Israeli mobs chant ‘Death to Arabs’ in night of violence in Jerusalem

[yankeedoodle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUe8XmmaJxI

Israeli mobs chant 'Death to Arabs' in night of violence in Jerusalem
Palestinians in Jerusalem are reeling from a night of racist, anti-Arab violence that left over a hundred Palestinians wounded and dozens detained, following an ultra-right wing Israeli demonstration in the city during which Jewish mobs chanted "death to Arabs."
https://mondoweiss.net/2021/04/israeli-mobs-chant-death-to-arabs-in-night-of-violence-in-jerusalem/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-email-mailpoet

Palestinians in Jerusalem are reeling from a night of racist, anti-Arab violence that left over a hundred Palestinians wounded and dozens detained, following an ultra-right wing Israeli demonstration in the city. 

On Thursday evening hundreds of Israelis marched from the Zion Gate outside the Old City to  the Damascus Gate area — the entrance to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City — as part of  demonstration organized by the far-right, anti-Palestinian group Lehava.

During the march, which was advertised as a demonstration to "restore Jewish dignity" to the city, crowds of Israelis chanted various anti-Palestinian slogans, including "Death to Arabs" and "may your village burn."

According to Israeli media, the march was widely publicized on social media in the days leading up to Thursday, with many of the Israeli activists calling for violence and urging people to arm themselves.

https://twitter.com/edokonrad/status/1385345843373383681?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385345843373383681%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2021%2F04%2Fisraeli-mobs-chant-death-to-arabs-in-night-of-violence-in-jerusalem%2F

Haaretz noted that one of the social media groups was administered by Israeli Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir. In the group, one member allegedly called for Palestinians to be hanged, while another said "We're burning Arabs today, the Molotov cocktails are already in the trunk."

Videos and photos of Israeli mobs harassing and attacking Palestinian pedestrians, and attacking Palestinian buses and homes with rocks, flooded social media. One video of a group of Israeli youth pelting rocks at a Palestinian home inside the Old City, as the screams and cries of children inside the home could be heard in the background, was widely shared on Palestinian social media accounts.

https://twitter.com/noa_landau/status/1385334544908406793?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385334544908406793%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2021%2F04%2Fisraeli-mobs-chant-death-to-arabs-in-night-of-violence-in-jerusalem%2F

Another video was shared widely on Twitter and Instagram, purporting to show an Israeli man driving through East Jerusalem, which is predominantly Palestinian — save a few thousand Israeli settlers living in the neighborhood illegally — shooting his firearm in the air, seemingly in order to intimidate Palestinian residents.

Other videos surfaced of a Palestinian mother and her terrified child fleeing a mob of right-wing Israelis as they tried to exit the area where the demonstration was taking place.

Israeli media reported that Israeli police prevented the far-right groups from entering the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, but other reports from Palestinian media and local activist accounts claimed that some Israelis did enter into the neighborhood and attacked several homes.

Dozens of Palestinians attempted to gather in a counter protest against the far-right Israeli groups, but were largely suppressed by Israeli forces, who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades, and skunk water at Palestinians.

As a result, dozens of Palestinians were injured and tens more were arrested by Israeli forces. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 105 and Palestinians were wounded, 22 of whom were hospitalized in moderate condition.

One Palestinian was reportedly hospitalized for a head wound as a result of Israeli border police fire.

At least two Israelis were injured during the ensuing clashes, including a soldier who was videotaped being thrown in the face with a stone, and an Israeli civilian was beat up by a group of Palestinians, and his car subsequently set on fire.

According to Haaretz, more than 50 people were arrested throughout the course of the night, including Palestinians and members of the far-right Israeli groups.

Palestinian media reports, videos, and eyewitness testimony seemed to indicate that the majority of arrests targeted Palestinians. One video published by the Wadi Hilweh Information Center showed Israeli police arresting the center's director, Jawad Siam, seemingly unprovoked, as Siam was standing by filming the police during the night's events.

Another video showed Israeli police officers pointing their guns and shooting at Palestinians who were filming the night's confrontations.

Palestinians took to social media to express their frustrations over what they say was a double standard in the way Israeli police and authorities handled the violent Israeli crowds versus Palestinian counter protesters.

