Trump and Netanyahu thought they were pulling a fast one on two U.S. congresswomen, but it has blown up in their faces, as Marjorie Cohn explains.
During Congress’s August recess, a group of 41 Democratic and 31 Republican congressmembers traveled to Israel on a delegation sponsored by American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). AIPAC subsidizes congressional trips to Israel in order to further the “special relationship” between Israel and the United States.
Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid: $3.8 billion annually. AIPAC is the chief Israel lobby in the United States and a consistent apologist for Israel’s oppressive policies toward the Palestinians.
Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, had planned their own “Delegation to Palestine,” scheduled to begin on August 17. Tlaib, who was born in the U.S., planned to travel to the West Bank to visit her 90-year old Palestinian grandmother, whom she hasn’t seen for a decade. But, aided and abetted by Donald Trump, Israel withdrew permission for the trip unless Tlaib agreed to remain silent about Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians. She refused to abide by the gag order and the trip was cancelled.
Tlaib said in a statement, “Visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions meant to humiliate me would break my grandmother’s heart. Silencing me with treatment to make me feel less-than is not what she wants for me – it would kill a piece of me that always stands up against racism and injustice.” She added, “Being silent and not condemning the human rights violations of the Israeli government is a disservice to all who live there, including my incredibly strong and loving grandmother.”
Tlaib during her campaign. (Wikimedia)
Omar, who expressed “strength and solidarity” with Tlaib in a tweet, told reporters, “[Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu’s decision to deny us entry might be unprecedented for members of Congress. But it is the policy of his government when it comes to Palestinians. This is the policy of his government when it comes to anyone who holds views that threaten the occupation.” She tweeted, “We cannot let Trump and Netanyahu succeed in hiding the cruel reality of the occupation from us.”
Israel’s refusal to allow members of the U.S. Congress entry into Israel-Palestine without muzzling them backfired. It has garnered widespread criticism, even by AIPAC, and focused the national discourse on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which Tlaib and Omar support.
Omar, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “It is my belief that as legislators, we have an obligation to see the reality there for ourselves. We have a responsibility to conduct oversight over our government’s foreign policy and what happens with the millions of dollars we send in aid.” She says the U.S. must ask Netanyahu’s government to “stop the expansion of settlements on Palestinian land and ensure full rights for Palestinians if we are to give them aid.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “The idea that a member of the United States Congress cannot visit a nation which, by the way, we support to the tune of billions and billions of dollars is clearly an outrage,” adding, “And if Israel doesn’t want members of the United States Congress to visit their country to get a firsthand look at what’s going on … maybe [Netanyahu] can respectfully decline the billions of dollars that we give to Israel.”
Tlaib and Omar Planned to Witness Occupation
Tlaib and Omar were scheduled to meet with members of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) and Palestinian and leftist Israeli activists and nonprofits, as well as international human rights organizations in Jerusalem and the West Bank. They were also set to confer with members of Breaking the Silence, a group of former members of the Israel Defense Forces who now actively oppose Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. Omar tweeted that the goal of the delegation “was to witness firsthand what is happening on the ground in Palestine and hear from stakeholders —our job as Members of Congress.”
The visit by Tlaib and Omar “was to be something else” in contrast to the AIPAC delegation, James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, wrote in the Forward. Tlaib and Omar “weren’t going to focus on officials,” according to Zogby. “They were going to expose the reality of Palestinian daily life under occupation. They were going to visit the Wall that separates Palestinians from their lands. They were going to refugee camps now cut off from US funding. They were going to see how Hebron has been horridly deformed by a settler invasion and military occupation.”
Omar: Backed her colleague. (Wikimedia)
Israel had approved the Tlaib/Omar trip last month. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said, “Out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America,” Israel would not deny entry “to any member of Congress.”
But Donald Trump reportedly told several of his advisers that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should bar Tlaib and Omar because they supported BDS. Hours after Israel cancelled the trip, Trump tweeted, “It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit. They hate Israel & all Jewish people.”
The Israeli government agreed to allow Tlaib to visit her grandmother, provided she agree in writing not to discuss her support for BDS. But after emotional conversations with her family, Tlaib refused to submit to the condition that she not discuss the Israeli occupation.
Tlaib “was forced to make a choice between her right to visit her grandmother and her right to political speech against Israeli oppression,” Sandra Tamari wrote at In These Times. Tamari has been barred from seeing her family in Palestine for more than 10 years because of her advocacy for Palestinian freedom and justice. Tlaib “ultimately chose the collective over the personal: She refused Israel’s demeaning conditions that would have granted her a ‘humanitarian’ exception to enter Palestine, so long as she refrained from advocating for a boycott of Israel during her visit,” Tamari added.
What Is the BDS Movement?
In 2005, Palestinian civil society — including 170 Palestinian unions, political parties, refugee networks, women’s organizations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies — issued a call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
BDS is a nonviolent movement for social change in the tradition of boycotts of South Africa and the southern United States. It is aimed at ending Israel’s illegal occupation. In 1967, Israel took control of Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights by military force. UN Security Council Resolution 242 describes “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and calls for the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the [1967] conflict.”
Security Council adopts Res. 242, Nov. 1967 (Getty)
But Israel continues its illegal occupation and exercises total control over the lives of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Israel regulates the ingress and egress of the people, as well as the borders, airspace, seashore and waters off the coast of Gaza. Israel expels Palestinians from their homes and builds illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel’s 2014 massacre in Gaza led to the deaths of 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, and the wounding of 11,231 Palestinians. These actions likely constituted war crimes, according to the UN Human Rights Council’s independent, international commission of inquiry.
Former UN deputy high commissioner for human rights, Flavia Pansieri, said that human rights violations “fuel and shape the conflict” in the occupied Palestinian territories and “[h]uman rights violations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are both cause and consequence of the military occupation and ongoing violence, in a bitter cyclical process with wider implications for peace and security in the region.”
Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, writing in the Tampa Bay Times, cited the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which “describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians.” Tutu wrote, “This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable.”
The call for BDS describes boycotts, divestment and sanctions as “non-violent punitive measures” that should last until Israel fully complies with international law by (1) ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the barrier wall; (2) recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and (3) respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their land as stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.
What Are Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions?
Boycotts encompass the withdrawal of support for Israel and Israeli and international companies which are violating Palestinian human rights, including Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions.
Divestment campaigns urge churches, banks, local councils, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from all Israeli companies and international companies involved in the violation of Palestinian rights.
Sanctions campaigns pressure governments to hold Israel legally accountable by ending military trade and free-trade agreements and expelling Israel from international fora.
The BDS movement has had a major impact on Israel. BDS was a critical factor in the 46 percent reduction in foreign direct investment in Israel in 2014, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Individuals and entities who have heeded the call for divestment include George Soros, the Bill Gates Foundation, TIAA-CREF public sector pension fund, Dutch pension giant PGGM and Norwegian bank Nordea.
Desmond Tutu: Israel’s two tiers. (Dale Frost via Flickr)
Several churches, including the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Church of Christ and many Quaker meetings, have divested from companies the BDS movement has targeted. The security services company G4S is planning to sell its subsidiary in Israel because the Stop G4S campaign resulted in a loss of millions of dollars in contracts. The withdrawal of French multinational utility company Veolia from Israel led to billions of dollars in lost contracts.
Tutu, who finds striking parallels between apartheid South Africa and Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians, supports BDS. He has called on “people and organizations of conscience to divest from … Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett Packard,” which profit “from the occupation and subjugation of Palestinians.”
Twenty-seven states have enacted legislation targeting boycotts of Israel, but activists have successfully defeated anti-boycott laws in several states. These bills are unconstitutional infringements
In banning Tlaib and Omar, Israel relied on its 2017 law prohibiting entry to any non-Israeli citizen who “has knowingly published a public call to engage in a boycott” against Israel “or has made a commitment to participate in such a boycott.”
And the United States’ overwhelming support for Israel is reflected in a resolution the House of Representatives adopted on July 23. H. Res. 246, which passed easily on a 398-17 vote, opposes the BDS movement. Tlaib and Omar voted against the resolution.
Questioning U.S. Aid to Israel
Interestingly, although the Republicans on the AIPAC trip tweeted vociferously about their visit, there was near silence on Twitter from the Democratic members of the delegation, although the group had given Netanyahu a standing ovation. “The absence of chatter from the Democrats obviously reflects the misgivings that the Democratic base has about the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel,” Philip Weiss and Michael Arria wrote at Mondoweiss. “A recent survey shows that a majority of Democrats support sanctions against Israel over settlements, even as the House votes overwhelmingly to condemn the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.”
