OMNI
ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #16, May 25, 2021.
FROM UPRISING TO CEASEFIRE MAY 2021
Compiled by Dick Bennett FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE,
JUSTICE, and ECOLOGY
(#1 Feb. 22, 2011; #2 Feb. 16, 2012; #3 March 1, 2012; #4 May 18,
2012; #5 August 13, 2012; #6 October 29, 2012; #7 Dec. 17, 2012; #8 March 29,
2013; #9 Oct. 21, 2013; #10 April 28, 2014; #11, July 1, 2015; #12, June 21,
2016; #13, August 13, 2016; #14 , May 15, 2021; #15, May 17, 2021)
CONTENTS: ISRAEL-PALESTINE
NEWSLETTER #16
CURRENT EVENTS MAY 2021
Prashad,
Israel Attacks Occupied Palestinian Territory OPT
Omar
and Tlaib v. US Weapons to Israel, Common
Dreams
AFSC
and FCNL
Mondoweiss
Coverage May 12-22
Abby
Martin, Israeli Assault on Gaza
HISTORY
Bazian’s
Book on Settler Colonial Occupation of Palestine
Israel
Demolishes West Bank Village, The
Guardian
BDS
Movement 12 Years Old, Anna Baltzer
J
Street Perspective: Defend the 2-state solution, stop the demolitions, build
peace.
Book
by Chomsky and Pappe, On Palestine
Book
by Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of
Palestine
Islamophobia
Book by Wajaht Ali, Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobic Network in America
Balfour
Declaration
Levine and Mossberg in Tikkun
Two Articles in Washinton Report on Middle East Affairs
Film by Independent Jewish Voices
Israeli
Lobby
Articles by Hanan Ashrawi and John
Mearsheimer
Interview of Grant Smith, author of Big Israel
TEXTS: ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #16
CURRENT EVENTS
WAR INTENSIFIES AGAIN MAY 2021
|
Published on
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 By
Omar, Tlaib Lead Call to Stop 'Appalling'
$735 Million US Weapons Sale to Israel Amid Gaza Carnage
The Minnesota
Democrat warned the munitions sale "will undercut any attempts at
brokering a ceasefire."
Protesters gather to demonstrate against Israel outside the U.S.
State Department on May 11, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty
Images)
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is among the chorus of lawmakers and
advocacy groups warning that
U.S. President Joe Biden's effort to sell $735 million in munitions to the
Israeli government is a "green light for continued escalation" in the
occupied Gaza Strip, where the Netanyahu regime is carrying out a devastating
air and artillery assault that has killed more than 200 people.
"It would be appalling for the Biden administration to go
through with $735 million in precision-guided weaponry to Netanyahu without any
strings attached in the wake of escalating violence and attacks on
civilians," Omar (D-Minn.), the Congressional Progressive Caucus whip,
said in a statement Monday.
"By supplying weapons that
could be used to commit war crimes, the U.S. government is taking the risk of further
fueling attacks against civilians and seeing more people killed or injured by
U.S.-made weapons."
—Philippe Nassif, Amnesty International
If the proposed sale of Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack
Munitions goes through, Omar warned, the deal "will undercut any attempts
at brokering a cease-fire," a solution Biden said he supports in a
Monday call with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We should be standing unequivocally and consistently on
the side of human rights—holding all state and non-state actors accountable for
their crimes and using every tool at our disposal to end the violence and bring
about peace," Omar said. "We should be affirming the right of all
people, regardless of their faith, to have self-determination and equal rights.
That includes both Israelis and Palestinians because, yes, Palestinian lives
matter."
The Biden administration first notified Congress
of the proposed $735 million weapons sale on May 5, just days before the latest
Israeli bombardment of Gaza began. Continued:
|
MONDOWEISS COVERAGE,
Selections May 12 to 22, 2021
Joint statement by Palestinians in North America on
Nakba ...
https://mondoweiss.net › Activism
May 12,
2021 — DC: Tuesday, 11 May 2021 at 13:00 PDT Intersection of 22nd St. and C St. NW ... Mondoweiss covers the full picture of the struggle for
justice in ...
