Freies Politikforum für Demokraten und Anarchisten

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Hundreds of fans at a football match between Glasgow Celtic and Israeli side Hapoel Beer Sheva turned whole sections of the stadium into a sea of Palestinian flags in a protest against the Israeli occupation, ignoring an official ban on political demonstrations.

Before the start of the Champions League cup qualifier, activists from the group Palestine Alliance handed out flags and leaflets on the Nakba, or Catastrophe, the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel and rendered millions of Palestinians refugees. Police outside Celtic Park warned fans against bringing flags into the stadium.

Celtic could face penalties from UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, for allowing the protests to go ahead, but some fans said they were prepared to pay any fine themselves to show their opposition to Israel's participation in the competition.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/scottish-football-fans-protest-match-against-israeli-team-palestine-flags-1552150491

Gaza football club dazzles Ireland

Fourteen boys from Gaza have brought joy to Ireland by displaying their football skills during a tour of the country.

Three weeks after the crushing disappointment of being refused exit permits by the Israeli authorities, the youngsters from al-Helal football academy were special guests of Galway United Football Club on 5 August.

The talented young Palestinian footballers got to showcase their talents before Galway United’s biggest crowd of the season. Al-Helal played an exhibiton game during the half-time break in a match between Galway United and Dundalk.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-football-club-dazzles-ireland/17651

Egyptian judo athlete sent home for refusing to shake Israeli's hand

An Egyptian judo athlete was sent home from the Rio Olympics after refusing to shake the hand of an Israeli player following the end of their bout, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday.

Islam el-Shehaby, who was sent home by his own team, lost the fight against Or Sasson on Friday and was reprimanded by the IOC for his actions.

The athlete said he did not want to shake hands with an Israeli, nor was he obliged to do so under judo rules, but the IOC said his behaviour went against the rules and spirit of the Olympic games and the rules of fair play.

“Shaking the hand of your opponent is not an obligation written in the judo rules. It happens between friends and he's not my friend,” Shehaby said after his bout.

“I have no problem with Jewish people or any other religion or different beliefs. But for personal reasons, you can't ask me to shake the hand of anyone from this state, especially in front of the whole world,” he said.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egyptian-judoka-sent-home-over-refusal-shake-hand-israeli-opponent-1163003779

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

The Turkish parliament approved a deal to normalise ties with Israel after a delay caused by last month's attempted coup, state-run media reported on Saturday.

Lawmakers ratified agreement to restore relations between the two former close regional allies after a six-year rift, before parliament was due to go into summer recess.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkish-parliament-approves-israel-deal-2138073742

Leaked photos and terrorism gaffes: The Egypt vs Palestine controversy

This week witnessed tensions rise between Egypt and Gaza, with two controversies breaking out and sparking a social media storm with users lashing out at the Egyptian government for its ties with Israel.

On Sunday, Egypt’s foreign minister appeared to tell a group of high school students that the killing of Palestinian children was not terrorism.

Sameh Shoukry responded to a question on whether the Israeli killing of Palestinian children was a form of terrorism by saying that different countries use the word terrorism differently - which Egyptian's interpreted as Shoukry's refusal to label the killings as "terrorism".
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/leaked-photos-and-statements-egypt-fm-palestine-cause-outrage-606062778

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Though Israel doesn't have formal diplomatic relations with either country, it says working together is essential
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-uae-and-pakistan-participate-military-exercises-us-421373309

President Erdoğan approves Turkey-Israel normalization deal
http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2016/08/31/president-erdogan-approves-turkey-israel-normalization-deal

What are Netanyahu and Putin plotting?

According to quite a few reports in recent weeks, Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to host a summit in Moscow for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The first report appeared in Maariv on July 11 and was confirmed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a press briefing this month as well as by Israeli, Palestinian and Russian officials.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/08/benjamin-netanyahu-vladimir-putin-mahmoud-abbas-barack-obama.html

A background check on some of the key figures running the Trump campaign in Israel reveals a very strong affinity with one particular side of the local political map.
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page//.premium-1.739221

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

The United States on Tuesday announced it had reached a record $38 billion 10-year military aid deal with Israel, despite increased disagreement over the Middle East peace process.

