Wednesday, July 19, 2023

07/19 Links Pt1: On Israel, Biden Surrenders to the Left; There’s No Ban on Criticizing Israel; Glick: Israel and the new America; US bipartisan group calls to end Palestinian 'pay-for-slay'

From Ian:

On Israel, Biden Surrenders to the Left
Don't let that sideshow distract from the Democrats in the White House, whose decision to intrude into a matter of Israeli domestic politics is doing more harm to the U.S.-Israel relationship than the casual bigotry that has become a permanent feature of the American Left.

President Joe Biden and his ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, don't approve of a series of judicial reforms that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports. That sounds to us like something for Israelis to debate among themselves, but Biden has decided to throw spitballs from the sidelines, advising Bibi that Israel "cannot continue down this road"—and then icing him out, announcing in March that he had no plans to invite the prime minister to the White House.

Until Monday, it had been months since they spoke. Biden, at last, has grudgingly extended Bibi an invitation to meet in the United States—but not necessarily at the White House. His invitation to Herzog, who is a critic of the judicial reforms and whose position is purely symbolic, adds insult to injury.

The U.S. president's petulance, meanwhile, has forestalled conversations on important issues. News reports indicate Hezbollah has been crossing into Israeli territory, illegal weapons are proliferating in the West Bank, and the White House is trying to engineer another ill-conceived deal with Iran.

Jayapal's racism is not news, and the decision of a group of Democrats to boycott Herzog's speech makes clear their objection is not to any set of Israeli policies but to the existence of the Jewish state. Biden, on the other hand, has described himself as a "lifelong friend and supporter of the State of Israel." As on so much else, he has surrendered whatever principles he once held to his party's ascendant progressive orthodoxy.
There’s No Ban on Criticizing Israel
The claim of a taboo against criticizing Israel is itself an anti-Semitic trope, the most obscenely common and casual one there is. But think of what it really means: You’re just calling people anti-Semitic because they’re saying things the Jews don’t want you to hear. No one put it more primitively than Omar, who tweeted “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” (Don’t worry, she “apologized.”) Michelle Goldberg’s own paper trades in it regularly and has for a long time, even as it throws up headline after headline describing Israel as a racist autocracy. In 2011, Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote that then-recent standing ovations for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Congress were “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” And Michelle Goldberg’s proposed lattice of taboos is so protective that Friedman wrote a piece just last week, 12 years later, describing how Israel is “engaged in unprecedented radical behavior” that’s threatening the U.S.-Israel alliance.

We’re hearing more and more naked anti-Semitism from public figures because Goldberg is precisely wrong. It’s open season on Israel. A new study by the Ruderman Family Foundation and the Network Contagion Research Institute found that Israel is attacked on social media more than any country in the world. China, Russia, and North Korea can’t compete. And, increasingly, social media is where politicians and the press get their cues.

This is no claim for Israel’s victim status. The Jewish state can take it. Swing away. Give it your best shot. The critics aren’t doing a very good job. Despite all the calumnies and hit jobs, Israel is thriving and building alliances. That’s because it isn’t protected by some invisible mesh of censorship. It’s defended by Iron Dome, the IDF, the faith and innovation of its people, and the workings of its rugged democracy. Joe Biden, having struck out with the scolding approach, has just invited Netanyahu to the United States. Let’s see just how restrained Israel’s critics are about that.
The Democratic Congressmen Boycotting Israel and Denouncing It as Racist
Yesterday, the Israeli president Isaac Herzog arrived in Washington for an official visit. Today, he will address a joint session of Congress, at the invitation of the Democratic leadership. At least five hard-left representatives—the so-called “Squad”—have made clear that they will not be attending, due to their hostility toward the Jewish state. Meanwhile, another representative, Pramila Jayapal, announced at a progressive conference last week that she and her colleagues “have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state.” Her statement provoked a forceful response from her fellow Democrats, after which she offered a half-hearted apology from which she then retreated. Noah Rothman comments:

It is no coincidence that Democratic support for Israel fell off a cliff between 2019 and 2020, when a Theory of Everything involving racial disparities became vogue inside the Democratic party. The same hyper-racial narrative that led Democrats to support defunding police forces now colors the way in which the party’s activist class views the Israeli conflict. While criticizing Israel isn’t inherently invalid or politically suicidal, the worldview that inspired Jayapal’s remarks is particularly toxic.