MAY 18
GENERAL STRIKE
'We are united as a people': Palestinians celebrate a
historic ...https://mondoweiss.net › News3 days ago — On May 18, Palestinians in Bethlehem joined millions across the West Bank,
Gaza, Jerusalem, Israel, and surrounding regions in the historic ...
Unity at last – Mondoweiss https://mondoweiss.net ›
Opinion 17 hours ago — The
Palestinian people's inalienable rights are enshrined in international and
humanitarian law and ... For the first time in many years, we see the Palestinian people united, from Jerusalem
Al Quds, to Gaza, ... May 19, 2021.
Mondoweiss dave@mondoweiss.net
Mondoweiss – News & Opinion About Palestine, Israel & the ...
By Ted Snider May 22, 2021. Israeli provocation inside the Al-Aqsa mosque
made the recent fighting in Gaza a war of choice for Israeli leaders. US
approval ...
Activism – Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net ›
activism
By Ragini Shah May 22, 2021. The City of Cambridge, Massachusetts has the
chance to take action against Israeli oppression at its City Council meeting
on ...
‘We are united as a people’: Inside Palestine's 'Strike for
Dignity' - Intifada Diary: Haifa - Manifesto of Dignity and Hope - Democrats
rise up, and collapse, on arms sales to Israel - Maddow has mentioned Gaza 6
times in 10 years
Inbox
|
7:30 AM (1
hour ago) |
|
||
|
||||
|
Return to al-Wahda street
- Palestinians celebrate ceasefire; Israel attacks Al Aqsa worshipers, again -
Haifa Intifada Diary - Illusion of Israeli coexistence - Ed Markey and
Palestine - Exterminate All the Brutes: a critique 5-22-21
Coexistence in Israel's 'mixed cities' was always an illusion
Over the past three decades, Israel’s main effort to “Judaize”
the “mixed cities” inside Israel has been waged through a war of attrition.
This has included moving religious settlers into Palestinian communities, as
well as using tourism and archeological preservation to take over land. The
coexistence model in Israel's “mixed cities” was always an illusion, and one
that the recent protests finally served to smash.
GAZA
Physicians in Gaza recount airstrikes on clinics, medical staff
Israeli attacks on Gaza decimated the health sector, which
included destroying doctors' ability to confront COVID-19.
Israel's air strikes targeted entire families in Gaza -- but
U.S. media won't pursue the story
Amira Hass's charge in Haaretz that Israeli military, as part of
its air assault on Gaza, “is wiping out entire Palestinian families on
purpose," cries out for followup by American journalists. So far, no
mainstream U.S. media outlet has followed up on her report. Their failure is
journalistic malpractice.
Exterminate All the Brutes: a critique
Raoul Peck’s “Exterminate All the Brutes” is an awe-inspiring
cultural, literary, historical, political and geographic smorgasbord. But to
what end?
U.S. policy has perpetuated the crisis and atrocities in Gaza
The United States has played a vital role in the decades-long
catastrophe that has engulfed Palestine. U.S. leaders must now confront their
country’s and, in many cases, their own personal complicity in this
catastrophe.
Return to al-Wahda street: Palestinians in Gaza mourn lives and
dreams lost in latest Israeli offensive
On Friday morning, as the dust settled and a sense of calm
blanketed the streets of Gaza City, which just hours prior were filled with
thousands of people celebrating the ceasefire, Mahmoud al-Qawlaq mustered the
courage to return to his neighborhood. “When I stand here and look at what’s in
front of me, all I see is loss,” al-Qawlaq tells Mondoweiss. “The loss of my
family members, my loved ones, my home, and the loss of my dreams.”
