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AIPAC Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 03, 2017 6 Comments
Anti-Israel activists regularly, and with never-ending repetition, claim that Israel is an "Apartheid state" because if favors Jews over non-Jews. This accusation is a key part of the strategy to delegitimize Israel, and was developed in 2001 as part of the Durban conference boycott call. That boycott call, based on the accusation of Apartheid, was the foundation of the current Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, as I discussed in my lecture, The REAL history of the BDS movement.

Posted by Miriam Elman on July 09, 2017 8 Comments
In dozens of posts we’ve highlighted how the anti-Zionist, non-Jewish group "Jewish Voice for Peace" (JVP) enables, legitimizes and mainstreams antisemitism by providing a seemingly Jewish cover for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and similar movements. But JVP isn't merely an enabler of antisemitism. JVP also itself is a producer of anti-Jewish animus.

Posted by David Gerstman on March 27, 2017 12 Comments
New United Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wowed the audience at AIPAC this evening, saying "The days of Israel-bashing are over," in a conversation with former Defense Department official Dan Senor. Haley told Senor that while she had heard that there was anti-Israel bias at the UN "you can’t comprehend how ridiculous it is.”

Posted by Miriam Elman on November 13, 2016 5 Comments
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a promise that the United States would officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of the Jewish state. He also vowed that when he became president he’d relocate the U.S. embassy from its current beachside location in Tel Aviv to the Holy City. U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv Beach Satellite   Now, some are saying that once he’s in the Oval Office, Trump will go back on his word.

Posted by Miriam Elman on October 14, 2016 7 Comments
The United Nation’s cultural body—UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)—passed a resolution in Paris yesterday that challenges both Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem’s holy sites. The resolution was passed as Item 25 (titled “Occupied Palestine”) of the provisional agenda for UNESCO Executive Board’s 200th session. The document (full text here) was advanced by the Palestinians along with Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan. Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the resolution; 26 abstained; and only 6 voted against according to media reports. Those that voted against include: U.S., Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 12, 2016 11 Comments
The Free Beacon broke a story today about how The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is holding a forum on Capitol Hill supporting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Congress to Host First-Ever Forum in Favor of Boycotting Israel:
Congress is scheduled to host what insiders described as the first-ever forum in favor of boycotting Israel, according to congressional sources and an invitation for the event being circulated by an anti-Israel organization. The briefing is scheduled to take place Friday on Capitol Hill and will feature several speakers known for their criticism of Israel and support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or BDS, which has been cited by Jewish organizations as an anti-Semitic movement. The event is being sponsored by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a pro-BDS organization that recently came under fire when it hosted a Democratic member of Congress who referred to Israeli settlers as “termites.” Senior congressional sources with knowledge of the event told the Washington Free Beacon that the Capitol Hill office in charge of reserving the event room would not disclose the name of the lawmaker sponsoring the event.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 06, 2016 6 Comments
The controversy over the disinvitation of Shimon Dotan, an Israeli filmmaker and NYU professor whose film was to appear at a conference next year at Syracuse University, continues to reverberate and grow. The background is set forth in prior posts: Syracuse Symposium Place of Religion in Film w border

Posted by Miriam Elman on August 07, 2016 1 Comment
On Sunday, July 31, 2016, I drove down to Ithaca, NY to give a talk titled “Hate Speech and the New Antisemitism: Why Anti-Zionist Extremism is on the Rise and What We Can Do to Stop It”. The lecture was sponsored by the Ithaca Area United Jewish Community (IAUJC). The Ithaca Coalition for Unity and Cooperation in the Middle East (ICUCME), a local grassroots anti-racism organization, assisted with the event logistics and publicity. A video of my 60 minute lecture is now available on You Tube (full embed lower in the post). Below I highlight its main themes, breaking the hour-long lecture into segments so that readers can click on to those portions of the talk that are of most interest.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on August 06, 2016 10 Comments
A war has been declared on Israel on campus by faculty and students supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The rallying cry is to blacklist those acting on behalf of Israeli academic institutions or participating in "normalization" events, such as musical and cultural events. On the faculty academic front, we have seen groups such as the American Studies Association and some smaller groups blacklist Israeli academics representing their institutions, as part of a formal academic boycott. That boycott has been declared by the American Association of University Professors to be a violation of academic freedom. There also are many reports from Israeli academics of a silent boycott, in which individual U.S. professors refuse to interact with individual Israeli scholars and students, resulting in denied access to journals for publication and peer reviews. The claim by many pro-BDS faculty members that BDS does not target individuals is an outright lie.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 19, 2016 6 Comments
In an unexpected move, the United Methodists decided on Tuesday to call on the church’s mission agency to withdraw its membership in the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USCEIO). Based in Washington, D.C. the USCEIO is a vehemently anti-Israel umbrella organization for the boycott, sanctions, and divestment (BDS) movement. Its main goal is to end “all U.S. support and aid” for Israel. USCEIO logo The plenary vote on Petition 60198 (End Coalition Support) came during the church’s leading policy-making event.

