By Philip Weiss
In the last couple of
days we have seen a historic moment in the life
of the Israel lobby. And a sign of its eventual
crackup.
As you know by now, on
a panel at the progressive Democratic event
Netroots Nation in Chicago Saturday,
pro-Palestinian demonstrators demanded that
Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky support
a bill in Congress that would leverage U.S.
aid to Israel so as to protect Palestinian
children, a bill she has not signed on to;
Schakowsky threatened to walk out; and
Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who has signed
on to the bill, tried to end the demonstration
by saying that she was on their side.
As somebody who’s been in the streets and
participated in a lot of demonstrations, I
want you to know that we have been fighting
to make it clear that Israel is a racist
state… etc.
So Israel is a racist state. An “offhand”
“gaffe,” liberal Zionists argued
later. But all hell broke loose.
Within a day, “Israel is a racist state” was
a giant scandal. Republicans leaped all over the
comment. So did the Democratic leadership. It
denounced Jayapal’s comment, and 40-some
Democrats signed on, saying Jayapal’s comments
were “unacceptable,” and the U.S.-Israel
relationship is “ironclad.” The Republicans introduced
a bill to reaffirm U.S. support for Israel
because it is not a “racist or apartheid” state.
Are You Tired Of
The Lies And
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Despite political cover from the Squad,
Jayapal then
walked her statement back Sunday night. Of
course she doesn’t think Israel is racist! There
are just “extreme racists” pursuing “outright
racist policies” in the government.
Jayapal got tons of support from liberal
Zionists. Michelle Goldberg wrote in the New
York Times it was a “wise”
clarification from Jayapal, and went on to
explain Jayapal’s beliefs. She believes in a
Jewish state. Don’t worry, she’s not an
anti-Zionist, Goldberg said repeatedly.
Her words at Netroots Nation could have
been interpreted as ideological opposition
to Zionism, which does not reflect Jayapal’s
views; like most Democrats, she wants to see
a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian one…
[A] state’s leaders and policies can be
bigoted without the state itself being
irredeemable. That’s basically Jayapal’s
stance, which is why she’s not an
anti-Zionist.
Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street also rushed to
assure everyone that Jayapal is not any threat
to U.S. support for Israel.
Rep. Jayapal supports the U.S.-Israel
relationship while also advocating for a
negotiated 2-state solution and Palestinian
human rights.
J Street threw in that the
“malicious” pro-Palestinian protesters were antisemitic
to be focusing on Schakowsky, who is Jewish.
(When the truth is that they focus on any
progressive who won’t sign this
legislation–legislation J Street claims it
supports but has never lifted a finger to lobby
for! Like, say, urging Schakowsky to support
it.)
What is the game here? What is going on?
Biden, Jayapal, and J Street are all rushing
to prop up the Israel lobby in the run-up to the
2024 election. Democrats believe, even if they don’t
say so, that the lobby is an existential
issue. If the Dems alienate any of the big
Jewish pro-Israel donors to the party (of whom there
are many — a gigantic, shocking
proportion), Biden might lose the election.
Ben Ami made
some shrewd political observations in his
thread:
Let’s not make this more of a political
wedge.
Progressives who support Israel need
space to speak out against a far-right
government’s policies or Israel will lose
all support on the left.
He’s right. Israel is becoming a political
wedge. Because as he says, Israel is losing “all
support on the left.” And progressive Democrats
like Jayapal are trying to represent their
constituents, for a little while anyway.
Jeremy Ben-Ami and Pramila Jayapal and
Michelle Goldberg are determined to show that
you can be a Zionist and a progressive Democrat
at the same time. They are determined to carve
out that “space” where Dems can speak out
against far-right Israel. But not too much!
They are worried about 2024 (as many of us
are). They are worried about Trump, and the
other Republicans, using the Israel issue to
calve off pro-Israel donors from the Democratic
Party or get them to sit this one out because
they just don’t trust the Democrats on Israel.
As Ben-Ami said,
It’s no accident that the Republican
National Committee and its right-wing allies
were among the first to promote this
incident out of context.
Ben-Ami and Jayapal and Goldberg are working
hard for Joe Biden to keep the Israel lobby
intact through next year so that he can win —
and so No Labels or some other pro-Israel Trojan
Horse doesn’t arise as a third-party threat.
This puts liberal Zionists in a no-man’s land
politically. In a disappearing space, to quote
Ben-Ami. It means they must continually make
arguments for Israel even as everyone else on
the left sees that Israel is practicing
apartheid and saying so.
Because when the Which-side-are-you-on
question is raised, J Street and Goldberg and
Jayapal answer, Israel’s.
Here’s an example. As the New York Times pointed
out today, progressives in the House are
planning to boycott the Israeli president’s
speech to Congress tomorrow, but Biden’s House
minority leader– Hakeem Jeffries– “traveled to
Israel this spring to meet with Mr. Netanyahu
and declare his solidarity with Israel.”
But so did J Street meet with the repellent
rightwing Prime Minister. As we reported,
J Street’s delegation of 15 Congresspeople in
February met with Netanyahu. And the group threw
J Street under the bus to do so, with J Street’s
encouragement. Netanyahu refused to allow J
Street staff in the meeting, and J Street told
the Congresspeople, go meet with that racist
anyway.
Liberal Zionists accept this humiliation
because they support the existence of a Jewish
state (no matter what) and (in fairness) fear
that a one-state democracy will just produce
endless sectarian violence and instability.
Though what we have right now is a one-state
reality with endless violence directed at
Palestinians.
In his Twitter thread on Jayapal, Ben-Ami
urged the left to address “the real problem –
endless conflict and the [Israeli] right-wing’s
assault on democracy.”
Endless conflict is not the real problem.
What causes the conflict is the fact that
Zionism– however idealistic it once seemed to
Jews– adopted practices of ethnic cleansing and
apartheid. It is not a democracy for non-Jews.
It is a racist state, as Jayapal said. (Just
look at the Basic Law saying Jews have the
exclusive right to self-determination in the
entire land, and Arabic is a second-class
language– a law whose passage five years ago
catalyzed the many apartheid reports.)
Palestinians always come in last, even for
liberal Zionists. Palestinians’ interests will
always be sidelined in the name of more
important political goals. At Netroots Nation,
in the 2024 campaign, and in the White House
too.
And every day this hypocrisy becomes clearer
to progressives.
Mondoweiss
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