#Chuck Schumer’s Speech

[xtruss]

Outrage at Chuck Schumer’s Speech: The Pro-Israel Right Wants to Eat Its Cake Too

Neoconservatives Only Hate “Interference” in Israel When It Means Anything Other Than Blank-Check Support For Apartheid and Slaughtering Palestinians.

— Murtaza Hussain | March 15, 2024

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, departs the Senate Chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Schumer called for Israel to hold new elections, a sharp break with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the highest-ranking Jewish US elected official. Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., gave a speech that provoked anger from right-wing supporters of Israel, many who described it as a regime-change effort targeting Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The roughly 40-minute speech, delivered by Schumer on the floor of the Senate, attacked Hamas as well as critics of Israel, while vowing that the U.S. would defend and support Israel through any crises it faced. But Schumer also took direct aim at Netanyahu, describing his government as “an obstacle to peace” and saying that his coalition government “no longer fits the needs of Israel.”

Schumer went further in his remarks, calling for elections in Israel to bring a new government to power and saying that Netanyahu had “lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel.”

Despite its otherwise pro-Israel tone, Schumer’s speech predictably triggered outrage among staunch pro-Israel Republicans, including many neoconservatives. Writing for the Council on Foreign Relations, Elliott Abrams, of Iran–Contra fame, hysterically accused Schumer of attempting to turn Israel into an “American colony” by intervening in its politics. “It’s a shameful and unprecedented way to treat an ally,” he wrote, “and an “unconscionable interference in the internal politics of another democracy.” His views were echoed by Israeli officials like former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who took to social media to denounce his comments as “external political intervention” in Israeli affairs.

These arguments could perhaps be respected were it not for the massive, regular, and institutionalized intervention in U.S. political life carried about by the Israeli government and its supporters, which has successfully turned the affairs of a small country on the eastern Mediterranean into one of the most important domestic political issues in America. Netanyahu himself has shown no embarrassment about his own intervention in American politics, delivering rapturous speeches lobbying the U.S. Congress to legislate in favor of Israel and essentially endorsing his favored political candidates for office during U.S. elections.

American foreign policy is today effectively handcuffed by the lobbying efforts of powerful special interest groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. These organizations are hellbent on ensuring that the U.S. provide Israel unstinting military, economic, and diplomatic support, even as its government rebuffs repeated U.S. requests to allow the creation of a Palestinian state in accordance with international law.

The complaints of people like Abrams and Bennett that the U.S. is intervening in Israeli affairs seem utterly myopic at best, given that extensive U.S. intervention is not just welcomed but also demanded by Israel and its supporters so long as it is in accordance with the security and political needs of the Israeli government.

Now More Than Ever

Schumer’s speech comes at a moment in which Israel has perhaps never been more isolated, or more dependent on U.S. support. The U.S. today has pivoted back to the Middle East against its own wishes, fighting the Houthis on behalf of Israel, providing arms for Israel’s campaign in Gaza, and deterring Hezbollah in Lebanon by parking its aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean. When three American military service members were killed in Jordan earlier this year, the assailants were clear that their motive was retaliating against U.S. support of Israel.

The U.S. has used its veto powers at the United Nations to shield Israel from an onslaught of global outrage over the scenes of mass killing and starvation in Gaza. As Israel has faced diplomatic assaults from Brazil, South Africa, China, and across the Muslim world, the U.S. has remained steadfast as its most important and often only defender in international fora.

All this support has come with very little reciprocation from Israel. In the wake of President Joe Biden’s comments expressing rhetorical support for an eventual two-state solution, Netanyahu publicly humiliated his most important patron by publicly vowing that no Palestinian state would ever be created. The right-wing prime minister even bragged about his own historic role in preventing one from coming into existence.

Netanyahu’s steadfast commitment to defying international law and overwhelming global opinion to pursue a project of continued colonization of the West Bank is only made possible thanks to his and his supporters’ tremendously successful campaign at bending U.S. politics in Israel’s favor. No country has been a greater beneficiary of U.S. support, nor has any country given less back for the tremendous blank checks that the U.S. has written it for decades, up until the present day.

Schumer’s comments on the Senate floor, despite their opposition to Netanyahu and his extremist coalition government, were resoundingly supportive of Israel and hostile to its enemies. But in calling for a two-state solution to the conflict, he contradicted not just Netanyahu but also a majority of the Israeli public who today oppose such an outcome and prefer the status quo, which requires systematic disenfranchisement of Palestinians that human rights groups have classified as apartheid.

In this light, the Senate majority leader’s comments should not be taken as an effort to engineer a color revolution on the streets of Tel Aviv, but rather a last attempt to prevent Israel from descending to a level of ostracism from which even the U.S. would strain to rescue it. “Israel cannot hope to succeed as a pariah opposed by the rest of the world,” Schumer said.

Israel’s supporters who were incensed by his words would be better off taking them as wise counsel.