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 21, 2016 9 Comments
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a non-Jewish organization that gives cover to the anti-Israel boycott movement (BDS) and its political war on Israel by washing away the stains of anti-Semitism that are central to the BDS movement’s founding, actions and identity. As we noted in a prior post, JVP operates in multiple arenas to exploit Jewish culture and traditions, putting them into service for a vehemently anti-Israel propaganda campaign:
In its written materials and presentations, JVP reinforces that its anti-Israel positions are consistent with Jewish values. Toward this end, it usurps the Jewish life cycle and religious holidays by incorporating anti-Israel themes into traditional celebratory and commemorative events”.
This JVP identity theft of Jewish heritage and narrative is particularly visible at Passover, which begins April 22 this year.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2016 3 Comments
One of the most common questions I get when I give speeches about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has to do with its funding. BDS, including in the U.S., has plenty of money to organize, fly people around, and coordinate efforts across dozens of campuses and multiple countries. Yet BDS portrays itself as just a bunch of concerned people seeking to do social justice. The money angle, though, is barely exposed. Some of the funding comes from the fundraising efforts of tax-exempt groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation. Some of it comes from churches and church-related groups like Sabeel North America and American Friends Service Committee, which use their tax exempt status to fund anti-Israel activities. Meanwhile, faculty groups like the American Studies Association exploit and arguably violate their tax exempt status by promoting academic boycotts.

Posted by Miriam Elman on March 27, 2016 8 Comments
The Republican candidates made a lot of pledges to the record-breaking pro-Israel crowd at last week’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington, D.C. Among them was the promise that they’ll move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. So, if he becomes President, will Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or John Kasich move the American Embassy to Israel’s capital city? Don’t count on it.

Promises, promises

Moving the embassy would break with over two decades of bipartisan White House policy to circumvent the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, a law which mandates its relocation. [caption id="attachment_128948" align="alignnone" width="600"]U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv Beach Satellite [U.S. Embassy location on Tel Aviv Beach][/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 27, 2016 10 Comments
Bill Maher is the proverbial broken clock. While I disagree with him on most issues, he's been accurate and articulate on the problems facing the West from Islamism, and particularly as to the dangers Israel faces. The other night he talked about Donald Trump's address to AIPAC in light of the Brussels terror attack, and made the point that given how miserably Europe treats Israel, perhaps the Europeans will finally understand what Israel faces. Israel National News reports:
During a panel discussion on his late-night HBO show Real Time, Maher blasted the UN and scolded Europe for its behavior towards Israel. "Europe has been real a******s about Israel," Maher said. "I mean, in general. The U.N. – as of 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council had issued more official condemnations of Israel than the rest of the world's nations combined. I wonder now that Europe has been attacked four times now in a little over a year, and they say ISIS has 400 fighters that they are ready to introduce back into Europe, and they're trying to get a dirty bomb - maybe Europe will have a little more sympathy for what Israel goes through."
Video via RCP:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 21, 2016 18 Comments
All three remaining presidential candidates are scheduled to address attendees at AIPAC's annual conference this evening. Donald Trump kicked off tonight's keynote speeches at 5:00 PM EST (see here for our coverage).
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