(20.01.2024)
The list of 15 Jewish Democrats who issued Friday’s statement was significant for including at least seven lawmakers endorsed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s affiliated political action committee. AIPAC discourages open disagreement with Israeli governments on security issues.
Those seven are Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, Dan Goldman of New York, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mike Levin, Adam Schiff and Brad Sherman of California.
Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 9A; American Postal Workers Union (APWU); United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) Eastern Region; New York City’s arm of Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA); Adalah Justice Project, American Muslims for Palestine N.Y./N.J.; Jewish Voice for Peace-N.Y.; New York Communities for Change; the New York Working Families Party; and more took to the streets to call for “peace and justice for Palestine.”
They carried signs stressing U.S. worker demands for a cease-fire in the conflict that has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 8,000 children.
Banners at the front show how much $ @ChuckSchumer, @HakeemJeffries, & @SenGillibrand have taken from AIPAC.
@StatusCoup
(22.10.2023)
“It’s not an official government representation,” he conceded.
Instead, he is part of a ragtag group of donors, activists and allies who have moved swiftly these past two weeks to help Israel. They have leveraged their political clout, their relationships with lawmakers and their fundraising networks to do so.
Their overarching goal is to shape how elected officials in the U.S. react to the crisis. But their work also underscores how much of the political fight around the nascent war is being done on the fly; and how much is being waged in unconventional theaters: college campuses, corporate boardrooms, K Street offices and stuffy Capitol Hill restaurants.
(March 19, 2023)
In general, the Saudis wish to present themselves as Iran’s equals, and if Iran can enrich uranium, say the Saudis, then so can we. In addition, the Saudis want to keep all their nuclear options open, even if they are not intending to work on the development of nuclear weapons immediately.
Recently, top Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, after stops in Riyadh and Jerusalem and voicing strong support for Saudi-Israel normalization, said that he would support the Biden administration plan to meet Saudi prerequisites, culminating in Saudi Arabia formally acknowledging Israel.
Beyond a defense pact, the Saudis also have raised requests with the US for civilian nuclear capabilities, advanced weaponry, and beyond. Israeli agreement would be crucial for these components. Historically, Israel has been wary, particularly regarding the nuclear aspect
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday that he hoped the current government would seek “a broad consensus across the ideological spectrum” before any further changes are made relating to its plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
US House of Representatives Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Monday in Jerusalem that judicial reform should have no bearing on American military support for Israel.
Speaking to Israeli journalists about the divisive domestic debate regarding the ruling coalition‘s legislative initiative, the New York lawmaker expressed the importance of maintaining Israel‘s qualitative military edge „regardless of where Israel lands in terms of the judicial reform effort.“
“The most important thing is to produce a credible military threat to Iran. The other thing is use it. We don’t want a world in which Iran can threaten New York or Washington or Los Angeles or anything in between with nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu tells the visiting delegation, which was organized by the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC.
AIPAC demands that American Jews leave their consciences and values at the door. But we will no longer automatically back a ‚pro-Israel‘ organization that supports those who subvert democracy – at home and in Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Monday and said it was time for the US and Israel to become more closely aligned on Iran.
“It’s time to close ranks between Israel and the United States – and others. And I look forward to discussing this issue with President Biden and his team. I think there is more of a meeting of the minds today than there has ever been,” Netanyahu said in a video address to AIPAC members in Washington.
Netanyahu is a staunch opponent of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, known as the JCPOA, and played a major role in convincing the Trump administration to pull out of the agreement in 2018 and reimpose sanctions on Iran. Now that he’s presiding over a new Israeli government, Netanyahu is set to continue Israel’s hawkish approach toward Tehran.
Long-term AIPAC supporter Haim Saban is the biggest individual donor to the super PAC since its establishment late last year. His contribution came weeks before the pro-Israel lobby’s traditional PAC endorsed Republican election deniers
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is set to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during his first visit to Washington since taking office. Later, he is set to meet with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan before a meeting with President Joe Biden on Thursday.
AIPAC also reiterated its dedication to strengthen ties with the new prospective government and the United States, to „advance our shared interests and values.“
In light of all this and more, one may certainly imagine a scenario in which, very quietly, at night before he goes to sleep, Netanyahu is secretly waiting for Joe Biden. The Democratic presidential nominee and his vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, are much easier for AIPAC to maneuver and have a proven record of support for Israel.
True, they won’t pull a gesture out of their sleeve like a new embassy, and it’s also true that there is a wing of the Democratic Party that is very critical of Israel, partially because Netanyahu‘s backing of Trump spurred opposition. But they are much more conventional, predictable and easier to work with.