The State Department said the pact will be signed on Wednesday and "constitutes the I’m waiting to hear from all those Israelis and pro-Israelists who thumb their noses at the U.S., dismiss our disagreements with them, and even boast that they don’t need our dollars or weapons. So where are these folks now? Will our hasbara commentariat rise as one and denounce this aid deal? Or will they slink back into the darkness, licking their lips as they contemplate all those new Iron Dome batteries, F-16s and 35s, and cyberwar capabilities which $38-billion can buy?

What I really wanted to focus on tonight was Pres. Obama’s absolutely bankrupt statement that U.S. largess should open the hearts of Israelis to finally negotiate a two-state solution:
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/09/15/u-s-38-billion-israeli-military-aid-package-props-occupation/

The “S” in BDS: Lessons of the Elbit Systems Campaign

Israeli military companies such as Elbit Systems appear invincible, yet Israel’s arms industry is more vulnerable than it seems. Al-Shabaka guest author Maren Mantovani and Policy Advisor Jamal Juma’ examine both national and global trends and identify avenues for human rights activists to pursue to hold Israel accountable under international law.
http://www.stopthewall.org/s-bds-lessons-elbit-systems-campaign

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

US' benevolent claims on security, peace, compromise and friendship are false if not intentionally misleading.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/09/reasons-israel-military-deal-stinks-160915114203185.html

$38 billion military aid does not ‘meet all our needs’

Former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon joined ex-prime minister Ehud Barak Thursday in questioning the military aid deal signed Wednesday with the United States, saying the $38 billion — Washington’s largest defense package to any country in history — is still not enough to meet all of Israel’s security needs.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/yaalon-38-billion-military-aid-deal-with-us-not-enough/

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Seven lawmakers signed on to legislation from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that would provide an extra $1.5 billion in missile defense and direct assistance to Israel's military next fiscal year. They object to the White House's efforts to short-circuit unsolicited annual aid hikes by Congress as well as the elimination of a 26% carve-out for Israel's domestic defense industry instead of US weapons-makers.

"Now is not the time to tell the Iranians that we're going to be less supportive of Israel's ability to defend herself," Graham, the chairman of the Senate spending panel that controls foreign aid, said at a press briefing to unveil his bill. "Now is not the time to say that we're going to nickel and dime Israel."
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/09/us-aid-israel-partisan-turn.html

Palestinians lose in US military aid deal with Israel

The announcement last week by the United States of the largest military aid package in its history – to Israel – was a win for both sides.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could boast that his lobbying had boosted aid from $3.1 billion a year to $3.8bn – a 22 per cent increase – for a decade starting in 2019.

Mr Netanyahu has presented this as a rebuff to those who accuse him of jeopardising Israeli security interests with his government’s repeated affronts to the White House.

In the past weeks alone, defence minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared last year’s nuclear deal between Washington and Iran with the 1938 Munich pact, which bolstered Hitler; and Mr Netanyahu has implied that US opposition to settlement expansion is the same as support for the “ethnic cleansing” of Jews.
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-09-19/palestinians-lose-in-us-military-aid-deal-with-israel/

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

U.S. Senators Urge Obama to Veto Any 'One-sided' UN Resolution on Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Fearing post-election UN peace push by Obama, 88 Democratic and Republican senators tell president even well intentioned initiatives could make it more difficult to resolve conflict.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.743083
http://www.timesofisrael.com/88-senators-urge-obama-to-uphold-veto-on-one-sided-un-resolutions/

Why Are We Sending $38 Billion to Rich and Powerful Israel?

