance A Profoundly Sick One
'Price of Defending Apartheid': AIPAC Set to Spend $100 Million Against Squad
in Common DreamsSlate politics writer Alex Sammon wrote that "close watchers now expect AIPAC to spend at least $100 million in 2024 Democratic primaries, largely trained on eliminating incumbent Squad members from their seats."
Sammon said that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), and Summer Lee (D-Pa.)â"the most outspoken and unapologetically leftist contingent of the Democratic Party in national office"âare among AIPAC's top targets.
"The price of defending apartheid keeps going up," quipped Palestinian American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer in response to the report.
Israeli War Crimes and Propaganda Follow US Blueprint
in CounterPunchWhen British playwright Harold Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, in the midst of the Iraq War, he titled his Nobel speech âArt, Truth and Politics,â and used it to shine a light on this diabolical aspect of U.S. war-making.
After talking about the hundreds of thousands of killings in Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile and Nicaragua, Pinter asked: âDid they take place? And are they in all cases attributable to US foreign policy? The answer is yes, they did take place and they are attributable to American foreign policy,â
âBut you wouldnât know it,â he went on.âIt never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasnât happening. It didnât matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. Itâs a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.â
Donât be fooled. Biden is fully signed up to genocide in Gaza
The reality is that Gaza has not experienced a day free of Israeli occupation since 1967. All that Israel did 18 years ago when it pulled out its Jewish settlers, was to run the occupation more remotely, exploiting new developments in weapons and surveillance technologies.
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Another deceit is the impression Blinken is intentionally creating that the US is preparing for a confrontation with Israel over Gazaâs future.
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But the suggestion that Israel and Washington are not on the same page is pure trickery. The ârowâ is entirely confected, designed to make it look like the Biden administration, in pushing for negotiations, is taking the Palestiniansâ side against Israel. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The pretence is a boon to both sides. The US wants to look like one day â after all Gazaâs homes are destroyed and its people ethnically cleansed â it will drag Netanyahu to the negotiating table kicking and screaming.
An embattled Netanyahu, meanwhile, is able to score popularity points with the Israeli right by posturing defiantly against the Biden administration.
It is pure theatre. The confrontation will never materialise. The US âvisionâ is nothing more than make-believe.
Inside the Israeli Crackdown on Speech
in The New YorkerThe Jewish Israeli activists I interviewed for this story invariably noted that their troubles paled in comparison to the punishment their government was inflicting on Palestiniansâin Gaza, certainly, and in the occupied West Bank, but also inside Israel. While Jewish activists are targeted by right-wing mobs with what appears to be the tacit approval of the government, Palestinians experience the full force of the governmentâs repressive apparatus.
The current crackdown on speech, which involves arrests, police interrogations, and so-called warning talks conducted by the Shabak, the security services, is largely carried out by a task force established earlier this year by the national-security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to identify cases of incitement to terrorism on social media. Before he was a minister, Ben-Gvir was a far-right activist. In 2007, a Jerusalem court convicted him of incitement to racism for carrying signs and posters with statements such as âExpel the Arab enemy.â Hassan Jabareen, who heads Adalah, a Palestinian-run legal center, told me, âBen-Gvirâs job is to protect my safety, and he is known as the most racist official in the history of Israel.â Jabareen added, âWe are aware that Israeli Jewish society is passing a very, very hard time. But this emergency time is happening under one of the most racist governments in the history of this country.â
International law experts tell Starmer: you donât know what youâre doing re Israelâs Gaza war crimes
in The SkwawkboxThe response to our letters also states that Labourâs position must be âin line with Britainâs global allies, namely the United States of America and the European Unionâ. In this regard, it behooves us to remind you that it is the job of His Majestyâs Opposition to hold the government of the United Kingdom to account, not to follow policy lines of foreign governments.
The legal obligations of the UK government should not be in doubt. Common articIe 1 of the four Geneva Conventions requires states parties âto respect and to ensure respectâ for the conventions. We would also like to remind you that the United Kingdom has ratified the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. As confirmed by the International Council of Justice in 2020, all states have an obligation to prevent acts of genocide, irrespective of where they occur. In light of the mounting and compelling evidence of genocide, as affirmed by UN experts and scholars of genocide, the United Kingdom can adhere to its obligations under the Genocide Convention by calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the siege and an end to the forced displacement of Palestinians.
'We're Rolling Out Nakba 2023,' Israeli Minister Says on Northern Gaza Strip Evacuation
in HaaretzIsraeli security cabinet member and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud) was asked in a news interview on Saturday whether the images of northern Gaza Strip residents evacuating south on the IDFâs orders are comparable to images of the Nakba. He replied: âWe are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba. From an operational point of view, there is no way to wage a war â as the IDF seeks to do in Gaza â with masses between the tanks and the soldiers.â
When asked again whether this was the âGaza Nakbaâ, Dichter â a member of the security cabinet and former Shin Bet director â said âGaza Nakba 2023. Thatâs how itâll end.â
âThe Phone Doesnât Stopâ: Overwhelming Demands For A Cease-Fire Catch Democrats Off Guard
in HuffPostStaffers from more than two dozen Democratic offices say they are receiving an unprecedented number of calls and emails demanding for members to support a cease-fire â an onslaught for which their caucus was wholly unprepared.
Following the Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel by Hamas militants, up to three weeks passed â and the death toll from Israelâs retaliatory strikes reached the thousands â before many offices even formulated an official response. âLet it go to voicemailâ was the prevailing guidance in several offices, one staffer said.
The yawning mismatch between votersâ and membersâ sentiments on this issue strikes many staffers as outrageous.
âThis building is not listening,â said one Democratic aide. âIâve never seen such a disconnect between where voters and constituents are and where Congress is, and thatâs saying something because thereâs always a disconnect.â
U.S. diplomats slam Israel policy in leaked memo
in PoliticoI'm inclined to wonder whether this may be an official leak; inoculation, aimed at the feeble consciences of Dem centrists. i.e. "Oh, so what we say is monstrous, what we do is worse, but at least what we think is okay."
The memo has two key requests: that the U.S. support a ceasefire, and that it balance its private and public messaging toward Israel, including airing criticisms of Israeli military tactics and treatment of Palestinians that the U.S. generally prefers to keep private.
The gap between Americaâs private and public messaging âcontributes to regional public perceptions that the United States is a biased and dishonest actor, which at best does not advance, and at worst harms, U.S. interests worldwide,â the document states.
âWe must publicly criticize Israelâs violations of international norms such as failure to limit offensive operations to legitimate military targets,â the message also states. âWhen Israel supports settler violence and illegal land seizures or employs excessive use of force against Palestinians, we must communicate publicly that this goes against our American values so that Israel does not act with impunity.â
The Extreme Ambitions of West Bank Settlers
in The New YorkerCan you talk about the settlement-outpost movement and your role in that, especially with young people that youâve served as somewhat of an inspiration for?
A post is a basis for a bigger community. Thatâs the name of the game.
And why is that controversial, even among some settlers?
I donât know that itâs controversial. Some might not know the process. And people say to me, âI want you to build a new outpost that will be as nice as the older one that we see.â I say to them, âIt was a place with one family and now hundreds of families.â So this is how it started.
In Israel, thereâs a lot of support for settlements, and this is why there have been right-wing governments for so many years. The world, especially the United States, thinks there is an option for a Palestinian state, and, if we continue to build communities, then we block the option for a Palestinian state. We want to close the option for a Palestinian state, and the world wants to leave the option open. Itâs a very simple thing to understand.