To reach their preferred conclusion, Jayapal and the activists for whom she spoke apply a distorted framework to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, reducing its complexities into digestible narratives around power dynamics and identity. Their reductive view holds Israelis to be powerful, moneyed, Europeanized aggressors, while Palestinians are a subjugated, colonized, brown monolith. It is seductive to those looking for clear good guys and bad guys in the conflict, and it has the added efficiency of allowing its believers to apply the same language they would in describing domestic conflicts to this entirely foreign one. It might insult anyone with more than a passing familiarity with the region and its dynamics, to say nothing of those who believe in Israel’s fundamental legitimacy, but tidy narratives are sometimes shallow.

It would be nice if Jayapal’s ill-considered decision to read the stage directions aloud produced a change of heart among Democratic lawmakers, but that is unlikely. What it has done is exposed Democrats’ worries about the ways in which they have antagonized the majority of Americans who support Israel.
Israel is Not a Racist State, in Theory or in Practice
Part of the problem seems to be Jayapal’s (and her friends’) complete unfamiliarity with the history of the conflict and the players involved. Forget the fact that the “progressive” caucus refuses to support the only democracy in the Middle East, and the only country in the region with full equality for women, the LGBT community, and freedom for all religions. This entire episode comes in the laughable context of her and several other progressives skipping an address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Congress, in an attempt to protest the policies of Prime Minister Netanyahu. None of them seem to be aware that before he was elected to his mostly ceremonial role Herzog served as the left-wing opposition leader against Netanyahu.

Her willful lack of knowledge is also clearly evident in what Jayapal’s “apology” does not say.

First, in her telling of the failures of the two-state solution there is only one party at fault: Israel. There is no mention of or accounting for the dismal leadership of the PA, which has consistently turned down numerous offers for an independent Palestinian state. For the record, Israel has repeatedly, more than 30 times, offered plans for peace and division of the land. Some of those deals, including the Clinton Peace Parameters, were even supported by Jayapal’s own party—along with much of the Arab world. Again, for the Squad’s edification, Israel (legitimately) gained a total of 26,178 square miles of territory in the defensive war of 1967. To date, it has ceded sovereignty over approximately 23,871 square miles or 87% of that territory. At various times in recent history (including deals proposed in 2000, 2008 and 2014), Israel has offered up to 99.3% of the remaining disputed territory in exchange for peace. Each time the Palestinians refused.

Second, while Jayapal’s statement contains vilification of Israel as a whole and its leaders in particular, there is no mention of the PA or its President, Mahmoud Abbas, who have repeatedly confirmed that the PA will use their very last penny if necessary to pay salaries and stipends to incentivize terrorists who kill innocent Americans and Israelis. There’s no mention of the fact that while Israeli schoolchildren are uniformly taught to yearn for peace, Arab schoolchildren in Israel, Gaza and PA controlled cities are taught to glorify war and terrorism, and that under official PA policy they stand to make more money for their families if they grow up to be killers and martyrs rather than doctors or lawyers.

Third, as she made clear in her statement, Jayapal does not understand—and seemingly does not seek to understand—the Israeli point of view on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Contrasting the Jewish people’s historical trauma from pogroms, persecution and the Holocaust with the Palestinians’ feelings of hopelessness about peace, as her statement does, creates a false framework that depicts the debate incorrectly. The suffering of the Jewish people historically has nothing to do with their legitimate claim to the land of Israel, and implying that this generational suffering is all that they bring to their “side” of the “debate”—as opposed to the Palestinians who just want the same rights as their neighbors (which, again, they have)—completely denies the Jewish people’s religious, historic and indigenous ties to the land. The Jewish people’s rightful ownership long predates the United Nations and well precedes the horrors of the Holocaust. No one ever gave Israel to the Jews—certainly not the Palestinians—and no one can ever take her away. Any two-state solution needs to begin with this fundamental understanding that somehow eludes Jayapal: The Jews are in Israel, and always have been, and will continue to be there, by right and not on sufferance.


