Andrew Cuomo, anti-BDS trailblazer

Good Riddance

While celebrating Andrew Cuomo’s departure be sure to spare a thought for his anti-BDS efforts. Back in 2016 the (soon to be former) Governor signed the first-ever executive order directing divestment of public funds supporting the movement.

“New York stands in solidarity with Israel today and always. This state will not stand for the politics of discrimination in any form, and we will continue to demonstrate our unwavering support for the people of Israel in the fight for freedom, liberty and democracy,” he declared. “I’m proud to sign this nation’s leading executive order, which will help protect Israel from the threat of divestment. This order sends the message that this state will do everything in its power to end this hateful, intolerant campaign. New York and Israel share an unbreakable bond and I pray that the Israeli and Palestinian people will find a way to live side by side and find peace, prosperity and security.”

Palestine Legal’s Dima Khalidi slammed the move in The Nation at the time. “There is an undeniable irony in Cuomo’s eagerness to punish Israel-related boycott activity,” she wrote. “He knows that boycotts are time-honored ways to engage in collective action against injustice. In fact, executive orders 155 and 156—the two Cuomo signed prior this one—were themselves issued in support of boycotts. In the first instance, Cuomo barred state employees from traveling to North Carolina and breaking the picket line against the state for its attack on the transgender community; in the second, he barred state employees from traveling on the state’s dime to Mississippi, following that state’s enactment of a law condoning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

The walls were already closing in on Cuomo when the Ben & Jerry’s news broke, so it probably wasn’t his highest priority. However, he did face backlash from local pro-Israel voices for his silence on the issue. “”Where is the governor now to act while this boycott is going on? Why is the governor not speaking out?”  former Democratic New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind asked in a video. “”Governor Cuomo, you got a lot of attention for doing the right thing in 2016. Now is your opportunity to act against the anti-Semitic BDS movement directed against the Jewish people. We are waiting to hear from you.”

Could Cuomo have done much more than condemn the company’s move? It’s doubtful. He made a big show about his BDS executive order but when it came time to release a list of the entities potentially impacted, there was no press conference or fanfare. The list confounded many pro-Israel groups because it didn’t include any U.S. companies. It also confounded some of the foreign companies on it because they had investments in Israel.

Cuomo’s confusing (and seemingly useless) list is a good symbol of how these things work. Politicians make a big deal about passing anti-BDS legislation and standing with Israel, but the laws are so blatantly unconstitutional that they can’t actually be implemented without being challenged and presumably struck down.

Same Old Song

There’s been a lot of bad faith attacks on progressive House members this week. It’s the usual suspects making the usual farcical charge: antisemitism. Maybe DMFI’s efforts in Ohio inspired a wave of action.

Here’s two of them. The ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted a video clip of Rep. Rashida Tlaib and wrote that it was, “Stunning to hear Tlaib claim ‘behind the curtain,’ those who prevent a ‘free Palestine’ are the ‘same people’ who exploit ‘regular Americans.’ We’ve heard this kind of ugly #antisemitic dog whistling before, but it’s appalling when it comes from a member of Congress.”

There’s a lot of assertions here and none of them are true. So let’s look at what Tlaib actually said:

“…We also need to recognize, and this if for me as a Palestinian American, we also need to recognize…as I think about my family in Palestine, that continue to live under military occupation and how that really interacts with this beautiful Black city I grew up in. You know I always tell people: cutting people off from water is violence, and they do it from Gaza to Detroit. And it’s a way to control people, to oppress people. And it’s those structures that we continue to fight against. So I know you all understand the structure we’ve been living under right now is designed by those that exploit the rest of us for their own profit. I always say to people: you know, I don’t care if it’s the issue around global human rights and our fight to free Palestine, or to pushing back against those who don’t believe in a minimum wage or those that believe that people have a right to healthcare, and so much more. And I tell people: those same people that, if you open the curtain and look behind the curtain, it’s the same people that make money, and yes they do, off of racism, off of these broken policies. There is someone there making money, and you saw it. It was so exposed during the pandemic, cuz all those structures, everything that was set up, they made record profit — when we were all having some of the most challenging, most difficult times in our lifetime, at that moment. And again, they make record profits. So if anything this pandemic just exposed what we’ve all been fighting against.”

