Should Weapons Transfers To Israel Be Conditional Like They Are To Other Countries?

Israel Isn't The 51st State But If You Say So, AIPAC Will Target You

"Netanyahu's Ceasefire" by Nancy Ohanian

I keep hearing a pack of whining morons screeching how Bernie has betrayed them because he doesn’t use the word “ceasefire.” God, and I thought all the really dumb people were part of the MAGA movement! How wrong I was! On Wednesday, when the Democrats tried to shut down the Republican filibuster of military aid to Israel, Bernie was the only Democrat willing to vote against the cloture. That’s bold action… whether he uses their favorite word or he doesn’t.

Bernie + a dozen other Senate Democrats, primarily progressives, are sponsoring an amendment to the Defense Budget that puts conditions on military aid to any country-- Israel-- requiring that the aid is used in accordance with U.S. and international law. The sponsors:

• Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)

• Dick Durbin (D-IL)

• Bernie (I-VT)

• Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)

• Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

• Ed Markey (D-MA)

• Brian Schatz (D-HI)

• Mazie Hirono (D-HI)

• Martin Heinrich (D-NM)

• Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)

• Peter Welch (D-VT)

• Tim Kaine (D-VA)

• Tom Carper (D-DE)

The amendment, which you can read here, states the purpose is to reduce harm to civilians. In introducing it, Van Hollen said that “U.S. taxpayer dollars have never come in the form of a blank check. It’s critical that we hold all nations who receive our assistance to the same standards— and that includes ensuring the use of this assistance is in line with U.S. law, international humanitarian law, and the law of armed conflict. We must also insist that our partners cooperate with us in allowing the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Our amendment does all that and puts in place necessary reporting to Congress in order to track these measures. As we work to provide critical funding in the national security supplemental, I look forward to working with my colleagues to address these fundamental issues.”

Elizabeth Warren got a lot more specific adding that “When it comes to U.S. military aid to Israel, American support cannot be a blank check to a right-wing Netanyahu government that has demonstrated a gross disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians. U.S. military aid always includes conditions, and there is no exception, even for our allies.”

Similarly, Martin Heinrich added that “Our country stands for freedom and democracy, and both are grounded in our firm belief that innocent civilians should never be the target of war. It’s imperative that this commitment extends to ensuring our weapons are used only in accordance with U.S. law, international humanitarian law, and the law of armed conflict. I stand by Israel and I also join my colleagues in insisting on the clarity that Israel’s enemy in Gaza is Hamas— not the children, not Palestinian civilians.”

The amendment does not cover air defense systems, which, in this case, would include Israel’s Iron Dome.

In his report yesterday, Andrew Desiderio noted that “a majority of Democrats– including Biden– and pretty much all Republicans oppose the idea of conditioning aid for Israel, so it’s safe to say this amendment isn’t going anywhere.” One of the dumbest Democratic Senators, Nevada’s Jacky Rosen, “a former synagogue president and a vocal Israel supporter, spoke on the Senate floor this week lambasting the idea of placing conditions on military assistance for Israel. Rosen called out ‘members of my own party’ for advocating an approach that she says would ‘undermine Israel’s ability to defend itself, and would send a signal to the world that America’s support for our ally is weakening, which is exactly what Iran and its terrorist proxies… want.’” 

Yesterday the UN Security Council voted 13-1 against a Gaza ceasefire with one abstention (the U.K.). The no vote— a veto— was from the U.S. Voting in favor were France, China, Russia, Japan, Brazil, UAE, Switzerland, Ghana, Albania, Malta, Gabon, Ecuador and Mozambique.

Congressman Mark Takano of Riverside, California is also calling for a ceasefire and issued this statement yesterday: “The brutal attack on Israel by Hamas in which more than 1,000 Israelis were killed has led to unimaginable suffering for both Israelis and Palestinians. I believe Israel has the right to defend itself against such attacks, and I support the efforts of the Biden Administration to secure the release of the hostages taken on October 7. However, the last two months of fighting, which have cost the lives of more than 20,000 Palestinian civilians, have illustrated that there is no military solution here. Diplomacy is the only real path forward. I believe that this conflict has made it clearer than ever that a two-state solution is necessary for long term peace and stability in the region. However, no progress towards permanent peace can be made without a resolution of the present crisis. The future we must commit ourselves to is one in which Israelis and Palestinians live with peace, dignity, and self-determination in neighboring states.”

Meanwhile, corporate shill Joyce Beatty (D-OH), removed her name from the list of congress members calling for a ceasefire. Someone from AIPAC must of cleared their throat in her presence. 61% of American voters (including 76% of Democrats) supports a ceasefire. Not counting Takano (or Beatty), there are 56 members of the House who have called for a ceasefire:

• AOC (D-NY)

• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)

• Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)

• Jamie Raskin (D-MD)

• Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)

• Ilhan Omar (D-MN)

• Cori Bush (D-MO)

• Summer Lee (D-CA)

• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)

• Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)

• Becca Balint (D-VT)

• Delia Ramirez (D-IL)

• Ro Khanna (D-CA)

• Barbara Lee (D-CA)

• Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

• Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)

• Chuy Garcia (D-IL)

• Greg Casar (D-TX)

• Judy Chu (D-CA)

• James McGovern (D-MA)

• Mark Pocan (D-WI)

• Alma Adams D-NC)

• Gabe Vasquez (D-NM)

• May Gay Scanlon (D-PA)

• Chellie Pingree (D-ME)

• Nark DeSaulnier (D-CA)

• Lauren Underwood (D-IL)

• Hank Johnson (D-GA)

• Jennifer Weston (D-VA)

• Sara Jacobs (D-CA)

• Joaquin Castro (D-TX)

• Kweisi Mfume (D-MD)

• Dan Kildee (D-MI)

• Don Beyer (D-VA)

• Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)

• Maxine Waters (D-CA)

• Veronica Escobar (D-TX)

• Jimmy Gomez (D-CA)

• Nydia Velazquez (D-NY)

• Al Green (D-TX)

• Andre Carson (D-IN)

• Jared Huffman (D-CA)

• Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)

• Paul Tonko (D-NY)

• Jonathan Jackson (D-IL)

• Troy Carter (D-LA)

• John Garamendi (D-CA)

• Betty McCollum (D-MN)

• Diana DeGette (D-CO)

• Teresa Leger (D-NM)

• Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO)

• Robert Garcia (D-CA)

• Maxwell Frost (D-FL)

• Debbie Dingell (D-MI)

• Dean Phillips (D-MN)

• Tony Cardenas (D-CA)

It might be uncomfortable to read, but I’d recommend you— and Jacky Rosen— spend some time with Lee Fang’s piece, Inside the Pro-Israel Information War, a look at how Israel manipulates the reporting Americans see everyday about what’s happening in Gaza. “‘This is a peek under the hood of how U.S. foreign policy is steered in order to produce policy outcomes,’ said Eli Clifton, a senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Clifton noted that the White House has strongly communicated an interest in limiting civilian casualties during the war, but appears unable to muster the political resources to change the IDF’s current direction. ‘President Biden seems incapable of using the one policy tool that may actually produce a change in Israel's actions that might limit civilian deaths, which would be to condition military aid that the United States provides to Israel,’ Clifton added. He partially attributed the inability of the U.S. government to rein in Israel’s war actions to the ‘lobbying and advocacy efforts underway.’”

Israeli officials have invested heavily in shaping the narrative about its war on social media, viewing online discourse as a vital area for maintaining public support. Last month, a spokeswoman for the IDF and the Israel office director of Bessemer Venture Partners, the venture capital firm where Jeff Epstein is an operating partner, jointly led a Zoom workshop for “high-tech leaders” on tactics for scoring “victories” in the public discourse on Twitter/X. J-Ventures has also raised funds for automated technology to mass report tweets and for facial recognition technology for the IDF to identify hostages. Meanwhile, other Israeli officials have led similar webinar sessions on strategy to shape coverage in campus newspapers and major media outlets. 

…The online space has been a focal point of pro-Israel activism, far beyond J-Ventures. Less than two weeks into the conflict, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry released 75 different online ads and spent millions of dollars purchasing space on platforms such as YouTube and Twitter/X. The ministry, which operates several highly active social media accounts, has also reached out directly to American allies, helping guide pro-Israel activism on social platforms. "You guys are our frontline soldiers,” said Tamar Schwarzbard, head of Digital Diplomacy at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, on an October Zoom call posted online by Hasbara Fellowships, a nonprofit group that works closely with the Israeli government to train pro-Israel activists in the U.S. and Canada. She noted that the government needed help reframing the Gaza war and the public messaging over the conflict with Hamas.

“Let’s say you see some kind of newspaper article on your campus news site showing support or solidarity with the Palestinians and not speaking out against what's going on in the Gaza envelope and in Israel,” she said. “So you want to make sure, try to tag, let's say, the president of the university on the post you're putting out condemning that article.”

“Hamas does really good PR,” continued Schwarzbard. “We need to change the narrative.” She implored the group to use focused language. “We need people to see this isn't just a run-of-the-mill resistance, freedom fighter group. This is something equivalent of ISIS.”Schwarzbard instructed participants on the call to use certain hashtags when discussing the conflict, such as #HamasIsISIS, #IStandwithIsrael, and #IsraelUnderAttack. The strategy would boost engagement and bring a large audience to the pro-Israel cause, she explained.She also focused on the expected public relations challenges posed by the war. Israel would soon lose international support as its military response in Gaza kills more Palestinian civilians, noted Schwarzbad, who stressed the need to refocus attention on Israeli civilian deaths. “Try to use names and ages whenever you can,” she said. Don’t refer to statistics of the dead, use stories. “Say something like, 'Noah, age 26, was celebrating with her friends at a music festival on the holiest day of the week, Shabbat. Imagine if your daughter was at Coachella.’” As with the efforts to punish employees and activists, senior figures in both Silicon Valley and the Israeli tech corridor work closely with the Israeli government to disseminate pro-Israel narratives on social media. On Nov. 22, Adam Fisher, the head of the Israel office of Bessemer Venture Partners, gave a presentation on how U.S. “high-tech leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs,” such as himself, could help the Israel Defense Forces win the “information war” on social media. IDF spokesperson Major Libby Weiss, who previously worked as the head of the IDF’s international social media and as the official spokesperson to American and Canadian journalists, presented in military uniform to the group just moments before Fisher.Throughout numerous presentation slides filled with screenshots of his own tweets – frequently with the number of likes and retweets circled in red – Fisher gave examples of his strategies for “criticizing and ridiculing” prominent Twitter/X users who were sympathetic to Palestinians. On a slide entitled, “Ridicule works,” Fisher’s “ridicule” examples ranged from Rep. Rashida Tlaib, to Palestinian-American policy analyst Mariam Barghouti and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Paul Graham. Fisher also claimed credit for online criticism leading to the resignation of Paddy Cosgrave as CEO of the technology conference Web Summit.

But Fisher also emphasized the importance of an occasional soft touch on social media that is appropriate for defusing more mild critics and harnessing potential allies. The venture capitalist offered broad rhetorical strategies for pro-Israel voices to engage on social media, identifying three types of people worth cultivating online. 

The Israel-based venture capitalist outlined three categories of people for whom outreach, rather than attacks, is the best strategy. The first group is what he dubbed “the impressionables,” who are "typically young people, they reflexively support the weak, oppose the oppressor," but "are not really knowledgeable." For this category of people, the goal is not to "convince them of anything," but to "show them that it's much more complicated than it seems." Seeding doubt, he said, would make certain audiences think twice before attending a protest. "So it's really about creating some kind of confusion,” Fisher continued, “but really, just to make it clear to them that it's really a lot more complicated."

A second category, Fisher explained, is the "uncomfortable sympathizer," a group that "wants to support Israel -- they're typically more liberal," but opposes the current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These types can be won over, Fisher said, by pointing out "that we are a multi-ethnic, diverse, democratic liberal society with rotten apples." The final group consists of those who are "reflexively pro-Israel, kind of ‘Israel, right or wrong.’" Members of this group "are not actually very knowledgeable," so they needed to be equipped with the right facts to make them "more effective in advocating for Israel,” Fisher said.Fisher repeatedly noted the need to offer accurate and nuanced information to rebut critics of Israel's actions. Yet at times, he offered his own misinformation, such as his claim that "anti-Israel" human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch "didn't condemn the October 7th massacre." In fact, Amnesty had condemned Hamas’s attack a few days after it occurred, detailing a long list of atrocities committed by the Palestinian militia and allied groups. “Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups flagrantly violated international law and displayed a chilling disregard for human life,” Amnesty stated in its Oct. 12 report. Similarly, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a dispatch on Oct. 10 that condemned the Hamas attack on Israel, noting that deliberately "killing civilians is a war crime, as is hostage taking."

Fang explaining the cartoon above that "On Saturday, October 28, Jeff Epstein, an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners who was previously the Chief Financial Officer of Oracle and Google’s DoubleClick, asked the more than 300-member WhatsApp group of the J-Ventures 'capitalist kibbutz' how the group can get the student newspaper of Stanford University to publish an anti-Palestinian political cartoon."

He also talked about how AIPAC puts a lot of energy-- not to mnetion money-- into influencing members of Congress. He wrote that recently, “Members of the group who are involved with AIPAC helped advise other members on how to approach Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) about a meeting. Although the lawmaker was initially scheduled to address the group over Zoom, J-Ventures repeatedly rescheduled, and ultimately canceled the event after members of the WhatsApp group objected to Khanna’s ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), whom Saar Gillai, chair of Liquid Instruments, called ‘the ultimate anti Israel Jew.’” 

Israel isn't the 51st state-- and Israel is very aware of that, even if many Americans aren't. In 1967, Israeli jets and torpedo boats bombed the shit out of the USS Liberty, killing 34 Americans and wounding 171 others, while severely damaging the ship, all in international waters. Israel apoligized, used some US aid money to pay a small amount of reparations and the U.S. government hushed the whole incident up as quickly as it could. Never heard about it? That was the point; read about what happened at Wikipedia. Hakeem Jeffries can call Israel the 6th borough all he wants, but Israel is out for Israel, not for the U.S.-- and AIPAC is a foreign support group with Israel's best interests in mind, not America's.