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AIPAC Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 16, 2015 12 Comments
This would be funny were it not for the fact that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is such a sad sack of haters. Activists from Ithaca Jewish Voice for Peace were behind the recent failed effort to get GreenStar Food Coop in Ithaca, NY (home of Cornell University) to boycott Israel. Those activists formed a group called Central NY Committee for Justice in Palestine, later reconfigured as Ithaca Food Justice for Palestine. But two JVP activists, Ariel Gold and Beth Harris -- who (in)famously got themselves arrested at the AIPAC annual conference -- were behind it all. Details on that GreenStar boycott effort, including the hateful messages used as part of the campaign (See Featured Image for one example), are in my post, Huge BDS loss – GreenStar Food Coop rejects Israel boycott. Attempts were made to take the GreenStar boycott movement national, involving such "stars" as Angela Davis and Medea Benjamin, but that didn't help them much: Greenstar Boycott Angela Davis Medea Benjamin One aspect of the failed boycott effort involved China. China?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 12, 2015 8 Comments
Activists from Ithaca Jewish Voice for Peace brought a referendum to the GreenStar Food Coop in Ithaca calling for a boycott of Israeli products.  The effort was national, with big names such as Angela Davis (radical anti-Israel prof.) and Medea Benjamin (Code Pink) lending their support (see Featured Image). The effort was rejected tonight unanimously by the GreenStar Council based on the NY State Human Rights law prohibition of boycotts based on national origin. (Full decision at bottom of post.) Similar to the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, NY, the referenda caused enormous tension among the GreenStar membership and within the community. See our prior posts: The proposed referenda read:
1. Shall Greenstar be required to halt the sale of all Israeli products and produce grown or produced in the Occupied West Bank in Israeli settlements, settlements which are recognized as illegal under international law?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 24, 2015 15 Comments
We have been here before. The vicious anti-Israel boycotters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement don't like it when the tables are turned on them.  That's why, when faculty pass their anti-Israel boycott resolutions, they include in the resolutions the demand that their right to boycott be protected. In other words, boycotters claim the right to boycott others, but deny others the right to boycott them. It's an "academic freedom for me, but not for thee" attitude. In Europe, in particular, the BDS rhetoric and tactics are so toxic that BDS has become the mother's milk of anti-Semitic violence and threats.  In many cities, Walking While Jewish is hazardous to one's health. But boycotting the boycotters was bound to happen. Israel supporters were not going to be punching bags forever. And forever has arrived. We have highlighted before proposed federal legislation updating boycott protection for Israel in new trade legislation, including the massive European Union free trade agreement under negotiation. BDS supporters howled that the trade legislation could mean the death of BDS in Europe. That effort just got a huge boost, as this AIPAC press release reflects:
AIPAC praises the Senate Finance Committee for unanimously including an amendment targeting harmful anti-Israel trade and commercial practices in the “Fast Track” Trade Promotion Authority bill yesterday. AIPAC applauds the amendment's authors, Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH), and expresses appreciation to Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ranking Democrat Ron Wyden (D-OR), who backed this key initiative.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 14, 2015 7 Comments
We have written several times before about the effort by Jewish Voice for Peace activists in Ithaca, NY, where Cornell is located, to advance a referendum at the GreenStar Food Coop to boycott Israeli products. The Greenstar Council is considering whether, under its bylaws, there are grounds to reject the referendum petition, or whether it is obligated to let the referendum go to a full membership vote in early November 2015. The GreenStar Council takes no position on the merits of the boycott, and seems aware that the referendum process itself, not to mention if it passes, will do serious damage to GreenStar itself. Yet the referendum is being pushed hard by the JVP activists, particularly Ariel Gold (who works as an organizer for the anti-Israel Friends of Sabeel - North America) and Beth Harris (a retired Ithaca College professor long active in the boycott movement). Gold and Harris tried hard to and did manage to get themselves arrested at the 2015 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference as part of a Code Pink-led protest. The boycott push, though just starting, has been marred by incendiary rhetoric from the pro-Boycott side. Last fall, the group promoting the boycott (the Central NY Committee for Justice in Palestine - CNYCJP) posted on its Facebook page a horrible photoshop of Nazi concentration camp inmates holding anti-Israel signs. The photoshop was taken down after I called attention to it and people began to complain. CNYCJP claimed it was done by a former member and without group permission, but it refused to identify the person.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 27, 2015 3 Comments
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, conceived at the anti-Semitic 2001 Durban NGO Conference and rolled out with a 2005 boycott call from "Palestinian Civil Society," is a weapon to isolate, demonize and dehumanize Israel and Israeli Jews. As documented here hundreds of times, the goal of BDS is the destruction of Israel, though it is packaged in vague social justice language that leads many naive and ill-informed progressives to think it is only about the "occupation" of the West Bank. In fact, the leadership and founders of the BDS movement consider all of Israel "occupied" territory which must be liberated. That's why a leading chant at rallies is "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free." The BDS movement has gained a lot of public attention in the past couple of years and is a hot topic of discussion, particularly at academic organizations like the American Studies Association, which have been taken over by anti-Israel faculty activists. The BDS movement's relentless false and defamatory propaganda against Israel is a key factor in the rise of anti-Semitic violence in Europe and even on some U.S. campuses. When a Synagogue in Paris was attacked in the summer of 2014, it started with a BDS rally. BDS is, in my terminology, the mother's milk of modern anti-Semitism.

