OMNI
ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER#16, May 25, 2021.
FROM UPRISING TO CEASEFIRE MAY 2021
Compiled by Dick Bennett FOR A CULTURE OF PEACE, JUSTICE, and ECOLOGY
(#1 Feb. 22, 2011; #2 Feb. 16, 2012; #3 March 1, 2012; #4 May 18, 2012; #5 August 13, 2012; #6 October 29, 2012; #7 Dec. 17, 2012; #8 March 29, 2013; #9 Oct. 21, 2013; #10 April 28, 2014; #11, July 1, 2015; #12, June 21, 2016; #13, August 13, 2016; #14 , May 15, 2021; #15, May 17, 2021)
CONTENTS:ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #16
CURRENT EVENTS MAY 2021
Prashad, Israel Attacks Occupied Palestinian Territory OPT
Omar and Tlaib v. US Weapons to Israel, Common Dreams
AFSC and FCNL
Mondoweiss Coverage May 12-22
Abby Martin, Israeli Assault on Gaza
HISTORY
Bazian’s Book on Settler Colonial Occupation of Palestine
Israel Demolishes West Bank Village, The Guardian
BDS Movement 12 Years Old, Anna Baltzer
J Street Perspective: Defend the 2-state solution, stop the demolitions, build peace.
Book by Chomsky and Pappe, On Palestine
Book by Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
Islamophobia
Book by Wajaht Ali, Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobic Network in America
Balfour Declaration
Levine and Mossberg in Tikkun
Two Articles in Washinton Report on Middle East Affairs
Film by Independent Jewish Voices
Israeli Lobby
Articles by Hanan Ashrawi and John Mearsheimer
Interview of Grant Smith, author of Big Israel
TEXTS: ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #16
CURRENT EVENTS
WAR INTENSIFIES AGAIN MAY 2021
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Published on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 By
Omar, Tlaib Lead Call to Stop 'Appalling' $735 Million US Weapons Sale to Israel Amid Gaza Carnage
The Minnesota Democrat warned the munitions sale "will undercut any attempts at brokering a ceasefire."
Protesters gather to demonstrate against Israel outside the U.S. State Department on May 11, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is among the chorus of lawmakers and advocacy groups warning that U.S. President Joe Biden's effort to sell $735 million in munitions to the Israeli government is a "green light for continued escalation" in the occupied Gaza Strip, where the Netanyahu regime is carrying out a devastating air and artillery assault that has killed more than 200 people.
"It would be appalling for the Biden administration to go through with $735 million in precision-guided weaponry to Netanyahu without any strings attached in the wake of escalating violence and attacks on civilians," Omar (D-Minn.), the Congressional Progressive Caucus whip, said in a statement Monday.
"By supplying weapons that could be used to commit war crimes, the U.S. government is taking the risk of further fueling attacks against civilians and seeing more people killed or injured by U.S.-made weapons."
—Philippe Nassif, Amnesty International
If the proposed sale of Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions goes through, Omar warned, the deal "will undercut any attempts at brokering a cease-fire," a solution Biden said he supports in a Monday call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We should be standing unequivocally and consistently on the side of human rights—holding all state and non-state actors accountable for their crimes and using every tool at our disposal to end the violence and bring about peace," Omar said. "We should be affirming the right of all people, regardless of their faith, to have self-determination and equal rights. That includes both Israelis and Palestinians because, yes, Palestinian lives matter."
The Biden administration first notified Congress of the proposed $735 million weapons sale on May 5, just days before the latest Israeli bombardment of Gaza began. Continued:
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MONDOWEISS COVERAGE, Selections May 12 to 22, 2021
Joint statement by Palestinians in North America on Nakba ...
https://mondoweiss.net › Activism
May 12, 2021 — DC: Tuesday, 11 May 2021 at 13:00 PDT Intersection of 22nd St. and C St. NW ... Mondoweiss covers the full picture of the struggle for justice in ...
MAY 18 GENERAL STRIKE
'We are united as a people': Palestinians celebrate a historic ...https://mondoweiss.net › News3 days ago — On May 18, Palestinians in Bethlehem joined millions across the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, Israel, and surrounding regions in the historic ...
