Jamaal Bowman - anti-Israhell "squad" member learns to love Israhell

[yankeedoodle]

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-Bronx/Westchester, left, meets with Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green of Standing Together, a progressive Jewish-Arab grassroots movement, during his visit to Israel and Palestinian-controlled areas as part of a Congressional delegation arranged by J Street, Nov. 8, 2021.

Jamaal Bowman, Squad member, joins J Street tour of Israel and meets Yair Lapid
https://www.jta.org/2021/11/09/politics/jamaal-bowman-squad-member-joins-j-street-tour-of-israel-and-meets-yair-lapid

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jamaal Bowman, one of the six-member "Squad" considered the most Israel-critical faction in the U.S. House of Representatives, is currently on a tour of the country with a liberal pro-Israel group and met with its foreign minister, Yair Lapid.

Israeli media reported that a number of progressive Democrats are on the tour organized by J Street, a group that advocates for a two-state solution and is harshly critical of Israel's settlement activity, but which also promotes Israeli culture and values in its activities and opposes the boycott-Israel movement.

Among the others on the trip is Marc Pocan, a Wisconsin Democrat who, like Bowman, was outspoken in criticizing Israel during its Gaza conflict this summer. But Bowman's inclusion is particularly noteworthy, given the New York Democrat's alliance with a prominent group of legislators that includes some who openly back the boycott-Israel movement. The Squad comprised the most outspoken critics of Israel during the May conflict.

Bowman has stood apart from the Squad in not joining the calls to reduce or end defense assistance to Israel, and in being the only Squad member to vote for an extra $1b in funding to replenish the Iron Dome anti-missile system depleted during the Gaza conflict. Bowman's district covers parts of Westchester and the Bronx, and has a substantial Jewish population. His predecessor, Eliot Engel, whom he ousted in a primary, was one of the most pro-Israel Democrats in Congress.

Bowman is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which has embraced the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel. At least one DSA chapter, in Madison, Wisconsin, has called for Bowman's expulsion from DSA for voting for defense funding for Israel. The chapter insinuated in a Nov. 1 statement that Bowman was pandering in his votes. "Career aspirations should not be allowed to compromise DSA's strong stance of support for Palestinian national liberation," it said.

Israeli media said the visit this week is the first time in at least four years that J Street has scored meetings with Israeli government officials. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in office from 2009 until this year, was hostile to the group. The current coalition, led by Lapid and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, has made a priority of repairing relations with liberal Americans.

In a tweet marking the meeting, Lapid did not mention the names of the lawmakers or J Street. "This evening at the Knesset, I met with a delegation of Democratic members of Congress," he said Monday. "I thanked them for supporting the replenishment of the Iron Dome missile defense system, and we discussed the importance of continuing to strengthen the US-Israel relationship."

The tour will also include meetings with Palestinian leaders. Also participating is Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the chairwoman of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

[yankeedoodle]

Facing protest from his socialist allies, Rep. Jamaal Bowman opens up about his recent trip to Israel
https://www.jta.org/2021/11/29/ny/facing-protest-from-his-socialist-allies-rep-jamaal-bowman-opens-up-about-his-recent-trip-to-israel

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Speaking to a group of college students, Rep. Jamaal Bowman expressed no regret about taking a recent trip to Israel and the West Bank with the liberal pro-Israel group J Street, despite intense backlash from his socialist allies.

He did, however, have harsh words for Israel's government.

"I left less optimistic about a two-state solution because of the reality on the ground," he said in the question-and-answer session Monday. "Of course, I still believe in it and working toward making it happen but I think the U.S. has to make some very bold moves that don't even have to be related to threats, in my opinion."

Bowman, the first-term Democratic member of Congress from the Bronx and Westchester, took part in a congressional delegation earlier this month to Israel and the Palestinian areas of the West Bank. The delegation visited Israel and met with leaders there, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and also saw Hebron and other Palestinian areas. The delegation asked to visit Gaza but, according to Bowman, was denied for security reasons by Israel and the United States.

Bowman's participation in the trip was notable because he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which supports a boycott of Israel. He is also a member of the "Squad," the group of progressive Congress members including Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush, who have likewise endorsed the boycott movement.

Last year, Bowman unseated longtime Rep. Eliot Engel, a pro-Israel stalwart in his district, which includes the heavily Jewish Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale and other Jewish communities in Westchester. He has angered pro-Israel activists with some of his votes, including one to place conditions on how aid to Israel is used — though he recently voted for supplemental funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

In the weeks since the trip, he's felt heat from the other side of the political spectrum. Groups within the DSA have called to expel Bowman from the movement for not heeding the boycott, and he met with DSA leadership more than a week ago regarding those complaints. Others voices in the group have spoken up in his defense, arguing that his expulsion would be counterproductive.