Abby Martin On
The Israeli Onslaught And Gaza's Fight For Freedom
By Mnar Muhawesh Adley, MintPress News. Popular Resistance (5-22-21). Despite publicly urging caution, restraint
and calling for a ceasefire, the United States government continues to aid
Israel, this week approving $375 million worth of arms sales to the
Jewish state, even as it uses U.S.-made weaponry to attack civilian buildings
and other infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hospitals, health clinics and homes
have been destroyed, with reports confirming the deaths of at least 63 children
in Gaza alone. Three pregnant women have also been killed. As of Wednesday
morning, the death toll stands at 276. -more-
HISTORY—MAINLY 2017
OCCUPATION CONTINUES
BOOK ON SETTLER COLONIALISM
Eastwind Books
of Berkeley, The Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley, and The Center for Race
and Gender at UC Berkeley present
In
Palestine It Is Something Colonial BY Dr. Hatem Bazian
Professor Hatem Bazian (UC Berkeley) provides a decolonial
analysis of the most pressing struggle in the world in an extensive study of
the occupation of Palestine.
The book’s subtitle is taken directly from the letter of
Theoder Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, to Great Britain’s
Minister of Colonies Cecil Rhodes, that sought support for the Zionist settler colonial project in Palestine.
In 1902, Herzl wrote to Rhodes stating: “You are being
invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia
Minor; not Englishmen but Jews… How, then, do I happen to turn to you since
this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something
colonial.”
Palestine
is the last settler colonial project to be commissioned in the late 19th early
20th centuries and still unfolding as we enter into the 21st
Century with no end in sight.
In centering Palestine’s modern history around
settler-colonial discourses, Hatem Bazian offers a theoretical basis for
understanding Palestine while avoiding the pitfalls of the internationally
supported “peace process” that, on the one hand, affirms settler-colonial
rights and, on the other hand, problematizes the colonialized and dispenses
with the ramifications of the colonial project.
Dr.
Hatem Bazian is a lecturer in the Department of Near
Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Editor-in-Chief of the
Islamophobia Studies Journal and Director of the Islamophobia Research and
Documentation Project Center for Race and Gender at the University of
California, Berkeley. Dr. Bazian is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first
accredited Muslim Liberal Arts College in America, the National Chair of
American Muslims for Palestine, Board Member of Islamic Scholarship Fund, and
Board Member of the Muslim Legal Fund of America. To learn more about Dr.
Bazian, visit http://www.hatembazian.com.
Israeli forces leave 41
children homeless after razing Palestinian village, UN says. Demolitions used as a ‘key means’
to ‘coerce Palestinians to leave their homes’
The belongings of 73 people who were forcibly
displaced by Israeli forces stand in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West
Bank. Photograph: United
Nations
Thu 5 Nov 2020 00.00 EST
Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank have razed a
Palestinian village, leaving 73 people – including 41 children – homeless, in
the largest forced displacement incident for years, according to the United Nations.
Excavators escorted by military vehicles were filmed approaching
Khirbet Humsa and proceeding to flatten or smash up tents, shacks, animal shelters,
toilets and solar panels.
“These are some of the most vulnerable communities in the West
Bank,” said Yvonne Helle, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian
territory.
Three-quarters
of the community lost their shelters during Tuesday’s operation, she said,
making it the largest forced displacement incident in more than four years.
However, by the number of destroyed structures, 76, the raid was the largest
demolition in the past decade, she added.
On Wednesday, families from the village were seen rifling through their
wrecked belongings in the wind, with some of the first rain of
the year arriving the same day. The UN published a photo of
a bed and a cot in the open desert. The
village is one of several Bedouin and sheepherding communities in the Jordan
Valley area that is located within Israeli-declared army training “firing
zones”, and despite being within the Palestinian Territories, people there
often face demolitions for a building without Israeli permission.
“Palestinians
can almost never obtain such permits,” said Helle. “Demolitions are a key means
of creating an environment designed to coerce Palestinians to leave their
homes,” she said, accusing Israel of “grave breaches” of international law.
Nearly
700 structures have been demolished across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in
2020 so far, she said, more than any year since 2016, leaving 869 Palestinians
homeless. . . .
The country’s hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said
he intends to annex large swathes of occupied Palestinian territories,
including the Jordan Valley, although the plan was temporarily
“suspended” as part of a deal with the United Arab Emirates.
|
BDS Turns 12! 7-5-`17
|
Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org ›
wiki › Boycott,_Divestment_...
