| Betty McCollum's bill (backed by J-Street and Americans for Peace Now) is antisemitic. Here's why. noreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 16 Apr 04:30 AM JT | |
JTA reports:
Two liberal pro-Israel US groups, J Street and Americans for Peace Now, are backing a House bill to be presented this week that would list actions Israel may not fund with US money. The measure, which will be introduced by Democratic Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota and was first reported by The Intercept, would restrict Israel from using US funds to detain Palestinian minors, appropriate or destroy Palestinian property or forcibly move Palestinians, or annex Palestinian areas. The endorsement by two groups that describe themselves as pro-Israel and McCollum's new seniority as the chairwoman of the defense subcommittee of the powerful Appropriations Committee suggest that the bill could attract broader Democratic support than previous attempts to restrict how Israel spends US assistance. Americans for Peace Now is a member of the umbrella Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Aid from the US already has strings attached - and it explicitly bars using the aid for anything but defensive purposes.
From the current Congressional Research Service report on Foreign Aid to Israel: The 1952 Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement and subsequent arms agreements between Israel and the United States limit Israel's use of U.S. military equipment to defensive...Read More |
Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar, speaking on Iraq's Al-Etejah TV, has some interesting theories about Jews. The [Arab] regimes that subscribe to the Neo-Arab-Zionism, which emerged after Christian and Jewish Zionism... How come they do not ask why the Holocaust happened? Was it because those who burned [the Jews] were criminals, or was it because the Jews in those countries took over the economy and politics and exploited the resources of these peoples for their own benefit? As historical evidence, see how many countries deported Jews. Every single country in Europe deported the Jews, because they spread corruption in those countries, controlled their money, exploited their economies for their own benefit, and collaborated with the enemy in times of war. Therefore, the local people hated them and deported them. So the Holocaust was not an extraordinary case, because every single country in Europe deported the Jews and killed Jews. The evidence for that is what happened on the eve of World War Two. Remember in 2017 when Hamas put out a huge public relations campaign to pretend that they took antisemitism out of its charter (they didn't) and declared in a new document that they had no...Read More |
From Ian: After last year's lockdown, Israelis back at parks to celebrate Independence Day Hundreds of thousands of Israelis flocked to beaches and parks across the country Thursday, barbecuing, waving flags and craning their necks for a glimpse of the Air Force fighter jets' flyby to mark the country's 73rd Independence Day. While most wore face coverings or had masks strapped around their chins, the scenes looked nearly identical to those from the pre-coronavirus era. After an early wave of the pandemic tamed celebrations significantly last year, Israelis were allowed to celebrate freely this year, with restrictions drawn back almost entirely. As a result, families flocked to national parks and beaches, filling many to full capacity. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority issued a statement early Thursday afternoon urging civilians to avoid traveling to the Tel Ashkelon National Park in the coming hours due to overcrowding. The Tze'elon, Shikmim and Amnon beaches at the Sea of Galilee were also shuttered to additional visitors after reaching full capacity, the parks authority said. Meanwhile, Israeli Air Force planes jetted across the country to mark the occasion. The flyover, a popular and iconic feature of Independence Day celebrations, is passing over more cities and towns than usual this year in what the Israel Defense Forces has called a "salute...Read More |
Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. Check out their Facebook page. Ramallah, April 15 - Declarations by members of the party controlling the Palestinian Authority that unless their rivals or Israel make substantive changes to longstanding policies and practices, a long-delayed parliamentary contest that will likely see the ruling party fall from power will not take place as planned, have not elicited the anticipated changes that those declarations aimed to achieve, in particular the casting of that party as a confident source of leadership, party sources reported today. Fatah, the now-dominant faction governing the autonomous Palestinian Authority in inland areas Israel vacated under a 1993 agreement, faces electoral defeat, according to recent polling, in parliamentary elections that have not taken place since 2007. Their chief rivals, the Islamist movement Hamas that staged a coup in the Gaza Strip that year and has since governed that coastal territory separately, stand to overtake Fatah in those elections, and for reasons not entirely clear to Fatah spokesmen, threats to call off the elections have not cast Fatah in the public imagination as demonstrating the swagger expected of leaders secure in their role who will attract popular support. "It's weird - this isn't what we expected to...Read More |
From Ian: J Street and Americans for Peace Now back bill that restricts Israeli spending of US aid Two liberal pro-Israel groups, J Street and Americans for Peace Now, are backing a House bill to be presented this week that would list actions Israel may not fund with U.S. money. The measure, which will be introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., and was first reported by The Intercept, would restrict Israel from using U.S. funds to detain Palestinian minors, appropriate or destroy Palestinian property or forcibly move Palestinians, or annex Palestinian areas. The endorsement by two groups that describe themselves as pro-Israel and McCollum's new seniority as the chairwoman of the defense subcommittee of the powerful Appropriations Committee suggest that the bill could attract broader Democratic support than previous attempts to restrict how Israel spends U.S. assistance. Americans for Peace Now is a member of the umbrella Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. "It's time that Congress stand up and defend the human rights of the Palestinian people," McCollum said Wednesday on Twitter. Spokesmen for J Street and Americans for Peace Now confirmed that they backed the bill. The latter's president, Hadar Susskind, emphasized that the bill does not condition aid to Israel but restricts it. Thus Israel may carry out...Read More |
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As expected, the Biden administration is actively pursuing reestablishing the Iran deal. Currently, US representatives are meeting Iran officials in Vienna who have demanded that US sanctions imposed under the Trump administration be removed first as a precondition to talks. Secretary of State Blinken, for his part, has claimed that Biden wants to "lengthen and strengthen" the deal.
This time around, there is no longer talk framing opponents to the Iran deal as warmongers, as the Obama administration and its allies did. It was a theme that was repeated endlessly and hammered into the public consciousness, that while the deal was not perfect, the choice was a binary one -- on between the Iran deal and war.
The argument worked. The argument of limited choice has also been used in pushing the two-state solution -- but has been updated.
At one time, the need to create a separate, independent Palestinian Arab state was justified on the basis of the threat of a "demographic time bomb," that the Arab population in Israel, Gaza and the "West Bank" would swamp the Jewish population. For example: The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics...Read More |
From Israel's National Library, photos of the first Yom HaAtzmaut: * * * * * *
...Read More |
Albert Arie, the oldest Jew in Cairo, passed away Thursday morning, at the age of 91.
Like the rest of the dwindling handful of Jews in Egypt, Arie was anti-Zionist and he was celebrated by Egyptians for his refusal to move to Israel as so many other Egyptians were forced to in stages as Egypt persecuted and expelled them starting in 1948.
Arie would often do interviews where he would speak about what life used to be like for Jews in Egypt, recalling how Egyptians used to be able to take a train directly to Jerusalem (although his claim that it took only two hours seems suspect.)
This interview took place last October:
JIMENA estimates that there only about four Jews left in Egypt, and most reports say the remainder are all or mostly elderly women.
However, last month some 13 Yemeni Jews fled their country and went to Cairo, so at least for a while, there are more Jews in Egypt than there have been for about ten years. It would be interesting to see if Egypt allows them to become citizens...Read More |
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