Posted by Miriam Elman on March 15, 2015 12 Comments
On Tuesday Israel’s people will elect the 34th government of their country’s short 67 year history. PM Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s bid for reelection once looked rock solid, his Likud party guaranteed to come out ahead of the pack. Now, his political future is hanging on a thread. His main rival, the Zionist Union—a new party with a pretentious-sounding name (as if only Isaac (Buji) Herzog and Tzipi Livni are the true Zionist heirs)—now has a considerable four seat edge in final media polls released on Friday. A four day legally required moratorium on polling has kicked in, so that’ll be the best guess until the election returns start coming in on Tuesday night. Netanyahu is feeling the heat. Last Thursday he acknowledged that there’s a “real danger” he’ll be ousted if the Likud can’t close the gap. He’s already indicated that he’ll resign as party leader and withdraw from political life if the Likud ends up with less than 18 seats. This would be a tragic career finish for someone who in the last few months has done so much to advance the cause of Israel and the Jewish people, the Middle East region, and the free world.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 09, 2015 3 Comments
On Sunday, March 1, 2015, we provided on-scene coverage of Code Pink's "Shut Down AIPAC" protest. The most notable feature of the protest was the waving of Hezbollah flags. Code Pink managed to get some press coverage even though it didn't shut down AIPAC, or even an itsy, bitsy part of AIPAC, because five protesters were arrested, including two from Ithaca, my current place of residence. One of the arrestees, Ariel Gold, may be familiar to readers from prior coverage of Gold's efforts to have GreenStar Food Coop in Ithaca boycott Israeli products and products co-owned by Israelis, such as Sabra and Tribe Hummus. Gold is employed as a professional organizer for Friends of Sabeel - North America, a group which works to weaken American Christian support for Israel, and is a leader of Ithaca Jewish Voice for Peace. You may recall that when I spoke on local progressive radio against the boycott movement, Gold called into the control room to complain about me in the middle of the interview! Publicity, of course, was the real goal of the Code Pink protest. If all you knew about the arrests was the press coverage, you'd think that the arrests were not the goal, but the byproduct of protesting. Much as the Pallywood fake or staged photo ops are used to gin up press coverage against Israel, however, so too were the arrests at AIPAC. It was pure Pallywood, arrests contrived for the cameras. They weren't arrested for protesting. They were protesting to get arrested for publicity. Don't take my word for it. A Legal Insurrection reader who saw our coverage of the protest sent along a video of Gold speaking at a post-arrest event, in which she admitted it was all a set up:

Posted by Amy Miller on March 03, 2015 37 Comments
We've provided extensive coverage of the drama surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress---and now, the day has finally arrived. We'll be providing tweets and commentary below the fold. Where will Obama be while Netanyahu is speaking? Huddled in the situation room:
Obama will hold a video conference at 11:30 a.m. to discuss Ukraine and other foreign policy issues with British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Donald Tusk, according to an updated schedule released this morning.
Feed goes LIVE at 11 am: (Video troubles? You can also watch HERE, via C-SPAN.) Background: Obama Launches Preemptive Interview on Bibi Speech Netanyahu wins narrative at #AIPAC2015 Congressional Choice not Bibi v. Barack – but Western Civilization v. Iranian Mullahs Netanyahu at #AIPAC2015 (Live) Administration Attacks on Bibi Spur Bipartisan Support for Israel

Posted by Amy Miller on March 02, 2015 7 Comments
Yesterday, I felt like a stranger in an unholy land; embedding yourself inside an anti-Israel (and I would argue anti-Jew, for the most part) rally will do that to you. Today, I feel like a guest welcomed into friendly territory and invited to stand on the front lines of a battle whose narrative has devolved from worldwide security crisis into petty political spat. There are no protesters inside the building today, but the tension in the room couldn't be avoided if the AIPAC conference were held on an otherwise-deserted island. Israel is in danger, and the manifest theme of survival---as opposed to gaining control of a narrative, like we see at conferences like CPAC---is at the forefront of the minds of panelists and attendees (even if they'd much rather it not be.)

