As Palestinians in Hebron navigate life without the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) observers, it is worth looking back on how oppressive and violent life was even with outsiders watching. Eric Garner would find the city eerily familiar.
Elor Azaria, the Israeli soldier charged with manslaughter after shooting a wounded Palestinian in the head, now has a paid position on the political campaign of an Israeli Prime Minister candidate.
Azaria served 14 months for the killing. He returned to Hebron a folk hero and celebrity.
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.
Philip Weiss reports that writers try to blame Democratic support for Israel on evangelical Christians so they won’t be called antisemitic. However, if evangelicals were so influential, Democrats would have supported Kavenaugh, would be anti-abortion, etc. And regarding Republicans: Adelson’s money was a major influence in Trump’s decision to move the embassy…
As Congress tackles urgent issues of reopening government and setting the budget for the country, it takes the time to prioritize a foreign country: H.R.648 contains assurances that Israel will receive $3.8 billion for arms, and funding for refugee resettlement; the bill also includes threats to de-fund the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and any future state of Palestine–if US demands (dictated by the Israel lobby) are not met.
NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’ segment underreports AIPAC’s finances, uses only Israel partisans as commentators, minimizes power of AIPAC, ignores Palestinians, and fails to inform listeners of the full scope of the Israel lobby…
These are the types of headlines you see every day. Most Americans have no idea this is happening… If any of these things had happened to Israelis, U.S. news media would report on them…
The new Congress member, a Muslim-American who has often been attacked by Israel partisans, suggested that AIPAC is responsible for U.S. politicians’ slavish support for Israel. Her very reasonable tweets caused a firestorm of controversy, powerful leaders attacking her, many others supporting her. But the Israel lobby goes far beyond AIPAC and is embedded in organizations throughout the U.S.
Israeli private intelligence companies Psy-Group, Black Cube, etc specialize in fake online identities known as “avatars,” some work with the neocon group Foundation for Defense of Democracies – the aim is to “destabilize and disrupt anti-Israel movements from within…”
Alison Weir’s in depth investigation of the new “Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI),” created to counter growing support among Democrats for Palestinian rights (only 19 % of progressive Democrats now support Israel over Palestinians). DMFI plans to use its substantial financial resources & powerful connections to bring Democrats back into the pro-Israel fold and to target Democrats such as Betty McCollum who support Palestinian human rights…