While the Israeli demonstration, in which participants explicitly called for anti-Arab violence, was allowed to go on with little interference from police, Palestinian activists were reportedly called and threatened by Israeli intelligence agents, warning them not to participate in any counter protests, according to local media reports.

Additionally, the vast majority of those arrested and injured were reported to be Palestinians.

The culmination of a week of violence
The racist anti-Arab march on Thursday and the ensuing violence came after a week of tension in the city, and reports of several violent incidents and attacks on Palestinians throughout Jerusalem and other cities inside Israel.

Just two days before, a large group of Israeli youth were recorded marching through the streets of Jerusalem chanting "Death to Arabs." Israeli media reported that the group were "looking for Arabs" and would attack anyone who they found to be Palestinian.

Other videos posted on social media earlier in the week showed groups of Israeli youth harassing and attacking Palestinian pedestrians and passersby in separate incidents.

Palestinian writer and poet and resident of East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood Mohammed el-Kurd posted earlier this week on Twitter saying that he and a friend were approached by a massive group of Israelis, who aggressively interrogated the pair about whether they were Arab or not.

https://twitter.com/m7mdkurd/status/1384216109218373641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1384216109218373641%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2021%2F04%2Fisraeli-mobs-chant-death-to-arabs-in-night-of-violence-in-jerusalem%2F

When the two, in fear of their safety, responded "No" in Hebrew, the crowd reportedly left them alone, and proceeded to chase down a Palestinian teenager with stones.

On Sunday, Israeli police fired water cannons and stun grenades at a group of Palestinians who were protesting against the recent installation of fencing around Damascus Gate that prevents people from gathering in groups and sitting on the steps outside the entrance to the Old City — a historic gathering place for Palestinians year round, particularly during Ramadan.

While Israeli police claim the fences were set up for safety reasons and to control the flow of traffic in and out of the Old City, Palestinians in East Jerusalem see it as an affront to the few spaces they have left in the city, and a sign of even further Israeli control and restriction over their lives in Jerusalem.

A number of the Palestinians who protested the fences were violently arrested by Israeli forces.

According to Israeli media, the spate of anti-Arab attacks in Jerusalem as well as Thursday's mob-like demonstration were in response to a video of a young Palestinian man slapping slapping an orthodox Jewish man on the Jerusalem light-rail earlier in the week.

The video was filmed by and posted on TikTok by a Palestinian user, and made its rounds on Israeli media networks and social media sites, causing uproar. The Palestinian suspect, reportedly a resident of the Shufat refugee camp, was arrested by Israeli forces shortly after the incident.

On Friday morning, Palestinians in Jerusalem marched in the hundreds towards the Al-Aqsa mosque for dawn prayers, chanting "God is great" and "we will redeem you, Jerusalem."

Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City, chanting national slogans, and demonstrating against the violence they faced the night prior.

The rule, not the exception 
While Israeli media largely framed Thursday night's racist march and the recent spate of anti-Palestinian violence as a response to the assault of the orthodox Jewish man, and the rhetoric of a few right-wing Israeli politicians, Palestinians say the recent events are in fact part of a long history of state-sanctioned anti-Palestinian violence in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinians argue that the anti-Palestinian violence is not a result of one attack against a Jewish civilian, but the result of decades worth of Israeli policies that favor the rights of Jews over Palestinian residents in the city, and years of race-bating and anti-Palestinian rhetoric on part of the highest members of the Israeli government.

https://twitter.com/Barahmeh/status/1385492871239938048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385492871239938048%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2021%2F04%2Fisraeli-mobs-chant-death-to-arabs-in-night-of-violence-in-jerusalem%2F

IfNotNow, a US-based progressive Jewish organization called Thursday night's events a "pogrom," adding that framing the events as fringe and isolated is not only misleading, but untrue.

"Every time the Israeli government demolishes Palestinian homes, detains Palestinian children, expands settlements, shoots at protesters, and prevents Palestinian access to the outside world, they were sending the same message that was chanted in the streets tonight: that only Jewish lives matter to the state," the group said in a statement.

https://twitter.com/IfNotNowOrg/status/1385378954702360584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385378954702360584%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2021%2F04%2Fisraeli-mobs-chant-death-to-arabs-in-night-of-violence-in-jerusalem%2F

The group highlighted the fact that the current violence comes on the heels of Israel's fourth election, in which Israeli politicians openly voiced their support for policies advocating for the separation of Jews and Arabs and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.