Unity at last – Mondoweiss https://mondoweiss.net › Opinion 17 hours ago — The Palestinian people's inalienable rights are enshrined in international and humanitarian law and ... For the first time in many years, we see the Palestinian people united, from Jerusalem Al Quds, to Gaza, ... May 19, 2021.
Mondoweiss dave@mondoweiss.net
Mondoweiss – News & Opinion About Palestine, Israel & the ...
By Ted Snider May 22, 2021. Israeli provocation inside the Al-Aqsa mosque made the recent fighting in Gaza a war of choice for Israeli leaders. US approval ...
Activism – Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net › activism
By Ragini Shah May 22, 2021. The City of Cambridge, Massachusetts has the chance to take action against Israeli oppression at its City Council meeting on ...
‘We are united as a people’: Inside Palestine's 'Strike for Dignity' - Intifada Diary: Haifa - Manifesto of Dignity and Hope - Democrats rise up, and collapse, on arms sales to Israel - Maddow has mentioned Gaza 6 times in 10 years
Inbox
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Return to al-Wahda street - Palestinians celebrate ceasefire; Israel attacks Al Aqsa worshipers, again - Haifa Intifada Diary - Illusion of Israeli coexistence - Ed Markey and Palestine - Exterminate All the Brutes: a critique 5-22-21
Coexistence in Israel's 'mixed cities' was always an illusion
Over the past three decades, Israel’s main effort to “Judaize” the “mixed cities” inside Israel has been waged through a war of attrition. This has included moving religious settlers into Palestinian communities, as well as using tourism and archeological preservation to take over land. The coexistence model in Israel's “mixed cities” was always an illusion, and one that the recent protests finally served to smash.
GAZA
Physicians in Gaza recount airstrikes on clinics, medical staff
Israeli attacks on Gaza decimated the health sector, which included destroying doctors' ability to confront COVID-19.
Israel's air strikes targeted entire families in Gaza -- but U.S. media won't pursue the story
Amira Hass's charge in Haaretz that Israeli military, as part of its air assault on Gaza, “is wiping out entire Palestinian families on purpose," cries out for followup by American journalists. So far, no mainstream U.S. media outlet has followed up on her report. Their failure is journalistic malpractice.
Exterminate All the Brutes: a critique
Raoul Peck’s “Exterminate All the Brutes” is an awe-inspiring cultural, literary, historical, political and geographic smorgasbord. But to what end?
U.S. policy has perpetuated the crisis and atrocities in Gaza
The United States has played a vital role in the decades-long catastrophe that has engulfed Palestine. U.S. leaders must now confront their country’s and, in many cases, their own personal complicity in this catastrophe.
Return to al-Wahda street: Palestinians in Gaza mourn lives and dreams lost in latest Israeli offensive
On Friday morning, as the dust settled and a sense of calm blanketed the streets of Gaza City, which just hours prior were filled with thousands of people celebrating the ceasefire, Mahmoud al-Qawlaq mustered the courage to return to his neighborhood. “When I stand here and look at what’s in front of me, all I see is loss,” al-Qawlaq tells Mondoweiss. “The loss of my family members, my loved ones, my home, and the loss of my dreams.”
Abby Martin On The Israeli Onslaught And Gaza's Fight For Freedom
By Mnar Muhawesh Adley, MintPress News. Popular Resistance (5-22-21). Despite publicly urging caution, restraint and calling for a ceasefire, the United States government continues to aid Israel, this week approving $375 million worth of arms sales to the Jewish state, even as it uses U.S.-made weaponry to attack civilian buildings and other infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Hospitals, health clinics and homes have been destroyed, with reports confirming the deaths of at least 63 children in Gaza alone. Three pregnant women have also been killed. As of Wednesday morning, the death toll stands at 276. -more-
HISTORY—MAINLY 2017
OCCUPATION CONTINUES
BOOK ON SETTLER COLONIALISM
Eastwind Books of Berkeley, The Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley, and The Center for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley present
In Palestine It Is Something Colonial BY Dr. Hatem Bazian
Professor Hatem Bazian (UC Berkeley) provides a decolonial analysis of the most pressing struggle in the world in an extensive study of the occupation of Palestine.
The book’s subtitle is taken directly from the letter of Theoder Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, to Great Britain’s Minister of Colonies Cecil Rhodes, that sought support for the Zionist settler colonial project in Palestine.
In 1902, Herzl wrote to Rhodes stating: “You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews… How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.”