The outrageous exclusion of members of Congress from Israel-Palestine has focused unprecedented attention on the Israeli occupation and the BDS movement. This is the time to pressure congressional representatives to rethink their uncritical support for Israel and the $3.8 billion annually the United States provides to Israel.
Copyright Truthout. Reprinted with permission.
More Haaretz …
In-Deal-With Far Right, Netanyahu Edges Closer To Reelection – Next Up The Kahanists
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/in-deal-with-far-right-netanyahu-edges-closer-to-reelection-next-up-the-kahanists-1.7768178
Israeli scholar Nurit Peled-Elhanan’s important academic study, “Palestine in Israeli School Books” is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand some important realities about the Israeli state and Israeli society.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190726-how-israel-teaches-its-children-to-hate/
As a settler-colonial entity, real change can never come from within Israeli society. It must be imposed from the outside. Much like white South Africans, Jewish Israelis will never voluntarily give up their privileged position as settlers.
Israel promotes racist militarist ideology and is teaching its children to hate: hate Palestinians, hate Muslims, hate the Arabs in general and hate anyone who supports or stands in solidarity with them against oppression.
There is no condoning Israel’s behavior towards the indigenous populations (Palestinians), ever since the founding of the state, but… if “real change can never come from within Israeli society”, because “As a settler-colonial entity, real change can never come from within” then doesn’t the same argument hold true, if not more so – given it’s much more significant Imperial impact on all the variables of living – to the U.S., where “Much like white South Africans, (white Americans of any class or religious denomination) will never voluntarily give up their privileged position as settlers.”
Has America, being the monolith hegemon, it is, throughout history, not shown, innumerable times, its willingness to take any measures necessary to hold on to this privileged status; and what’s more, using any pretext to do so.
“(America today)” is the most destructively violent society on the face of the planet and “promotes racist militarist ideology and is teaching its children to hate: hate Palestinians, hate Muslims, hate the Arabs in general and hate anyone (deemed ‘OTHER’) who supports or stands in solidarity with them against oppression”.
Unaided, couldn’t have said it better myself!
To life!
Israel’s racist militarist apartheid regime and the illegal Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory is not “unaided”.
Aid to Israeli apartheid comes in the form of US government aid, private aid, trade and investment.
The nightmare of apartheid Israel would rapidly collapse without aid from the United States.
In addition to securing that precious flow of American aid to Israel, the pro-Israel Lobby is busy promoting Israel’s racist militarist ideology, spreading pro-Israel propaganda, and encouraging Americans to hate Muslims, hate the Arabs in general, and hate Palestinians in particular.
Active participation in the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement is the best way for Americans to stop aid to Israeli apartheid.
The Hasbara (pro-Israel propaganda) troll army uses fallacious reasoning to advance “the same argument” in order to preserve the flow American aid to racist militarist regime in Israel.
For example, Hasbara troll “respondents” typically advance the “argument” that Americans must give up their own “privileged status” before doing anything rash like jeopardizing the precious flow of aid to Israel.
Such “arguments” are fallacious on their face.
Comrade “Em Sos” can’t ‘splain’ it better than any other Hasbara troll.
But thanks for the demo, comrade.
Recent from Haaretz (a leading Israeli daily newspaper)
Israel Hired Private Spy Firm BLACK CUBE To Operate Out Of Military Intel Base
8-22-19
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-for-black-cube-israeli-government-was-both-customer-and-target-1.7730485
See also (same link) Why Israeli Firm BLACK CUBE Went After Obama’s Team.
Scott interviews Philip Weiss about Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the way the Palestinian people have been completely deprived of their rights there. Weiss is glad that the recent fiasco around Rashida Tlaib’s and Ilhan Omar’s visit to Israel has brought publicity to the BDS movement, but is baffled that most Americans are either unaware of Israel’s gross abuses, or simply don’t care.—
https://libertarianinstitute.org/scotthortonshow/8-26-19-philip-weiss-on-the-zionist-doctrine-of-the-trump-whitehouse/
It’s crucial that the Israeli illegal seizure of Palestinian lands and abuse of Palestinian people be kept in the news and spoken about with the global population and DBS be promoted in every way possible. Opposition to this apartheid state must be encouraged and increased.
Yes I thought it over. With all the talk against Israel I don’t think now is the right time for visiting.
Good article. I support the Boycott and am probably still banned from making comments on the articles that Consortium news sends me every day.
Of interest to you, Jim… .
Israel Seeks To Eras -Archives Of Intel Firm Employed In Anti BDS Campaign
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-seeks-to-erase-archives-of-intel-firm-employed-in-anti-bds-campaign-1.7377427
Hasbara (pro-Israel propaganda) trolls infest the online comment sections of internet sites that feature information and investigative journalism critical of Israel.
The typical Hasbara troll vomits scripted pro-Israel propaganda canards.
Much of this propaganda is procured from Hasbara manuals like the “Global Language Dictionary” fabricated by a shady pro-Israel propaganda organization known as The Israel Project (TIP).
The propaganda activities of The Israel Project are revealed in the documentary series “The Lobby – USA”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=137&v=bp88HJxKj-o
David Hazony, the managing director of The Israel Project, is heard telling Al Jazeera’s undercover reporter: “There are also things that we do that are completely off the radar. We work together with a lot of other organizations.”
“We produce content that they then publish with their own name on it,” Hazony adds.
Hazony is an American-born Israeli whose brother is an advisor and speech writer for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Jordan Schachtel, who worked for The Israel Project at the time, tells the undercover reporter about the Hasbara organization’s covert social media operation.
“We’re putting together a lot of pro-Israel media through various social media channels that aren’t The Israel Project’s channels,” Schachtel states. “So we have a lot of side projects that we are trying to influence the public debate with.”
“That’s why it’s a secretive thing,” Schachtel adds. “Because we don’t want people to know that these side projects are associated with The Israel Project.”
The undercover reporter asks if the idea of “all the rest of the non-Israel stuff is to allow the Israel stuff to pass better.”
“It’s just that we want to like blend in everything,” Schachtel explains.
In addition to managing The Israel Project, Hazony is editor for the online Hasbara propaganda site The Tower. He also is a frequent contributor to major pro-Israel and neoconservative propaganda organs like the New Republic, The Forward, Commentary Magazine, Moment, the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Chronicle, the New York Sun, and Jewish Ideas Daily.
In 2004-2007, Hazony served as editor in chief of the Israeli Zionist journal Azure. He has also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News.
Hasbara outlets like The Tower produce scripted articles, while “staff” from the The Israel Project write op-eds and make television appearances to disseminate pro-Israel propaganda.
In 2009, The Israel Project produced a Hasbara propaganda manual titled “Global Language Dictionary”
Written by Republican pollster and political strategist Frank Luntz, the Hasbara handbook was explicitly labeled “Not for distribution or publication”.
The 116-page Hasbara manual published by The Israel Project is a treasure trove of scripted pro-Israel propaganda canards. Page 96 of the propaganda manual recommends: “‘Defensive’ and ‘preventative’ are the words that best describe Israeli military action.”
Josh Block, the CEO of The Israel Project, is a former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Haaretz has reported that Block “once compared AIPAC and TIP to a heavy aircraft carrier and a small, vibrant commando force.”
Partly as a result of the exposure of the The Israel Project’s online Hasbara propaganda efforts and covert influence campaigns, Block steeped down as CEO in July 2019.
But the Hasbara troll army, obviously equipped with propaganda manuals manufactured by The Israel Project and other pro-Israel Lobby organs, is busy ‘splainin’ stuff all over the internet.
Hasbara hilarity ensues.
The hasbara trolls, although a pestilence, are really a minor inconvenience. I, personally, love to jerk their kosher chains. Their rubbish is oftentimes hilariously preposterous. But I digress. The key point with these cretins is WHY the Jews/israel need an army of liars and manipulators. They need to maintain their BS ‘victim’ status, and quash the truth. I know of no other group that needs to lie and lie to cover up their incessant lies. The real sore point is that the whole Jewish lie(s) has resulted in horrible personal smears, and worse, legislation, to prevent calling them out for their crimes, atrocities, and malfeasance.
First try looking in the mirror before making a statement like: “I know of no other group that needs to lie and lie to cover up their incessant lies.”
Obviously then, your knowledge of American history is, at best, sorely lacking; not to mention human history, in general.
