Philip Weiss says the key people behind bills that would punish boycotters with a minimum fine of $250,000 and a maximum penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison are Jewish Zionists in the Democratic party… but others are opposing AIPAC and he predicts that side will ultimately win.
Israel and mainstream media spotlight Palestinian violence, downplays Israeli Jewish or settler fanatic violence. Christians and Muslims are severely punished, while Israeli Jews and settlers often get a pass.
AIPAC helped craft a bill making BDS a felony, subject to a minimum civil penalty of $250K and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison; many of its cosponsors have no idea what the bill contains.
On the 3rd anniversary of the 2014 assault on Gaza, no justice has been attained for victims or survivors. Over the next 50 days, Visualizing Palestine will release a series of visuals on the crime and impunity of Operation Protective Edge.
The recent conviction of an Israeli settler for an arson attack on the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes is a reminder that Jewish extremism toward Christians and their holy sites is a problem as old as the state of Israel itself.
Mexican and UAE investigative journalists and human rights defenders have had their smartphones hacked by a secretive Israeli-made system. An infected phone gives the perpetrator access to movements and location, emails, WhatsApp messages, and passwords, and can even turn on the phone’s camera and microphone.
A former Antisemitism Envoy adopted a new, Israel-centric definition for antisemitism, and then used it to train U.S. diplomats. The envoy position has proved a revolving door to Israel lobbying organizations (see video). Now groups from the ADL to the Southern Poverty Law Center are disturbed that Trump isn’t filling the position.
The Israel Lobby, especially AIPAC, is undeniably a foreign lobby, but it operates with complete impunity on Capitol Hill and also at state and local levels. Coincidentally, Congress has a peculiar pattern of brazen, bipartisan pro-Israel legislation and looking the other way on issues in which Israel may be culpable (e.g. USS Liberty). To put it succinctly, there is an Israeli hand in much of what the United States does internationally, and the involvement is not intended to do anything good for the American people.
1951: David Ben-Gurion fought for the death penalty because some Israelis “think it’s a mitzvah [good deed] to kill Arabs…As long as they think that, the murders won’t stop.”
Ha’aretz’s Gideon Levy writes: Isn’t it time to do away with the artificial distinction between the Israelis who view themselves as nice and just and the brutal occupation they are responsible for? Hasn’t the time come to punish them in a nonviolent manner for the crimes that each and every one of them is party to?