Palestine is the last settler colonial project to be commissioned in the late 19th early 20th centuries and still unfolding as we enter into the 21st Century with no end in sight.
In centering Palestine’s modern history around settler-colonial discourses, Hatem Bazian offers a theoretical basis for understanding Palestine while avoiding the pitfalls of the internationally supported “peace process” that, on the one hand, affirms settler-colonial rights and, on the other hand, problematizes the colonialized and dispenses with the ramifications of the colonial project.
Dr. Hatem Bazian is a lecturer in the Department of Near Eastern and Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Editor-in-Chief of the Islamophobia Studies Journal and Director of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project Center for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Bazian is a co-founder of Zaytuna College, the first accredited Muslim Liberal Arts College in America, the National Chair of American Muslims for Palestine, Board Member of Islamic Scholarship Fund, and Board Member of the Muslim Legal Fund of America. To learn more about Dr. Bazian, visit http://www.hatembazian.com.
Israeli forces leave 41 children homeless after razing Palestinian village, UN says. Demolitions used as a ‘key means’ to ‘coerce Palestinians to leave their homes’
The belongings of 73 people who were forcibly displaced by Israeli forces stand in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. Photograph: United Nations
Thu 5 Nov 2020 00.00 EST
Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank have razed a Palestinian village, leaving 73 people – including 41 children – homeless, in the largest forced displacement incident for years, according to the United Nations.
Excavators escorted by military vehicles were filmed approaching Khirbet Humsa and proceeding to flatten or smash up tents, shacks, animal shelters, toilets and solar panels.
“These are some of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank,” said Yvonne Helle, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.
Three-quarters of the community lost their shelters during Tuesday’s operation, she said, making it the largest forced displacement incident in more than four years. However, by the number of destroyed structures, 76, the raid was the largest demolition in the past decade, she added.
On Wednesday, families from the village were seen rifling through their wrecked belongings in the wind, with some of the first rain of the year arriving the same day. The UN published a photo of a bed and a cot in the open desert. The village is one of several Bedouin and sheepherding communities in the Jordan Valley area that is located within Israeli-declared army training “firing zones”, and despite being within the Palestinian Territories, people there often face demolitions for a building without Israeli permission.
“Palestinians can almost never obtain such permits,” said Helle. “Demolitions are a key means of creating an environment designed to coerce Palestinians to leave their homes,” she said, accusing Israel of “grave breaches” of international law.
Nearly 700 structures have been demolished across the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2020 so far, she said, more than any year since 2016, leaving 869 Palestinians homeless. . . .
The country’s hardline prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he intends to annex large swathes of occupied Palestinian territories, including the Jordan Valley, although the plan was temporarily “suspended” as part of a deal with the United Arab Emirates.
BDS Turns 12! 7-5-`17
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Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Boycott,_Divestment_...
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel ...
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS ... - Facebook
https://www.facebook.com › videos › the-danger-of-neutr...
Anna Baltzer from the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights explains in this TEDx talk. On the importance of ...