#The Intercept #Chuck Schumer’s Speech #Outrage #Pro-Israel Right #Neoconservatives #Hate | Interference in Isra-hell #Loves | Blank-Check Support #Apartheid | Slaughtering Palestinians. #Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer #Called | New Elections | Kick Out | Satan-Yahu

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

New York Appellate Judge Stops Ridiculous New York Gag Order of President Trump - The Last Refuge

"Earlier today appellate judge David Friedman finally intervened in the insufferable gag order and put some common sense back into the case putting a stay on the lower court order.

NEW YORK (AP) — A gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after he disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial was temporarily lifted Thursday by an appellate judge who raised free speech concerns.

Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court issued what’s known a stay — suspending the gag order and allowing the former president to freely comment about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.

The trial judge, Arthur Engoron, imposed the gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump made a false comment about the judge’s law clerk on social media. He later fined Trump $15,000 for violations and expanded it to his lawyers after they questioned the clerk’s prominent role in the trial.

Ruling at an emergency hearing Thursday, Friedman questioned Engoron’s authority to police Trump’s speech outside the courtroom — such as his frequent gripes about the case on social media and in comments to TV cameras in the courthouse hallway.

Friedman said that while it’s true that judges often issue gag orders, they’re mostly used in criminal cases where there’s a fear that comments about the case could influence the jury. Trump’s civil trial doesn’t have a jury.

Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said after Friedman ruled that the appellate judge “made the right decision and allowed President Trump to take full advantage of his constitutional First Amendment rights to talk about bias in his own trial, what he’s seeing and witnessing in his own trial — which, frankly, everyone needs to see.”

Another Trump attorney, Alina Habba, indicated she has no plans to advise the former president to stay quiet about the clerk. (read more)

The temporary pause in Engoron’s gag orders comes as a separate, more sweeping gag order on Trump in his criminal case in Washington, D.C. has also been lifted pending oral arguments before an appeals court scheduled for Monday.

Engoron's clerk is good friends with Chuck Schumer and DJT told the world about it on social media. How is that "false info?"

#judge engoron #gag order #trump 2024 #Banana Republic #first amendment #freedom of speech #free speech #new york #gothem city #chuck schumer

[tendie-defender]

The more democrats beg for someone to stop Tucker Carlson the more they make Fox News look good. It’s honestly rather pathetic.

#fox news #jan 6th #jan 6 insurrection #democrats #tucker carlson #freedom of press #freedom of speech #democracy #chuck schumer

[phoenixyfriend]

I feel like I need to look at a lot more analyses of the recent Chuck Schumer speech.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday called on Israel to hold new elections, saying he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “lost his way” and is an obstacle to peace in the region amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Schumer, the first Jewish majority leader in the Senate and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the U.S., strongly criticized Netanyahu in a 40-minute speech Thursday morning on the Senate floor. Schumer said the prime minister has put himself in a coalition of far-right extremists and “as a result, he has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows.” “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah,” Schumer said. The high-level warning comes as an increasing number of Democrats have pushed back against Israel and as President Joe Biden has stepped up public pressure on Netanyahu’s government [...]. Schumer has so far positioned himself as a strong ally of the Israeli government [...].

There are... I want to say four? possible interpretations, generally:

A moral shift in response to circumstance: The situation in Gaza has escalated to such a point that he feels morally obligated to change his rhetoric, whether for Palestinians' sakes or Israeli's own sakes.

A moral shift in response to persuasion: Fellow Democrats and Independents have successfully begun to convince him that a change in rhetoric is needed.

A pragmatic shift in response to constituents: Voters from New York State have been blowing up his phones to argue him into putting conditions on aid to Israel, and he felt this was a good 'middle ground' to appeal to them without losing his pro-Israeli base.

A pragmatic shift in response to national trends: Continued protest votes like Michigan are starting to worry him and fellow 'traditional' Dems.

Or, most likely, some combination thereof.

Ethically, I hope it's one of the first two, and the Schumer has realized how ethically barren Israel's government currently is.

...in terms of 'can we actually affect things,' though? I hope this is a pragmatic shift. We cannot predict how individual Senators will change up their morals and philosophy, but if this change is in response to pressure from voters, then that means we can push them farther left.

Anyway.

Call your reps. Here's some suggestions on what to say.

EDIT: To clarify, I am not saying that Schumer is concerned about his own reelection. He is old and he isn't up for reelection until 2029, so it's even odds if he'll even run again. However, as the Senate Majority Leader, he is at least in theory required to take his party's opinions into account, and to worry about what is going to happen to the executive branch in November. Whether or not Schumer has any real power come 2025 is very heavily dependent on who the president is, and he is very aware of that.

He may also be worried about his actions causing backlash against Gillibrand (NY's junior senator).