Last week’s announcement of a record-breaking US aid package for Israel underscores how dangerously foolish and out-of-touch is our interventionist foreign policy. Over the next ten years, the US taxpayer will be forced to give Israel some $38 billion dollars in military aid. It is money we cannot afford going to a country that needs no assistance to maintain its status as the most powerful military in the Middle East.
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2016/september/19/why-are-we-sending-38-billion-to-rich-and-powerful-israel/

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

U.S. Admits Israel Is Building Permanent Apartheid Regime — Weeks After Giving It $38 Billion

In 2010, Israel’s then-defense minister, Ehud Barak, explicitly warned that Israel would become a permanent “apartheid” state if it failed to reach a peace agreement with Palestinians that creates their own sovereign nation and vests them with full political rights. “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic,” Barak said. “If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

Honest observers on both sides of the conflict have long acknowledged that the prospects for a two-state solution are virtually non-existent: another way of saying that Israel’s status as a permanent apartheid regime is inevitable. Indeed, U.S. intelligence agencies as early as 45 years ago explicitly warned that Israeli occupation would become permanent if it did not end quickly.
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/06/u-s-admits-israel-is-building-permanent-apartheid-regime-weeks-after-giving-it-38-billion/

Jordan defends Israel gas deal from claims of backing occupation

Jordan on Monday defended its deal to buy Israeli natural gas that has stirred public opposition, insisting the accord would not leave the Arab country reliant on Israel.

Mohamed Momani, the information minister, told Jordanian television that the deal would cut $600m a year from the state's energy bill.

"We will not be dependent on Israel," he said.

Momani said the government was seeking to diversify its sources of gas supplies.

It was "too simplistic to say that sealing such a deal means the kingdom is supporting Israeli occupation," he said, referring to the occupied Palestinian territories.

An estimated 2,000 Jordanians took part in a demonstration on Friday in the centre of Amman to protest against the deal signed on 26 September to import natural gas from Israel.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jordan-defends-israel-energy-deal-claims-backing-occupation-571777177

Jewish Man Indicted After Criticizing Israel, U.S. at Kansas Q&A With Dennis Ross

The executive director the Kansas City library system says he is "outraged" that prosecutors continue to pursue charges against a man who was arrested after asking pointed questions during a library discussion about the Middle East peace process and an employee who tried to intervene.

Although the arrests occurred in May following a speech by author and diplomat Dennis Ross, the library system only recently went public about its opposition to charges, the Kansas City Star reported.
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/americas/1.745742

Jewish anti-Zionist removed as Momentum vice chair

Jeremy Corbyn support group Momentum removed Black and Jewish anti-Zionist activist Jackie Walker as vice chair on Monday night.

Walker told The Electronic Intifada on Friday that she had been suspended from the UK Labour Party pending investigation, for allegedly “bringing the party into disrepute.”

Walker said she would fight the suspension.

Momentum is a left-wing group established in the wake of Corbyn’s victory as Labour leader last year, attempting to capitalize on the wave of popular support generated in the campaign.

Walker’s removal as vice chair has led to an, at times acrimonious, division within the pro-Corbyn left.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/jewish-anti-zionist-removed-momentum-vice-chair

Why is Norway aiding Israel’s crimes?

Last month, two Norwegian artists published an “apology” from their country’s national theater over its collaboration with Israel’s government-backed Habima theater.

The video apology was a performance, meant to highlight Norway’s complicity in Israel’s crimes and its use of culture to whitewash them.

The artists, Pia Maria Roll and Marius von der Fehr, sparked a national debate in Norway. Their intervention has received a warm welcome from the Palestinian arts community as well as from Israelis who are active against their country’s occupation, colonialism and apartheid.

But the “apology” provoked a furious reaction from the Israeli government, which demanded that all copies of the video be scrubbed from the Internet.