Dec 18, 2017
ISRAEL V. BDS MOVEMENT: SILENCING PALESTINIAN POV
Greetings! I hope that you all are doing well and continuing to speak out for truth and justice! ~Sue Tell Congress: Do not criminalize free speech https://act.credoaction.com/sign/S720?sp_ref=323429380.4.1822 JUST ARRIVED TODAY 7-31-17 Washington Post Publishes OpEd Critical of Pro-Israel Law which squelches Free Speech & makes us felons. This article: "SHOCKER: Washington Post Publishes OpEd Critical of Pro-Israel Law Which Shuts Down BDS" by 21WIRE posted by Coyote Prime on his blog: Running Cause I Can't Fly Thomas L. Are Blogspot Nor can Israel be disparaged in a person to person basis. As far as Israel... consider this quote from Ariel Sharon: The BBC announcer reported on an Israeli cabinet meeting: Shimon Peres had been pressuring Ariel Sharon to respect American calls for a ceasefire, lest the Americans turn against Israel. According to the BBC, a furious Sharon turned toward Peres, saying: “Every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.” Apparently, that is what MOST PEOPLE OF JEWISH LINEAGE EXPECT. HENCE, THAT IS WHY ANYTIME I TRY TO DISCUSS THESE ISSUES ABOUT ISRAEL, THE MOSSAD AND 9-11, THE USS LIBERTY…I AM TOLD THAT IT IS ANTI-SEMITIC AND OTHER OVERTLY AGRESSSIVE REMARKS TO SHUT ME UP. NOW WE HAVE A GROUP OF 43 SENATORS- 29 Republicans & 14 Democrats—that want to implement a bill into law which would criminally “Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against Israel”. “The Criminalization of Political Speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West.” U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against Israel July 19 2017, 11:30 a.m. The criminalization of political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed to outlaw such activism. On U.S. campuses, punishment of pro-Palestinian students for expressing criticisms of Israel is so commonplace that the Center for Constitutional Rights refers to it as “the Palestine Exception” to free speech. But now, a group of 43 senators — 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats — wants to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of that country’s decades-old occupation of Palestine. The two primary sponsors of the bill are Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio. Perhaps the most shocking aspect is the punishment: Anyone guilty of violating the prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison. Not only this grave oppressive law to prevent us from any dissent against Israel, but in the past there have been false flags on American soil or against Americans on purpose and to the detriment of the American People that are beneficial to Israel. MORE | |||||||||
J STREET 
PERSPECTIVE 2017
Stop Demolitions, Build Peace Defend Israel from attack, advocate two-state solution, oppose settlements and annexations, stand with Palestinian communities in WB, BUILD PEACE
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ON PALESTINE by CHOMSKY AND PAPPE
BOOK REVIEW: On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe (Haymarket Books) 2015. Rev. by Griffin.
If, like many sane and independent-thinking Americans, you are tired of the hardline, pro-Israeli propaganda fed to us by Big Media, may I be so bold as to point you to a slim volume I just finished reading on the subject by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe simply titled On Palestine.
With the help from human-rights activist Frank Barat, who says in the introduction that “(t)he Palestine question is emblematic of what is wrong with the world” and that Palestine is “a social issue that all movements fighting for social justice need to embrace,” linguist and foreign-policy critic Chomsky and Israeli author and historian Pappe point out the obvious: the Israel is a settler-colonial society that is incrementally trying to push out or completely eliminate the Palestinian people (innocent women and children included) in hopes of creating their goal of a Greater Israel. And all this with complicity from the U.S. and the West.
Says Pappe: “There is no chance of getting out of the deadlock in Palestine without tearing apart the façade of a fake peace process and the two-state solution.” This needs to be addressed at the grassroots, he writes, with the people of a future Palestine where they come together to discuss how to “live together within a framework where all enjoy full rights, equality and partnership.”
In part one, Chomsky and Pappe, guided by Barat, go from the past and the Zionist struggle to the present and to the future of Palestine and its historic struggles, particularly after 1948 and the war in 1967. Barat and Pappe then address the issues inside Israel, while Barat and Chomsky tackle how the issues play out inside the United States.
“The idea of a Jewish state is an anomaly,” says Chomsky. “It’s not something that’s happened somewhere in the world.” He adds: “If you live in Israel, and you are an Israeli citizen, you are not a Jew. So the Jewish state concept is a complete anomaly.”
Pappe adds on to this line of thinking, noting how Israel has “immunized” itself from overt criticism, compared, say to South Africa under apartheid, because “if you demonstrate against Israel, you demonstrate against the Jewish state and therefore you demonstrate against Judaism.” He says that the parameters of the conversation need to be changed and for Israel, like South Africa, to be made into a pariah state, with change coming from within.
Later, Pappe notes the disappointment in Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine over the lack of any significant international reaction to the carnage and destruction of the Israeli assaults on those lands and people.
And while, as I noted earlier, the attacks on Gaza and the West Bank are accepted as Israel responding to Hamas missile attacks on the Jewish state, “(t)his Israeli narrative is totally rejected in the world of cyber-activism and alternative media (including Red Dirt Report). There it seems the condemnation of the Israeli action as a war crime is widespread and consensual.”
There is no getting around Israel's brutal, bloody policy against the Palestinians and how outrageous these war crimes have been. And yet, as the authors note, little is being said on behalf of the Palestinian people who have been kept in what is essentially an open-air prison, in the case of the Gaza Strip.
The book ends with Chomsky's powerful speech at the United Nations, noting the horror and brutality of Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge and the awful direction Israel is heading to.