#united states #israel #gaza #call your reps #palestine #death mention #politics #death tw #voting #chuck schumer #senator schumer #current events #phoenix politics

[antizionazi]

During her speech before demonstrators in New York, author and journalist Naomi Klein condemned Israel's crimes against Palestinians, asserting that Zionism has strayed from Jewish values and stating, "Zionism is a false idol that has betrayed every Jewish value."

“We don’t need or want the false idol of Zionism. We want freedom from the project that commits genocide in our name,” she added.

The demonstration, held just one block from the residence of US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, resulted in the arrest of hundreds of protesters. This event coincided with the Senate's approval of a $95 billion foreign aid package, which includes approximately $17 billion in arms and security funding for Israel.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #israel #israel is a terrorist state #i stand with palestine #genocide #jerusalem #israel is evil #During her speech before demonstrators in New York #author and journalist Naomi Klein condemned Israel's crimes against Palestinians

[simply-ivanka]

TRUTH! Trump has done more for Israel than any other Presidential Administration combined!

#israel #trump #president trump #jared kushner #trump 2024 #ivanka #repost

[rotzaprachim]

I’ve thought there’s an issue with the online left being incredibly removed from actual red state politics and this is indeed true of myself cause I checked the Chuck schumer speech comments expecting Twitter I/p flame war and was really reminded of my long term suspicion that online I/p flamewars about Americans really select for the most progressive 1/3 of the country because the actual comments are majoritively people telling him to shut up and mind murican problems instead, particularly getting rid of those damn illegals and shutting the border. Something to think about in election cycles

[beardedmrbean]

A Texas-led bill that would mandate AM radio capability in car manufacturing was blocked from passing in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, requested a unanimous consent decision on his AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. The legislation was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who said the mandate on private companies would be an overstep of congressional power.

For months, Cruz has pushed for vehicle manufacturers to retain AM radio in new car models to protect emergency communication channels and diverse content. He partnered with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., in May to introduce the legislation, which had broad bipartisan support in the Senate.

A corresponding bill was introduced in the House and has 191 cosponsors, including two Democrats and 12 Republicans from Texas.

AM radio is “enormously important to millions of Texans,” Cruz told The Texas Tribune in October. He noted the platform is essential for diverse talk radio — especially for conservative voices.

“I think silencing those voices is enormously harmful to both free speech but also to a robust democratic process,” Cruz said.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Cruz pointed to conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck, who all found audiences on AM radio.

“AM radio is a haven for people to speak, even if their views are disfavored by the political ruling class,” Cruz said on the Senate floor. “Rush Limbaugh would not exist without AM radio. The views of my friend, [Rand Paul] the Senator from Kentucky, would be heard by many fewer people without AM radio.”

AM radio in rural Texas and other southern states is also a platform for religious, local news and sports programming. Local stations will also run chain or network programming with more well-known commentators, according to Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

Some rural communities are dependent on getting local interest information from a single radio station or single newspaper, Cross said.

“If you allow the manufacturers to not put AM on cars, then you're killing off an essential part of the media landscape of the United States,” Cross said.

Supporters of the bill also point to AM radio’s importance as a means to protect emergency communication channels. A fall 2022 Nielsen survey showed AM radio reaches over 80 million Americans monthly.

“During times of disaster, AM radio is consistently the most resilient form of communication,” Cruz said.

AM radio is used as an alert system by federal, state and local agencies to communicate in times of disaster when other forms of communication fail, like during a power outage.

Cruz said he was confident that the legislation would pass overwhelmingly if brought to the floor for a vote, but since it was blocked on Tuesday it now awaits scheduling by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The congressional pressure already provoked change in the industry. Days after the bills were introduced in May, the CEO of Ford announced that the company would keep AM radio in 2024 models.

Car companies started cutting AM radio capacity to simplify manufacturing and because of assumptions that American consumers don’t find AM radio necessary, according to Oscar Rodriguez, the president of the Texas Association of Broadcasters. Companies also can make revenue from car owners’ subscription-only radio services.

“It became very clear very quickly to the automakers that this is a highly valued service that's extraordinarily important,” Rodriguez said. “It's not just an entertainment service. It is an emergency communications service.”

AM station signals cover 90% of the American population, according to the National Association of Broadcasters, and are able to continue operations during power outages.

But a number of national trade associations have defended manufacturers’ right to exclude AM capacity, arguing that FM radio, internet access and text emergency alerts can replace the loss of AM radio.

“This is giving preference to a technology that is facing fierce competition,” said India Herdman, manager of policy affairs for the Consumer Technology Association.

A FEMA strategic plan pointed out that Americans are “moving away” from radio and broadcast television as primary sources of news and information, one reason for emergency managers to prioritize alerts to smartphones and other methods.

Herdman said that a mandate for AM radio contradicts previous congressional action authorizing federal funding for updated emergency communications.

“What are we spending those appropriated dollars for if we're just going to go back to using century-old technology?” Herdman said.