Not long after her election as California senator, but well before her presidential bid, Harris was the star performer at the powerful pro-Israel lobby’s 2017 Policy Conference, in a much-quoted appearance: “Having grown up in the Bay Area, I fondly remember those Jewish National Fund boxes that we would use to collect donations to plant trees for Israel,” she said at that conference, followed by a rapturous travelogue of a recent tour of Israel and the West Bank, which she visited with her Jewish husband, Doug Emhoff, whom she married in an interfaith ceremony in 2014.
(20.06.2020)
Embattled congressman Eliot Engel, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has bragged that he sits down with the rightwing pro-Israel organization AIPAC on “every piece of legislation coming out of the Foreign Affairs Committee.”
In a 2018 speech to an AIPAC gathering in his NY district, Engel noted that he and Rep. Nita Lowey had both been in the House 30 years and were soon to assume chair positions that they could use to help Israel.
(September 15 2017)
In the aftermath of 9/11, Israel seized on its decades-long experience as an occupying force to brand itself as a world leader in counterterrorism. U.S. law enforcement agencies took the Jewish state up on its expertise by participating in exchange programs sponsored by an array of pro-Israel groups, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Anti-Defamation League. Over the past decade and a half, scores of top federal, state, and local police officers from dozens of departments from across the U.S. have gone to Israel to learn about its terrorism-focused policing.
Yet Israel’s policing prowess is marred by its primary purpose: occupation.
Howard Kohr, CEO of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), opened the organization‘s annual conference in Washington D.C. by issuing a stark warning to push back against “political leaders and their supporters” who call for conditions on U.S. support for Israel.
Sanders is the only candidate in the Democratic presidential race to raise the issue of conditioning military aid to Israel.
The main author of the resolution that limited a president’s ability to wage war, he also made overtures to the Arab world and earned the opposition of the pro-Israel lobby.
Four U.S. lawmakers who have long proved staunch supporters of Israel express concern over the prime minister‘s campaign promise ■ Other lawmakers single out Netanyahu‘s ‚full-throated embrace of the far right’s extreme agenda‘
Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren said they will not go to the event. AIPAC’s list of confirmed speakers also does not feature any Democrat running for president or any expected candidate like former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
The prime minister will kick off his four-day visit by meeting Trump in the White House on Monday. The two leaders are expected to discuss Iran‘s attempts to establish military bases in Syria and methods to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Im Laufe eines Mittwochabendinterviews mit dem FOX Business Gastgeber Trish Regan gab Außenminister Mike Pompeo mehrere Erklärungen ab, die die Augenbrauen hochgehen ließen, wie z.B. die Behauptung, dass Kuba in Venezuela eingedrungen war und „die Kontrolle über den Sicherheitsapparat Venezuelas übernommen“ hatte und dass die US-Sanktionen, die illegal gegen Venezuela verhängt wurden, „nicht gegen das venezolanische Volk gerichtet sind“.
Die überraschendste Behauptung, die Pompeo im Interview aufgestellt hat, war jedoch, dass Hisbollah und Iran in Venezuela „aktiv“ sind und ein „Risiko für die nationale Sicherheit Amerikas“ darstellen.
The right will always use Israel and anti-Semitism as a tool to destroy left-wing movements, especially when they’re led by people of color.
No thank you. Next, please.
On December 3, freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib bravely announced that she will be skipping the trip to Israel for freshman Congress members organized by the educational arm of the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC). Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American in Congress, will instead be leading her own delegation to the West Bank to focus on the issues of poverty, Israeli military detention of Palestinian children, unequal access to clean water, and possibly a visit to Tlaib’s grandmother’s village. On December 11, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez also announced she would be skipping the AIPAC-sponsored propaganda trip.
Tell all the newly elected Congress members to follow the lead of Tlaib and Ocasio Cortez and to skip AIPAC’s propaganda trip to apartheid Israel! #SkipTheTrip
Earlier on Wednesday, Christodoulides visited the American Hellenic Institute and met with its President, Nick Larigakis, and also met with the leadership of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Diplomatic sources said it has been agreed that President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades be the keynote speaker at the AIPAC Congress in Washington, in March.
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‚Iran did not come clean on its nuclear program,‘ Netanyahu says, saying more than documents Israel obtained prove nuclear ‚deal is based on lies‘ ■ AIPAC praises speech while J Street says it proves need for accord with Iran