In East Jerusalem, thousands of Palestinians are currently under threat of being forcibly evicted from their homes, and replaced with Israeli settlers — all of which is sanctioned by the Israeli judicial system.

There are some 350,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. Following the occupation of the city by Israel in 1967, they were given "permanent residency" status, compared to Jewish residents of the city who have full citizenship.

For decades, Palestinian life in the city has been characterized by home demolitions, forced evictions, expulsion and residency revocation, political suppression, violent policing, and massive detention and arrest campaigns carried out by Israeli forces against their communities.

https://twitter.com/TamaraINassar/status/1385566935648198670?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1385566935648198670%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmondoweiss.net%2F2021%2F04%2Fisraeli-mobs-chant-death-to-arabs-in-night-of-violence-in-jerusalem%2F

Despite the fact that Palestinians make up 40% of Jerusalem's population, Israel's Jerusalem Municipality has zoned only 15% of the land in East Jerusalem for residential use.

In addition to discriminatory zoning laws, Israel makes it extremely difficult for Palestinians to obtain building permits through lengthy application processes that costs tens of thousands of dollars — an impossible feat for Palestinian families in the city, many of whom live below the poverty line.

According to UN documentation, at least a third of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem lack an Israeli-issued building permit, placing over 100,000 Palestinians at risk of displacement.

In addition to navigating Israel's permit regime, Palestinians in East Jerusalem struggle to hold onto their homes in the face of Israel's rapidly growing settler movement in the city. With the support of the state, Israeli settler organizations have taken control of dozens of properties within Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, and have launched lengthy legal battles against Palestinian families in efforts to evict them from their homes.

In 2019, Israel demolished a record number of homes in occupied East Jerusalem, the most in the past 15 years, according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem.

[abduLMaria]

Israel has Most Racist Nation status.

Everybody knows that !

[yankeedoodle]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODImp8AP-6s

[yankeedoodle]

More reports here:

Israeli Settlers and Soldiers Wound 105 Palestinian Civilians in Jerusalem
https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-settlers-soldiers-wound-105-palestinian-civilians-jerusalem-lehava/

Jewish Israeli extremists arrived ready to rumble Thursday night, in a planned protest march to "restore Jewish dignity" by "breaking the faces of Arabs." Israeli forces supported their efforts.
reposted from International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC), April 23, 2021  https://imemc.org/article/israeli-settlers-and-soldiers-wound-105-palestinian-civilians-in-jerusalem/

Israeli settlers chanting "Death to Arabs" marched through the streets of Jerusalem Thursday night, attacking Palestinians, including Palestinian worshipers who were on their way to pray at the al-Aqsa Mosque for Ramadan prayers.

The settlers were part of a right-wing Israeli group called Lehava, which organized the attack march with the stated aim of "restoring Jewish dignity" by "breaking the faces of Arabs". [NOTE: read more about Lehava and other extremist groups here. https://israelpalestinenews.org/in-israel-religious-extremism-is-pervasive-unchecked/ ]

Counter-protesters, including left-wing Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, gathered at Zion Square to try to block the attack march from entering the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Another group tried to stand up to the right-wing attackers at Nablus Gate, one of the entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem. [NOTE: for background on the situation in East Jerusalem, go here. https://israelpalestinenews.org/?s=east+jerusalem&submit=  ]

But the right-wing attackers plowed through the counter-protesters, and headed toward the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where they slashed car tires of dozens of Palestinian vehicles on Al-Mutran Street.

Lehava joined by Israeli military
Israeli soldiers joined in the attack on the Palestinian civilians and counter-protesters, attacking the Palestinians with 'skunk water' sprayed from trucks, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. 105 Palestinians were wounded in the attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers.

The majority were treated for their injuries and then released, but 22 remain in the hospital in moderate to severe condition. At least one Palestinian was shot with live ammunition fired by Israeli border police. He was shot in the head and remains in critical condition.

According to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, right-wing groups that organized the march called for violence in social media groups – some of which were moderated by right-wing Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir. In the message groups, march participants posted that Arabs (meaning Palestinians in Jerusalem) should be hanged, and one member wrote, "We're burning Arabs today, the Molotov cocktails are already in the trunk."

