Author: Kairos Puget Sound Coalition

Ahead of Prime Minister Bennett’s first visit to Washington, new poll data show partisan divides on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, support for a Palestinian state.

By Dina Smeltz and Emily Sullivan | Chicago Council on Global Affairs | Aug 25, 2021

…overall opinion divides closely on whether the United States should (50%) or should not (45%) restrict US military aid to Israel to prohibit its use in military operations against Palestinians.

In recent years, the US-Israel relationship was stewarded by Israel’s longest-serving leader, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the man whom he referred to as “the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House,” former President Donald Trump. This week, the first meeting between the two countries’ newly elected leaders, President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, will set the tone for a new era of US-Israel relations.

Continue reading “Americans split on military aid to Israel, say political status quo unacceptable”

Lawmakers decry lack of clarity over what materials are allowed into Gaza by Israel, call for full reopening of border crossings.

By MEE staff | Middle East Eye | Aug 19, 2021

Israel has prevented the import of raw materials, building materials, electrical appliances and equipment, as well as wood, metal and plastic equipment into Gaza, while imposing strict restrictions on exports, allowing only small quantities of produce and fish to come out of the Palestinian territory.

More than 50 House Democrats have called on the Biden administration to work with Egypt and Israel to ensure the delivery of aid into Gaza, as the lawmakers cited concerns over the prohibition of materials entering the besieged strip months after Israel’s offensive left a devastating humanitarian toll on the country.

The group of 53 lawmakers sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, urging him to push for a full reopening of the Kerem Shalom, Erez, and Rafah border crossings into Gaza, adding that the Rafah crossing at Egypt’s border was not enough.

Continue reading “House Democrats urge Biden to ensure aid enters Gaza from Israel and Egypt”

Scores of unarmed Palestinians, including children, have been murdered since the end of Israel’s May assault. Yet this is now so normal, the Israeli media and army barely mention it

By Gideon Levy | Middle East Eye | Aug 17, 2021

Behind all this is contempt for Palestinian lives. Nothing is valued less in Israel than the life of a Palestinian

Superficially, things are relatively quiet these days in the Israeli-occupied territories. There are no Israeli casualties, almost no attacks in the West Bank and certainly not inside Israel. Gaza has been quiet since the end of Israel’s latest offensive there, Operation Guardian of the Walls.

In the West Bank, the despair-inducing routine of daily life grinds on during this so-called period of quiet – which is precisely the irony crying out for our notice in this terrifying statistic: since May, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank.

Continue reading “In Israel, the cold-blooded killing of Palestinians is met with silence”

These meetings reflect Bennett’s desire to appear more reasonable than Netanyahu, but don’t expect any substantive changes.

By Mitchell Plitnick | Responsible Statecraft  | Aug 16, 2021

Burns’ deep knowledge of policy and his expertise in diplomacy, earned over nearly four decades in the Foreign Service, means he has the president’s ear on policy decisions in a way most other CIA directors haven’t.

In the coming weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is expected to visit the White House for his first meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden. The new administrations in both countries have been working to reset the relationship between them in the wake of their personality-driven predecessors. The visit this week of Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns was a key moment in that process.

Burns brings an unusual perspective to intelligence. A career diplomat who reached the highest ranks of the State Department before taking this position, Burns comes to an allied country to discuss policy as much as intelligence and security, more so than many of his predecessors. His selection was part of Biden’s effort to reinvigorate U.S. diplomacy after it had been crippled during the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Continue reading “CIA chief Burns brings a more polite tone in Israel visit”

In the first in a series on progressive US Judaism and Israel, the writer insists the American pro-Palestinian movement is not, by and large, antisemitic.

By Zvika Klein | The Times of Israel | Aug 9, 2021

“As Americans, we don’t provide $3 billion in military aid to Iran or Syria. Asad is a monster, and we are his enemies, as we should be. But without us, Israel couldn’t do everything it does.”
— Peter Beinart

NEW YORK — As we get closer to the Young Israel synagogue in the prestigious Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan, the journalist next to me pulls out his kippa from his pocket, and places it in a smooth, natural motion on his head. Then, he places his cellphone up against the monitor beside the door. Following the increase of antisemitic incidents across the United States, he explains, the synagogue has been equipped with advanced security devices, and entry is only permitted to those who have a unique ID barcode. As we cross the doorstep I can’t help but think: who would have thought I’d be davening Mincha with Peter Beinart.

