The Taylor Force Act, a bill to limit aid to the Palestinian Authority, is being peddled on both sides of the aisle by a nationwide grassroots network of pro-Israel activists—including Sheldon Adelson, Shawn Evenhaim, Haim Saban and Adam Milstein—as well as several powerful pro-Israel lobbying groups.
Both AIPAC and J Street lauded the passage, by 98-2, of a Senate bill to impose new sanctions on Iran. Voting against it were Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders… all the others did what the Israel lobby told them to do.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s statement that an antisemitism envoy may be unnecessary are challenged by representatives of the Israel lobby, quoted at length by Newsweek reporter Stav Ziv, whose family is from Israel.
The Polemicist: The Democratic and Republican Parties can impeach Trump if they want to. And, as they never cease proclaiming, what Israel wants, they want. in the course of a single news cycle, the game has changed: Donald Trump has been accused of betraying Israel. Impeachment is possible…
Congressman Ed Royce, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, commended the bill for encouraging the adoption of a uniform definition of anti-Semitism, which focuses on Israel, that law enforcement officials would then use…
IAK INVESTIGATION: For two decades, some Israeli officials and partisans have worked to embed a new, Israel-focused definition of antisemitism in institutions around the world, from international bodies and national governments to small college campuses in heartland America. This effort is now snowballing rapidly. As a result, advocacy for Palestinian rights is well on the way to being curtailed and even criminalized as “hate.”
Speaking before an adoring AIPAC audience, US Ambassador to the UN Haley says she pressured the UN head not to appoint Palestinian diplomat Salam Fayyad as a UN envoy, and to take down a report documenting Israeli apartheid. Observers say Haley may be angling to be the first woman president…
Israel’s foreign supporters have every reason to ask that it govern all people in its charge with the justice and humanity that constitute the core values of both Judaism and Western civilization.
Falk and Tilley write in The Nation that Haley maligned the messengers instead of providing any information on alleged flaws in the report. “Ad hominem attacks are usually the tactics of those so seized with political fervor as to abhor rational discussion”… Also excerpts from Haley’s AIPAC speech…
Consortium News: As Official Washington fumes about Russia-gate, Israel’s far more significant political-influence-and-propaganda campaigns are ignored… The October Surprise… In some European circles, the neocons are described as “Israel’s American agents”…