JTA reports that Michael Steinhardt, billionaire founder of Birthright Israel (a free, ten-day trip to Israel that is enjoyed by a large percentage of Jewish young adults) considers the state of Israel “the Jewish miracle of the 20th century.” Now he is creating public schools that teach about Israel…
June 1 – June 7, 2017: Israeli soldiers killed a teenage Palestinian girl as well as a young father in Gaza. Israeli forces demolished five Palestinian coal production plants. Jewish settlers confiscated Palestinian land to create a new outpost.
An Israeli security guard shot and killed 28-year-old Mahmoud Mahmoud Salim Taha, at the police station in Kafr Qasim on Monday night. This is the latest of over 30 Palestinian citizens of Israel to be killed in violent episodes in 2017, and again the police shake off responsibility.
The feeling is increasingly widespread among American Jews that Israel’s 50-year occupation, its denial of basic political rights and human rights to Palestinians, and its retreat from democracy, indicate that American Jewish values are not shared by Israeli leadership. Clearly, Israel and American Jews are moving in different directions.
Thomas Harrington discusses how Israel and its supporters plant deceptive, self-serving narratives at the highest levels of western media, e.g. a BBC radio documentary by Israel partisan Tim Samuels about Israeli doctors who help Syrian refugees—what it says and what it does not say…
Israeli chief Sephardic rabbi Yitzhak Yosef preaches that non-Jews should be expelled from Israel, or serve essentially as slaves and servants. He also exhorted his followers that any Palestinian armed with any weapon is worth killing without hesitation. Rabbi Yosef is also a spiritual leader of one of Israel’s major political parties, Shas…
JTA reports that the US Senate has approved a “non-binding resolution marking the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.” The bill was passed on Thursday, June 1st, the anniversary of Israel’s takeover of East Jerusalem in 1967. Most of the world rejects the label of “reunification,” rejecting Israel’s claim of sovereignty over the captured territories.
Fifty years ago, Israel fought a war of choice: the Six Day War. Israel’s own leaders indicate that the “existential threat” in 1967 was a myth.
Israel advocates have created a website and app to defend Israel online and attack critics. App users have already brought the rating of an Australian business critical of Israel down from 4.6 to 1.4. The app leverages the efforts of pro-Israel students who “speak 35 languages, hail from 86 countries and have connections to the pro-Israel community all over the world…”
Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., introduced a bill that would elevate the position to ambassadorial level. A companion bill was introduced in the House earlier this year…