Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak recently gave some remarks at an event organized by the group USA for Israeli Democracy.
His message was essentially, “Jewish people in the United States
shouldn’t be afraid to criticize the Israel’s current government,” but
he made a point to mention the detrimental impact of AIPAC.
“I’m a critic of AIPAC in a way,” he explained. “AIPAC made it a rule
to broadcast unison support for the government.” He says he has been
trying to pressure the group to shift on this issue for years.
This gets at a subject that I’ve written about in recent issues of
the newsletter. The idea that AIPAC is becoming something of a liability
for supporters of Israel. First, Democratic presidential candidates
beginning skipping their annual conference, then their critics began
associating them with Trump and the Capitol insurrection when they
backed a bunch of January 6th Republicans. Now they are being associated
with Netanyahu because they refuse to back the protest movement in
Israel or criticize the government.
AIPAC knows its brand is diminishing. In a recent installment of The Shift
I suggested that, despite operating with a tiny budget in comparison,
AIPAC sees liberal Zionist groups like J Street as an existential
threat. They show you can criticize Israel (within a certain limit) and
still get elected.
Cleveland Jewish News has an editorial line that’s basically the exact opposite of Mondoweiss’s,
but a columnist at the site reaches similar conclusions in a recent
op-ed. Former Washington lobbyist Douglas Bloomfield and consultant says
that, “There’s nothing wrong with raising money to help elect your
friends and defeat your opponents, but concealing your true agenda
raises serious ethical questions. Especially if you’re working to help
people who voted to override the U.S. Constitution and disenfranchise
millions of voters.”
Bloomfield says liberal Zionists need to build a bigger tent in order to bring in liberals turned off by Netanyahu and AIPAC.
“Jews and Democrats, especially young voters, who are turned off by
AIPAC and its GOP/Likud movement away from democracy and historic
values, may find J Street a place to take their activism,” he writes.
“Moderate Republicans must be brought in as well. The future of U.S.
support for Israel may depend on it.”
There are still a number of Democrats who are backed by AIPAC and
need to act like none of this stuff is actually happening. 26 House
Democrats traveled to Israel on a trip sponsored by the lobbying group
last month and Jewish Insider
recently spoke with 7 of them about their takeaways. The prevailing
message? Everything is fine! Netanyahu’s judicial reforms and the
movement opposing them are simply proof that Israel is a functioning
democracy.
“We are reminded that Israel is a democracy that allows people to
have different views,” says Rep. Don Davis (D-NC). “That is very much a
part of a democratic process… Democracy is obviously running its
course.”
AIPAC spent $2.4 million to help secure Davis a victory in last year’s primary, but I digress.
This tension isn’t going away. Nearly 20 U.S. Jewish organizations
are circulating an open letter urging congressional members to back a resolution
that expresses support for protest movement and condemns Netanyahu
reforms. Those include USA for Israeli Democracy and J Street, along
with Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Israel Policy Forum, Jewish
Council for Public Affairs, Jewish Democratic Council of America,
National Council of Jewish Women, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish
Agenda, Partners for Progressive Israel, Rabbinical Assembly,
Reconstructing Judaism, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association,
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Union for Reform Judaism,
and UnXeptable.
It’s already backed by 47 Democrats.
AIPAC is heading into the 2024 elections with a lot of money, but how
long can they hold off a reckoning on the Democratic side of the aisle?
Golda Meir Movie
Last week Golda, a
new film from director Guy Nattiv, premiered in the United States.
Helen Mirren plays the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and the
movie tells the story of her trying to navigate the 1973 Arab–Israeli
War.
“Golda is a ticking-clock thriller set during the tense 19 days of
the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, faced
with the potential of Israel’s complete destruction, must navigate
overwhelming odds, a skeptical cabinet, and a complex relationship with
US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, with millions of lives in the
balance,” reads the production company’s description. “Her tough
leadership and compassion would ultimately decide the fate of her nation
and leave her with a controversial legacy around the world.”
“There was no such thing as Palestinians,” Meir once infamously declared.
“It was not as if there was a Palestinian people in Palestine and we
came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did
not exist.”