Are people concerned that the ADL is partnering with PayPal to “fight extremism” yet?

Emily Schrader is a former StandWithUs staffer and founder of something called Social Lite Creative. She tweeted a video of Rep. Cori Bush giving a speech on the House floor and claimed that Bush was blaming Jews for homelessness in St. Louis. Quite the charge! Again, let’s look at what she actually said. Here’s that section of her comments:

St. Louis sent me here to save lives…our St. Louis community sent us here to save lives. That means we oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma. We are antiwar, we are anti-occupation, and we are anti-apartheid. Period. If this body is looking for something productive to do with $3 million, instead of funding a military that polices and kills Palestinians, I have some communities in St. Louis city and St. Louis county where that money can go, where we desperately need investment, where we are hurting, where we need help. Let us prioritize funding there. Prioritize funding life, not destruction.

As I mentioned a couple newsletters ago, recent polling suggests that attempts to equate criticisms of Israel with antisemitism haven’t just failed, they’re starting to backfire. It’s hard envision most people falling for this stuff.

Odds & Ends

☀️ The biopic Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power premiered in California this month. Constituents from Lee’s 13th district gathered outside a showing of the film and called for the congresswoman to stand up for Palestine.

🇮🇱 The Biden administration has said they support giving Israel money to replenish their Iron Dome system. At a Senate hearing this week Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Dana Stroul indicated that the decision will ultimately have to be approved by congress.

“We have unequivocally stated our support for supplemental appropriations and support of replenishing and expanding the system. We have consulted extensively with Congress and provided information paperwork to you all to support how you choose to proceed in funding the request,” said Stroul.

It’s been widely reported that Israel is looking for a $1 billion.

(Image: Carlos Latuff)
(Image: Carlos Latuff)

📰 Dana Milbank has a terrible column in The Washington Post denouncing Rep. Rashida Tlaib as antisemitic and comparing her to Donald Trump. The IMEU had a good Twitter thread breaking down all the things he gets wrong. Here’s some of it:

1) Milbank goes after Tlaib for calling Israel’s policies “apartheid” & “racist.” But Tlaib’s description is not only 100% accurate, it’s also shared by anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu, & documented by renowned human rights groups like Human Rights Watch

2) Noting the shared struggle of the oppressed around the world, Congresswoman Tlaib said that the powerful, from Gaza to Detroit, exploit the poor & the oppressed for profit. Without a shred of evidence, Milbank suggested she was talking about Jews. She wasn’t.

3) Rep. Tlaib has stated factually that those who support Israel’s oppression of Palestinians want to police her words. Milbank proves her point by absurdly blaming Tlaib’s comments for causing antisemitic violence. Of course, they didn’t.

🇪🇬 The Biden administration has approved a $197 million missile sale to Egypt despite the country’s human rights record.

🇮🇱 Peter Beinart has an op-ed in the New York Times about the United States refusing to acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons:

Feigning ignorance about Israeli nuclear weapons makes a mockery of America’s efforts at nonproliferation. Mr. Obama vowed to pursue a nuclear-free world. Yet to prevent public discussion of Israel’s arsenal, his administration helped squelch a United Nations conference on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. The Biden administration continues to impose punishing sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force its government to accept inspections more stringent than those required by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Meanwhile, Israel, which has never signed the N.P.T., permits no inspections at all.

This hypocrisy leads many around the world to smirk when American diplomats claim to be defending the “rules-based order.” It also empowers those Iranians who claim Tehran has the right to match its regional rival.

Finally, the American government’s deceptive silence prevents a more honest debate at home about the dangers an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose. American politicians sometimes say an Iranian bomb would pose an “existential” threat to Israel. That’s a dubious claim, given that Israel possesses a nuclear deterrent it can deploy on air, land and sea. But many Americans find the claim plausible because, according to recent polling conducted by Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland, barely 50 percent know Israel has nuclear weapons. A higher percentage thinks Tehran has the bomb.

🌹 DSA’s BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group is hosting a BDS Summer School. It begins on August 21st and you can check out details here.

Stay safe out there,

Michael

Mondoweiss is a nonprofit news website dedicated to covering the full picture of the struggle for justice in Palestine. Funded almost entirely by our readers, our truth-telling journalism is an essential counterweight to the propaganda that passes for news in mainstream and legacy media.

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