Norway’s embassy in Tel Aviv rushed to reassure supporters of Israel’s abuses that the apology wasn’t really from the Norwegian national theater and that Norway’s government opposes boycotts of Israel.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-norway-aiding-israels-crimes

In leaked emails, Colin Powell says Israel has 200 nukes
http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-leaked-emails-colin-powell-says-israel-has-200-nukes/

Outrage as Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign bank accounts closed

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign announced on Monday that its accounts had been closed by the Bank of Ireland.

The IPSC is seeking answers from the bank, which would only say the organization no longer met its “risk appetite.”

In a statement the IPSC said the move appeared to be “part of a campaign orchestrated by the Israeli government.”

The group also described the bank’s decision as “an attack on Palestinian rights and BDS,” the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/outrage-ireland-palestine-solidarity-campaign-bank-accounts-closed

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

The founder of Saudi Arabia’s first public affairs organisation in the United States has called for the kingdom to form a “collaborative alliance” with Israel.

Salman al-Ansari is the president of the Saudi American Public Relations Affairs Committee (SAPRAC), which he founded in March this year.

On Tuesday Ansari wrote in American outlet The Hill that an alliance between Saudi Arabia and Israel would be “in the interest of the greater Middle East” as well as being a “mutually beneficial economic partnership”.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-lobbyist-calls-collaborative-alliance-israel-1007577915

The American billionaires influencing Israeli policy

The Oct. 14 appearance of Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories — B’Tselem, before the UN Security Council to address the twin issues of Jewish construction in the occupied territories and the demolition of Palestinian homes there generated a slew of Israeli condemnations against Israeli peace and human rights groups.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/10/haim-saban-miriam-adelson-israeli-politics-netanyahu-clinton.html

US funding 'Israeli state terrorism' in military deal

Al Jazeera speaks to three Palestinian victims of US military aid to Israel, as a record $38bn deal was signed.http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/09/funding-israeli-state-terrorism-military-deal-160926074254028.html

'The occupation is sustainable because the world refuses to take action'

The following is a transcript of the prepared remarks B’Tselem executive director Hagai El-Ad delivered to UN Security Council members during a special ‘Arria-formula’ session on ‘Illegal Israeli Settlements: Obstacles to Peace and the Two-State Solution’ in New York on October 14, 2016.
http://972mag.com/the-occupation-is-sustainable-because-the-world-refuses-to-take-action/122635/

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

On a day that most people expected not to see, we can say few things with certainty.

One of them is that Hillary Clinton would have been a disastrous president for those supporting the Palestinian struggle for their rights.

Her failed campaign pitched her as the natural successor to President Barack Obama, the Democrat who just unconditionally handed Israel the biggest military aid package in history.

During the Democratic primary campaign, Clinton marketed herself as a belligerent and violently hawkish ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the Palestinian people.https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/what-will-president-trump-mean-palestine

Is Trump bringing “white Zionism” to the White House?

Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s running mate, has weighed in on the controversy over President-elect Donald Trump’s appointment of the racist former executive chairman of Breitbart News as his chief strategist.

Under Steve Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart News “regularly published materials designed to stoke fears about African Americans, Latinos, Muslims and other groups, and to explicitly normalize white nationalist and white supremacist beliefs,” according to New York magazine.

This so-called alt-right ideology has been described by one of its key promoters as a form of “white Zionism.”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/trump-bringing-white-zionism-white-house

LA fundraising dinner raises $38 million for Israeli army

A fundraising dinner organised by Friends of the Israel Defence Forces (FIDF) in Los Angeles has raised $38 million, Yedioth Ahronoth has reported. The gala event is held every year and is attended by prominent celebrities, artists and businessmen.