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is a
Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic
sanctions against Israel ...
Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS ... - Facebook
https://www.facebook.com ›
videos › the-danger-of-neutr...
Anna Baltzer from the US Campaign for Palestinian
Rights explains in this TEDx talk. On the importance of ...
Dec 18, 2017
|
ISRAEL V. BDS MOVEMENT: SILENCING PALESTINIAN POV
Greetings!
I hope that you all are doing well and continuing to speak out for truth and
justice! ~Sue Tell
Congress: Do not criminalize free speech https://act.credoaction.com/sign/S720?sp_ref=323429380.4.1822 JUST
ARRIVED TODAY 7-31-17 Washington Post Publishes OpEd Critical
of Pro-Israel Law which squelches Free Speech & makes us felons. This
article: "SHOCKER: Washington Post Publishes OpEd Critical of Pro-Israel
Law Which Shuts Down BDS" by 21WIRE posted by Coyote Prime on his blog:
Running Cause I Can't Fly Thomas L. Are Blogspot Nor can
Israel be disparaged in a person to person basis. As far as
Israel... consider this quote from Ariel Sharon: The
BBC announcer reported on an Israeli cabinet meeting: Shimon Peres had been
pressuring Ariel Sharon to respect American calls for a ceasefire, lest the
Americans turn against Israel. According
to the BBC, a furious Sharon turned toward Peres, saying: “Every
time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I
want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on
Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.” Apparently,
that is what MOST PEOPLE OF JEWISH LINEAGE EXPECT. HENCE, THAT IS WHY
ANYTIME I TRY TO DISCUSS THESE ISSUES ABOUT ISRAEL, THE MOSSAD AND 9-11, THE
USS LIBERTY…I AM TOLD THAT IT IS ANTI-SEMITIC AND OTHER OVERTLY AGRESSSIVE
REMARKS TO SHUT ME UP. NOW
WE HAVE A GROUP OF 43 SENATORS- 29 Republicans & 14 Democrats—that want
to implement a bill into law which would criminally “Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against
Israel”. “The Criminalization of Political Speech and activism
against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in
the West.” U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally
Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against
Israel July 19
2017, 11:30 a.m. The
criminalization of political
speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in
the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for
wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of
Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed
to outlaw such activism. On U.S.
campuses, punishment of pro-Palestinian students for expressing criticisms of
Israel is so commonplace that
the Center for Constitutional Rights refers to it as “the Palestine
Exception” to free speech. But now, a
group of 43 senators — 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats — wants to implement a
law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the
international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of
that country’s decades-old occupation of Palestine. The two primary
sponsors of the bill are
Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio. Perhaps
the most shocking aspect is the punishment: Anyone guilty of violating the
prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum
criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison. Not only this grave oppressive law to prevent us
from any dissent against Israel, but in the past there have been false flags
on American soil or against Americans on purpose and to the detriment of the
American People that are beneficial to Israel. MORE |
|||||||||
J
STREET 
PERSPECTIVE 2017
|
Stop Demolitions, Build Peace Defend Israel from attack, advocate two-state
solution, oppose settlements and annexations, stand with Palestinian
communities in WB, BUILD PEACE
|
||||||||||||||
ON PALESTINE by CHOMSKY AND PAPPE
BOOK REVIEW: On Palestine by
Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe (Haymarket Books) 2015. Rev. by Griffin.
If, like many sane and independent-thinking Americans, you are
tired of the hardline, pro-Israeli propaganda fed to us by Big Media, may I be
so bold as to point you to a slim volume I just finished reading on the subject
by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe simply titled On Palestine.
With the
help from human-rights activist Frank
Barat, who says in the introduction that “(t)he Palestine question is
emblematic of what is wrong with the world” and that Palestine is “a social
issue that all movements fighting for social justice need to embrace,” linguist
and foreign-policy critic Chomsky and Israeli author and historian Pappe point
out the obvious: the Israel is a settler-colonial society that is incrementally
trying to push out or completely eliminate the Palestinian people (innocent women
and children included) in hopes of creating their goal of a Greater Israel. And
all this with complicity from the U.S. and the West.