On Palestine is an eye-opening and hard-hitting book and we here at Red Dirt Report highly encourage all students of current events and history alike to read it from cover-to-cover.
Ilan Pappe The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
,. Oneworld $27.50 (313p) ISBN 978-1851684670
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1851684670
In his latest work, renowned Israeli author and academic Pappe (A History of Modern Palestine ) does not mince words, doing Jimmy Carter one better (or worse, depending on one's point of view) by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, beginning in the 1948 war for independence and continuing through the present. Focusing primarily on Plan D (Dalet , in Hebrew), conceived on March 10, 1948, Pappe demonstrates how ethnic cleansing was not a circumstance of war, but rather a deliberate goal of combat for early Israeli military units organized by David Ben-Gurion, whom Pappe labels the “architect of ethnic cleansing.” The forced expulsion of 800,000 Palestinians between 1948 and 1949, Pappe argues, was part of a long-standing Zionist plan to manufacture an ethnically pure Jewish state. Framing his argument with accepted international and U.N. definitions of ethnic cleansing, Pappe follows with an excruciatingly detailed account of Israeli military involvement in the demolition and depopulation of hundreds of villages, and the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Arab inhabitants. An accessible, learned resource, this volume provides important insights into the historical antecedents of today's conflict, but its conclusions will not be easy for everyone to stomach: Pappe argues that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues today, and calls for the unconditional return of all Palestinian refugees and an end to the Israeli occupation. Without question, Pappe's account will provoke ire from many readers; importantly, it will spark discussion as well. (Jan.)
Islamophobia
Wajahat Ali: Pro-Israel Organizations, Donors and Islamophobia: Findings From Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America
Grant Smith: Wajahat Ali is a journalist, writer, lawyer, and an award-winning playwright. But of major interest to us is a fascinating report that he wrote along with his team while they were at the Center for American Progress back in 2011. We’ve asked him to come and talk about a seminal report about the overlap between some Israel lobby organizations and donors that promote or otherwise distribute Islamophobia in America. Please welcome Wajahat Ali.
Wajahat Ali:. . . .
…in 2011-I was once a young man-I was the lead author and researcher of the investigative report Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America that was published by the Washington, DC think tank Center for American Progress.
Don’t worry. I won't do the entire 138-page report, but for those of you who have not read it, in two minutes I will summarize everything for you. What this report was, was an investigative report that exposed how at that time seven major funders had given over $43 million over a period of 10 years after 9/11 to a small—key, small—very interconnected, I would say incestuous group of individuals and organizations responsible for mainstreaming fear, bigotry and hate against Muslims and Islam in America.
Now, for purposes of this conversation, what is Islamophobia? Great question. We defined it, as it manifested itself in America, as the following: an exaggerated fear, hatred and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination—this is the key—the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from America’s social, political and civic life.
THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
www.tikkun.org/nextgen/balfour-declaration On Balfour’s 100th Anniversary, Time for a New Definition of Sovereignty, Independence and the Nation-State. Most “non-Jews”--i.e., Palestinian Arabs--joined by key members of Palestine’s existing Arab Jewish population and some Diaspora Jewish figures, understood that Balfour's promise would lead to permanent hostility between the two emerging nationalist communities. Some local Jewish leaders even put forward an alternative to the Balfour Declaration, declaring that peace in the Holy Land would only be possible if “both sides... develop their national homes in the same land, which is destined to be one state.” It's tragic but fitting that on the Balfour Declaration's centenary the most right-wing government in Israel's history is pushing to annex large swaths of the West Bank to Jerusalem, permanently foreclosing the possibility of a second state being created on the territory of Palestine/Israel, and returning the conflict to its roots as a zero-sum territorial struggle between Jews and Palestinians. Of course, Palestinians are not unique in being on the losing end of the Post-World War I nation-state order. Catalans and Kurds are only the most recent and newsworthy examples of how states established on territories with more than one ethnonational community—never mind established after the conquest and occupation of territories with large indigenous populations—have failed to provide equal political, economic and social rights to all inhabitants…. |
ALSO ON BALFOUR, SEE 2 ARTICLES IN WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS (NOV.-DEC. 2017).
Ramzy Baroud, “The Balfour Declaration Destroyed Palestine, Not the Palestinian People” and Allan Brownfeld, “The Balfour Declaration at 100: Remembering Its Prophetic Jewish Critics.”