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2015 6 Comments
We will have live coverage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at AIPAC, scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. But of course, it's running late (the slipped in a panel discussion), so stay tuned. Amy is in the room and will send photos and reports. Her Twitter feed is at bottom of post. (Update 10:30 - speech over, will embed video when available)(video added)

Posted by Amy Miller on March 01, 2015 11 Comments
Today, I braved an ice storm to video protests at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington, DC. The nasty weather didn't stop a group of around 60 anti-Israel activists from storming the steps of the Washington Convention Center and blocking at least one entrance to the conference grounds. Code Pink and other anti-Israeli groups went into a frenzy against AIPAC, the "Israel lobby," and what they believe is the "Apartheid" State of Israel. I also saw harassment of men, women, and children who had done nothing to deserve it except make the mistake of revealing their conference badge before they reached the door. Those who were obviously religious Jews (based on their head coverings, clothing, and facial hair) got it worse.  There were shouts of "Go Home" hurled at the attendees. There was also the Hezbollah flag flying overhead, as this video shows.  There were chants that "BDS is the best" (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement), and "The State of Israel's Got to Go."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 03, 2014 10 Comments
As if the situation in Ferguson, Missouri wasn't bad enough, Code Pink has decided to join the riots and protests. Code Pink infamously dressed as vaginas and paraded around the RNC in 2012. They also protested the maker of my favorite body wash, Ahava, (made in Israel), because it contains "occupied mud." More ominously, Medea Benjamin, the leader of Code Pink, just attended a gathering of anti-Israel groups, including notorious anti-Semites, in Tehran, as reported by Buzzfeed:
A number of American and European antiwar activists and conspiracy theorists have gathered in Tehran for a conference aimed at addressing supposed Zionist control of the United States, according to Iranian press reports and the Anti-Defamation League. Code Pink chief Medea Benjamin, journalist and former Cambodian genocide denier Gareth Porter, conspiracy journalist and 9/11 truther Wayne Madsen, and PressTV contributor Kevin Barrett are all reportedly at the conference. Other reported attendees include Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, the anti-Semitic French comedian whose performances have been banned in several French jurisdictions, several Holocaust deniers, and former congressman Mark Siljander, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to being an unregistered foreign agent for an Islamic charity that the government said was connected to terrorism.
Capitalizing on the two month anniversary of the death of Michael Brown, Code Pink is among the groups organizing a Weekend of Resistance, and is equating Ferguson to Gaza:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 26, 2014 7 Comments
We mentioned before how Christian Zionist college student Chloe Valdary has come under highly racialized attack from anti-Israel Jewish leftists like Richard Silverstein, The ugly, repugnant attack on a pro-Israel black American student: https://twitter.com/richards1052/status/437086594546536448 She also is a frequent target of other anti-Zionist fanatics who find a unique threat in a black American female Zionist, because dividing people along racial lines is a key anti-Israel boycott tactic. In this interview at the AIPAC conference, Valdary explains how she has dealt with the attacks, how her Zionism is consistent with that of the great civil rights leaders of the 1960s and why (at 2:20):
"As a free woman of color, of course I would be a Zionist, it's only natural"
Valdary also discussed her own experiences in Israel, and the modern blood libel that Israel is an Apartheid state (at 8:45):
"There is no Apartheid in Israeli society ... it's an insult to the people who suffered from Apartheid in South Africa"
(Via CiFWatch) Valdary goes into even more depth about the racism of the anti-Israel left in this interview:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 04, 2014 2 Comments
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing the AIPAC conference this morning.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 08, 2013 8 Comments

46 years ago today, Jerusalem was reunited. Using the Hebrew calendar. The abuse of Jewish historical and religious sites ended: “It felt like Messiah had come,” says Avigail Shlesinger, 81, of the day Jerusalem was liberated from the Jordan army 46 years ago. Shlesinger, who is from...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 22, 2012 13 Comments

From Seth Mandel: When foreign policy “realists,” pseudo-realists, and leftists claim that the pro-Israel establishment is preventing an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, their argument fails to account for one aspect of recent Mideast history: During the administrations of American presidents seen as favoring Israel, the Jewish state’s...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 22, 2012 8 Comments

As readers know, I've been critical of the Reform Jewish movement, and the seemingly obsessive support of Democrats and Obama, with the most left elements aligning themselves with groups hostile to Israel under the guise of "balance." Yet the threats facing Israel now are so great that...

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