The area where the attacks took place drew near to the location where, in 2014, 16-year old Mohammad Abu Khdeir was kidnapped by a gang of right-wing fanatic Israelis, tortured, covered in gasoline and burned to death in a brutal murder motivated by the attackers' anti-Arab racism. [NOTE: read about Mohammad Abu Khdeir here. https://israelpalestinenews.org/remembering-palestinian-mohammad-abukhdeir-6-years-on-israel-injustice/ ]

Following the night of anti-Palestinian violence on Thursday night, Friday morning saw Palestinian youth taking to the streets in Wadi al-Joz and al-Tur neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, where an Israeli settler who was driving through the neighborhood had his car seized and torched by Palestinian youth. No one was injured in that incident.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned the Israeli settlers' and soldiers' attacks as "organized state terrorism aimed at Judaizing the Holy City, imposing false facts on it, and harming the sanctities."

In a statement, the Prime Minister called on the international community and international human rights committees to condemn these attacks and work to provide international protection for the citizens of Jerusalem.




Israeli journalist: 'I write to remember the brutality of Jewish violence I saw in Jerusalem'
https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-recalls-racist-anti-palestinian-violence-jerusalem-with-video/

A Jewish Israeli eyewitness to this week's anti-Palestinian violence in Jerusalem recalls the sights, sounds, and smells of racism.
by Orly Noy, reposted from +972Mag, April 24, 2021  https://www.972mag.com/jewish-supremacy-violence-jerusalem/

[NOTE: Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-we-re-burning-arabs-today-jewish-supremacists-gear-up-for-jerusalem-march-1.9737755  reports that social media posts by far right Israelis called for violence that night, and urged Israelis to bring weapons. One group said "we're burning Arabs today"; another called for hangings.]

Since the beginning of Ramadan this month, Jerusalem Police have banned Palestinians from sitting on the wide steps at the entrance to Damascus Gate, the main plaza in the Old City, and holding evening gatherings in honor of the holy month. This arbitrary decision, for which no plausible explanation was given, have ignited widespread Palestinian protest. The police, as if just waiting for the perfect opportunity, has turned the place into a nightly battlefield.

Against the backdrop of this violence, activists from Jewish supremacist group Lehava called on their supporters to arrive in droves on Thursday "to restore Jewish dignity," after several TikTok videos surfaced showing Palestinians harassing ultra-Orthodox Jews in the city. Backed by their representatives now sitting in the Knesset, hundreds of supporters of the Kahanist organization responded to the call, arriving in the area with the stated goal of attacking Arabs (or alternatively, leftists).

[Palestinian Muslims and Christians were the majority inhabitants of what is now called Israel before Israel's founding war of ethnic cleansing.]

They marched toward the Damascus Gate while chanting "death to Arabs," turning Thursday into most violent night Jerusalem has known in years. We, the left-wing activists of Jerusalem, also showed up to try and counter-balancer the fascists as they marched through the city streets.

I am writing now not because I have any faith that describing the war zone I witnessed on the streets of Jerusalem this week, or going into detail about the Jewish youth who chanted "death to Arabs" in the heart of the city, will change anything. I know it will not.

I write because of the need to break down this madness into its most basic elements — so that perhaps I can understand it better. I write to give my testimony, because there is nothing else I can do. I write to remember.

Israeli police violence in Jerusalem
To remember that among the clouds of tear gas and the deafening sound of stun grenades shot at Palestinians, I saw a father holding the hand of his daughter, trying to flee together.

To remember the terrified eyes of the teenager who was dragged by police officers after they charged into a group of young Palestinians.

To remember the empty steps across from Damascus Gate, from which Palestinians have been banned since the beginning of Ramadan.

To remember that when the stench of the "Skunk" — a vehicle that shoots foul-smelling liquid at high speeds during Palestinian protests — nearly caused me to vomit and the feces of the police horses was left on the ground, I wondered whether the municipality would clean up the filth the following day, and how unbearable it must be to break the fast on Ramadan nights after being soaked by the Skunk's putrid sewage. These are supposed to be the most festive nights of the year.

To remember the sound of the grenades reverberating long after I had left the area.

Israeli settler violence in Jerusalem
To remember how I was not afraid when I saw a bloodthirsty pack of Kahanists approaching. Instead, I was shocked by how many and how young they all were.

