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Past presidents have a unique position to see abuses of power and use their platform to call out these abuses.

By Nasim Ahmed |  Middle East Monitor |  Nov 16, 2020

It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine.
— Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the USA

Upon leaving office, US Presidents have, on occasion, mustered the courage to speak their mind about America’s relationship with Israel and the influence of the Zionist lobby in Washington. Jimmy Carter is perhaps best known for this. The 39th President of the USA, despite his role in mediating the 1979 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, was denounced as an anti-Semite following the publication of his 2006 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which went on to become a New York Times bestseller.

After a fierce backlash, Carter explained why it was so difficult for US politicians to discuss America’s relationship with Israel and the policies of the Zionist state in an honest fashion. “It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine,” he wrote in the Guardian at the time. “Very few would deign to visit the Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Gaza City or Bethlehem and talk to the beleaguered residents.” He urged his fellow Americans to know the facts about the “abominable oppression of the Palestinians.”

Continue reading “Obama follows in Jimmy Carter’s footsteps and speaks out against Israel and AIPAC”

The secretary of State’s decision would address certain organizations’ such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam as anti-Semitic toward the Israeli government.

By Nahal Toosi |  Politico  |  Nov 11, 2020

…supporters of the organizations said that by targeting them, Pompeo would send a major signal to dictators and other leaders overseas that it’s acceptable to crack down on these and similar organizations

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has decided to establish a new process by which the United States can declare groups, including NGOs, to be anti-Semitic.

For now, however, Pompeo won’t be naming any names.

The decision is a compromise. Three people familiar with the issue confirmed it, but noted that Pompeo could still change his mind and hold off on an announcement.

Continue reading “Pompeo expected to announce process for U.S. to label groups anti-Semitic”

Concern over keeping Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge has led to proposal giving Israel veto power over US arms sales.

By Grant Smith  | Antiwar.com |  Nov 10, 2020

Today, as the US offers additional advanced weapons to regimes successfully coerced to establish ties with Israel, someday those countries could stop obeying US marching orders and respond to popular demands for change, like Egypt during the Arab Spring. That is a problem, according to pro-Israel thinkers.

The United Arab Emirates bid to purchase F-35 multirole stealth aircraft caused a firestorm among Israel lobby operatives, pundits, and congressional fellow travelers. They say the US has an obligation to maintain Israel’s “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) if not Israel’s “Qualitative AND Quantitative Military Edge.”  QME is a doctrine that US war planners originally conceived to assess and counter the Warsaw Pact’s numerical troop advantage over US and allied forces stationed in Europe. The US was thought to need a qualitative advantage in military systems in order to counter the imbalance.

Continue reading “The Israel lobby’s ‘QME’ scam”

The core components of racism remain intact when the communities most impacted are marginalized.

By Benay Blend |  The Palestine Chronicle  |  Nov 9, 2020

‘The people who get the most blame have the least to do with how this whole process goes.’
— Onyesonwu Chatoyer, organizer for the All African People’s Revolutionary Party—New Mexico

Reflecting on the 2020 election, Onyesonwu Chatoyer wrote: “One thing I’ve been reflecting on today is how much election discourse is just poor and working-class people” blaming each other “for not participating in the right way.” An organizer for the All African People’s Revolutionary Party—New Mexico, Chatoyer understands that “the people who get the most blame have the least to do with how this whole process goes.”

While on the other hand, it is “the people who control it all—and who create the ideological, material, and political conditions that drive how poor people participate—” who get virtually no reproach at all.

Continue reading “From Palestine to Turtle Island: When all else fails oppressors blame the victim”

The Bishops Conference of Norway makes a strong statement against Christian Zionism’s use of the Bible to legitimize oppression or human rights violations.

By Church of Norway Bishops Conference  | Church of Norway | Nov 2, 2020

‘The promises of the Old Testament concerning the Jewish people and the land, cannot be used to legitimize the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes or their rights,’
— The Church of Norway Bishops Conference

In a statement on Christian Zionism released on 30 October, the Church of Norway Bishops Conference said Christian Zionism is “theologically unacceptable and incompatible with human rights.”

A just and sustainable peace in Israel and Palestine must respect international law and safeguard the security and rights of both peoples, the statement notes.

