The Stand with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and at least 66 other organizations, will join forces in a National March for Palestine in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 29 at 3:00 PM EST (when Jews traditionally sleep off their cholent). The march will start at the Lincoln Memorial and continue to Congress.
The march is a part of the new Sanction Israel campaign, and the marchers will be calling on the Biden administration and Congress to stop giving Israel billions in U.S. tax dollars which it uses to defend itself against thousands of terror rockets launched at its civilian population from the Gaza Strip.
At least two Jewish groups will probably skip the Shabbes nap tomorrow: the Jewish Voice for Peace and Jews for Palestinian Right of Return. You can probably also expect the fine boys and girls of IfNotNow to show up. They all should probably seek a sheltered spot, in case of a spontaneous lightning strike.
Roxana Bendezú, Pax Christi USA Program Director, issued a statement saying, “The cease-fire is not enough. The US needs to stop sending money to the government of Israel that has been displacing people for 73 years.”
I could go on and on. A group calling itself American Muslims for Palestine urged Saturday’s protestors to “go big and bold right now for Palestinian liberation now that a ceasefire has gone into effect,” and vowed “no return to the status quo. It is time for Israeli settler-colonialism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, military occupation, and blockade to be dismantled now!”
And Faizan Syed, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called the US to end its support of Israel that is “illegally occupying and brutalizing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
I cited all of the above to suggest what the reader already knows: Israel is losing its status as America’s closest and most admired ally. The past decade has seen a dramatic shift in Americans’ views on the Jewish State, and the fact that over the past two years or so groups like BLM and leftwing Democrats have usurped control over public opinion on race relations has also ushered in a new era of popular hostility towards Israel and Jews.
Opinion polls conducted as recently as 2011 showed strong public support for Israel. Back then, Gallup found that more than 50% of sympathized with Israel, compared with fewer than 20% who were pro-Palestinians. Roughly 80% of Republicans and 60% of Democrats were pro-Israel, compared with 7% of Republicans and 24% of Democrats who supported the Palestinians.
However, in 2018, a Pew Research Center poll showed 25% of Democrats supported the Palestinians, and the same measure, 25% of Democrats, preferred Israel. Republicans did not waver, though, with 79% still siding with Israel.
Skip to In a Pew poll last March – about 34% of respondents and 53% percent of Democrats said the US government should pressure Israel to compromises on a Palestinian State.
Israel’s declared enemies in Congress have been using the anti-Israel card to gain power at a time when the Democrats’ lead over the Republicans in the House is down to 2 seats.
Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Dem-NY) attacked President Joe Biden in a May 13 speech in Congress, saying: “The president and many other figures this week stated that Israel has a right to self-defense. And this is a sentiment that is echoed across this body. But do Palestinians have a right to survive? Do we believe that? And if so, we have a responsibility to that, as well.”
Ten years ago, such outrageous twisting of the truth and any modicum of fairness would have been condemned on both sides of the aisle. Today the congresswoman’s revisionist history was virtually ignored.
Last month, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn) introduced “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act,” which would condition U.S. financial military aid to Israel to ensure that no tax dollars contribute to alleged civil-rights and human-rights abuses against “Palestinians.” McCollum chairs the House Subcommittee on Defense and is one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress today.
Over the past decade, the anti-racism movement is manipulating US media, politics, and economics against Israel, blaming the Jewish State for the hardships of the “Palestinians,” much the way tyrannical Arab regimes used to (and some still do) divert to Israel all the rage resulting from their failed states. As the American public begins to integrate those manipulations, the question is when, not whether, US foreign policy will turn against Israel.