Herzog to US Congress: Vilifying Israel is antisemitism
US-Israel relationship a 'two-way alliance'
Herzog thanked Congress for supporting Israel throughout its history, and said the US-Israel relationship is a “two-way alliance, in which Israel has been making critical contributions to the national security and interests of the United States in numerous ways.”

The greatest challenge the US and Israel face at this time is the Iranian nuclear program, the president said.

Herzog said it is “unacceptable” to allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state and Israel is determined to stop it from acquiring nuclear capabilities.

“Iran is building nuclear capabilities, that pose a threat to the stability of the Middle East and beyond,” he said. “Every country or region controlled or infiltrated by Iran has experienced utter havoc. We have seen this in Yemen, Gaza, in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. In fact, we have seen this in Iran itself where the regime has lost its people and is suppressing them brutally. Iran has spread hatred, terror and suffering throughout the Middle East and beyond, adding fuel to the disastrous fire and suffering in Ukraine.”

Israel has no conflict with the Iranian people, and yet Iran seeks to annihilate Israel, Herzog said. To tolerate that is a sign of “moral collapse.”

Herzog also addressed the importance of the Abraham Accords, which he called “a true game changer,” and all of Israel’s peace treaties with Arab states.

“Israel’s hand is extended, and our heart is open, to any partner in peace – near or far,” he said, thanking the US for working towards normalizing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Herzog also said that he has a “deep yearning” to see Israel and the Palestinians make peace, and recounted that Israel took “bold steps” in the past to try to do so.

Still, he said, “it should be clear that one cannot talk about peace while condoning or legitimizing terror, implicitly or explicitly. True peace cannot be anchored in violence. Palestinian terror against Israel or Israelis undermines any possibility for a future of peace between our peoples.”

The president mentioned the Israeli officers, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, and civilians, Hisham al-sayed, and Avera Mengistu, who are being held hostage by Hamas. He brought Goldin’s mother, Leah Goldin, with him to Washington.

The House Chamber was almost totally full, and Herzog’s speech was peppered with standing ovations from members of Congress - 29, in total.

Much of the enthusiastic applause came for Herzog’s tributes to the US-Israel relationship.

“When the US is strong, Israel is stronger,” he said, “and when Israel is strong, the US is more secure… America is irreplaceable to Israel and Israel is irreplaceable to America.”

“Our bond may be challenged at times but it is absolutely unbreakable,” the president states.

Herzog invited leading figures from the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Movements to attend his speech, as well as Harry Truman’s grandson Clifton Truman Daniel, and Rabbi Abraham Heschel’s granddaughter, Prof. Susannah Heschel.
‘Israel has democracy in its DNA’: Full text of Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress
The following is the full text of President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of the US Congress in Washington DC on July 19, 2023, as provided by his office.

Mr. Speaker, Madam Vice President, on November 10th, 1987, I was sitting at home with my wife, Michal, expecting our first child. We were watching the first Israeli President invited to address a Joint Session of Congress, in honor of the State of Israel’s 40th year of independence. That president was my father. Standing here today, representing the Jewish, democratic State of Israel in its 75th year, at the very podium from which my late father, President Chaim Herzog spoke, is the honor of a lifetime.

I was born and raised in Israel. But my father’s diplomatic post at the United Nations, brought my family to New York in the 1970s. During high school I volunteered with the Legal Aid Society for the Elderly in Brooklyn, New York. I volunteered with the impoverished and underprivileged elderly, including War Veterans and Holocaust survivors, who gave their best years to the country they loved. My mentor at the organization was a subtle, reserved professional. She was strictly business. The moment she broke character has remained with me for nearly 50 years. It was the day she told me the love of her life died fighting for Israel. Her fiancé, a tall, bright- eyed American Jewish boy, was inspired by the Zionist dream and the Jewish people’s desire for independence. He voluntarily boarded a ship to Haifa, fought in the Israeli military, and fell in the battle for Israel’s Independence – just weeks before their wedding. Although decades had gone by, and she had rebuilt her life, the cracks in her heart remained.

That moment, in which I learned of the life he gave for the State of Israel spoke to the very core of the bond forged between the people of the United States and the people of Israel. How the nations we built overcame loss. How deeply our stories complement each other’s. How far we have all come, together.