FILM ON THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
Van Gosse, a co-chair of H-PAD, says that the 24-minute film on the centenary of the Balfour Declaration made by Independent Jewish Voices has been highly recommended by scholars in the US and UK who work on issues related to Palestine. Historians for Peace and Democracy.
Tom Hayes: Challenges and Changes in 25 Years Working on Israel-Palestine Issue and Advice for Independent Filmmakers.
https://www.wrmea.org/2017-may/challenges-and-changes-in-25-years-working-on-israel-palestine-issue-and-advice-for-independent-filmmakers.html
…Tom Hayes: The spectrum of mendacious mechanisms we encapsulate in the term Israel lobby are, in fact, an attack on the foundations of the United States by a foreign interest. Its aim is to keep our eyes closed, our mouths shut, and our wallets wide open. . . . .
I was nine years old when my mother read me Cry, the Beloved Country. I was 39 when Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa. That book may not have had any more impact than a grain of sand on the struggle against South African apartheid, but a grain of sand on the move can start an avalanche. If enough of us grains of sand shake our asses loose, we could bury the Israel lobby. [APPLAUSE] We can clear the road to Palestinian freedom and self-determination.
ISRAEL LOBBY
The following 2 papers by Hanan Ashrawi and John Mearsheimer were delivered to The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference March 24, 2017 at the National Press Club. The 3rd is an interview of Grant Smith at the conference, author of Big Israel.
Hanan Ashrawi: The Israel Lobby and the ‘Peace Process’ From a Palestinian Perspective. Posted on April 2, 2017
The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference was solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). This is a rush transcript
...Hanan Ashrawi: Thank you very much. Thank you. This is indeed heartwarming and humbling. I thank you all for coming. Thank you, Delinda, for your invitation. Thank you, Grant. Thank you, John for picking me up also and all the people who made this possible. I’m delighted to be here with you. I’m delighted to be part of this occasion, this endeavor which in many ways is extremely timely. It does respond to a sense of urgency really. I need to intervene and to say policy and discourse. And it’s wonderful to hear all these not just distinguished people but very profound and persuasive people and courageous people, really, who are speaking truth to power and who are standing up for justice. I don’t want to waste too much time because I have a lot to say. So you have to let me know ahead of time.
As you know this is a very significant occasion because we’re talking about 100, 70, 50, and zero. A hundred years since the Balfour Declaration. I do hope that the Brits will not celebrate it even though Theresa May invited Netanyahu to celebrate with her. This is a colonial legacy par excellence. Seventy years since the partition plan that did partition Palestine and created the State of Israel, at that time on 55 percent of Palestine. Fifty years since the occupation of 1967. And zero time for the two-state solution.
I’m asked to talk about the Israel lobby and the peace process. I will focus on the peace process because you all know that the Israel lobby is never absent. Whenever anything happens related to Palestine, it is there. And when it comes to the peace process, they have always been a shaping force – intertwining, interweaving, intervening their presence and at the same time maintaining their – I don’t want to say control but their influence every step of the way. They play the major role in shaping and influencing U.S. policy particularly the peace process. Since its inception, there’s a sense of ownership that the peace process is owned by the Israeli lobby in many ways because they’re looking out for the interest of Israel all the time.
There are various components of the lobby. (Continued:
John Mearsheimer: What Has Changed Since Publication of The Israel Lobby and What the New Administration Can Do Differently. Posted on March 31, 2017
Delivered to The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference March 24, 2017 at the National Press Club
The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference was solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep). This is a rush transcript.
….John Mearsheimer:
I would like to focus my talk on what has transpired regarding the Israel lobby and the U.S.-Israeli relationship in the ten years since Steve Walt and I wrote The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. My talks comprise of four parts. I’ll begin by briefly restating the core arguments in our book. I’ll then describe four major changes that have taken place regarding the lobby and the U.S.-Israeli relationship over the past decade. I will then describe what has not changed and conclude by speculating about the future.