A primer for some much needed self-reflection and introspection on your part, would be to be less condescending, and view the above (Abe) recommended Israeli scholar, Nurit Peled-Elhanan’s important academic study, “Palestine in Israeli School Books” as a good example of what really looking closely at oneself in a mirror is about; and for how to go about proceeding with finding the truth about your own country’s need… “to lie and lie to cover up their incessant lies”:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190726-how-israel-teaches-its-children-to-hate/
What’s the old saying: charity begins at home.
The Hasbara (pro-Israel propaganda) troll army frequently insists that Americans “try looking look a mirror” before doing anything rash like interrupting the precious flow of aid to Israel.
Unfortunately for the Hasbara trolls, perhaps the biggest lies that our country needs to cover up are the US pro-Israel Lobby lies that Israel is “America’s closest ally” and that US aid to Israel is support for “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
In March 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that “Israel is not a state of all its citizens”. The Likud leader later doubled down, telling his cabinet that Israel is “the nation state not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people”.
Abundant evidence of Israeli spying on US citizens, and incessant Israeli actions that violate US foreign policy and international law are further evidence that the Israeli government treats our country and its people more as an enemy than an ally.
The Hasbara (pro-Israel propaganda) troll army claims that “charity begins at home” to cover up the reality that Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.
Numerous studies of past and present American propaganda efforts reveal the truth about our country’s history of lies, including the lies used to provide cover for US aid to Israel.
Obviously then, comrade “Em Sof”, your knowledge of American history and history in general is conveniently lacking.
Given the enormous “charity” given to Israel, it is extremely condescending to suggest that Americans somehow “need” to look in a mirror first before stopping the aid to Israel’s apartheid regime.
Article is mostly a poorly written persuasive piece of propaganda
The truth hurts….
Thank you for this excellent article.
Wow, this article has really brought out hasbara bots in droves!
You do NOT give “due respect” to this academiC and accomplished, honored practicing attorney, “No name.” FYI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Cohn
Yes, truth is hard to take!
You are greatly deceived–or simply deceiving.
Check the dictionary, Yamin, for the important difference between “criticsm” and “hatred.” Peace be with you–together with JUSTICE.
Please explain why support for Palestinian rights makes one a traitor to the USA. I agree it is “not our battle to fight”. So why are we arming the Israelis? Why does support for universal human rights make one a member of the “radical left”? Was it only the “radical left” who supported boycotting South Africa’s apartheid state?
I agree
I agree. What about our health care??
And should we continue to ignore the billions of dollars out country continues to throw at Israel. I mean, if, as you say, we should stay out of it…..then we should stay out of it, socially politically, and ECONOMICALLY.
Instead of the continual discourse on anti-semitism, why not talk about the true bias in this country – Islamophobia and anti-muslim sentiment? This country is full of dumbed-down hypocrites who have no thinking skills left after the corporate propaganda machine has totally erased their teeny, tiny so called minds…
Why only one? Both forms of prejudice exist, including many others — intellectual elitism comes to mind with a post like yours, for example…
This article presents a very biased view on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It’s consistently portrays Israel as an aggressor state, but the reality shows that Israel military actions is always in defense against the terrorist act encouraged and engaged by the Palestinian leaders against the Jewish population in Israel. Israeli military presence in the West Bank is a preemptive measure against Palestinian aggressors as seen from the frequent attacks on the Jews living there, a fact that was deliberately kept out of this article. Yet still history and archeology proves this area to be an historic homeland to the Jewish people. This article is anti semitic, the BDS is anti semitic.
Oh, please…
My comment is a response to Sope:
Wrong on all counts, but it would be a waste of energy to try to bring in a bit of light here.
I have to say, though, that the “historic homeland” notion—even if it were true (which, having its origins in a book written by the very people who benefit from the notion, it probably is not)—is not a justification for ethnic cleansing. Not for murdering medics and children. Not for destroying olive trees, stealing water, stealing land, demolishing homes, denying medical care, denying food, denying education, denying civil rights, denying . . . life. Period. These are the original terrorist acts that beget a legitimate defense.
Why can’t the Zionists and Israel apologists “get” that?
Bye, Bye…
ISISrael is bombing innocent babies and Grandma’s in 3 countries and all you can come up with is the worn out fake anti Semite trope ? AIPAC should hire smarter sock puppet accounts !
EXACTLY, Dave! Peace be with you–and with everyone, with JUSTICE, of course.
AIPAC is all over this ! I wonder how much they spent spewing their extremest mass murdering poison all over the comment section ??
There was a time when reputed historical facts were quoted and context was established, when political views were established or totally absent in articles. Much went wrong in this event and it exposed the ignorance of the two congresswomen, and the political machinations of Trump and Netanyaho. An an analysis, this article failed. As a narative, well written.
You two have guts, combat vet,keep it up!
Can’t Israel be a Jewish state if it wants to be?
Not if it wants to Democratic. In 20 years, there will be more non-Jews than Jews living within their borders.
Or perhaps she’s poor ? But I guess someone getting payed well by AIPAC wouldn’t know what that’s like.
It would help if it were an actual “state” and not just a joint military and covert agency front for the 5 eyes countries……….
But we know you could care less about the fact Isisreal only exists for the purpose of exploiting the Middle East countries out of their natural resources.
Good luck hiding the fact you work for AIPAC little sock puppet.
Sure, Hayman, if it complies with the conditions of its establishment. I admired Jews all of my life, and still do; but Zionists are a different story. Hypocritical, hyper-nationalists ANYWHERE in the world, including Americans, are a threat to humanity and, I think, “an abomination unto the Lord.”
@ “Can’t Israel be a Jewish state if it wants to be?”
Legally, not unless “it” can persuade a majority of all citizens of the former Mandate Territory of Palestine that a Jewish state is the form of government that they want. Under the U.N. Charter, those citizens are guaranteed the right of self-determination of their form of government. And that’s a collective all, not a Jewish subset. There is no such thing as a Jewish right of self-determination, as is frequently alleged without citing any authority. The International Court of Justice held, earlier this year:
“States have consistently emphasized that respect for the territorial integrity of a non-self-governing territory is a key element of the exercise of the right to self-determination under international law. The Court considers that the peoples of non-self-governing territories are entitled to exercise their right to self-determination in relation to their territory as a whole, the integrity of which must be respected by the administering Power. It follows that any detachment by the administering Power of part of a non-self-governing territory, unless based on the freely expressed and genuine will of the people of the territory concerned, is contrary to the right to self-determination.”
Legal Consequences of the Separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, ICJ (25 February 2019), pg. 38, https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/169/169-20190225-01-00-EN.pdf
A solution cannot lawfully be imposed upon the will of the Palestinian people (including its Jewish members). It is their right to determine their own form of government.
Not on stolen land….
Could Germany be a non-Jewish state if it wanted to be? Could the US be White Nationalist?
I suppose these all get a “Yes” if we do not imagine that any of these ideas are particularly good or particularly humane.
But even at that, why does being a theocracy, if that is really what the state of Israel wants to be, involve the theft of land and the oppression and murder of its inhabitants?
And even at that, no one in the States is much talking about prohibiting Israel from doing that. There is just talk about not bankrolling that particularly form of racism any longer.
Geez… these comments are crawling with hasbara.
INDEED !
You mean Israel trolls…
In 2009, it was announced that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would conduct “internet warfare” to spread a pro-Israel “message” on various websites via Hasbara propaganda.
The program rapidly expanded to a real Hasbara troll army that promotes pro-Israel policies in the press and online media.
Hasbara propaganda ‘splainin’ relies on public ignorance of basic facts about international law and the actual history of Zionist land grab efforts in Palestine.
The Hasbara troll army attempts to deceive, deny, distract, divert and disrupt discussion of :
– pro-Israel Lobby illicit activities;
– Israeli interference in US electoral politics;
– Israel’s illegal half-century military occupation of Palestinian territory seized in 1967;
– Israeli collusion with terrorist forces operating in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq; and
– Israel’s constant military threats against Iran.
The many desperate, shrill, and often hysterical Hasbara troll comments for this and other CN articles about Israel clearly indicate that the Hasbara troll army is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Ayup. The Hasbara-trolls spend so much time inside their exclusive little echo chamber, they genuinely don’t understand why their propaganda seems so laughable to people.
They certainly all work off the same talking point memo’s and stick to the script as if their paycheck depended upon it now don’t they ??
Thank you, Abe. Peace be with you.
Are you really that short sighted about Isreal. The 67 war was started by the surrounding cointries that hate Israel. Any ground gained was their right as the attacked. They could have gone much further as wouls have been their right as victors. They didn’t, but any ground held is theirs t keep
WRONG – then we should rewrite history – do your home work before post propaganda
“between June 5 and June 10, 1967, Israel invaded and occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. The Six-Day War, as it would later be dubbed, saw the Jewish David inflict a humiliating defeat on the Arab Goliath, personified perhaps by Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt.