Meir oversaw the construction of multiple illegal settlements, and in 1972, her government purposely poisoned the Palestinian village Aqraba in order to build one. Earlier this year Haaretz published a report on freshly unearthed documents detailing this process.
“The first step was dispossessing residents of the nearby Palestinian
village of their land under the false pretext of making it a military
training zone,” the article explains. “When the Palestinians insisted on
cultivating the land, Israeli soldiers sabotaged their tools. Soldiers
were later ordered to use vehicles to destroy the crops. A radical
solution was employed when this failed: a crop duster spread a toxic
chemical. The substance was lethal for animals and dangerous for
humans.”
“It was our habit that for anything that has to do with settlements,
outposts, land expropriations and so on, we simply do it and do not talk
about it, but the main thing, as much as possible, is to talk less,”
Meir later explained.
Mirren, who volunteered on an Israeli Kibbutz as a young person, has
praised the “extraordinary magical energy” of the country. In a recent
interview she criticized the BDS movement. “I’ve met great artists in
Israel,” she said. “To abandon those artists didn’t seem the right thing
to me. On the contrary, work with the artists of Israel. It’s the
artistic community that I believe will carry Israel forward.”
Meir is still viewed as a feminist icon by many in the United States.
Earlier this year Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and
Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) introduced a bill directing
the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins as a tribute to Meir.
“Golda Meir’s story is a testament to the progress of the Jewish people,
and that of Jewish women in particular,” said Wasserman
Schultz in a statement. “As a founder of the State of Israel, she
modeled leadership for future generations and was fundamental in
strengthening the United States-Israel partnership. I’m proud to sponsor
this legislation to cement her place in history.”
Odds & Ends
🎤 A new letter
calls on the band Imagine Dragons to cancel planned concerts in Baku
and Tel Aviv over the human rights records of the Azerbaijani and
Israeli governments respectively. Signatories include Pink Floyd’s Roger
Waters, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, actress Alia Shawkat, and
musician Brian Eno:
We condemn all forms of racism and discrimination, including
anti-Black racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, sexism and homophobia.
Ethical opposition to an unjust political system or policy is both
legitimate and necessary. Bigotry, hatred and discrimination targeting
any group of humans based on their identity, by contrast, must be
ended.
We believe Imagine Dragons share these values. We urge the group
to uphold them by canceling the shows in Baku and Tel Aviv, and
consistently speaking out for everyone’s safety and everyone’s human
rights. Palestinians and Armenians, like all people, deserve to live in
freedom, dignity, and safety. It’s not too late for Imagine Dragons to
do the right thing. It would be a meaningful contribution towards
freedom, justice and equality for all.
🖥️ I did a Reddit AMA with the group JewsOfConscience.
✍️ The American Jewish Committee (AJC) has established a task force to implement the White House strategy on antisemitism.
🌊 Rhode Island lieutenant governor promotes her support for Israel in closing week of congressional campaign.
🇱🇾 What the latest Libya debacle tells us about U.S. and Israeli indifference to Libyan lives
🇸🇦 Biden is pushing Saudi normalization for one reason, to please the Israel lobby
🍦 This week a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed the lawsuit launched by Ben & Jerry’s against its parent company Unilever.
🇮🇱 Israeli Tourism Minister Haim Katz recently complained
that inclusion into the U.S. visa waiver program will bring an influx
of “unwanted” Palestinians. ““I don’t understand why Israel needs this
at all, ” he said I am opposed to the mad pursuit of the visa exemption
for the U.S., this will oblige us to allow the entry of unwanted
parties, Palestinians, who will travel in the country. Who needs this?”
✊ ‘Google has no scruples.’ Employees protest Google Cloud conference over Israel military contract
🇵🇸 Palestinian Americans have much to teach by sharing their histories and shaping the future
🗽 NYC mayor “proud to sit” with apartheid prime minister
🇮🇷 Is BRICS big enough for the Saudi-Iran rivalry?
🎙️ The AnthroBoycott Collective and Organizing Against Apartheid—An Interview with Daniel Segal and Jessica Winegar
💰 Cutting US Aid to Israel Doesn’t Go Nearly Far Enough
Stay safe out there,
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