Continue reading “Church of Norway: Christian Zionism is ‘theologically unacceptable’”

Israeli drone and arms manufacturers weapons are likely being used against Armenians.

By Richard Silverstein  |  Tikun Olam  |  Oct 28, 2020

Israel has been selling advanced weapons systems to the Azeris for years. And the deals haven’t stopped at weapons systems.

It’s common knowledge that Israel is one of the world’s largest arms exporters. As I reported in Jacobin Magazine, it exports to the most genocidal regimes on the planet, and fuels ethnic conflicts from South Sudan to the Phillipines.

Less known is the role Israel is playing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In fact, the latter’s largest cargo planes are landing several times a week at an Israeli military air base, loading up on Israeli weapons and ferrying them back to Azerbaijan, sometimes with stops along the way in Turkey, another Azeri military ally. Nor is this a recent development. Israel has been selling advanced weapons systems to the Azeris for years. And the deals haven’t stopped at weapons systems. Because of Azerbaijan strategic location sharing a long border with Iran, it becomes a major intelligence asset for Israel as it seeks ways to surveil its arch-enemy Iran and understand its military capabilities.

Continue reading “Israeli Weapons Fuel Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict and Grease Palms of Corrupt Elite”

Israel’s diplomatic normalization efforts with Arab countries has accompanied growing authoritarianism and there might be more to come.

By Peter Beinart | Jewish Currents | Oct 26, 2020

To implement normalization agreements, therefore, Netanyahu and Trump need their Arab partners to quash domestic dissent.

On October 23rd, Donald Trump announced that Sudan would begin the process of normalizing relations with Israel. The declaration, which was part of a deal to remove Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terror, follows last month’s pledges by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to recognize the Jewish state. Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed that those peace deals—dubbed “The Abraham Accords”—will promote “human dignity and freedom” in the Middle East.

Twelve days after the Abraham Accords were signed, a poet named Dhabiya Khamis tried to exercise her freedom to leave the UAE. Her government barred her from boarding the plane. “The ban is probably because of my announced opinion against Zionism and normalization,” Khamis declared. “I fear for my freedom and life from being threatened and arrested.” Those fears were well-founded. According to a report in Middle East Monitor, “scores of Emiratis, Palestinians and Jordanians living in the UAE” had already been jailed “for opposing Abu-Dhabi’s peace deal with Israel.”

Continue reading “Israel’s Repressive Diplomacy”

Ahead of the US election there is speculation about what the outcome will mean for Israel.

By Dr Adnan Abu Amer | Middle East Monitor | Nov 2, 2020

A President Biden will, it is believed, reopen the Palestinian Embassy in Washington — the Office of the Palestine Liberation Organization to be precise — which Trump closed in 2018

Israel is getting ever more concerned about the result of the US election tomorrow. It fears a win for Democrat candidate Joe Biden and the loss of its ally Donald Trump. In preparation for a Democrat victory, it is seeking closer cooperation with regional countries, greater influence within the Democratic Party, and positive contacts with Biden’s campaign team to negate the possibility of an anti-Israel foreign policy in Washington and an end to the US-Israel honeymoon.

Among the Israeli concerns about a President Biden in the White House is that he may take the US back into the Iran nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew in 2018. The Israelis also expect the issue of its settlements across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem to be back on the agenda with a Democratic administration, which is likely to view them once again as an obstacle to peace. The UN will also probably be emboldened to criticise the illegal settlements. Israel’s relationship with the White House will, most Israelis believe, be less than cordial.

Continue reading “Israel is getting ever more concerned about the result of the US election”

The new amendments will allow US taxpayer money to be spent in Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law.

By Yumna Patel  |  Mondoweiss  | Oct 28, 2020

“Extending US funding to the occupied West Bank, including illegal Israeli settlements, is a clear recognition of Israel´s annexation of Palestinian territory…this upgrades the Trump administration’s involvement in Israeli war crimes to active and willful participation.’
— Hanan Ashrawi, PLO Executive Committee member 

In a move that has further legitimized Israel’s illegal settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, the US and Israel have expanded a number of existing scientific cooperation agreements to now include Israeli institutions in the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights.

The new agreement, signed on Wednesday between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, amended three existing scientific cooperation agreements between the two countries.

Continue reading “In pre-election rush, Trump OKs U.S. funding of science projects in illegal Israeli settlements”