Speaker McCarthy, I thank you for hosting this festive joint session of Congress celebrating the first 75 years of the State of Israel. Just a few weeks ago, during your first trip abroad as Speaker, you honored the Israeli people by addressing the Knesset in Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.


America’s commitment to Israel is ironclad, Biden tells Herzog at White House
The US commitment to Israel remains strong, US President Joe Biden told Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“Our friendship with Israel is unbreakable…America’s commitment to Israel is firm, is ironclad,” Biden said, adding that he said the same to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone on Monday.

The US president also emphasized America’s commitment to ensuring Iran does not attain a nuclear weapon.

Biden noted that his administration played a role in getting Saudi Arabia to open its airspace to Israeli flights, and said there is “a lot more work to do” in that vein.

Herzog expressed gratitude in the name of the Israeli people to Biden for his support for Israel for half a century, and for working on further normalization between Israel and Arab states.

“There are some enemies of ours that sometimes mistake the fact that we have some differences as impacting our unbreakable bond,” Herzog said. “I truly believe that if they would know how much our cooperation has grown in recent years and achieved new heights, they would not think that way.”

Herzog: Judicial reform debate a 'tribute' to Israeli democracy's greatness
The Israeli president also remarked on the judicial reform debate, on a day of mass protests in Israel.

“We are going through a heated debate as a society…it is also a tribute to the greatness of Israeli democracy,” he stated. “Israeli democracy is sound, strong and resilient…We shall always seek to find an amicable consensus… I am pursuing that even in these very moments through my people as much as we can, in order to find solutions and exit out of this crisis properly.”


Caroline Glick: Israel and the new America
The more Israel behaves as a U.S. client, the more profusely Israeli leaders thank the U.S. for its military support and “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security, the less the Saudis and others view Jerusalem as a credible ally against Iran.

Likewise, to the extent that China believes the U.S. has Israel under its thumb in relation to Iran, the regime in Beijing will be unwilling to take Israel’s concerns and warnings about Iran’s nuclear weapons program into consideration as it expands its strategic ties with the Islamic Republic.

Clearly recognizing this state of affairs, speaking at a memorial ceremony for Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky on Tuesday, Netanyahu said, “Like Jabotinsky, who believed that the Jewish state’s natural alliance was with the Western powers—so we believe that our first and most important alliance is with the U.S. However, we always remember that the ultimate responsibility for our destiny and our security lies with us—with the sovereign Israeli government in Jerusalem.”

The path forward in U.S.-Israel ties was carved out this week by authors Jacob Siegel and Liel Liebowitz in an article in Tablet magazine calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. As Siegel and Liebowitz demonstrated, the opportunity costs of the $3.8 billion annual assistance outweigh its benefits across the board. Not only does Israel take a direct and devastating hit to its military industries and strategic independence, the aid is tied to U.S. platforms like the F-35 that are ill-suited to Israel’s threat environment.

The aid is used as a weapon by anti-Israel lawmakers and policymakers to coerce Israel to toe the line on U.S. policies in relation to the Palestinians, Iran and Lebanon that are antithetical to Israel’s security and national interests. Rather than empower Israel, particularly in light of the Biden administration’s foundational hostility towards Israel, Israeli dependence on U.S. military aid undercuts Israel’s standing as a regional power and empowers its enemies to attack, with the knowledge that the U.S. stands with them against Israel.

The U.S. veto on Israeli technology and arms sales owing to the aid constrains Israel’s freedom to develop security ties with states like India.

Just as importantly, Israel and the U.S. have complementary capabilities and interests. To maintain healthy relations, Israel must end its position as client state and act instead like a junior partner, along the lines of Britain, in its cooperative dealings with Washington.

Such a transformative shift would shield Israel from sudden shocks to its long-term strategic planning and procurement goals that are currently vulnerable to election results.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal declared that “vilification of Israel has gone mainstream in the Democratic Party.” Israel’s challenge is to adapt its relationship with the U.S. in a manner that factors in this state of affairs. The first step towards accomplishing that goal is to quickly wean Israel off U.S. military assistance.
The Caroline Glick Show: Why was Herzog at the White House instead of Netanyahu?
Herzog - not Netanyahu - is invited to the White House, PM Netanyahu dehydrates and the media goes nuts, and is public support for the anti-reform protests dwindling?