To remember how I was afraid later that night when a few young Jewish boys asked us, "Are you leftists?"

To remember the ultra-Orthodox Jews who stood on the other side of the Jerusalem Light Rail, near the Jewish side of the Musrara neighborhood, and looked at the explosions from the stun grenades being fired in Damascus Gate with excitement in their eyes.

To remember the young man with the yarmulke who was arguing with a Palestinian on the other side of a police barricade before telling him: "We will slaughter you all, you know we will kill you one by one."

To remember the fireworks that lit up the sky as the Kahanists sang "Do not fear, Israel, do not fear."

To remember the left-wing activists who walked around in very small groups, sometimes in pairs.

To remember that as I left home, my daughter asked me, "If you see them hitting someone, what will you be able to do?" and I had no idea how to respond.




From Phil Giraldi:
Rampaging Israeli Settlers
Calls for "Death to Arabs" in Jerusalem
https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/rampaging-israeli-settlers/

Last week there were some interesting stories that were very definitely underreported partly due to the fact that the mainstream media was heavily into the distraction provided by its beatification of George Floyd. For example, the tale of how a mob consisting of hundreds of Israeli Jews, composed mostly of settlers and the extremist so-called Kahanists, rampaging through Jerusalem and calling for "Death to Arabs," was largely ignored. Right-wing Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir sent a message to the settlers, encouraging participants to "hang Arabs." One member responded to the advice to bring their firearms with them with "We're burning Arabs today, the Molotov cocktails are already in the trunk."

In spite of the extreme violence and racism behind the attacks, the story did not seem to interest the disproportionate number of Zionists among American news editors and reporters. Along the way, the angry Jews beat Palestinians and attacked their homes and businesses in one of the Old City's remaining Arab neighborhoods Sheikh Jarrah.

Attacks on Palestinians, to include their homes and livelihoods have been increasing in Jerusalem and on the occupied West Bank over the past several months without any intervention by Israeli police. The settlers were reportedly part of a right-wing Israeli group called Lehava which organized the violent demonstration with the objective of "restoring Jewish dignity" by "breaking the faces of Arabs." Lehava claimed it was only avenging alleged attacks on Jews by Palestinians in and around Jerusalem, but most reports indicated that recent violence was instead caused by small groups of Jewish teenage boys looking for trouble.

During the rioting, Israeli soldiers and police made some arrests but primarily attacked the Palestinian civilians, including children, and some Jewish counter-protesters, with 'skunk water' sprayed from trucks, water cannon, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. 105 Palestinians were injured and 22 remain in the hospital. One Palestinian was shot in the head by an armed border policeman who fired into the counter-demonstrators and there are unconfirmed reports that at least four more Arabs died.

In a normal world and if the United States had a normal government that adhered to some kind of moral compass, there might have been a protest coming from the President Joe Biden administration or from the "people's house" Congress, but there was nary a whimper. On the contrary, though the Congress was thinking about Israel, it was looking in a different direction, towards those whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared to be the enemies of his country. The attacks took place on April 22nd, ironically the same day that Congressmen Ted Deutch and Michael McCaul released a letter that they had sponsored. The letter was intended to stop dead any consideration that the United States just might condition its billions of dollars in largesse to the Jewish state annually based on Netanyahu and his band of war criminals restraining themselves just a bit.

Such a possibility has been raised by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with a handful of other brave legislators, who expressed concern that Israel will act without restraint as long as it knows that its money from Washington will continue to flow. In particular, Israel is currently pressuring Congress and using its media clout to oppose any re-entry by the US into the multilateral agreement to limit and inspect Iran's nuclear development program, which Biden is just possibly intending to do. The previous agreement, which was being observed by Iran, became largely a dead letter when President Donald Trump, acting on behalf of major Jewish donors to the GOP as well as his neocon advisers, withdrew from the existing plan, the JCPOA, in 2017.

The letter was signed by 330 Congressmen, roughly half Republican and half Democratic, which is nearly two-thirds of the House and Senate. It begins with "As the United States meets pressing global challenges, we strongly believe that robust U.S. foreign assistance is vital to ensuring our national security interests abroad. One program that enjoys particularly strong bipartisan backing and for which we, Democrats and Republicans, urge your continued strong support is the full funding of security assistance to Israel." The usual balderdash follows, about how "Israel continues to face direct threats from Iran and its terrorist proxies... Our aid to Israel is a vital and cost-effective expenditure which advances important U.S. national security interests in a highly challenging region."