The newspaper noted that a number of American celebrities attended the 2016 dinner last night, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Robert De Niro, television host Larry King, Gerard Butler, Jewish businessman and media mogul Haim Saban, and many others. Soldiers with American backgrounds serving in the Israeli army also attended. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the founder and head of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, made the single largest contribution of the night of $6 million.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20161105-la-fundraising-dinner-raises-38-million-for-israeli-army/

Israeli Weapons Fueling War in South Sudan

South Sudanese rebels were seen armed with Israeli-procured automatic rifles which were originally sold to Uganda.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israeli-Weapons-Fueling-War-in-South-Sudan-20161021-0007.html

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

White supremacists are about to take up residency in the White House. Climate change deniers are mapping out the future of environmental policy. A man who seems to be constantly losing his temper on Twitter will – in less than two months from now – lead a nuclear-armed superpower.

And what are Europe’s top politicians doing in preparation for Donald Trump’s presidency? Are they asserting an alternative worldview to the heady blend of imperialism and capitalism that has intoxicated Trump’s entourage?

No, they are still parroting the old idea that the US should be constantly copied.

A new paper by the European Commission is particularly repugnant. Lamenting that the EU “lags behind” the US in military strength, it recommends steps to rectify that apparent problem.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/europes-turbo-boost-war-industry-will-benefit-israel

Zionists’ weapon of mass destruction against UK’s left

From Blairite to far-right, the British political elite is relishing having discovered the ultimate weapon of mass destruction to try and block the growth of a movement of the left around Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

All it needs to do is fire off round after round of unsubstantiated assertions of anti-Semitism, deploying circular and often contradictory arguments.

The left, so the mantra goes, has always been riddled with anti-Semitism. To deny this is, by definition, anti-Semitic.

Corbyn is in denial, according to his critics. The ardent pro-Israel advocate Howard Jacobson has accused him of belonging to the “more un-self-questioning wing of British politics.” Those words are probably more applicable to Tony Blair, the former prime minister and Corbyn’s arch enemy.
https://electronicintifada.net/content/zionists-weapon-mass-destruction-against-uks-left/18541

Who’s Afraid of Keith Ellison? The Israel Lobby

While Keith Ellison is odds on favorite to win the race as the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, we’ve only just begun to hear from the Israel Lobby on the subject. You might ask: why would the Lobby weigh in at all?
To answer this question, you have to return to the FBI wiretap of the Israeli embassy in Washington, which Shamai Leibowitz’ leaks to me exposed in 2009. As a result of them, I learned that the Minneapolis Jewish Community Relations Council was keeping tabs on Rep. Ellison. Here is what I wrote in the Truthout article I published (which seems to have disappeared from the site):
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/11/18/israel-lobby-hates-keith-ellison/

Trump Strives to Undo 70 Years of Bipartisan U.S. Mideast Consensus

There are alarming news reports about upcoming Trump cabinet appointments to fill key slots in the national security and foreign policy apparatus. They raise the specter of undoing nearly 70 years of carefully-constructed consensus in U.S. policy toward the Middle East. Presidents hearkening back to Lyndon Johnson have opposed Israeli settlements, and since George HW Bush they’ve supported a two-state solution. More recently, President Obama adopted an anti-interventionist course in the quagmire that is Syria. He and Pres. Bush also rejected an Israeli offer to jointly attack Iran.

Despite Trump’s avowed inclination to stay out of overseas conflicts, it’s quite possible key advisors and allies in the region like Benjamin Netanyahu could inveigle him into such military adventurism.
https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2016/11/27/trump-strives-undo-70-years-bipartisan-u-s-mideast-consensus/

Ontario legislature passes anti-BDS motion

The Ontario provincial legislature has passed a symbolic motion condemning the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement - a move Palestinian rights activists in Canada say aims to stifle criticism of Israeli human rights violations.

The motion, passed on Thursday, states that the provincial legislature stands against any position or movement that promotes “any form of hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance in any way”.

It also recognises “longstanding, vibrant and mutually beneficial” ties between Israel and Ontario, and rejects “the differential treatment of Israel, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement”.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/ontario-legislature-passes-anti-bds-motion-1651045995

U2 manager supports Israeli war crimes

The manager of U2, a rock band well known for human rights campaigning, has taken part in fundraising activities for an organization that supports Israel’s war crimes.