Continue reading “Peter Beinart: ‘The Palestinians are suffering more than the Israelis’”

The righteous indignation of the Ben & Jerry’s controversy is rapidly blasted in emails to prospective donors. Over and over again.

By Douglas Bloomfield | The Jerusalem Post] | Aug 4, 2021

Former US senator Carl Levin, who died last week at 87, was one of the few unafraid to speak truth to power.

Over 50 years on and around Capitol Hill, I have found Israel has many friends, but not nearly as many as those who loudly declare the love and devotion.

Like the congressman with a large Jewish constituency who portrayed himself as Israel’s greatest defender in Congress but behind the scenes worked against it. There was the time he confided in colleagues that he hated the Israeli prime minister and wanted to cut aid as punishment. After losing his argument, he sought out a favorite reporter so he could publicly declare he not only supported the current aid levels but intended to lead the fight to increase funding.

Continue reading “GOP support of Israel isn’t legislation, but fundraising – opinion”

The backlash creates a smokescreen, distracting from the moral issue of Israeli occupation.

By Toby Irving | New York Daily News | Aug 3, 2021

Unfortunately, dominant politics, both here and in Israel, are still not able to hold the nuances Ben & Jerry’s and many American Jews hold so dear. It’s all BDS to them.

The people at Ben & Jerry’s who decided to remove their products from Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories anticipated significant backlash, but I wonder if they saw all the “meltdown” puns coming. Over the last few weeks, defenders of Israeli apartheid certainly lost it reacting to one of the highest-profile corporate actions against Israeli occupation. Ben & Jerry’s decided its products would no longer be made available in settlements in the West Bank.

Settlements are violations of international law and are widely recognized as antithetical to any hope for peace. Their expansion has all but killed the possibility of a two-state solution as it entrenches apartheid into the landscape of the West Bank. Ben & Jerry’s, motivated by its longstanding values of peace and social justice and the company’s and founders’ history in Israel, is doing its part to reject endless occupation. The move is not as sweeping an economic action as the Boycott-Divest-Sanctions (BDS) movement, the international non-violent Palestinian solidarity movement which calls for boycotts of the state of Israel, would have it, but BDS advocates still consider it a success.

Continue reading “The telling Ben & Jerry’s backlash: Even a targeted economic pressure campaign against Israel’s settlements meets a vitriolic response”

Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian communities looked past each other until violence and bloodshed forced a reckoning.

By Roger Cohen | The New York Times | Aug 1, 2021

“I was targeted as a Jew by radicalized thugs… But many more Arabs came to help me put out the fires than came to burn my places down. We cannot allow a violent minority to win.”
— Uri Jeremias, a celebrated Israeli chef

ACRE, Israel — Uri Jeremias, a celebrated Israeli chef, saw himself as a benefactor. By bringing jobs, tourists and investment to the mainly Arab heart of the coastal town of Acre, he believed he was seen as nurturing coexistence between Jews and Arabs.

Until an Arab mob torched his Uri Buri restaurant in May and a Jewish guest at his luxury hotel was asphyxiated in the worst inter-community riots in decades.

“I was targeted as a Jew by radicalized thugs,” Mr. Jeremias, 76, said at his airy house in Nahariya, a few miles north of Acre. “But many more Arabs came to help me put out the fires than came to burn my places down. We cannot allow a violent minority to win.”

Continue reading “Riots shatter veneer of coexistence in Israel’s mixed towns”

This increasingly emboldened military intimidation by Israeli forces aims to criminalize legitimate human rights and humanitarian work.

By Defence for Children International | July 30, 2021

“This latest act by Israeli authorities pushes forward an ongoing campaign to silence and eliminate Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations like DCIP”
—Khaled Quzmar, general director at DCIP

Ramallah, July 29, 2021—Israeli forces raided Defence for Children International – Palestine’s headquarters in the central occupied West Bank, confiscating computers and client files, early Thursday morning.

Israeli paramilitary border police forces raided DCIP’s headquarters located in Al-Bireh’s Sateh Marhaba neighborhood, located just south of Ramallah around 5:15 a.m. on July 29. More than a dozen Israeli soldiers forced open the office’s locked front door and confiscated six desktop computers, two laptops, hard drives, and client files related to Palestinian child detainees represented by DCIP’s lawyers in Israel’s military courts. No documents were left in the office to give any indication of the reason for the raid, and they did not leave behind any receipt of materials seized.

Continue reading “Israeli forces raid DCIP office, confiscate computers and client files”