Says
Pappe: “There is no chance of getting out of the deadlock in Palestine without
tearing apart the façade of a fake peace process and the two-state solution.”
This needs to be addressed at the grassroots, he writes, with the people of a
future Palestine where they come together to discuss how to “live together
within a framework where all enjoy full rights, equality and partnership.”
In part
one, Chomsky and Pappe, guided by Barat, go from the past and the Zionist
struggle to the present and to the future of Palestine and its historic
struggles, particularly after 1948 and the war in 1967. Barat and Pappe then
address the issues inside Israel, while Barat and Chomsky tackle how the issues
play out inside the United States.
“The idea
of a Jewish state is an anomaly,” says Chomsky. “It’s not something that’s
happened somewhere in the world.” He adds: “If you live in Israel, and you are
an Israeli citizen, you are not a Jew. So the Jewish state concept is a
complete anomaly.”
Pappe
adds on to this line of thinking, noting how Israel has “immunized” itself from
overt criticism, compared, say to South Africa under apartheid, because “if you
demonstrate against Israel, you demonstrate against the Jewish state and
therefore you demonstrate against Judaism.” He says that the parameters of the
conversation need to be changed and for Israel, like South Africa, to be made
into a pariah state, with change coming from within.
Later,
Pappe notes the disappointment in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine over the lack
of any significant international reaction to the carnage and destruction of the
Israeli assaults on those lands and people.
And while, as I noted earlier, the attacks on Gaza and the West
Bank are accepted as Israel responding to Hamas missile attacks on the Jewish
state, “(t)his Israeli narrative is totally rejected in the world of
cyber-activism and alternative media (including Red Dirt Report). There it seems
the condemnation of the Israeli action as a war crime is widespread and
consensual.”
There is
no getting around Israel's brutal, bloody policy against the Palestinians and
how outrageous these war crimes have been. And yet, as the authors note, little
is being said on behalf of the Palestinian people who have been kept in what is
essentially an open-air prison, in the case of the Gaza Strip.
The book
ends with Chomsky's powerful speech at the United Nations, noting the horror
and brutality of Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge and the awful
direction Israel is heading to.
On Palestine is an
eye-opening and hard-hitting book and we here at Red Dirt Report highly encourage all students of current events and
history alike to read it from cover-to-cover.
Ilan Pappe The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
,. Oneworld $27.50 (313p) ISBN 978-1851684670
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1851684670
In his latest work, renowned Israeli author and academic Pappe (A History of Modern Palestine )
does not mince words, doing Jimmy Carter one better (or worse, depending on
one's point of view) by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and crimes against
humanity, beginning in the 1948 war for independence and continuing through the
present. Focusing primarily on Plan D (Dalet ,
in Hebrew), conceived on March 10, 1948, Pappe demonstrates how ethnic
cleansing was not a circumstance of war, but rather a deliberate goal of combat
for early Israeli military units organized by David Ben-Gurion, whom Pappe
labels the “architect of ethnic cleansing.” The forced expulsion of 800,000
Palestinians between 1948 and 1949, Pappe argues, was part of a long-standing
Zionist plan to manufacture an ethnically pure Jewish state. Framing his
argument with accepted international and U.N. definitions of ethnic cleansing,
Pappe follows with an excruciatingly detailed account of Israeli military
involvement in the demolition and depopulation of hundreds of villages, and the
expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Arab inhabitants. An accessible, learned
resource, this volume provides important insights into the historical
antecedents of today's conflict, but its conclusions will not be easy for
everyone to stomach: Pappe argues that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine
continues today, and calls for the unconditional return of all Palestinian
refugees and an end to the Israeli occupation. Without question, Pappe's
account will provoke ire from many readers; importantly, it will spark
discussion as well. (Jan.)