“’The existence of the Israeli state hung by a thread,’ the country’s prime minister, Levi Eshkol, claimed two days after the war was over, ‘but the hopes of the Arab leaders to annihilate Israel were dashed.’ Genocide, went the argument, had been prevented; another Holocaust of the Jews averted.
“There is, however, a problem with this argument: It is complete fiction, a self-serving fantasy constructed after the event to justify a war of aggression and conquest. Don’t take my word for it: “’The thesis according to which the danger of genocide hung over us in June 1967, and according to which Israel was fighting for her very physical survival, was nothing but a bluff which was born and bred after the war,’ declared Gen. Matituahu Peled, chief of logistical command during the war and one of 12 members of Israel’s General Staff, in March 1972.
“A year earlier, Mordechai Bentov, a member of the wartime government and one of 37 people to sign Israel’s Declaration of Independence, had made a similar admission. ‘This whole story about the threat of extermination was totally contrived, and then elaborated upon, a posteriori, to justify the annexation of new Arab territories,’ he said in April 1971.
“Even Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, former terrorist and darling of the Israeli far right, conceded in a speech in August 1982 that ‘in June 1967 we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the Sinai approaches did not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.’
“The reverberations of that attack are still being felt in the Middle East today.”
Israel’s Six-Day War Started With a Lie
By Mehdi Hasan
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/a-50-year-occupation-israels-six-day-war-started-with-a-lie/
@ “The Hasbara troll army:”
The Electronic Intifada has an excellent article on the topic. https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-israels-million-dollar-troll-army/27566
Now featuring an app for iOS and Android that flags social media posts in need of hasbara attention, which is almost certainly how the torrent of hasbara sock puppets arrived here.
Thanks for the link, Paul.
The Hasbara propaganda troll army, well financed by a foreign power (Israel), seeks “significant influence” by directly targeting “the comments section on news websites and social media” [see Act. IL brochure, page 13]
As the investigative report by Electronic Intifada points out:
“Much of the last several years of the establishment media’s time has been wasted raising hell about supposed Russian interference in US elections, despite a lack of real evidence.
“Israel’s interference in western democracies, however, is now very well documented, and is often quite open.
“This newly obtained Act. IL report seems to have been pitched at expanding its funding base beyond the Israeli state, and openly speaks of aiming to ‘influence foreign publics.’
“It boasts of manipulating ‘international public opinion towards the state of Israel via social media platforms.’
“Yet – exactly as in the case of The Israel Project – Facebook and the other Silicon Valley giants have so far refused to take action.”
Inside Israel’s million dollar troll army
By Asa Winstanley
https://electronicintifada.net/content/inside-israels-million-dollar-troll-army/27566
You mean Israel trolls… They have been scraping the barrel for the last decade…
Most international US news outlets almost never reports on the horrors Israel subjects on Palestinian civilians. They are treated quite similar to that of Nazi Germany on the Jewish during WWII. Israel continues to commit crimes agaimst humanity, without UN oversite. This is wrong and inhuman. The world needs to see the truth and act on it accordingly!
The cause of the Israeli extremist right wing government is clearly on the wane. Best enjoy your windfall while you still receive it.
When the U.S. finally goes broke Israel will be the first to turn their backs on their stupid wealthy American financiers. So much for Israels billion dollar parasitic existence.
So interesting how some simply never see them selves as clearly as others see them.
Well-understood and well-put!
Israel doesn’t have to have jihadists come and bother them just because Democrats are stupid enough to put them in our government doesn’t mean Israel has to tolerate their b*******
“In July 2009, it was announced that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would assemble an “internet warfare” squad to spread a pro-Israel message on various websites.” https://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Hasbara
‘Ali’s on the grill’ — Israelis chanted slogans cheering for the death of an 18-month old Palestinian who was burnt alive by the illegal settlers on Palestinian land: https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-extremists-taunt-alis-on-the-grill-at-slain-toddlers-relatives/
Again, what the holo-biz museums are for?
Israel’s Ban… Backfires???
One of the foregoing comments to this article states with surprise: My god…could Americans possibly be waking up?
If the writer means by waking up, that he credits them as becoming fully aware and conscious of the dirt in their own closet; that they are at last feeling (in general – the herd mentality) humble enough to not keep on pointing a finger at ‘Others’ dastardly behaviors, before they clean up their own act, then we are in agreement.
That being said it gives one license to ask: how much of the genocidal, and rapacious atrocities carried out historically, in the name of white European privilege, on the North American continent are you prepared to concede, and address full on, by all very necessary means here at home?
And yet Israel is being asked to do just that! Why should they, when big brother, their leader, has gotten away with this very same behavior for more than three centuries. It is on-going, without cease, to the present.
I’ve personally been following the rhapsodic hogwash coming out of the mouths of American exceptionalist promoters, “of all stripes and shades”, concerning Israel and its malfeasance’s, since at least 1967. Question: Is it truly only now (2019) that the facts are coming to light?
The only changes I’ve noticed in more than fifty years are how both America and Israel have become more entrenched in their brazen attitudes of self-righteous anti-Democratic methods globally.
Rather than relying on Marjorie Cohn alone; simply regurgitating all the “real politik” actions of the co-conspirators, we all need to wake up and first look in our own backyard, which is totally bereft of morality and ethical standards.
‘America’s’ actions in the world – in this commenter’s humble opinion – are based solely on ideological precepts of ‘me first greed’ and religious deceitfulness, based on ‘newspeak’ double standards.
Lead by example: to act in a way that shows others how to act!
I only draw attention to these insignificant devilish details, just in case they slipped anyone’s attention.
The US is inching closer to economic collapse. People sense that their piece of the pie is shrinking: the Oligarchs are doing great, though! Harder looks into how their money is actually spent was pretty much automatic.
Why, when there are 30 million folks in the US who have pitiful access to health care (and MANY more with only a “promise” of health care, w/o CARE itself being financially obtainable, – i.e. “Health Insurance”) does THEIR money go to an economically sound country -Israel- whose constitution guarantees health CARE to ALL their citizens?
USA FIRST! I want my freakin’ money back! No more free money to the GOVERNMENT of Israel!
And don’t forget, the fact that the midwives of the state of Israel were terrorists.
Irgun, Stern Gang, etc.
And that virtually all Israeli prime ministers and other top politicians were former terrorists: Ben Gurion, Shamir, etc. Maybe not Golda Meir. That rhymes . . .
Right on!
@ “That being said it gives one license to ask: how much of the genocidal, and rapacious atrocities carried out historically, in the name of white European privilege, on the North American continent are you prepared to concede, and address full on, by all very necessary means here at home?
“And yet Israel is being asked to do just that! Why should they, when big brother, their leader, has gotten away with this very same behavior for more than three centuries.”
There is a very big difference, a profound legal and cultural change in the wake of two world wars. A change, I might add, in no small part due to the ill-treatment the Jewish people suffered during World War II.
The United Nations Charter abolished the Law of Conquest by freezing the borders of all nations and forbidding war except in self-defense. The Nuremberg Court prosecuted and punished high Nazi officials for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the waging of wars of aggression. And the Fourth Geneva Conventions laid down strict rules for future conduct of war in order to protect the rights of civilians.
While I would agree that both Israel and the U.S. routinely wage wars of aggression and commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, Israel’s establishment of an apartheid form of government is unique in the modern era. And no American Indian tribe currently suffers as the Palestinians do from military occupation and martial law.
Neither should we blink past the fact that Israel does all this in blatant defiance of international law and repeated U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on it to cease and desist. Yet Israel’s proxies appear every year before Congress with their hands out, expecting the U.S. taxpayer to pay for Israel’s reprehensible oppression of the Palestinian people. In return, they attempt to abolish our right of free speech, yet babble on and on about “anti-semitism” at the slightest criticism of Israel’s malevolent behavior.
I, for one, long ago lost all patience with Israel’s apologists. That tail has wagged the U.S. dog far too vigorously and far many times. I’m in favor of a very strong dose of BDS for Israel, including financial sanctions and an end to all American aid, including at the U.N.
I also see inflicting respect for the law on Israel as inseparable from restoring the U.S. government’s respect for international law; Israel has been the source of many U.S. wars of aggression. Israel’s influence on our own government must come to an end.
Excellent comment. The US and Israel need to respect international law. I would love to see a large number of violators from both countries on the docket at the Hague.