But in a state like Texas, with a significant rural population, proponents of AM broadcasting argue the access is key.

Cooper Little, executive director of the Independent Cattlemen’s Association, said Texans in the agricultural sector rely on AM radio for reports on livestock and markets, as well as severe weather alerts.

“Things happen at a moment's notice,” Little said. “In areas where there's not necessarily cell service, that's how you spread the word.”

#nunyas news #i'm with ted here #100% right

[readingsquotes]

"... despite Democrats’ repeated suggestion that Netanyahu is the impetus for Israel’s war, political analysts say that in reality the prime minister’s actions are in step with Israel’s political mainstream. “Schumer is operating in this fantasy that if you get rid of Netanyahu, you might be able to get somebody else who’s more moderate who could then save the relationship between the US and Israel under the pretense of support for progressive values and democracy,” said Omar Baddar, a Palestinian American political analyst. But this narrative ignores how Israeli politicians almost across the board agree with Israel’s conduct in Gaza, as do the majority of Israelis. Yair Lapid, the former prime minister and head of the Israeli opposition, supports the ongoing assault, as does war cabinet member Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s main political rival and the man who, according to polling, would become prime minister if Israel held elections today. Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and a former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, noted that many Democrats might welcome Gantz replacing Netanyahu, but the change of guard would alter little about Israel’s conduct in Gaza. “There is a danger to the idea that replacing Netanyahu will fix everything. It will not,” Duss said. “It could create a grace period where bad things continue to happen, but the US feels better about it. We need to oppose that.”

Instead of constituting a substantive shift in US support for Israel, experts say, Democrats’ emboldened critique of Netanyahu should be understood as an attempt to respond to growing voter frustration without changing policy, as the Biden administration remains unwilling to use US aid and arms exports to Israel as leverage to demand a change in behavior. In this context, the choice to focus on Netanyahu “is a political decision to avoid outright criticism of Israel’s war conduct,” said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. For Schumer, in particular, blaming Netanyahu as an individual was a way “to avoid the implication that he is lessening his support for the Israeli state or the Israeli people,” she said. “Instead, Schumer is focusing on a man who is unpopular among Democrats to say, ‘See, we are standing up for our values, so voters should stop being mad at us.’”

...

But ultimately, the Democratic narrative about “Netanyahu’s war” doesn’t reflect reality—not only because the assault on Gaza enjoys broad support in Israel, but also because Israel could not continue its assault without a constant supply of US arms and military funding. Senior Democrats’ fixation on the Israeli prime minister thus serves to sideline debate about US policies that could actually bring the war to an end. “Refusing to condition aid or impose sanctions—or do anything that would actually have a chance of influencing Netanyahu—shows that the Biden administration and Democratic Party leadership are not interested in ending the Gaza assault. They’re just interested in managing it,” said Tariq Kenney-Shawa, US policy fellow at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. While anonymous US officials have repeatedly told news outlets that the Biden administration is considering conditioning aid to Israel or slowing down weapons shipments, no such move has occurred; indeed, on Monday, the State Department said that Israel had complied with the requirement that countries receiving US weapons follow international law, despite a wide range of flagrant violations documented by numerous human rights organizations."

#palestine #free palestine #isreal #gaza #apartheid #genocide #colonization #us politics #american imperialism

[korrasera]

Possible Shift in US Foreign Policy

A few days ago I talked about some analysis from Beau of the Fifth Column that suggested we might see a shift in US foreign policy soon.

The Biden administration in the US has been opposed to Netanyahu's administration in Israel for a while now, but their criticism has grown more strident of late. Biden has talked about Israel crossing a red-line, said that Netanyahu needs a come-to-jesus talk, and implied that the US might stop providing offensive weapons to Israel as a way to sanction the actions of Netanyahu's government.

Well, Chuck Schumer, the US senate majority leader, gave a speech in which he openly criticized Netanyahu's leadership in Israel. In the speech he claimed that Netanyahu's coalition no longer represents the needs of Israel and advocated for the Israeli people to hold elections to replace him, echoing the sentiments of Jewish people in Israel and the US both.

The reason I think this is important is because this is pretty much the most critical the US has been of Israel's government in my lifetime. I'm personally hoping this is a prelude to a change in how the US provides aid to Israel. Stopping all offensive weapons aid to Israel is important to me because I don't want to be complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people, but thanks to US foreign policy (like all Americans) I am.

If you'd like to see Beau of the Fifth Column's latest video on the topic, at the time of writing it's this one:

#biden #israel #palestine #chuck schumer #beau of the fifth column #Youtube

[palestinegenocide]

Now everyone hates Israel

This was a huge week in American Jewish political history.

First, the director of a movie about Auschwitz, the English director Jonathan Glazer, accepted an Oscar for the film by stating that his Jewishness should not be used to justify the slaughter of Gazans.

Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza — all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?