Islamophobia
Wajahat Ali: Pro-Israel
Organizations, Donors and Islamophobia: Findings From Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the
Islamophobia Network in America
Grant Smith: Wajahat Ali is a journalist, writer, lawyer, and an
award-winning playwright. But of major interest to us is a fascinating
report that he wrote along with his team while they were at the Center for
American Progress back in 2011. We’ve asked him to come and talk about a
seminal report about the overlap between some Israel lobby organizations and
donors that promote or otherwise distribute Islamophobia in America.
Please welcome Wajahat Ali.
Wajahat Ali:. . . .
…in
2011-I was once a young man-I was the lead author and researcher of the
investigative report Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network
in America that was published by the Washington, DC think tank Center
for American Progress.
Don’t worry. I won't do the entire
138-page report, but for those of you who have not read it, in two minutes I
will summarize everything for you. What this report was, was an
investigative report that exposed how at that time seven major funders had
given over $43 million over a period of 10 years after 9/11 to a small—key,
small—very interconnected, I would say incestuous group of individuals and
organizations responsible for mainstreaming fear, bigotry and hate against
Muslims and Islam in America.
Now, for purposes of this conversation, what
is Islamophobia? Great question. We defined it, as it manifested itself
in America, as the following: an exaggerated fear, hatred and hostility toward
Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in
bias, discrimination—this is the key—the marginalization and exclusion of
Muslims from America’s social, political and civic life.
THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
|
www.tikkun.org/nextgen/balfour-declaration On Balfour’s 100th Anniversary,
Time for a New Definition of Sovereignty, Independence and the Nation-State. Most “non-Jews”--i.e., Palestinian Arabs--joined by key
members of Palestine’s existing Arab Jewish population and some Diaspora
Jewish figures, understood that Balfour's promise would lead to permanent
hostility between the two emerging nationalist communities. Some local Jewish
leaders even put
forward an
alternative to the Balfour Declaration, declaring that peace in the Holy Land
would only be possible if “both sides... develop their national homes in the
same land, which is destined to be one state.” It's tragic but fitting that on the Balfour Declaration's
centenary the most right-wing government in Israel's history is pushing
to annex large
swaths of the West Bank to Jerusalem, permanently foreclosing the possibility
of a second state being created on the territory of Palestine/Israel, and
returning the conflict to its roots as a zero-sum territorial struggle
between Jews and Palestinians. Of course, Palestinians are not unique in being on the losing
end of the Post-World War I nation-state order. Catalans and Kurds are only
the most recent and newsworthy examples of how states established on
territories with more than one ethnonational community—never mind established
after the conquest and occupation of territories with large indigenous
populations—have failed to provide equal political, economic and social
rights to all inhabitants…. |
ALSO ON BALFOUR, SEE 2
ARTICLES IN WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE
EAST AFFAIRS (NOV.-DEC. 2017).
Ramzy Baroud, “The Balfour Declaration Destroyed Palestine,
Not the Palestinian People” and Allan Brownfeld, “The Balfour Declaration at
100: Remembering Its Prophetic Jewish Critics.”
FILM ON THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
Van Gosse, a co-chair of H-PAD, says that the 24-minute film on the centenary of the Balfour Declaration made by Independent Jewish Voices has been
highly recommended by scholars in the US and UK who work on issues related to
Palestine. Historians for Peace and
Democracy.
Tom
Hayes: Challenges and Changes in 25 Years Working on
Israel-Palestine Issue and Advice for Independent Filmmakers.
https://www.wrmea.org/2017-may/challenges-and-changes-in-25-years-working-on-israel-palestine-issue-and-advice-for-independent-filmmakers.html
…Tom Hayes: The
spectrum of mendacious mechanisms we encapsulate in the term Israel lobby are,
in fact, an attack on the foundations of the United States by a foreign interest. Its
aim is to keep our eyes closed, our mouths shut, and our wallets wide open. . .
. .
I was nine years old when my mother read
me Cry, the Beloved Country. I was 39 when Nelson
Mandela became president of South Africa. That book may not have had
any more impact than a grain of sand on the struggle against South African
apartheid, but a grain of sand on the move can start an
avalanche. If enough of us grains of sand shake our asses loose, we
could bury the Israel lobby. [APPLAUSE] We can clear the road to Palestinian
freedom and self-determination.