In Caroline’s Cold Take
- Biden's boycott of Netanyahu
- A comparison of how the media reacted to Netanyahu's hospitalization and then PM Sharon's heart attack; anti-reform protests and the right's protests against evacuating Gush Katif
- Moving forward with the judicial reform as public support for the protests dwindles.


Biden criticism of Netanyahu govt sparks anger as Israeli president set to address Congress
Prior to Israel’s ceremonial President Isaac Herzog’s planned speech to Congress on Wednesday, and in the face of mounting pressure from Republicans to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the U.S. for a meeting, President Biden on Monday reached out to the Israeli leader to solidify a get-together this year.

Herzog, who will deliver his congressional address as part of Israel celebrating the rebirth of its country 75-years-ago, told Biden on Tuesday "I was pleased to hear about your conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu, which focused on our ironclad military and security cooperation. Because there are some enemies of ours that sometimes mistake the fact that we may have some differences, as impacting our unbreakable bond. I truly believe that if they would know how much our cooperation has grown in recent years and achieved new heights, they would not think that way."

Biden told Herzog that he conveyed to Netanyahu that "America’s commitment to Israel is firm and it is ironclad."

Biden’s alleged interference in Israeli domestic affairs has been a source of acute anger among some in the Jewish state and several Republican politicians and candidates running for president.

In an interview with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Caroline Glick, a prominent American Israeli commentator, said, "The Biden administration is siding with the opposition and against the democratically elected government" over Netanyahu’s efforts to reform the judiciary.

Glick said Biden has inserted himself into Israeli domestic political fights over the legal reform process like no U.S. administration before and "That is why Israelis in general and, not just the government, are very, very angry at the Biden administration." She termed the Biden administration policy toward Israel as "totally hostile to more than half of the country" in the Jewish state.
Herzog must tell Biden: You are hurting Israel
Even as Uncle Joe boycotts the Israeli prime minister and trashes him in interviews, he continues to meet with leaders whose lack of democratic bona fides is much worse than the alleged undemocratic nature of Netanyahu (that claim has been used against him by political rivals as a last resort after all other attacks had failed). In other words, Biden's cold shoulder to Netanyahu is no longer based on actual policy differences.

Perhaps this approach stems from a more emotional reason, or perhaps from political motives. Biden needs the big Jewish Democratic donors who dislike the Israeli leader and have been very attuned to the protest leaders in Israel. Herzog's above-the-fray role should be used to put an end to this ugly game.

Netanyahu is the prime minister of Israel. He was elected in a democratic election and stands at the helm of a country that Biden claims to have been committed to for forty years. Herzog should tell Biden that if he is a "Zionist president" as Biden likes to describe himself, he should know that refusing to invite Netanyahu hurts Zionism because the prime minister – whether he likes it or not – currently stands at the helm of the Zionist enterprise.

Herzog must also make it clear that the boycott is not only an affront to Netanyahu but also to millions of Israelis who voted for him and feel that he represents them. In fact, by not extending an invitation, Biden is hurting Israel and undermining its security, because when Nasrallah brandishes his weapons and Hamas rears its head, they do so because they pick up an erosion of US support for the Jewish state.

In other words, during their tête-à-tête – or perhaps even in a larger forum – the Israeli president must tell his US counterpart that his approach hurts Israel. Changing Biden's posture should be Herzog's overarching mission as he embarks on his Washington tour.
What's gone wrong with Israel-US relations?
Bryan Leib, Matt Duss and Dan Perry discuss US-Israel relations as Herzog visits Washington, DC.


Biden 'deeply worried' about Israel's future, NYT's Friedman says after meeting
US President Joe Biden urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a recent phone call to "stop rushing" with his government's judicial reform plan, according to New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman.

Friedman was invited by Biden to the Oval Office on Tuesday and given an "unprecedented" statement on the issue. As quoted by the columnist, the president expressed his respect for the "enduring" protests in Israel that demonstrate the "vibrancy of Israel's democracy."