Guy Oseary, who also manages Madonna, attended a 2014 fundraising gala in Los Angeles, California, for Friends of the IDF.

The event – which reportedly brought in $33 million to the organization’s coffers – was held just a few months after Israel’s 51-day bombardment of Gaza that year.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/u2-manager-supports-israeli-war-crimes

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

With every passing year, the American Jewish establishment poses a greater threat to free speech in the United States.

The reason is simple. With every passing year, Israeli control of the West Bank grows more permanent. And so, with every passing year, more American progressives question Zionism.

After all, if Jewish statehood permanently condemns millions of West Bank Palestinians to live as non-citizens, under military law, without free movement or the right to vote for the government that controls their lives, it’s hardly surprising that Americans who loathe discrimination and cherish equality would grow uncomfortable with the concept.
And the more those Americans voice this discomfort, the more establishment American Jewish organizations work to classify anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, punishable by law.

The latest example is The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which the Senate passed unanimously on December 2. The Act – pushed by AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federations of America – instructs the Department of Education’s Civil Rights office to follow “the definition of anti-Semitism set forth by the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat anti-Semitism of the Department of State in the Fact Sheet issued on June 8, 2010.”
Sounds innocuous enough. Until you look at what the Fact Sheet says. Following the definition hatched by Soviet dissident turned Israeli right-winger Natan Sharansky, the Fact Sheet defines anti-Semitism as, among other things, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, and denying Israel the right to exist.”
This is nuts. Across the world, numerous peoples desire “self-determination.” Kurds have been seeking their own state since the late nineteenth century, roughly the same period when Jews hatched Zionism.

So have Basques. Sikhs have been agitating for their own country, in Punjab, since India’s creation. The Igbos of eastern Nigeria actually created one, Biafra, for three years between 1967 and 1970.

There are reasonable arguments in favor of these efforts at self-determination. There are also reasonable arguments in favor of requiring Kurds, Basques, Sikhs and Igbo to live in multi-ethnic countries based upon a national identity that supersedes their own.

Either way, bigotry has nothing to do with it. If opposing a people’s desire for self-determination makes you bigoted against that group, then a lot of American Jewish leaders should report themselves to the Department of Education’s Civil Rights office right now.

After all, Palestinians want their own state. Many American Jewish leaders oppose it. Why aren’t those leaders bigots under the very principle they’re trying to write into law?

The truth is that political Zionism – the belief that Jews enjoy the greatest safety and self-expression in their own state – has always been controversial even among Jews. In the early twentieth century, many Orthodox Jews called Zionism a violation of Jewish law.

Many American Reform Jews argued that Jews were a faith, not a people, and thus had no homeland other than the United States. Other prominent Jewish thinkers – including Judah Magnes, who founded Hebrew University,

Henrietta Szold, who founded Hadassah and the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Martin Buber – argued that a Jewish state would dispossess Palestinians and bring war. They argued for a binational state instead. That didn’t make them anti-Semites.

As the twentieth century progressed, these arguments against Zionism faded. The Holocaust buttressed the case for a country of Jewish refuge. Israel became an established fact, and in many ways an extraordinary success.

Then, in 1993, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat declared that “The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.” In 2002, the Arab League offered to “sign a peace agreement with Israel” if it returned to the 1967 lines and found a “just” and “agreed upon” solution to the Palestinian refugees.

Once even Palestinian and Arab leaders publicly declared that they could accept a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian one, the historic debate over Zionism dwindled.

It is returning in the twenty-first century because a Palestinian state was never born. (A failure for which both sides deserve blame). That failure, combined with decades of Israeli settlement growth, has convinced many progressives that a Palestinian state is now impossible.

Thus, they argue, the only way West Bank Palestinians can win their rights is in one state – including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel proper – that does not privilege Jews.

This is not my view. Despite everything, I still consider the two state solution more realistic than the binational alternative. But you don’t have to be an anti-Semite to disagree.