ISRAEL LOBBY
The following 2 papers by Hanan
Ashrawi and John Mearsheimer were delivered to The
Israel Lobby and American Policy conference March 24, 2017 at the National
Press Club. The 3rd is an interview of Grant Smith at the
conference, author of Big Israel.
Hanan
Ashrawi: The Israel Lobby and the ‘Peace Process’ From a Palestinian
Perspective. Posted
on April 2, 2017
The Israel Lobby and American
Policy conference was solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust,
publisher of the Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research:
Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). This is a rush transcript
...Hanan Ashrawi: Thank you very
much. Thank you. This is indeed heartwarming and humbling. I thank you all for
coming. Thank you, Delinda, for your invitation. Thank you, Grant. Thank you,
John for picking me up also and all the people who made this possible. I’m
delighted to be here with you. I’m delighted to be part of this occasion, this
endeavor which in many ways is extremely timely. It does respond to a sense of
urgency really. I need to intervene and to say policy and discourse. And it’s
wonderful to hear all these not just distinguished people but very profound and
persuasive people and courageous people, really, who are speaking truth to
power and who are standing up for justice. I don’t want to waste too much time
because I have a lot to say. So you have to let me know ahead of time.
As you know this is a very
significant occasion because we’re talking about 100, 70, 50, and zero. A
hundred years since the Balfour Declaration. I do hope that the Brits will not
celebrate it even though Theresa May invited Netanyahu to celebrate with her.
This is a colonial legacy par excellence. Seventy years since the partition
plan that did partition Palestine and created the State of Israel, at that time
on 55 percent of Palestine. Fifty years since the occupation of 1967. And zero
time for the two-state solution.
I’m asked to talk about the
Israel lobby and the peace process. I will focus on the peace process because
you all know that the Israel lobby is never absent. Whenever anything happens
related to Palestine, it is there. And when it comes to the peace process, they
have always been a shaping force – intertwining, interweaving, intervening
their presence and at the same time maintaining their – I don’t want to say
control but their influence every step of the way. They play the major role in
shaping and influencing U.S. policy particularly the peace process. Since its
inception, there’s a sense of ownership that the peace process is owned by the
Israeli lobby in many ways because they’re looking out for the interest of
Israel all the time.
There are various components of
the lobby. (Continued:
John
Mearsheimer: What Has Changed Since Publication of The Israel Lobby and
What the New Administration Can Do Differently. Posted on March 31, 2017
Delivered to The Israel Lobby and
American Policy conference March 24, 2017 at the National Press Club
The Israel Lobby and American
Policy conference was solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust,
publisher of the Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research:
Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). This is a rush transcript.
….John Mearsheimer:
I would like to focus my talk on
what has transpired regarding the Israel lobby and the U.S.-Israeli
relationship in the ten years since Steve Walt and I wrote The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. My talks comprise of four
parts. I’ll begin by briefly restating the core arguments in our book. I’ll
then describe four major changes that have taken place regarding the lobby and
the U.S.-Israeli relationship over the past decade. I will then describe what
has not changed and conclude by speculating about the future.
The central argument in the book is that the United States has a
special relationship with Israel that has no parallel in modern history and it
is almost wholly due to the lobby. What makes Israel’s relationship with the
United States extraordinary is not simply the fact that Israel has received
more foreign aid than any other country or that Washington almost always backs
Israel diplomatically. What makes it truly special is that the aid is given
unconditionally. In other words, Israel gets this
aid even when it does things that the United States opposes like building
settlements in the West Bank. (Continued:
Grant Smith summarizes conclusions from his book Big Israel and results of polling people
about the Israel Lobby
Grant Smith: American Public Opinion About U.S. Aid
to Israel and Other Top AIPAC Programs https://www.wrmea.org/2017-may/grant-smith-american-public-opinion-about-u.s.-aid-to-israel-and-other-top-aipac-programs.html
Dale Sprusansky: Grant Smith is the director of
the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy—again,
the co-sponsor of today’s event. He’s the author of the 2016
book Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, which
covers the history, functions, and activities of Israel affinity organizations
in America. Grant has written two unofficial histories of AIPAC, and
many other books.