In saying “We,” Glazer also spoke for his producer Len Blavatnik, a billionaire who stood silently behind him and who just months ago had joined the Harvard donor revolt for alleged antisemitic — actually pro-Palestinian speech — on campus. A revolt that toppled the Harvard president.

Glazer’s speech was followed four days later by the “momentous speech” by New York Senator Chuck Schumer, speaking as a Jew and calling on Netanyahu to hold new elections because his rightwing policies are hurting Israel. “As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me, the Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel,” said Schumer, the most powerful Jewish politician in American history.

Here too the Gaza slaughter figured largely. Schumer fears that the massive civilian death toll in Gaza, which causes him “anguish,” will cause Israel to become a “pariah” nation.

In coalition with far-right extremists like Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and as a result, [Netanyahu] has been too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza, which is pushing support for Israel worldwide to historic lows. Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.

The first thing to observe about Schumer’s speech, and Glazer’s too, is that Palestinian lives are finally counting in American politics. The unbelievable onslaught on a captive people that caused Susan Abulhawa to somehow get in there and come back and tell us there’s a holocaust in Gaza that language cannot describe has at last registered for American politicians.

So just as Joe Biden said eight days ago that Netanyahu “cannot have another 30,000 Palestinians dead”– as if the first 30,000 were mere table stakes — those killings, now at least 31,700, are also cracking the conscience of the American Jewish community.

Schumer is at the center of the organized Jewish community. He has long put himself forward as the guardian of Israel– “a bellwether for the Jewish community, who has refrained from sharp criticism of the Israeli government” (as J Street put it)– and his speech has huge significance.

American Zionists are in complete crisis now. They know that Israel is already a pariah state in the eyes of the world. They know that you cannot destroy a territory in the genocidal manner that Israel has — and force the hand of the U.S. president in support of the genocide out of concern for his political donations, and topple Ivy League presidents who allow their students to criticize Israel — you can’t do these things without grave consequences.

Biden may lose Michigan because his hand was forced. American Jews who care about democracy in the U.S. are finally shaking loose. And Jews who see that corrupt Zionist influence is feeding antisemitic ideas about Jews are acting to openly criticize Israel.

Schumer acted out of pure desperation. He sees Biden being hurt politically if the Jewish community cannot pivot and condemn a genocide. He sees Israel becoming a “pariah” state.

There is today no difference between right-wing and left-wing Zionists inside the Democratic Party. They have all now gathered around the Schumer/Biden delusion that if you just get rid of Netanyahu, Israel will be able to curb the slaughter, pursue the two-state solution, and save the Jewish state.

So, we are seeing Zionism in an ongoing public crisis. Because Netanyahu won’t go. Or if he does go, he will be replaced by others who are equally or almost as warmongering and who will be able to do nothing to end the occupation. So Israel will just continue to be a pariah state. And the tsunami of boycotts, long predicted by Israel lovers, will really be upon us. Even Schumer said that the U.S. must restrict aid to Israel if it cannot stop slaughtering civilians.

This is a crisis of Jewish identity. Schumer again and again cited Jewish tradition and conscience as motivators for his speech. “What horrifies so many Jews especially is our sense that Israel is falling short of upholding these distinctly Jewish values that we hold so dear. We must be better than our enemies, lest we become them.”

However cynical you are about Jewish values and conscience — and I’m as cynical as they come — his speech represents a great wake-up call for Jews who care about human rights to take on the genocide-enablers in the U.S. Jewish community. Despite the love he expressed for Israel and the mythologies about its creation and supposed democracy, Schumer’s speech is historic and important on this ground.

Because as more than one critic of Schumer’s said this week, he is giving permission to others. The most powerful Jewish politician in U.S. history is saying, As a Jew I tell America, Israel is doing wrong. Yes, everyone hates Israel now!

So Schumer has opened the doors on the Jewish discussion that I and others in the American Jewish anti-Zionist community have long sought: How can we support a discriminatory, brutal state in our name as Jews over there when we absolutely oppose religious nationalism and persecution of minorities here?

This discussion will see the empowerment of a new generation of anti-Zionists, and their ultimate victory. Because the Jewish state will be unable to transform itself to suit American liberal values. And regardless of the political arrangements in coming years in Israel/Palestine — partition into two states, or one state — Israel’s transformation to pariah status is so well advanced now by its own actions that no Zionist will ultimately be able to save its racist apartheid constitution. And idealistic Jews here will help transform that land.

I’d add that in directing Israelis what to do– go have another election!– Schumer exposed a great secret of Zionism: It is an international Jewish ideology that will always cause confusion about national interest. Schumer could well argue that he was justified in directing Israelis because Israel interferes in our politics all the time, and as Netanyahu did in 2015. “Imagine if, I don’t know, some foreign leader who was ostensibly an ally of the United States, came here and gave an address before Congress that threw the American president under the bus on their key policy item of the times,” as a New York Jewish liberal Zionist put it in praising Schumer’s speech.” Can you imagine it?”