But in the Zoom call Monday night with dozens of college students from J Street U, the lobby's campus arm, Bowman did not mention the DSA once and gave full-throated praise to the trip and the liberal Zionist group that led it. He called J Street "incredible" and said it was "on the right track" because it has opponents to its right and left.

(In the middle of the J Street U meeting, the DSA's working group on Palestine called on the DSA "to formally begin the process of expelling Jamaal Bowman.")

"When I told people I was going with J Street, people on the right of J Street were critical," he said at the meeting. "And then people on the far left were also critical, like, 'Oh, you know, they're a Zionist organization. You shouldn't go with them.'"

But Bowman said that he'd want to return to Israel and the West Bank, telling the students that "I have to go back three or four times to gather even more."

Throughout the call, he was critical of Israel's government and its approach to the West Bank. He cited Israeli suffering from terrorism and violence from Hamas, which governs Gaza, but said that was no excuse for Israel to continue its occupation of Palestinian territory. He noted that Israel's foreign minister, Yair Lapid, supports the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel but felt Lapid's commitment to that policy was not "firm."

He also said that he felt the Israeli government displayed "arrogance" toward American Jews who oppose the occupation.

"The two-state solution has become a talking point," he said. "In my opinion, there's no real policy or political movement in that direction."

He added multiple times that he didn't feel that Israelis acknowledge the experience of Palestinians, including the Nakba, the word meaning "catastrophe" that Palestinians use to refer to Israel's creation, when many Palestinians were expelled from Israel or fled and were prevented from returning. 

"While we use it here as a talking point, the current Israeli leadership, Naftali Bennett, was not for a two-state solution," Bowman said. "There didn't seem to be any appetite for it there, and there also didn't seem to be any appetite, or any real acknowledgement of Palestinian pain, the Nakba or anything else. It wasn't really talked about."

Bowman said that it's "obvious" and "absolutely true" that Israel has a right to defend itself. He praised Israeli groups that oppose the occupation, such as Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli combat veterans that gave the delegation a tour of the West Bank city of Hebron.

"Working with Israeli activists on the ground is really, really important because I'm telling you, I felt it," he said. "There was this, 'Y'all aren't over here, y'all in America, y'all can't tell us what to do' kind of vibe coming from some of the leaders that we met with."

Bowman also said he hopes the Jewish community "continues to lead on this issue." He discussed his visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, and condemned antisemitism. But he said that his criticism of Israel was not antisemitic, and he dismissed opposition from some of his Jewish constituents on that account.

Criticizing Israel, he said, "definitely will upset more right-wing Jews in this district, it just will, because sometimes they don't want any kind of criticism," he said. "It's a critique of the Israeli government. It's not a critique of you because you're Jewish. That has nothing to do with it."

[yankeedoodle]

NY Rep. Jamaal Bowman withdraws support for Abraham Accords
https://www.jta.org/2022/02/16/politics/ny-rep-jamaal-bowman-withdraws-support-for-abraham-accords

U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the New York Democrat who has been less critical of Israel than other members of the progressive "Squad," is dropping his support for a bill that would help Israel expand normalization agreements with Arab countries.

In a letter to constituents, Bowman said he has been persuaded that the normalization agreements, launched in 2020 as the Abraham Accords, serve to isolate the Palestinians, and do not advance a just outcome. The letter was  first reported Tuesday by Jewish Currents.

He also expressed concern that some of the incentives for the accords are at odds with his values. The United Arab Emirates has scored the sale of advanced fighter jets and Morocco earned U.S. recognition of its claim to the disputed Western Sahara.

Critics of the accords say they remove from the Palestinians one of the few leverages they have over Israel: full acceptance in the Middle East.

The bill has overwhelming bipartisan support and Bowman's change of mind won't stop it from passing. Under accords, brokered by the Trump administration, Israel has normalized relations with Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and the UAE. The bill would facilitate normalization with other countries.

Bowman is a member of the "Squad," a grouping of six progressives that includes Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who says Israel should not exist as a Jewish state, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has called Israel an apartheid state. Bowman, however — representing a district that encompasses substantive Jewish communities in the Bronx and Westchester — has not been as adamant in his Israel criticism. Alone in the Squad, he backed additional funding last year for the Iron Dome anti-missile systems for Israel. So did the vast majority of the party's Progressive Caucus.

Bowman in the letter said a recent visit to Israel and the West Bank helped bring about his change of mind. He did not note that J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, organized the visit, nor that the group backs the bill that would expand the Abraham Accords.

Some progressives criticized Bowman for going on a trip with J Street, which describes itself as pro-Israel.

[abduLMaria]

Once again, the Jews Co-opt the Peace Sign.

Jew Craig Newmark uses a Peace Sign as the Main icon for Craigslist.

But Craigslist is the biggest Military Recruiter in the US.

Just look at the Jobs listings.  That's where Jew Newmark makes his Shekels.