Anti-Zionism never died; there have always been people – Jewish and non-Jewish – who oppose any kind of Jewish state within any borders. But anti-Zionism is growing because deepening Israeli control of the West Bank makes it harder to reconcile Zionism with basic Palestinian human rights.

Faced with the growing number of Americans who deny that Zionism is compatible with liberal democracy, establishment American Jewish groups could try to make Zionism more compatible with liberal democracy. They could publicly challenge Israel’s undemocratic occupation of the West Bank. But that would require confronting Benjamin Netanyahu, and many of their own donors.

So they’ve chosen an easier path: get the Department of Education to define anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and thus threaten the campus activists who are challenging Jewish statehood with legal sanction. The Senate bill claims that “Nothing in this act…shall be construed to diminish or infringe upon any right protected by the First Amendment.”

But that’s exactly what the bill does. In the words of Michael Macleod-Ball, chief of staff of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington, DC legislative office, it “opens the door to considering anti-Israel political statements and activities as possible grounds for civil rights investigations.”

It’s an old story: When people in power fear a debate, they try to criminalize it. It won’t work. If Zionism means permanent control of millions of Palestinians who lack basic rights, Zionists will gradually lose the contest of ideas in the United States. And the American Jewish establishment – which chose silencing Zionism’s opponents over fighting for a Zionism they could honestly defend – will bear some of the blame.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.757284

Ich habe das ganze Artikel gepostet weil sicher später nur die aboniert sind , lesen kann...

What is the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act?

On Thursday I spoke to Sharmine Peries of The Real News about the “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act,” a bill being pushed through Congress that aims to broaden the definition of anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel.

Watch the video above.

The bill instructs the Department of Education to consider the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism when investigating schools for discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

That definition broadly defines anti-Semitism to include “demonizing,” “delegitimizing” or applying a “double standard” to Israel. It has especially been used to target and smear boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) activists seeking to pressure Israel to end abuses of Palestinian rights.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/watch-what-anti-semitism-awareness-act

Trump son-in-law's family gave money to illegal West Bank settlements

The parents of Donald Trump's son-in-law have given tens of thousands of dollars to groups in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to a Haaretz report on Monday.

Tax forms from 2010-2014 on Jared Kushner’s parents show that their fund – the Charles and Seryl Kushner Foundation – gave $20,000 to the group American Friends in Beit El Yeshive, an organisation that supports programmes in the arch-conservative settlement of Beit El.

Jared Kushner sits on the board of his parents’ foundation.

Haaretz reported in 2009 that Beit El was built on private Palestinian land without approval. In a Peace Now report, 96.85 percent of Beit El’s land is Palestinian property.

The president of the American Friends in Beit El Yeshive is David Friedman, who advised Trump on foreign policy towards Israel and Palestine. Friedman also works as Trump’s real estate lawyer.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/kushner-family-foundation-has-donated-projects-west-bank-97550615

Jimmy Carter: America Must Recognize Palestine

We do not yet know the policy of the next administration toward Israel and Palestine, but we do know the policy of this administration. It has been President Obama’s aim to support a negotiated end to the conflict based on two states, living side by side in peace.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/opinion/jimmy-carter-america-must-recognize-palestine.html?_r=0

Most Democrats consider Israel ‘a burden’ on US with too much influence on policy, poll claims

Most Democrats consider Israel to be a burden to the United States, according to the published findings of a poll released by the Brookings Institution on Friday.
The survey found a clear majority of Americans (76%) said Israel was “a strategic asset” to the US, its authors said. At the same time, they said, “a majority of Democrats, 55%, say that Israel is also a burden”; among Republicans, 24% consider Israel a burden. Fifty-two percent of Independents do not consider Israel a burden and 41% think it is. http://www.timesofisrael.com/most-democrats-consider-israel-is-a-burden-on-the-united-states-poll-claims/