J Street works to promote an open, honest and rigorous conversation about Israel. The opinions reflected in articles posted in the News Roundup do not necessarily reflect J Street’s positions, and their posting does not constitute an endorsement from J Street.
Returning UN envoy: Israel won’t suffer for tight Trump ties, AP
“Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group in Washington that has close ties to the Democratic Party, said it would be a ‘huge mistake’ for Israeli officials to expect that all of the clashes with Obama and cozying up to Trump will be forgotten if Biden is elected president. ‘The Netanyahu team chose a side in American partisan politics while pursuing policies that run counter to American values and interests,’ he said. ‘In doing so, the right wing has done significant damage to the relationship and should not expect that a new Democratic administration is going to act as if the past decade never happened.’”
Illinois’s Jewish community praises VP contender Tammy Duckworth, Jewish Insider
“Duckworth’s positions have earned her an endorsement from J Street PAC. ‘The J Street Chicago chapter is proud to have a very strong relationship with Senator Duckworth and her staff,’ J Street’s Midwest Regional Director Sam Berkman said in an email to JI. ‘The Senator has proven herself time and again to be a true friend of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement.’”
False charges of antisemitism are the vanguard of cancel culture, +972 Mag
“Earlier this month Elan Carr, the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, accused the left-leaning pro-Israel lobby group J Street of employing antisemitic ‘imagery’ and ‘conspiracy theories’ for illustrating their ‘Stop Annexation’ campaign with a photograph of Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jared Kushner, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and Jason D. Greenblatt, who was formerly Trump’s point person on Israel and the Palestinians. The photograph showed the heads of the two states that put together the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ alongside Trump’s annexation team. Carr’s claim that J Street’s use of the image is antisemitic shows just how far the weaponization of antisemitism has gone: right-wing figures in positions of power, whether Jewish or not, feel emboldened to accuse anyone they wish of anti-Jewish racism because of their progressive politics […] Using the antisemitism label so vaguely and liberally not only stunts free speech, but also makes actual threats to Jewish people harder to identify and combat.”
Protesters Attacked at Demonstration Against Police Brutality Outside Minister’s Tel Aviv Home, Haaretz
Five people were injured Tuesday night after unknown individuals attacked protestors following a hundreds-strong demonstration near the home of Public Security Minister Amir Ohana in Tel Aviv against police brutality and what they view as attempts to suppress the anti-government movement.
Minnesota Republican group posts meme comparing mask requirement to Holocaust’s yellow Star of David, JTA
A meme that compares the requirement to wear masks during the coronavirus to the yellow Stars of David that Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust appeared on the Facebook page of a Republican organization in Minnesota.
It’s Like George Floyd. We Have Our Knee on the Palestinians’ Necks’, Haaretz
B’Tselem director-general Hagai El-Ad tells Haaretz why organizations like his have become the last form of Israeli resistance to the occupation, and how he copes with being branded a traitor.
Netanyahu Calls to Probe Attack on Anti-government Protesters, Says Opponents Undermining Society, Haaretz
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on police Wednesday to investigate attacks on protesters at a rally against police brutality, while blaming his political opponents for undermining the “foundations of Israeli society. “The investigation into the events in Tel Aviv is underway,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook. “I expect the police to get to the truth of the matter and carry out justice for those responsible,” Netanyahu wrote. Later Wednesday, police said they had arrested three people suspected of attacking anti-Netanyahu protesters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night. “We will allow protests any time and any place but we will not permit violence or vandalism,” the police said.
Survivors appeal to Facebook to remove Holocaust denial posts, The Jerusalem Post
Well-known survivors of the Holocaust from around the world began a new online campaign on Wednesday to urge Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to remove Holocaust denial posts from the social media platform.
Broken Bottles, Fists and Pepper Spray: Protesters Against Netanyahu Gov’t Recount Assault, Haaretz
Five demonstrators were attacked Tuesday night by an unidentified group as hundreds protested near the home of Public Security Minister Amir Ohana in Tel Aviv against police brutality and what they view as attempts to subdue the growing protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent weeks.
Soldiers order Palestinian to strip; one aims loaded gun at woman and children and threatens to shoot bystanders, B’Tselem
On Thursday , 25 June 2020, at around 12:30 P.M., Walid Ghazal was walking through a-Zahed Street in central Hebron on his way to work in a clothes shop when, for no apparent reason, five soldiers patrolling the neighborhood ordered him at gunpoint to stop and undress. Ghazal took off his shirt and remained in an undershirt, but one of the soldiers pointed his rifle at him and ordered him to remove the rest of his clothes.
A Million Votes: Why Biden Is Making Unprecedented Efforts to Court Muslim Americans, Haaretz
Biden’s campaign is currently doing “the most substantial outreach that the Muslim community has ever received from a presidential nominee,” said Dalia Mogahed, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, and one of the leading experts on Muslim public opinion in the United States.