The central argument in the book is that the United States has a special relationship with Israel that has no parallel in modern history and it is almost wholly due to the lobby. What makes Israel’s relationship with the United States extraordinary is not simply the fact that Israel has received more foreign aid than any other country or that Washington almost always backs Israel diplomatically. What makes it truly special is that the aid is given unconditionally. In other words, Israel gets this aid even when it does things that the United States opposes like building settlements in the West Bank. (Continued:
Grant Smith summarizes conclusions from his book Big Israel and results of polling people about the Israel Lobby
Grant Smith: American Public Opinion About U.S. Aid to Israel and Other Top AIPAC Programs https://www.wrmea.org/2017-may/grant-smith-american-public-opinion-about-u.s.-aid-to-israel-and-other-top-aipac-programs.html
Dale Sprusansky: Grant Smith is the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy—again, the co-sponsor of today’s event. He’s the author of the 2016 book Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America, which covers the history, functions, and activities of Israel affinity organizations in America. Grant has written two unofficial histories of AIPAC, and many other books.
His organization is constantly working on Freedom of Information Act requests and uncovering important documents, especially on Israel’s nuclear program. I can tell you that few, if any, people work harder on this issue than Grant. Between his frequent research, appearance in FOIA court, his writing, his polling and his 5:00 a.m. e-mails, Grant is truly a one-man machine. Today he will be sharing polling data on U.S. aid to Israel conducted by his organization and by other pollsters.
Grant Smith: Thank you, Dale. Public opinion polling is very important, obviously, but there isn’t very much done in terms of asking about what the public thinks about core Israel lobby programs. But that’s going to change today. The polling that we are about to look at could and should provide input to elected officials, who should then, in turn, act in the public interest. Polling about the Israel lobby programs that we’re going to look at reveals the growing gap between what the public thinks about particular issues, and the government actions being demanded by the Israel lobby. 
Last year, I spoke here about the birth of the Israel lobby in the United States, its growth, its size, its composition and division of labor. This was all based on my book Big Israel, in which I reveal a $3.7 billion nonprofit ecosystem on track to reach $6.3 billion by 2020. With 14,000 employees, 350,000 volunteers, but a paying membership of approximately 774,000, it is this nonprofit lobby, along with overlapping campaign-finance infrastructure—whether it is large individual donors, stealth political action committees—that provide Israel with the U.S. support that it would otherwise not have. All of this will be on a brilliant display when 15,000 AIPAC members assemble this weekend to begin their annual policy conference. So let’s continue looking at the lobby, and what Americans think of that program. MORE . https://www.wrmea.org/2017-may/grant-smith-american-public-opinion-about-u.s.-aid-to-israel-and-other-top-aipac-programs.html
CONTENTS: ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #15 5-17-21
MAY 18 GLOBAL PROTEST
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
ANSWER Coalition
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION MAY 2021
Weapons to Israel
Chris Hedges, Israel’s War Crimes and US and Israel’s Lies
Mairead Maguire v. Israel Killings and US Compliance
Philip Weiss v. Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken on Israel
Lana Tatour, Not Only Apartheid but Israel Enforces Settler-Colonialism
Norm Finkelstein Interview
2016-17 CONTINUITY, PRESENT FROM THE PAST
Jonathan Cook, New Land Law for Annexation Dooms 2- State Solution
Stephen Zunes, Israeli War Crimes Permitted by Bipartisan US Congress
RESISTANCE
sraeli Teens Refuse to Serve in Israeli Army
Medea Benjamin, BDS Movement
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Jewish Social Justice Tradition
CONTENTS, ISRAEL-PALESTINE NEWSLETTER #14, MAY 16, 2021
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/05/omni-israel-palestine-newsletter-14-may.html
MAY 12-16, 2021: A Battle Becoming a War
Whitbeck: Meaning of annual $3.8 Billion to Israel
Consequences of Apartheid and Ethnic Cleansing
A Palestinian Community Calls for International Help
The Nakba and Israeli Refusers
Nakba Day
Senator Sanders Calls for Peace
Rabbi Waskow: Muslims and Jews Call for Peace (and you can join them)
LOOKING BACK TO PREPARE THE FUTURE
A. J. Muste Institute for Nonviolence, and Israel/Palestine
Canada’s NDP Sanctions Israel
AFSC Demands Vaccinations for Palestinians
Ilan Pappe’s Quick History of Israel/Palestine
APN, Beerman’s Book on Zionism
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: John Kerry
APN, 2016
END ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS NEWSLETTER#16, May 25, 2021.