“The call for BDS describes boycotts, divestment and sanctions as “non-violent punitive measures” that should last until Israel fully complies with international law by […etc]”
I’m sorry, but to me BDS means boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning by those who have the means to do so; the end-goals however shouldn’t be monolithic. I don’t give a shit what you or Barghouti expect as a positive outcome and it sticks in my craw that you seem to be trying to impose on me and others your own version.
And it’s dumb politics and messaging. Someone who wants to say, not do business with Sodastream or Caterpillar shouldn’t have to defend whatever some “BDS Leader”‘s thoughts on the matter are. And that’s what anti-BDS people or shills do.
I’m glad BDS is getting highlighted and Israeli smear efforts aren’t working as well as they have in the past. But kindly keep your dogma out of my motivations and outcome hopes. I’m not a member of your BDS organization. I haven’t signed the Official BDS Platform Points. And it’s a very stupid mistake to try to force an official or dogmatic, much less individual-specific (Barghouti ex.) aspect to what should be much simpler. BDS should describe tactics. Goals are separate. Not everyone wants to be in a club, not everyone believes in your specific timelines and conditions. I’ll BDS my way, thank you very much.
This article, and all of the people who believe it, are ignorant. I noticed you started the condemnation of occupied lands after the 1967 war. But this is out of context and not the whole truth. In 1948, as a result of the Balfour Declaration and the UN resolution after ww2, Israel was created with a neighboring Palestine. Creating countries was not unusual for the time, it was done all over the world especially Africa, Asia, and the middle East. Most of the Arab countries were carved out of the former Turkish Empire. So creating Israel up to that point was not unusual or outrageous. Israel even offered citizenship to non Jews living within it’s borders. But hundreds of thousands of local Muslims (there was still no such thing as a Palestinian), left Israel and joined ALL of the surrounding Muslims nations in attacking Israel in 1948 once Israel declared her Independence. But Israel won. So far Israel was completely on the side of righteousness. As a result of that war Egypt took the lands of the Gaza strip, Jordan took the West Bank, Syria took Golan Heights, and Israel gained small areas. None of the Muslim countries bothered to create a Palestine out of those lands, they kept them. For the next several decades the surrounding Muslim nations attacked Israel again and again. Then after the war of 1967 Israel captured most of those lands plus the entire Sinai peninsula. But eventually in the name of peace they gave back most of those lands except for Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which was a strategic necessity to defend itself in the future. Finally peace agreements were made with Egypt and Jordan who recognized Israel’s right to exist. But Palestinian terrorists have continued attacking Israel until today. They have no Right of Return, as they gave that up when they left their homes and attacked Israel in 1948 and have been attacking Israel ever since. The situation of the Palestinians today is a direct result of their own actions over the last 70 years. Israel moved on and built a prosperous nation, while in that same time the Palestinian people have focused most of their efforts at refusing Israel’s right to exist and attacking Israeli citizens. Boo hoo cry me a river for these people. If they negotiated from the beginning instead of attacking Israel, they could’ve had their nation and made it as prosperous as Israel is today. But they made very different choices, and now they have to live with the consequences.
Thank you. Reading your post was moving away from people saying what they want to hear and towards learning something.
More learning:
“Israel Is Arming Ukraine’s Blatantly Neo-Nazi Militia, the Azov Battalion”
https://imemc.org/article/israel-is-arming-ukraines-blatantly-neo-nazi-militia-the-azov-battalion/
The lady doth protest too much
“Between March 30 and November 19, [Israeli] security forces killed 189 Palestinian demonstrators, including 31 [thirty one] children and 3 medical workers, and wounded more than 5,800 with live fire.” https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/israel/palestine
UN human rights commission: “A commission of inquiry investigated the killing of 189 Palestinians between 30 March and 31 December 2018. It found reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli snipers shot at children, medics, and journalists, even though they were clearly recognizable as such.” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47399541
Israel’s War Crimes in Gaza: http://statecrime.org/state-crime-research/israels-war-crimes-in-gaza/
Mossad and Epstein: https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/08/16/la-danse-mossad-robert-maxwell-and-jeffrey-epstein/
https://www.mintpressnews.com/mega-group-maxwells-mossad-spy-story-jeffrey-epstein-scandal/261172/
Again, what your holo-biz museums are for? — Time to add abundant information about the crimes against humanity committed by the Jewish State.
@ ” In 1948, as a result of the Balfour Declaration and the UN resolution after ww2, Israel was created with a neighboring Palestine. ”
Wrong. The 1948 U.N. Partition Plan was only a General Assembly proposal requiring action by the Security Council for implementation. The Security Council never took up the matter because of strong — and correct — objections by the Arab States that an imposed solution would violate the U.N. Charter provision guaranteeing all residents of the Palestine Territory the right of self-determination. Israel was established by the violent actions of criminal Jewish gangs who ejected some 750,000 Arabs and Christians from their homes and proclaimed the establishment of Israel. That the U.N. approved the Partition Plan is one of Israel’s Founding Myths.
@ “But hundreds of thousands of local Muslims (there was still no such thing as a Palestinian), left Israel and joined ALL of the surrounding Muslims nations in attacking Israel in 1948 once Israel declared her Independence.”
I doubt you will be able to point to a single instance where a “local Muslim” joined the surrounding “Muslims” [sic] nations in attacking Israel in 1948. Moreover, I don’t know what you would call a citizen of “the Mandate Territory of Palestine” other than a Palestinian. And when you did so, you would be referring to both Jewish and Muslim citizens of Palestine.
@ “None of the Muslim countries bothered to create a Palestine out of those lands, they kept them.”
History shows that the arab nations did not do so because they insisted that all citizens of the former Mandate Territory of Palestine were to determine their own form of government pursuant to U.N. Charter Article 73. But Israel refused to allow a vote on that topic. History also shows that the Arab nations strongly supported the Palestine Liberation Organization and its successor organizations, keeping the hope of a unified Palestine alive — as required by international law.
@ ” For the next several decades the surrounding Muslim nations attacked Israel again and again.”
Let’s see.
1956 — Israel invaded Egypt and captured the Sinai peninsula in 1956.
1967 — Six-Day War. Israel attacked Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian forces and seized Gaza, the West Bank, Shebaa Farms, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Israel’s pathetic excuse that it was a preemptive attack in anticipation of imminent invasion was later demolished, including admissions made by senior military leaders.
1973 — Yom Kippur War. Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. The war was ended by a cease-fire secured by the U.S.
1978 — Israel invaded Lebanon to attack the Palestine Libe2019 — Israel invaded Iraq to bomb a Shiite militia ration Organization.
1982 — Israel again invaded Lebanon to attack the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1993 — Israel again invaded Lebanon to attack Hezbollah.
1996 — Israel again invaded Lebanon to attack Hezbollah.
2006 — Israel again invaded Lebanon to attack Hezbollah.
2007 — Israel invaded Iraq to bomb a suspected nuclear power generating plant.
2010 — Israeli naval forces seized the six ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing 9.
2011-19 — Israel supported Al Nusrah mercenaries in Syria. Israel also hit Syria with literally hundreds of missile strikes, ostensibly to target Iranian and Hezbollah military assets.
2019 — Israel invaded Iraq to bomb a Shiite militia
The above list doesn’t include Israel’s periodic “mowing of the grass” in Gaza and its murder of civilians in the West Bank.
So by my count (counting all Syia invasions as a single incident) that’s 11 Israeli invasions vs. 1 Arab nation attack on Israel. That’s hardly a case of Arab nations attacking Israel “again and again.”
@ “But eventually in the name of peace they gave back most of those lands except for Jerusalem and the Golan Heights …”
You omit the West Bank, which Israel kept and includes nearly all of the territory of a future Palestinian state (under a two-state solution).
@ ” … Golan Heights, which was a strategic necessity to defend itself in the future.”
Pure hasbara. You understand nothing of modern warfare requirements. Hint: the Golan Heights is no defense to a missile attack or an air raid.
@ “But Palestinian terrorists have continued attacking Israel until today.”
You do understand the people of the Occupied Palestinian Territory have a legal right to attack and kill Israeli soldiers, don’t you? (Maybe not.)
@ “They have no Right of Return, as they gave that up when they left their homes and attacked Israel in 1948 and have been attacking Israel ever since.”
I am underwhelmed by that argument. The right of return is secured by, inter alia, 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1948 Fourth Geneva Convention. Indeed, many Jewish people took advantage of that right to return to their former homes in Europe after World War II ended. For the Palestinian right in particular, see Kathleen Lawand (1996). “The Right to Return of Palestinians in International Law”. International Journal of Refugee Law. 8 (4): 532–568.