I can imagine just that because Schumer himself said after he voted against the Iran deal, he did so out of Israel’s interest not the American one.

So Zionism has always been a huge asterisk on American Jewish liberal values. This week that asterisk began to fall apart.

#free gaza #gaza strip #gazaunderattack #israel is a terrorist state #israel #genocide #gaza #free palestine #palestine #jerusalem #news #palestine news #rafah #tel aviv #west bank #yemen #lebanon #hamas #idf #iof #idf terrorists #fuck the idf #anti zionisim #unwra #iof terrorism #fuck the iof #isreal #israeli army #israeli apartheid #boycott israel

[hero-israel]

This is a sincere question because I've seen so much of this and don't know the answer - everyone keeps saying "call your representatives," whether that's the ceasefire now advocates or the bring them home now hostage advocates (they should be one in the same, but sadly we know this isn't the case) - what purpose does that serve? Israel is a sovereign state and not beholden to the demands of the US government, and Hamas is a terrorist organization and definitely does not care about the US government or how many constituents are calling people. it just feels like extreme American-centrism and not something that can do actual good for anyone?

"Call your reps" is an all-purpose command found on every side of every political issue in this country, everyone is so accustomed to hearing it that they always add it to lists of Things To Do. Even in circumstances where it really can't help all that much. For better and for worse, Israel is not an American subject. It does not exist in a vacuum and it can be pressured by America, but there is a limit to how far that pressure can go.

Chuck Schumer, one of the most reliably pro-Israel sane voices in Congress and someone with whom I don't think I have ever disagreed about anything, just gave a speech about how Israel urgently needs new elections and is at risk of becoming a globally isolated pariah state. I suspect this may be an exaggeration, and elected officials are allowed to embellish to make their points, but he's also someone who would have access to foreign briefings and intel reports. I think the issue of "what callers in Tennessee are saying" is less urgent than "what callers from the Pentagon are saying."

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 24, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 25, 2024

This morning, President Joe Biden signed into law the $95 billion national security supplemental bill providing military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific, as well as humanitarian aid to Gaza and other peoples suffering humanitarian crises. The Pentagon immediately sent about a billion dollars worth of ammunition, air defense munitions, and artillery rounds, as well as weapons and armored vehicles to Ukraine. The U.S. Department of Defense had moved supplies into Poland and Germany in hopes that the measure would pass; they should move into Ukraine soon. 

The Pentagon also said today that in mid-March it provided Ukraine Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, with a range of 185 miles (300 kilometers), twice that of previous weapons sent by the U.S. 

For many months, Ukraine has been desperately short of supplies, especially ammunition, and its war effort has suffered as it waited for the reinforcements that are finally on their way. 

In a speech after signing the law, Biden explained that the U.S. would send equipment to Ukraine from its own stockpiles and then “replenish those stockpiles with new products made by American companies here in America: Patriot missiles made in Arizona, Javelins made in Alabama, artillery shells made in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In other words, we’re helping Ukraine while at the same time investing in our own industrial base, strengthening our own national security, and supporting jobs in nearly 40 states all across America.” 

Biden emphasized that the law is “going to make America safer. It’s going to make the world safer. And it continues America’s leadership in the world, and everyone knows it.” But he called out that border security was missing from the bill, and he promised to bring that measure back. 

Biden made it a point “to thank everyone in Congress who made it possible, especially the bipartisan leadership: Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson; Leader Jeffries; Leaders Schumer and McConnell. They don’t always agree, but when it matters most, they stepped up and did the right thing. And I mean this sincerely, history will remember this time.” 

“We don’t walk away from our allies; we stand with them. We don’t let tyrants win; we oppose them. We don’t merely watch global events unfold; we shape them. That’s what it means to be the…indispensable nation. That’s what it means to be the world’s superpower and the world’s leading democracy. Some of our MAGA Republican friends reject that vision,” he said, “but this vote makes it clear: There is a bipartisan consensus for that kind of American leadership. That’s exactly what we’ll continue to deliver.” 

This morning, Arlette Saenz of CNN reported on the six months of behind-the-scenes negotiating Biden and his team engaged in to get House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) behind Ukraine aid. Meetings, phone calls, defense briefings, and so on, laid out for Johnson just what abandoning Ukraine would mean for U.S. and global security. 

Biden urged his team to stay in close contact with Johnson, as well as House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), but to avoid attacking Johnson in order to allow room to move discussions forward. 

Counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, a key negotiator, told Saenz: “He just kept saying, ‘Keep talking. Keep working.’ You know, keep finding ways to resolve differences. And that was his direction.”

Biden’s focus on the slow, steady work of governance is a change from the actions of Republican leaders since 1981 whose goal was not to build up successful programs that helped Americans in general, but rather to slash the government. Killing programs requires only saying no to other people’s ideas and riling up voters to endorse that anti-government program by flame-throwing on right-wing media. 