Video: Reuters/Biden speaks with Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office

Biden also shared his wish for Netanyahu's Coalition to "stop rushing to slam through a constitutional overhaul, without even the semblance of a national consensus, that would sharply diminish the ability of Israel's Supreme Court to oversee the decisions and appointments of Israel's government."

Friedman noted that "Netanyahu has attempted to confuse Israel's friends in America by playing down the importance of the fundamental change that his government is pushing, by calling it a judicial reform and framing it as small."

He said that Biden is now "deeply worried for the stability and future of Israel, America's most important Middle East ally and a country for which he wears his affection on his sleeve."

"This is obviously an area about which Israelis have strong views, including in an enduring protest movement that is demonstrating the vibrancy of Israel's democracy, which must remain the core of our bilateral relationship," Biden, who hosted Israel's President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday evening and also discussed the judicial overhaul with him, told Friedman.

"Finding consensus on controversial areas of policy means taking the time you need. For significant changes, that's essential. So my recommendation to Israeli leaders is not to rush. I believe the best outcome is to continue to seek the broadest possible consensus here," he said.

The first phone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu in months resulted in a long-anticipated invitation to the White House, according to Israeli media reports. US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the two "agreed that they will meet, likely before the end of this year," with a likely date in the fall.

National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said that the phone conversation between Biden and Netanyahu was "good, cordial, and constructive," and that the remarks attributed to the US president in The New York Times were not said during the call at all.


US bipartisan group calls on Blinken to end Palestinian 'pay-for-slay'
A bipartisan group of 30 Democrat and 20 Republican congress members wrote to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Tuesday for an update on US plans to end the Palestinian Authority’s ‘pay-for-slay’ scheme.

Under the current ‘pay-for-slay’ scheme, called the "Martyrs’ Fund" by the PA, terrorists receive monetary payments as a reward for acts of terror. The more damage an attack causes, the higher the terrorist or the terrorist’s family is paid.

The scheme currently costs the PA $300 million annually (approximately NIS 1 billion) and amounts to 8% of the PA’s budget.

The United States discontinued funding to the Palestinian Authority in 2014 after it refused to cease the scheme. In 2018, US Congress continued its efforts to dissuade the PA from incentivizing terror, through passing the Taylor Force Act. The act prevents US aid to the West Bank from being accessed by the PA.

What did the letter say?
“Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed disturbing violence in the region as innocent civilians in Israel fall victim to terrorist attacks,” the congressional members wrote. “Since the start of the year, cold-blooded murders of Israelis have been celebrated by perpetrators and supporters of Palestinian terror.”

“Deeply concerned by the Palestinian Authority’s refusal to condemn these senseless killings, and in particular, their ongoing incentivizing of terror through the egregious “pay-for-slay” program, we ask that you report to Congress on ongoing efforts to end this practice.

The letter also cited Akram Rajoub, mayor of Jenin, who said, “PA will not stop the transfer of funds...President Abbas made it clear that the Palestinian Authority will not stop funding the families of our martyrs even if we are down to the last penny.” Only a few days after Rajoub made the statement, a Palestinian terrorist murdered 7 people in Jerusalem, an attack celebrated in the West Bank and Gaza with fireworks and music.
PodCast: Pay For Slay Inside The Palestinian Authority’s Massive Fund Helping To Make Terrorism Profitable A Fireside Chat With Sander Gerber, Fellow And Board Member At The Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs
While international commentators and journalists around the world rhetorically ask what it will take for peace to take place between Israel and the Palestinians, arguing that complex issues such as Jewish settlements are the main obstacle to peace, a much simpler factor is at play: the Palestinian Authority’s payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families.

This complex system, nicknamed “Pay for Slay,” is a program where the Palestinian Authority spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually – nearly one-twelfth of its entire budget – in support payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families.

This regimen not only actively encourages Palestinians to take up violence against Israelis, but provides the financial support to assist them in doing so.

To help us delve deeper into this insidious program, we are joined by Sander Gerber. Sander Gerber is a fellow and board member at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Washington stands with Israel: Strengthening the alliance amidst regional challenges - opinion
The US shouldn't interfere, but support Israel's navigation of its internal debates on reform This is particularly important as Israel undergoes a difficult transition while reforming its legal system. We recognize the activity in Israel as an expression of democracy. Israelis clearly believe reform of some sort is necessary – they voted in a government to do so – but they are also making clear that it must be done in a way that strengthens their safety and security. A thriving democracy is grounded in majority rule, but it also hears the voices of the minority in protests.