@ “The situation of the Palestinians today is a direct result of their own actions over the last 70 years.”
I have to wonder what drove you to utter that bit of dimwittery. Is it even possible to be that blind to reality?
@ “This article, and all of the people who believe it, are ignorant.”
Perhaps, but you hardly seem to be equipped to demonstrate the truth of that assertion.
Liberal democrats show that they are unfit for the offices that they hold based on these type of childish games- daily! And will never run this country!
They boath got just what they deserved for there smart remarks .Dont have to worry come election time it will be therelast days in there office anyway
Who needs them
An article written with “Both eyes shut”.
These Congress women have not only shown they are anti Semitic, they should be called for what they are “Racist”.
They publicly and passionately denounce Israel AND the U.S, so WHY would Israel grant them access to spew further hate and propaganda within their borders?
You can’t “Hate” a country and expect special treatment!
Ps. NEITHER; will see another election win within the U.S; they have both shown they have no loyalty to the American people; and; I’d wager that “at least one of them will leave America after losing their seat, and; head straight to the country they ‘Truly support” to begin politics their!
The kosher trolls are out in force as usual.
Anybody who hates America and Israel and loves terrorist groups should go and be with them.
Sounds like that might be you Aldof.
Thank you Marjorie Cohn for another excellent piece!
Admission into a foreign land is a privilege not a right. Omar and Tlaib are anti Semitic Israel bashers promoting the downfall of the Jewish State. The former certainly haven’t earned the right to enter Israel.
As per the bds hurting Israel as Ms Coen so gleefully claims, the economy of the democratic Jewish State has never been stronger thank you.
Ms Coen obviously understands that bashing Israel will boost her career from those who hate most Jews.
Sounds like that might be you Aldof.
From the Aryan brotherhood no doubt.
We are not fooled by the media’s attempt to justify these two lying witches trying to spread hatred in Israel. Good job Benjamin Netanyahu. We love you Israel.
I agree with Desmond Tutu——-“This, in my book, is Apartheid. ” And the US Government is complicit . —Support BDS .
Fake News
Truth is coming out:
Word for Word: Exchange between Rep. Ilhan Omar and Elliott Abrams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InGCmxCjaWE
It’s high time for this sort of exchange regarding US support for Israel.
Pro-Israel Lobby Stalwart Eliot Abrams first came to national prominence as Ronald Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs in the 1980s. Abrams covered up atrocities committed by the military forces of U.S.-backed governments, including those in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, and the rebel Contras in Nicaragua.
Salvadoran death squads and US-backed military responsible for 85% of civilian deaths during the 12-year war, according to the most comprehensive record of the war’s atrocities, the United Nations Truth Commission report of 1992.
Abrams later pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his support of the Nicaraguan Contras, the US-backed group denounced by major human rights organizations for what one called their “pattern of brutality against largely unarmed civilians, including rape, torture, kidnappings, mutilation and other abuses.” The Contras also claimed the lives of thousands of innocents.
Abrams accused critics of the Reagan administration’s foreign policy towards Latin America of being “Un-American” and “unpatriotic.” He called members of Congress and journalists who questioned U.S. policy in Central America names like “fools,” “pious clowns” and “abysmally stupid,” previewing his perfect fit as a future Trump Administration operative.
Throughout his career, Abrams has moved back and forth between government and a web of right-wing pro-Israel Lobby think tanks and policy institutes, holding positions as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), advisory council member of the American Jewish Committee, and charter member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
Abrams’s family ties have also placed him at the center of pro-Israel neoconservatism. His 1980 marriage to Rachel Decter brought him into the Podhoretz clan. Abrams became a frequent contributor to the American Jewish Committee’s Commentary magazine when it was edited by his father-in-law Norman Podhoretz. While in the Reagan administration, Abrams also frequently made appearances at the forums organized by mother-in-law Decter’s Committee for the Free World in the 1980s, a rightist foreign policy pressure group that was co-led by Donald Rumsfeld.
Abrams, like a number of other prominent pro-Israel neocons, was not invited to serve in the George H.W. Bush administration. In 1992 he helped form the Committee for U.S. Interests in the Middle East, which was regarded by many as an advocacy campaign to ensure that U.S. policy was aligned with the Likud Party in Israel. Other members included Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Frank Gaffney, and John Lehman. The committee spoke out against what it perceived as a dangerous distancing between the George H.W. Bush administration and Israel in the administration’s pressure for Israel to pull out of some occupied territories and halt its campaign to expand settlements in those zones.
Abrams was a key figure in the campaign to push war in Iraq even before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. George W. Bush’s National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice relied on Abrams for his unambiguously pro-Israel views.
In 2006, Abrams played a role in shaping the U.S. response to the summer war between Israel and Hezbollah. He accompanied Secretary of State Rice on her mediating trips in the Middle East. Abrams, had strong ties to Vice President Dick Cheney, and pushed the administration to throw its support behind Israel. During Ms. Rice’s travels, Abrams kept in direct contact with Cheney’s office.
According to an unnamed U.S. government consultant “with close ties to Israel” interviewed by Seymour Hersh, Israel had put together bombing plans long before Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, which set off the conflict. As they developed their plans, according to the consultant, Israeli officials went to Washington “to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear…. Israel began with Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the National Security Council.”
Although an NSC spokesman who talked with Hersh denied that Abrams had any role in supporting Israel’s plan, a second unnamed U.S. official, a former intelligence officer, claimed, “We told Israel, ‘Look, if you guys have to go, we’re behind you all the way. But we think it should be sooner rather than later—the longer you wait, the less time we have to evaluate and plan for Iran before Bush gets out of office.’
In December 2016, Abrams criticized Barack Obama for “undermining Israel’s elected government, prevent its action against Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and create as much daylight as possible between the United States and Israel.” Abrams condemned Obama’s decision not to block a UN resolution criticizing Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.
In February 2017, it was reported that Abrams was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first pick for Deputy Secretary of State, but that Tillerson was overruled by Trump. Trump’s pro-Israel Lobby aides were supportive of Abrams, but Trump opposed him because of Abrams’ opposition to Trump during the campaign.
In January 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an ardent Christian Zionist member of the pro-Israel Lobby, appointed Abrams as the United States’ Special Representative for Venezuela
In February 2019, Representative Omar questioned whether Abrams was the correct choice because he had been convicted for lying to Congress in the past and given his role in the Iran-Contra affair and support for U.S.-backed right-wing dictatorships in Central America in the 1980s.
Readers note: The “Salvador Option” was pioneered by the Zionist terrorist groups Irgun and Lehi at Deir Yassin on April 9, 1948.
After admitting that he lied to Congress, Abrams should’ve been banned from government service for life.
The colossal absurdity of appointing Abrams, who openly and aggressively supported death squads in Central America, to any position involving Latin America is truly astounding.
That man should still be in prison.
Thanks for your post, you recapped Mr. Abrams infamous career quite well.
Be well.
Eliot Abrams’ response to the December 1981 El Mozote massacre, where US-trained troops of El Salvador’s right-wing military dictatorship brutally killed more than 800 civilians, demonstrated the practices that earned him calls like that from veteran journalist Allan Nairn, who on national television and in front of Abrams told him he “would be a fit subject for such a Nuremberg-style inquiry”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=dXrxQghfuxA
The Salvadoran Army’s elite Atlacatl Battalion was created in 1980 at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. The Salvadoran troops were specially trained for “counter-insurgency warfare” by US Special Forces and the 2nd Battalion, 505th Infantry of the 82nd ABN. Equipped and directed by U.S. military advisers operating in El Salvador during the 1980s, the Atlacatl Battalion was the pride of the United States military team in San Salvador.
The “counter-insurgency” methods of the School of the Americas were brutally demonstrated when units of the Atlacatl Battalion arrived at the remote village of El Mozote on December 10, 1981 after a clash with guerrillas in the vicinity. The soldiers found not only the residents of the village but also campesinos who had sought refuge from the surrounding area.
The soldiers ordered everyone out of their houses and into the square. They made people lie face down and searched them and questioned them about the guerrillas. The villagers were then ordered to lock themselves in their houses until the next day and warned that anyone coming out would be shot. The soldiers remained in the village during the night.
Early the next morning of December 11, the soldiers reassembled the entire village in the square. They separated the men from the women and children and locked them in separate groups in the church, the convent, and various houses.
During the morning, they proceeded to interrogate, torture, and execute the men in several locations. Around noon, they began taking the women and older girls in groups, separating them from their children and murdering them with machine guns after raping them. Girls as young as 10 were raped, and soldiers were reportedly heard bragging how they especially liked the 12-year-old girls.