Sure it does, just ask the victims of the Israeli attack on the US naval vessel the USS Liberty in June 1967, which killed 34 sailors and injured 171 more. But no matter. The only things missing from the letter was the boilerplate assertion that Israel is America's best friend in the whole wide world, which is obligatory in such documents, probably because everyone in Congress has already agreed to that. One also has to wonder why the other 205 Congressmen didn't sign the letter, which is also obligatory, and one has to assume that their mothers had just died or something similar.

The letter also recalls how "President Biden has stated, 'I'm not going to place conditions for the security assistance given the serious threats that Israel is facing, and this would be, I think, irresponsible'" before adding that "Reducing funding or adding conditions on security assistance would be detrimental to Israel's ability to defend itself against all threats."

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), regarded as the most visible component of the Israel Lobby, was very pleased with the letter. Its spokesman Marshall Wittmann told the Jewish Insider website that the letter is "a very strong bipartisan statement that full security assistance to Israel – without additional conditions – is in the national security interest of the United States."

Just once it might be nice to see someone in Congress or the White House concede that tying one's security arrangements to a nation that most of the world considers "rogue" is not exactly a smart thing to do, but it all depends on how one defines smart. Smart for a congressman on the make is to have the Jewish dominated media and the invincible Israel Lobby on one's side. Smart is to receive a pat on the head from AIPAC. It should be noted, of course, that the letter and the commentary surrounding it make no reference to the behavior of the rampaging Jewish mobs in Jerusalem that were out for blood, even though that was taking place as the document was being released to the media.

In addition to the "threat" posed by legislators like Sanders and Warren, the letter was clearly intended to meet a challenge coming from Congresswoman Betty McCollum, who has twice sponsored legislation forbidding the Israeli use of American financial aid to torture Arabs and, in particular, to beat and imprison Palestinian children. Her legislation the Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act​ H.R. 2407 amends a provision of the Foreign Assistance Act known as the "Leahy Law" to prohibit funding for the military detention of children in any country, including Israel. McCollum argues that an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli security forces and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system since 2000. These children between the ages of 11 and 15 have sometimes been tortured using chokeholds, beatings, and coercive interrogation.

The Deutch-McCaul letter not coincidentally appeared less than a week after McCollum joined by 15 progressive Democrat co-sponsors submitted her bill, which admittedly is unlikely ever to emerge from committee for a vote. As of September 2020 there were an estimated 157 children still detained in Israeli prisons and, though it would be difficult to break down the money to Israel which is advanced in a lump sum, one would think the objective to be an admirable one to anyone but the always on-alert and powerful Israel Lobby.

The pledge by Congress together with its clear message that behind it there are enough votes to override any White House attempt to cut the aid, is also intended to send a warning to another perceived threat to Israel, that of the growing non-violent Boycott, Divestments and Sanction movement (BDS). The movement, which is particularly strong on college campuses, is being de facto criminalized in states all over the country, 26 at least and counting, and there are also Congressional bills that would possibly make the issue of boycotting Israel a felony with serious jail time and fines attached.

The overriding message is that Israel's friends in the United States, and also in countries like Britain, France and Canada, are too strong to confront. In this case, the obvious racism and resort to lethal violence by the large component of the Israeli population should be resonating with a congress and media due to the recent convulsions being experienced here at home. Indeed, most of the "opinion makers" are jumping on the BLM bandwagon. This cheerleading for BLM is ironically highly visible in the actions taken by leading Israeli advocacy groups like AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), but that does not mean that there is any empathy to share for the plight of the Palestinians. Indeed, they are steps taken to get close to blacks to contain any possible pro-Arab sentiment.

A humane response to the suffering of the Palestinians does not surface much in the US because, frankly, Israel and its supporters have assiduously bought control of the US media as well the White House and Congress to such an extent that they can get what they want and never be challenged. That, of course, must end but the real question is how do we accomplish that when we the people have been effectively disenfranchised on the issue. When your government has been bought and your free speech limited by the oligarchs who control what passes for news and information, where do you go? Indeed, that is the dilemma.