Over the years, it seems we have become accustomed to the idea that flame-throwing defines politics, but in fact, Biden’s reliance on slow, careful negotiation harks back to the eras when leaders sought to build coalitions and find common ground in order to pass legislation.   

North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) acknowledged the power of Biden’s approach today when it endorsed Biden for president in 2024. The union’s president, Sean McGarvey,  noted that Trump had promised to protect pensions and to pass infrastructure laws that would help employment in the building trades, but did neither. In contrast, Biden worked to pass the American Rescue Plan, which protected pensions, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which McGarvey said “have brought life-changing, opportunity-creating, generational change focused on the working men and women of this great country who have for far too long been clamoring for a leader to finally keep their word.”

In an ad, McGarvey said: “Donald Trump is incapable of running anything, let alone the most powerful country in the history of the world.”

The NABTU has 3 million members across the country and has committed to investing heavily to organize workers to vote for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, where about 250,000 of their members live.

Trump has other problems today, as well, after an Arizona grand jury yesterday indicted 11 of the fake electors in that state with conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices, fraudulent schemes and practices, and forgery for their attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

Those charged included state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, former Arizona Republican Party chair Kelli Ward, and Tyler Bowyer of the right-wing advocacy organization Turning Points Action. The indictment lists seven other co-conspirators, who are not yet named but who appear from descriptions to include Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Christina Bobb, Boris Epshteyn, and Jenna Ellis; Trump campaign operative Mike Roman; and Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Bobb is now senior counsel for “election integrity” for the Republican National Committee.

Trump is listed as an unindicted co-conspirator.   

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from An American #heather Cox Richardson #NABTU #Election 2024 #Biden Administration #Biden Administration accomplishments #political negotiation #Mike Johnson #aid for Ukraine

[phoenixyfriend]

The Shift in America's Support of Israel as of 3/25/24

Okay, so there have been three specific incidents recently that I'd like to cover for you guys.

Chuck Schumer's speech calling for a new election in Israel, which I have spoken about here and here. (3/14/24)

Congress voting to ban UNRWA funding until 2025, which I've seen a lot of people talking about, but often without an actual understanding of what the situation actually is. (It's bad, but it's not the same type of bad as people think.) (3/24/24)

The US abstaining from a UN Security Council vote, which is effectively voting against Israel when they have thus far been the only ones to use veto power in this manner. (3/25/24)

I'm not going to go into detail about Schumer, since I've already covered it. tldr: it's a very specifically worded speech that does not explicitly threaten Israel, but if you do even the slightest bit of reading between the lines, that is absolutely what is happening.

Also, before I move forward: the US may not be donating to UNRWA for the rest of the fiscal year, but you can. They have direct donation links.

UNRWA funding has been on hold for a while, but this is... complicated. Not morally, because UNRWA does need funding and to defund it is truly unconscionable, but many of the "Biden signed it into law" posts are approaching it with this implied message that UNRWA would have funding if not for Biden signing it.

Except that isn't really how the US government works. Especially this government.

Funding for 2024 was supposed to be passed months ago. We are on the verge of another government shutdown. UNRWA funding is not on the table until the House swings blue. I hate to be the one to say this, but it's... like, it's not something I can change alone. I know you're tired of hearing it, but voting in November is the key to fixing a whole lot of problems.

One of the core duties of Congress is passing budgets. For those budgets to pass, they need to be approved by the House (Republican Majority), the Senate (Democrat Majority), and the President. The reason it has taken five months to pass a yearly budget (the deadline iirc was September or October) is because anything approved by one chamber is shot down by the other.

UNRWA's de-funding is tied to Ukraine funding (and a few other things). Biden refusing to sign would not have brought back UNRWA funding. The funding is already on hold. We do not have the votes to bring it back. We just straight up do not have enough seats in the House to make that happen. Biden refusing to sign would have resulted in both UNRWA and Ukraine not having funding, indefinitely. Signing it resulted in one of the two getting funding.

This is not a situation where funding was approved and now cut. This is not a situation where money was already flowing to UNRWA. This is a situation where money wasn't going anywhere, because Congress is a split shitshow.

Think of it like this: Funding is water coming from a spigot. Congress can turn it on or off, and it's currently off. Biden can smack away the hand coming to twist the valve, but he can't touch the valve himself. That's what the presidential veto is. Unfortunately, the spigot is already off, and Biden can't twist it back on when Congress isn't already reaching to do so.

Is this bad? Yes! UNRWA's funding should never have been cut! We should still be very, very upset about this! But I need you to understand that the way the US government works is not a dictatorship. Biden cannot just overrule Congress, especially when we're on the verge of another shutdown.

I do not think it is fair or even really acceptable that UNRWA's funding was viewed as an appropriate point of compromise. I'm just, unfortunately, also aware that this particular legislation is a tug-of-war that was never going to end with funding going to Palestine, not with the current Republican control of the House.