Finally, the soldiers killed the children at first by slitting their throats, and later by hanging them from trees; one child killed in this manner was reportedly two years old. After killing the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings.
The soldiers remained in El Mozote that night but, on December 12, went to the village of Los Toriles and carried out a further massacre. Men, women, and children were taken from their homes, lined up, robbed, and shot, and their homes then set ablaze.
News of the massacre first appeared in the world media on January 27, 1982, in reports published by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Raymond Bonner wrote in the Times of seeing “the charred skulls and bones of dozens of bodies buried under burned-out roofs, beams, and shattered tiles”. The villagers gave Bonner a list of 733 names, mostly children, women, and old people, all of whom, they claimed, had been murdered by government soldiers.
Alma Guillermoprieto of the Post, who visited the village separately a few days later, wrote of “dozens of decomposing bodies still seen beneath the rubble and lying in nearby fields, despite the month that has passed since the incident… countless bits of bones—skulls, rib cages, femurs, a spinal column—poked out of the rubble”.
Both reporters cited Rufina Amaya, a witness who had escaped into a tree during the attack. She told the reporters that the army had killed her husband and her four children, the youngest of whom was eight months old, and they lit the bodies on fire.
Salvadoran junta leaders denied the reports and officials of the Reagan administration called them “gross exaggerations”.
On February 8, 1982, Abrams appeared before a Senate investigative committee and denounced U.S. investigative reports of the massacre.
In fact, the El Mozote massacre was the largest in Latin America in modern times.
In the early 1990s, the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (UNTC) investigated war crimes during the civil war. Their report concludes that the Atlacatl Battalion was responsible for the El Mozote massacre, the El Calabozo massacre, and the murder of six Jesuit priests. The Battalion was also implicated in the killing of “some 50 civilians on the banks of the Guaslinga river”.
The 1990 Human Rights Watch report linked the Atlacatl Battalion to additional massacres not cited in the UNTC report: dozens killed in Tenancingo and Copapayo in 1983, 68 in Los Llanitos, and three separate killings in 1989.
The Atlacatl Battalion was disbanded under the terms of the 1992 Salvadoran peace accords that ended the eleven-year conflict.
Abrams said in 2001 that Washington’s policy in El Salvador was a “fabulous achievement.” In 2019 he said that the “fabulous achievement” was that El Salvador “has been a democracy”.
Abrams had also defended Guatemalan dictator General Efraín Ríos Montt as he oversaw a campaign of mass murder and torture of indigenous people in Guatemala in the 1980s. Ríos Montt was later convicted of genocide.
In addition, Abrams was linked to the 2002 coup in Venezuela that attempted to topple Hugo Chávez.
As noted in a February 2019 profile of Abrams in the Atlantic, Representative Omar “revealed that Trump may have picked the right man to implement his policy in Venezuela. As his record in El Salvador suggests, Abrams will say whatever is necessary to accomplish the administration’s will.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/ilhan-omar-elliott-abrams-and-el-mozote-massacre/582889/
Of course, pro-Israel Lobby éminence grise and convicted liar (later pardoned by George H.W. Bush) Abrams has kept busy lauding the fabulous achievements of Israeli “democracy”.
https://www.jewishpress.com/author/elliottabrams/
Thanks for the link, Abe! – Representative Omar is a wonderful person to be in Congress. I am so grateful to her and Tlaib and other progressive young people who will stand up for human rights and brings the horrors of our foreign policy to light.
The Neocons and Neoliberals are criminals and should be held to account for all the terrible things they have done.
It’s hard for me to believe that they’re still around causing trouble when they’re known to have committed so many crimes in Central and South America and the Middle East and wherever else that they’ve operated…
Ugly nasty stuff in our history:
“How to Hide an Empire” Daniel Immerwahr
Well said ABE!
Many of the comments preceding yours either appear to be the product of either serial ignorance or wantonly informed bias, in my opinion.
For those actually interested in being factually informed, even a cursory investigation into the actions of Elliot Richardson, Douglas Feith, John Negroponte, and all of the PNAC cabal.
The 3.8 billion dollar “aid” number that is so casually referred to is nothing more than a faux government political card trick disguised to keep the U.S. citizenry writ large from understanding that this money is used to purchase military weapons and supplies from the U.S. Military Industrial Complex.
As Usual,
EA
This exchange is so priceless, I took the opportunity to watch it again out of pure enjoyment. Righteous indignation should be the order of the day.
I’ve read books that were shorter in length. What was your point, l quit reading after two paragraphs.
It wasn’t worth the effort.
As far as I can determine, the only people entertaining the theory that Jews have any legitimate right to the land of Palestine are Christian fundamentalists, Zionist (Jew and Gentile alike), and believers in the devine right of kings. With either of the above theories being as legitimate as the other. Jews should be forced to get the hell out of Palestine, and compensate the Palestinian people for the horrendous crimes committed against them over the past 72 years.
Jews and many others lived in relative peace in the “holy lands” for centuries.
It was only after the fairly recent creation and rise of the Zionist movement that this inter-religious conflict became so pronounced and began to dislocate an entire population.
Thus, not all Jews should be forced out, only those with no valid, legal claim (circa 1946) to reside in Palestine.
That said, considering that the Zionist occupiers have at least 300 nukes, how can this be accomplished ?
One of the truly heartbreaking realities of this criminal occupation and ethnic cleansing is how damaging it is to the Jewish soul. While many Israelis are now beginning to fully realize this, many Jews outside Israel are still very much in denial.
Implementing BDS effectively could possibly provide a peaceful path to a progressive and prosperous Palestine.
Be well.
I guess the same could be said for European/Americans living in the land of Native Americans. It is my understanding that there is no recognized Palestinian either but they now demand recognition. I admit I am naive about the middle east but the insanity will not ever end until there is no mother earth.
“even as the House votes overwhelmingly to condemn the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.”
Must be the blackmail-see the Whitney Webb series at Mint Press.
My god…could Americans possibly be waking up?
With all due respect, you’re wrong. These women merely highlight one of the deep divisions among those who aren’t on the right wing. Many of us do support the right of the sole Jewish nation to survive, in spite of the odds. Many do not support the right wing governments of Israel or the various Arab nations, but that’s a different issue. There is no way to disguise the racism in the currently-fashionable campaign against Israel.
Please feel free to elucidate on how the campaign against apartheid in Occupied Palestine (Israel) is “racist”.
Then, feel free to explain how a nation giving full citizenship rights only to members of one religion is not, itself, discriminatory/”racist” (don’t forget to include in your argument a justification for how people with a legitimate claim to their homes and property can be prevented from living in and enjoying said homes and properties).
I look forward to reading your well-considered response.
Be well.
Racism? what “race” do Jews belong to? As for “sole jewish nation”, why do they need one “nation” plus full privileges in nearly every other non-Muslim “nation”??
“And the United States’ overwhelming support for Israel is reflected in a resolution the House of Representatives adopted on July 23”.
No it is not. That would imply that the USA is a democracy (like Israel??) and the House of reps really represents the US people.
Comrade “DH Fabian” recites two Hasbara scripted pro-Israel propaganda canards in a single paragraph:
“the right of the sole Jewish nation”
and
“racism in the currently-fashionable campaign against Israel”
These Hasbara propaganda stock phrases falsely assert a “sole Jewish” unconditional “right” to conquest, more than 50 years of illegal military occupation, ethnic cleansing, and forcible annexation.
A fundamental principle in international law is that the use of force is not a legal way to acquire sovereignty over territory. That makes Israel an outlaw state.
In fact, the international effort to hold Israel accountable for its illegal actions is neither “racist” nor “fashionable”.
It simply is what’s morally right and essential for peace and security in the Middle East and around the world.
The Hasbara troll army is dead wrong.
And underneath all that deceitful ‘splainin’, they know it.
Because there is no way to disguise the reality.
Hasbara hilarity ensues.
Thanks for the demo, comrade.
Why this obsession of US politicians (both parties) to travel to israel. Rather, spend time and effort traveling around the US and taking in the sorry shape the country is in. As the saying goes…charity starts at home.
They get very nice free vacations and regular piles of cash, something the decaying inner cities and increasingly vacant rural America can’t offer.
We need to get money out of politics.
But, before that, we need to elect people who will do that and appoint judges that don’t equate money with speech.
But, in order to do that, we have to have an honest and transparent electoral system.
Verifiable paper ballots, anyone?
See you in the streets!
Be well.
One just has to love it when their devious plans and machinations come right back at them . It is all for the good as the BDS movement has received more wind in it’s sails .It really needs to go viral as the saying goes.