Americans should welcome the commitment in Israel to strengthen freedom and democracy responsibly. We understand these are not only difficult questions for any society to handle, but that this process of reform, while clearly necessary, inherently raises the deeper societal and political questions that have originated as far back as the beginning of time. As friends of Israel, we must remember these are Israeli questions for the Israeli people to sort out. IS IT A dispute between friends or a serious disagreement? (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS) IS IT A dispute between friends or a serious disagreement? (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

It is imperative that we in the United States understand, as any friend of the Israeli and Jewish people should, that our role must not be to interfere, but to ensure Israel the time it needs to resolve this. It is nonconstructive for the United States to try to swing internal debates. As representatives of the US Congress, we stand strongly with Israel and its elected government under Prime Minister Netanyahu to navigate this difficult internal debate regarding the reforms their country is seeking.

As Iran gallops toward a nuclear weapon targeting Israel – who it has vowed to incinerate – Israel stands closer to a painful war than it has in a long time. Sadly, we let down our guard and allowed Iran to access funds to accomplish this when it should have been sputtering into paralysis by strongly enforced, constricting sanctions.
US House overwhelmingly passes resolution supporting Israel, denouncing antisemitism
The House of Representatives approved a resolution on Tuesday that expressed support for Israel and denounced antisemitism. The resolution was prompted by recent remarks from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) that sparked controversy and exposed divisions among Democrats regarding Israel-Palestine relations.

The symbolic measure, endorsed by a vote of 412-9, with 195 Democrats joining the Republicans in voting yes, affirms that Israel "is not a racist or apartheid state" and rejects all forms of antisemitism and xenophobia. It also declares unwavering support and partnership between the United States and Israel.

Among the nine Democrats who voted against the resolution were representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Delia Ramirez, and Ayanna Pressley.

The dissenting votes came primarily from liberal Democrats, many of whom are members of the progressive "Squad" and have been highly critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, particularly under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Although Jayapal is known for her criticism of Netanyahu's government, her recent comment characterizing Israel as a "racist state" drew widespread condemnation from members of both parties.


McCarthy: ‘Democrats need to fight antisemitism in their party’
The Democratic Party needs to fight antisemitism in its own ranks, US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy told The Jerusalem Post ahead of President Isaac Herzog’s speech before a joint session of Congress.

“Israel will not find a greater set of supporters than Republicans in the US Congress,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. “I’m honored to have President Herzog join us and address the world from the Capitol in celebration of 75 years [of Israeli independence].”

Several lawmakers from the Democratic Party’s left flank said they would boycott Herzog’s speech, with Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota saying there is “no way in hell” that she would attend. Rep. Pramila Jayapal called Israel a “racist” state over the weekend, facing significant blowback from within her party, as well as Republicans, who put forward a resolution affirming US support for Israel and calling it a democracy.

“The House Democrat Caucus needs to answer for some of the recent comments made by members of the Democrat party,” McCarthy said in response to questions sent via e-mail. “Congress maintains continued bipartisan support for Israel, but Democrats need to push back on the continued antisemitic rhetoric from within their party.”

Asked about recent Biden administration criticism of Israel, such as a statement calling for freedom of assembly when there have been large, peaceful protests for nearly 30 weeks, and the decision to no longer allow US-funded scientific and agricultural cooperation between Americans and Israelis based in the West Bank, McCarthy said he was “very concerned with any Biden administration policy that appear to prejudge Israel.”

“So long as Republicans are in control of the House, we will always push back on any policy that seeks to undercut the US-Israel relationship,” he said.
Daniel Greenfield: The Squad’s Antisemitism Problem is Ideological
Leftist antisemitism, like that of the House ‘Squad’ is not personal, yet it’s often treated as if it is, it’s ideological. Leftist antisemitism has a long history. It emerges from the Left’s conviction that the Jews are an unnatural people (Lenin), that they embody commerce (Marx) and nationalism (the Squad).

This kind of antisemitism is not a personal aberration, it’s a systemic outcome of believing in a particular set of ideas. Much like the Fuentes antisemitism on Twitter in recent weeks on the alt-right, ideas have consequences.

The Squad’s ideas are that Israel is illegitimate not because of anything that happened in ’48 or ’67, but because, as Lenin laid down long before that, as well as H.G. Wells and other leftist thinkers, Jews are illegitimate. In these leftist theories, Jews existed only because of economic and social restrictions having to do with capitalism and religious superstition, and that once these restrictions were lifted, the Jews would disappear. The failure of the Jews to disappear required efforts to make them disappear which the Soviet Union implemented. And that work of systemic antisemitism is being carried on by the Left today.

‘Anti-Zionism’ is just an expression of one of a number of classically antisemitic ideas that within the Squad emerge from leftist theories or, in a few cases, Islamic ones, all having to do with the illegitimacy of the Jews.
Daniel Greenfield: Rep. Jamaal Bowman Claims He Can’t Be Antisemitic Because He’s Black
Here’s Rep. Jamaal Bowman doing an interview with Al Sharpton. Here is the anti-Israel Squad member explaining that black people can’t be antisemitic.

Bowman, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told NBC News. “I’m a black man in America — how the hell can I be antisemitic toward anybody else? I know what it is to suffer and be oppressed and be threatened and killed because of who you are.”

Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Louis Farrakhan could not be reached for comment.

Set aside the horrifying racism that Bowman experienced… growing up in Harlem. And then the constant white racist threats to his life that he experienced as a teacher… in the Bronx.

The fallacy here is that being a supposed member of an oppressed group means that you’re somehow incapable of being prejudiced or hostile to any other group. This is something that common sense and even the most casual anecdotal experience says isn’t so, yet the entire identity politics coalition is based on the idea that only privileged white people can be bigots.


Kevin McCarthy Calls Out Democrats’ Anti-Semitic Comments

Congresswoman Shouts Israel Is ‘Apartheid State’ Before 9 Dems Vote in Agreement



The Israel Guys: THIS US Politician Made A SHOCKING Statement | This is too far…
Here’s a question for you. A US Congresswoman made a bold, public statement this week declaring that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve autonomy and self-determination, and calling on the public to make sure that the dream of the two-state solution does not die, even though its reality feels impossible AND support for the two-state solution has massively dwindled amongst Israelis AND Palestinian Arabs!

Ironically, the Palestinian Authority, the governing body for the Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria, didn’t make a very good case for the world to support their self-determination this week.


New York Times Columnist Defends Congresswoman Who Called Israel ‘Racist State’
A New York Times columnist is rising to the defense of Pramila Jayapal, the Democratic member of Congress who was roundly denounced by her colleagues after calling Israel a “racist state.”

Michelle Goldberg, a New York Times columnist who in her previous gig at the Nation magazine was an ambivalent defender of the movement to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel, steps up with a piece headlined “The Hysterical Overreaction to Jayapal’s ‘Racist State’ Gaffe.”

Goldberg commends Jayapal’s clarification, writing, “It’s good to be as precise as possible when discussing an issue as fraught and complex as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.” Yet Goldberg herself flunks the “precise as possible” test, misleading Times readers with false and context-free claims about Israel and the Arabs.

Goldberg writes, “Today, there are nearly equal numbers of Jews and Palestinian Arabs living in Israel and the occupied territories. For Palestinians living under occupation, there is no pretense of equal rights: They are subject to regular land seizures and home demolitions and constant restrictions on their freedom of movement.” Actually the numbers are only “nearly equal” if you count Gaza as “occupied,” which it hasn’t been since Israel withdrew in 2005. The actual numbers are more like 7.1 million Israeli Jews, 2 million Israeli Arabs, 3 million West Bank Palestinian Arabs (though that may overestimate the numbers by as many as 1 million) and 2 million Gaza Palestinian Arabs.

Goldberg makes it sound like the Israelis are demolishing homes for racist fun rather than as a response to terrorist attacks aimed at killing Jews and wiping Israel off the map. In fact, the Goldberg column makes no mention at all of terrorism or of the Islamic world’s longstanding desire to wipe Israel off the map.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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