"But Biden sent money to Israel a bunch of times--" Yeah, and he's paying for it in the polls. He's aware that people are pissed at him. That choice is already biting him in the ass.

Biden is not perfect and I am never going to claim he is, but please recognize that the UNRWA funding pull is not a current action. It is a past action that is now being sustained because the House is red. You want to bring back UNRWA funding? Get rid of Marjorie Taylor Green and her entire cohort.

The other reason I'm less than eager to view that UNRWA thing as Biden being pro-Israel is because the US has finally abstained on a UN vote instead of vetoing.

When the US has been the only voice on Israel's side in the Security Council this whole time, abstention is functionally voting against them. We already knew that 13-14 of the other 14 members were going to vote pro-ceasefire. They have been this entire time. The US abstaining is functionally agreeing.

Why did the US not just vote for the ceasefire, then? No idea. Might be a treaty thing. I don't really need to know, because the result is that the UN Security Council has finally passed a measure against Israel, and those things are legally binding, and we know it's a big step because Israel's government is not happy.

When paired with the Schumer speech from a week and a half ago, it indicates a major shift in US foreign policy.

From the Al Jazeera article:

The US had repeatedly blocked Security Council resolutions that put pressure on Israel but has increasingly shown frustration with its ally as civilian casualties mount and the UN warns of impending famine in Gaza. Speaking after the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Hamas for the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution. “We did not agree with everything with the resolution,” which she said was the reason why the US abstained. “Certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas,” Thomas-Greenfield said. [...] The White House said the final resolution did not have language the US considers essential and its abstention does not represent a shift in policy. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the US failure to veto the resolution is a “clear retreat” from its previous position and would hurt war efforts against Hamas as well as efforts to release Israeli captives held in Gaza.

This action has also resulted in Israel pulling plans for "a high-level delegation" to visit the US for discussions on the invasion of Rafah (which Biden has purportedly been warning against for a while).

“We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to them going in on the ground in Rafah,” [John] Kirby told reporters. [...] Last week, Netanyahu promised to defy US appeals and expand Israel’s military campaign to Rafah even without its ally’s support.

There are other complications and details here, such as that the resolution does not call for a permanent ceasefire, and that US tensions with Russia and China are still somehow playing a role in the negotiations over the ceasefire text, but ultimately...

The US abstaining is a good thing. Schumer's speech is a good thing. They are not enough, but they are good things. They are steps forward.

The pull of funding from UNRWA is not a good thing. It is, in fact, a very, very bad thing. It just also looks a lot like it was unavoidable.

So call your reps, and vote come November. It's a long slog and we all know it, but we can't make change without dedication.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post.

#united states #israel #gaza #palestine #call your reps #voting #un security council #united nations #joe biden #congress #chuck schumer #unrwa #current events #phoenix politics #politics

[thatstormygeek]

And yet we can predict with great accuracy what Israel’s reaction will be. Not just because we’ve seen what Israel has done consistently for five and a half months now, despite international outcry, but because Netanyahu has already threatened and rebuked the United States simply for abstaining from the Security Council vote. First, Netanyahu said that if the U.S. abstained from this vote, he would cancel an Israeli delegation to Washington. Now that the American representative on the Security Council has abstained, the delegation has indeed been canceled.  This news comes on the heels of Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer calling out Bibi, Biden approving of his speech, and increased speculation about a rift leading up to the U.S. abstention on the ceasefire vote. And yet, despite the endless leaks from the White House, and the slow inching away from Israel’s horrific actions, the U.S. didn’t vote for a ceasefire. Despite the shift in rhetoric, the bombs and arms keep flowing. And, despite wanting people to think the administration’s position on Israel has substantially changed, the State Department still finds the IDF to be in compliance with International law, a laughable statement contradicted by the International Court of Justice, among countless others.

For Democrats, the path is clear. It’s been clear. All efforts to make Biden do the right thing, demand peace, and cut off funding and weapons to Israel must be redoubled. Just like the uncommitted vote movement, anyone who wants Trump to lose should press Biden to do infinitely more to promote, or force, peace in Gaza. Anything short of that leaves a lane open for Trump to continue outflanking Biden on an issue that has become extremely important to crucial voters across the country. Every elected Democrat from Joe Biden right through Congress should have been pushing for peace for months now. But there’s no use looking back, or in appealing to their altruism. I want to rant and shout at the vast majority of elected officials in D.C., and plenty of people seem to be tracking them down and doing that. Yet more than venting I want peace. I want Israel’s genocide in Gaza to end. So, to appeal to a politician you have to appeal to one thing: their self-interest. And here is the crucial selfish motive: if you want to win, push for peace.

#us politics #gaza #joshua p hill #ceasefire #ostrich dems

[rotzaprachim]

holy shit about Chuck schumers speech. That’s going in the fucking history books.