My thanks to Marjorie Cohn and CN for reporting this.
American Jews should all pay an extra Zionism tax, to offset America’s annual payout to the Jewish state; which America’s Jews would surely be happy to pay.
I am an American Jew and you don’t speak for me. I would not pay and I know many others who won’t. Those who would already do – it’s called JNF.
In 1992 Israeli Major General Matti Peled made a speech in San Francisco in which he explained how the occupation and U.S. financial aid is corrupting Israel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xbh9hhskzg
all supporters of israel and/or the palestinians should consider the many merits of the one state solution put forward by israeli president reuven rivlin and u.s. president donald trump.
So you claim to be independent investigators do you? Really? Your agenda is obvious. The 2 congress women are non entities and just make a lot of noise. Nearer the 2020 election Pelosi and co will shut them down. If two Rebublicans reps were saying the same things are these 2 I bet your hypocrisy would then be manifest. And no thank you don’t think I will subscribe any time soon.
This article is clearly labeled as commentary, it’s not an objective investigative piece.
The author is free to express her opinion, as are you.
Your assertion that “Pelosi and co will shut them down” is very telling about your view on the present state of democracy in the U.S. Would you care to expand on that?
I suspect that, if two Republican members of Congress were to publicly support the BDS movement, then they would get invited to write their own commentary regarding said support for this site. At the very least, they would be profiled and interviewed for an article on this site.
BTW, how do new members of Congress become “entities” in their first term without making “noise” ?
Finally, what is the obvious agenda you exclaim about and exactly what point are you trying to make?
Be well.
Thank You 10,000 times, Prof. Kohn.
Your words are proof that Light Overcomes Darkness.
How sad that the self-proclaimed “Chosen One” ‘ loves Darkness rather than Light’.
It’s amazing how uninformed the people are with these comments. WOW
Please describe what you see as “uninformed” and why.
Tlaib and Omar have built a reputation, quickly, as critics of US policies, foreign and domestic. Is there anything we do right or are we always in the wrong? They claim US citizenship and yet act and speak as any foreign critic not someone who loves their country. What have they sacrificed for freedom? What do they know of “the land of the free because of the brave?” My grandparents immigrated from other countries and were grateful to live here, as am I.
What was/is Trump’s campaign slogan again?
Unlike citizens born in the US, immigrants are sworn to uphold and defend the US Constitution. Tlaib and Omar are, clearly for one (right), upholding the rights of all to FREE SPEECH.
I care less about what people say (“I love my country”) than what people actually do, that their ACTIONS SPEAK.
Simple browsing around will bring up famous quotes about it being OK to be critical of one’s GOVERNMENT.
Government and Country are different. Using “country” rather than government is like saying “Jew” rather than “Israel.
Understand this difference!
The government of Israel has violated international law in countless instances. The US turns a blind eye regarding it’s constitutionally derived Symington Amendment. Israel is NOT a signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, yet, as the Symington Amendment says, it STILL receives aid from the US. NOTE: WHY, when US tax payers don’t have what Israel has -guaranteed health care- that we, US tax payers, shell out money to Israel (when Israel is no third world country)?
Try this one on for size:
It’s a money racket. US doles out money to Israel so that money can come back to purchase US made weapons. Stealing tax payer monies to shove into the pockets of US defense companies (and the oligarchs in the US and Israel).
Add in Epstein’s operation and it ALL becomes quite clear: The Racket has enough blackmail material (Israeli intelligence is wired into US communications companies) to keep itself going for nearly forever (well, until the US collapses).
I want my stink’n money back! And I want all these racketeers locked up for life.
While I thank you, Ms Cohn, for this generally good overview of Tlaib’s thoroughly righteous stand against US and Israeli hypocrisy, the BDS movement and the Zionist efforts to quell, to destroy it, I find it less than completely open of you to continue with the, ultimately, what is a Zionist, of not full-on one, position.
That is: that the occupation by Zionist Israel a) began in 1967; and b) only includes the West Bank and, to all intents and purposes, the Gaza Strip. The dreadful reality is that the whole of Israel is occupied territory, occupied by an invading, settler-colonial people initiated by and largely (though not completely) those of European origin. That occupation began intentionally with the nod and wink of the UK in 1917 and was fully implemented between 1947-1948 via a brutal, violent, deliberate ethnic-cleansing of some 700-800,000 Palestinians who, with their descendants remain refugees because the brutal, violent, criminal Israeli governments since 1948 refuse to allow these rightful dwellers of the land of Palestine (called Israel) the right of return.
The two state solution – never seriously intended by Zionist Israel, ever – is absolutely dead in the water, unless you think that the occasional Bantustan remnants in the West Bank could ever constitute a “state.” The only solution is a one state solution with the absolute right of return for all the Palestinian refugees and/or their descendants to their rightful land of origin (Palestine, called Israel) with full, equal national citizenship rights for all that land’s peoples of whatever “religious,” ethnic background.
Tlaib and Omar are quite right – the world, particularly the American population at large, needs to full-on recognize, learn what the Zionist Israeli state has been doing and continues to do to Palestinians – all of it illegal by international law, but all of it conveniently ignored by the west who could put a stop to it – with utter and complete impunity.
Were any similar things done by our current western bugaboos — Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and so on – we would never be hearing the end of it, economic sanctions would be hard and swift, bombs would fall… But Zionist Israel can do as it likes and the Palestinians must *not* retaliate in the puny, insignificant ways they have available to them because it is they who are condemned – for doing what international law permits of them: to resist by any means available to them all and every oppressive, repressive, murderous action by the settler-colonizers.
As I am sure that you are fully aware.
AnneR, An interesting addition to the history of Zionist occupation of Palestine is “The Transfer Agreement.” In 1933 Hitler made an agreement with German Zionists to send 50,000 Zionists to Palestine with a fortune in cash to start buying up property. Earlier in 1933, the American Jewish Congress had organized a world-wide boycott of German goods which was devastating to the German economy. Shortly after the 50,000 Zionists landed in Palestine, the American Jewish Congress called off the boycott of German Goods.
Thanks, Larry, for that addition. Very revealing of the reality of where Zionist thinking and behavior found its bedfellow.
To learn more about the Haavara Agreement:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haavara_Agreement
I haven’t read this whole Wiki entry. But just to get the name of the agreement out there, people can begin to educate themselves as to Jewish efforts to punish Germans. This effort was international in scope. Nothing justifies the genocide of German and other Jews. But, to understand how the genocide gathered force we must look at ALL historical circumstances and understand how they affected perceptions in a Germany that had been whiplashed by internal social upheaval (fall of the Second Reich; loss of Great War) and economic tsunami that left up to 45% of the population humiliated, broken, unemployed and groveling for any kind of work. Meanwhile, many Jews were obviously well off–not suffering at all from the consequences of the Great War and the subsequent economic agony. Now comes a Jewish boycott . . .
Zionists who wish to criminalize BDS should be challenged to explain the purpose of the Jewish boycott of Germany in 1933.
Just think of that number – 3.8 Billion! Think of the good that could be done here at home with even half of that…
That any member of Congress is openly questioning Israel’s occupation and the funding that has been to this point passed regardless of anything Israel does is cause for celebration. This is legislators doing what they should be doing instead of obeying this or that lobby.
What a dishonest biased article. The intent is obvious and the wording is openly manipulative propaganda.
It’s clearly billed as commentary, not as objective reporting.
The author is entitled to express her opinion and the editor is free to post or not post it, yes?
If you feel so strongly, why don’t you compose and post a counter commentary here?
Be well.
Try all the MSM-they are on your side.
It is long past the time for all Americans, along with all people around the world, to look at how Netanyahu’s government in Israel persecutes and murders the Palestinian people. It is time that US citizens at the very least demand from Congress an end to all aid for Israel from our nation. It is time for the United Nations to act on behalf of the Palestinian people; and, it is time for the International Criminal Court to prosecute those in the government of Israel for the ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.
It is also long overdue to connect the main slogan of Holocaust museums — “never again!” — to the crimes against humanity committed by the Jewish State on the occupied territories of Palestine.
Apparently, “never again” has a very narrow meaning. Much of Nazi sentiment existed before the third Reich and still does to this day outside of Germany. Psychiatry, in its present form, is very much an example of this.
Amen, brother. The UN has largely become a toothless and meaningless organization who will not stand up to the nearly constant violations of the UN charter and international law perpetrated by The West and the so-called “Leader of the Free World”.
And how the Zionist dual-citizens have used and screwed the USA on behalf of the little apartheid gangster state!