State lawmakers and governors across the US have allowed the Israel lobby to write public policy. New laws and executive orders have been crafted by Israel lobbyists, then copied from one state to the next, adopted with virtually identical language. The groundwork for anti-boycott legislation was laid by Israel partisans a decade ago…
In Arkansas, a newspaper publisher is in financial straits after refusing to sign an anti-BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) pledge for Israel. He believes that political dissent is protected speech, and that the Arkansas law violates his constitutional rights and his journalistic ethics.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Brian Hauss dissects the accusation from the anti-BDS camp that it is “hypocritical” to support anti-discrimination laws (think: wedding cake), but oppose anti-BDS laws. Bottom line: businesses do not have the right to refuse service to consumers because of who they are. On the other hand, consumers have a First Amendment right to withhold their patronage from businesses in order to express their political beliefs.
Americans in general do not like anti-BDS laws nearly as much as Congress does: just 22.5% of American adults polled favor anti-boycott measure. But Washington and many state legislatures are pushing through legislation that would criminalize boycott of Israel.
A powerful Congressman with ties to a controversial donor has introduced a House version of S.1, the Senate bill that would give Israel $38 billion & combat BDS…
The first Senate bill of 2019 would finalize a $38 billion aid package to Israel ($23,000 per Jewish Israeli family of four), combat BDS, and rebut Trump’s attempt to withdraw troops from Syria (Israel opposes the US withdrawal)…
As a result of public pressure, the Vermont State Police and the police department for Northampton Massachusetts have decided to pull out of the ADL-sponsored, all-expenses-paid “Resiliency and Counterterrorism” program in Israel. The seminar highlights methods Israel uses to “thwart terrorism within its framework of a democratic and multicultural nation.”
The lawsuit against Airbnb’s de-listing of Israeli settlement properties sounds pretty flimsy: religious discrimination (illegal settlements are by definition all-Jewish); failure to provide equal access (Palestinians are barred completely – and it’s their land); Airbnb is siding with Palestinians against the occupation (everything about the occupation and settlements is illegal, so, yeah).
New deputy chair of the Intelligence Advisory Board, which helps shape U.S. intelligence policy, is Samantha Ravich, an Israel advocate who previously worked for AIPAC spinoff WINEP, was a senior advisor to pro-Israel FDD, senior advisor to the Chertoff Group. See video of her speech at Israel Bonds event, where she describes a cyber project that will combat BDS. IAB chair is Stephen Feinberg, hedge fund billionaire and military contractor…
If Israel is Jewish, it cannot be democratic; if it’s democratic, it cannot be Jewish. But now the nation-state law makes it plain. Israel is for Jews only, officially.