Today marks the 25th anniversary of Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of 29 Palestinians as they prayed. Israeli soldiers blocked Palestinians who tried to flee and who wanted to enter to help the victims. The repercussions of the attack are still felt by Palestinians in Hebron, who have seen their rights eroded and their formerly bustling city centre turn into a ghost town.
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…
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…
The Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) has observed & documented Israeli violations of international law for 22 years. Netanyahu has cancelled their mandate following a leaked TIPH report of widespread Israeli abuse. Palestinians fear the worst without the watchful eye of TIPH; Israeli settlers say it will be “a breath of fresh air.”
A bipartisan bill uses a new, Israel-centric definition of ‘antisemitism’ that experts say would censor information about Israel-Palestine in Florida public schools and colleges. This is the latest such effort in an international campaign on behalf of Israel…
If anyone else abducted an individual and held the person prisoner for 10 days, there would be consequences. This should also be true for the federal government. The government must compensate Marzieh Hashemi for jailing her… sign here: