A historic moment in yesterday’s Democratic debate

I did not watch last night’s debate between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton that according to news reports was quite contentious. Philip Weiss looked closely at what Jake Tapper said was a ‘historic moment’ in American politics. For once a leading candidate deviated from the stance of uncritical support for whatever Israel does and instead balanced support with criticisms of its disproportionate response to attacks that had especially left Gaza devastated and caused an immense amount of suffering for the Palestinian people.
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Paying people to create faux ‘grass roots’ support for Israeli policies

The increasing support for the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement has caused great concern with the Israeli government and they have resorted to something called ‘hasbara’, where people receive training in propaganda on how to derail discussions that they think are critical of Israeli policies. Jonathan Cook explains what hasbara involves and why it will not work.
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The difference between Clinton and Sanders on Israel and AIPAC

AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee) is one of the key components of the Israel lobby in the US and plays a powerful force in elections, similar to the role that the NRA plays. It advocates for very hardline Israeli policies against the Palestinians and also against any nation that it or the Israeli government deems to be opposed to Israel. Needless to say, it vigorously opposed the nuclear deal between the P5+1 nations and Iran.
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The red herring of rank-ordering injustices

The increasing support for the BDS (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions) movement targeted at the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands around the world has caused great concern within the Israeli government and they have launched a propaganda effort to try and discredit it, such as retaliating against those who advocate for it by going to the extent of getting sympathetic western governments to even criminalize speech in support of it.
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Criminalizing criticisms of Israel

Assaf Gavron, a former member of the Israeli Defense Forces, has written an opinion piece in the Washington Post titled Confessions of an Israeli traitor arguing that the harsh occupation by Israel of the West Bank and its brutal treatment of people there and in Gaza is destroying Israel. He said that things have changed a lot since the days when the IDF soldiers responded with merely tear gas and rubber bullets to angry teenage stone throwers. The use of violence against protestors is much harsher and more lethal now.
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Bernie Sanders’s Palestine problem

I wrote earlier about the large crowd that attended a Bernie Sanders rally in Boston. But now it appears that there was an incident there that highlights the fact that Sanders is a PEP (Progressive Except for Palestine) politician, like a lot of Democrats. His team threatened to have people arrested for merely holding a sign that asked “Will Ya Feel The Bern For Palestine?”, an act reminiscent of what the Bush-Cheney campaign used to do at their events. Here’s the video.
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The Iran deal goes through

With all the attention focused on the Republican debate, a major event that been largely obscured is that today marked the end of the 60-day deadline to block the nuclear deal the P5+1 nations made with Iran. A final attempt in the US Senate to add amendments to the deal that would have effectively killed it failed today to get enough votes to overcome a filibuster and so the deal goes through.
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Israel going to the mat on the Iran deal

It is clear that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pulling out all the stops to defeat the nuclear deal arrived at recently between the P5+1 nations and Iran. The Israeli lobby in the US is leading the charge on Netanyahu’s behalf by working on the members of the US Congress. Congress has sixty days to pass a vote of disapproval on the deal. Given Republican majorities in both houses and the desire of that party to defeat any significant act by president Obama, that vote seems to be a foregone conclusion and you can expect to hear every Republican candidate condemn the deal at tomorrow’s debate. It is also clear that Obama will then veto that vote. So the real question is whether Congress can muster the two-thirds majority to override the veto.
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