His
organization is constantly working on Freedom of Information Act requests and
uncovering important documents, especially on Israel’s nuclear
program. I can tell you that few, if any, people work harder on this
issue than Grant. Between his
frequent research, appearance in FOIA court, his writing, his polling
and his 5:00 a.m. e-mails, Grant is truly a one-man machine. Today
he will be sharing polling data on U.S. aid to Israel conducted by his
organization and by other pollsters.
Grant
Smith: Thank
you, Dale. Public opinion polling is very important, obviously, but
there isn’t very much done in terms of asking
about what the public thinks about core Israel lobby programs. But
that’s going to change today. The polling that we are about to look
at could and should provide input to elected officials, who should then, in
turn, act in the public interest. Polling about the Israel lobby
programs that we’re going to look at reveals the growing gap between what the
public thinks about particular issues, and the government actions being
demanded by the Israel lobby. 
Last year, I spoke here about the birth of
the Israel lobby in the United States, its growth, its size, its composition
and division of labor. This was all based on my book Big Israel, in which I reveal a $3.7 billion
nonprofit ecosystem on track to reach $6.3 billion by 2020. With
14,000 employees, 350,000 volunteers, but a paying membership of approximately
774,000, it is this nonprofit lobby, along with overlapping
campaign-finance infrastructure—whether it is large individual donors, stealth
political action committees—that provide Israel with the U.S. support that it
would otherwise not have. All of this will be on a brilliant display
when 15,000 AIPAC members assemble this weekend to begin their annual policy
conference. So let’s continue looking at the lobby, and what
Americans think of that program.
MORE . https://www.wrmea.org/2017-may/grant-smith-american-public-opinion-about-u.s.-aid-to-israel-and-other-top-aipac-programs.html
CONTENTS: ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #15 5-17-21
MAY 18 GLOBAL PROTEST
US
Campaign for Palestinian Rights
ANSWER
Coalition
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION MAY 2021
Weapons
to Israel
Chris
Hedges, Israel’s War Crimes and US and Israel’s Lies
Mairead
Maguire v. Israel Killings and US Compliance
Philip
Weiss v. Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Israel
Lana
Tatour, Not Only Apartheid but Israel Enforces Settler-Colonialism
Norm
Finkelstein Interview
2016-17 CONTINUITY, PRESENT FROM THE PAST
Jonathan
Cook, New Land Law for Annexation Dooms 2- State Solution
Stephen
Zunes, Israeli War Crimes Permitted by Bipartisan US Congress
RESISTANCE
sraeli
Teens Refuse to Serve in Israeli Army
Medea
Benjamin, BDS Movement
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
Jewish
Voice for Peace (JVP), Jewish Social Justice Tradition
CONTENTS, ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER
#14, MAY 16, 2021
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/05/omni-israel-palestine-newsletter-14-may.html
MAY 12-16, 2021: A Battle Becoming a
War
Whitbeck: Meaning of annual $3.8
Billion to Israel
Consequences of Apartheid and
Ethnic Cleansing
A Palestinian Community Calls for
International Help
The Nakba and Israeli Refusers
Nakba Day
Senator Sanders Calls for Peace
Rabbi Waskow: Muslims and Jews Call
for Peace (and you can join them)
LOOKING BACK TO PREPARE THE FUTURE
A. J. Muste Institute for
Nonviolence, and Israel/Palestine
Canada’s NDP Sanctions Israel
AFSC Demands Vaccinations for Palestinians
Ilan Pappe’s Quick History of
Israel/Palestine
APN, Beerman’s Book on Zionism
Washington Report on Middle East
Affairs: John Kerry
APN, 2016
END ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS NEWSLETTER #16, May 25, 2021.
No comments:
Post a Comment