74% of MoveOn Members Call On 2020 Candidates To Boycott AIPAC
"It's no secret that that AIPAC has worked to hinder diplomatic efforts like the Iran deal, is undermining Palestinian self-determination, and inviting figures actively involved in human rights violations to its stage," Iram Ali, campaign director at MoveOn Political Action, said in a statement...
None of the Democratic presidential candidates are listed as speakers at the conference, and there is no indication that any of them plan to attend. But MoveOn's demand for a boycott will nevertheless "give a clear insight to 2020 candidates on where their base stands instead of prioritizing lobbying groups and policy people who rarely step outside of D.C.," said Ali.
Anna Zuccaro, a spokeswoman for MoveOn, told Politico that the boycott demand is "a clear sign that momentum is shifting."
The call to boycott the conference was viewed as further evidence of the generational shift within the Democratic Party over America's relationship with the Israeli goverment, which continues to brutally occupy and massacre Palestinians with impunity.
"This is a huge step in the right direction," tweeted Max Berger, co-founder of IfNotNow, a youth-led American Jewish advocacy group. "AIPAC upholds the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and second class citizenship for non-Jews in Israel."
Say what you will, but as I've said before, there is something underfoot in Congress that is changing the national (even international) discourse on many progressive issues and at many levels - thanks in large part, I would say, to a freshman class of fearless, radical minority females.
One can't say enough about the courage of Ilhan Omar, who was practically crucified by the Fascist Duopoly and their courtiers in the MSM.
In that essay Pluto's Republic was musing on the moment,
What do you know? It's a real watershed moment.
I've never seen a watershed and was aware what it was — at the same time.
To be clear, I am referring to an eyes-wide-open discussion of AIPAC's destructive force in American politics and foreign policy. If Omar has managed to move the dial on the narrow spectrum of permitted topics in America — I don't know what...! It's a new day.
Seems it could have been.
There's also Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who after being sworn led a delegation to...Palestine.
The days of the fascist stranglehold of RW Israeli governments on the U.S. are numbered. King Fascist, cold-blooded murder Netanyahu has recently been indicted for bribery and breach of trust in a series of corruption cases.
Check out The Israeli Nerd featuring Eli Valley.
This is Eli:
I see @BretStephensNYT is talking about "The Arabs" again. Here's a reminder of what he said after Israel massacred Palestinian protesters last year:https://t.co/f18bu6fpj8 pic.twitter.com/9niqBEQ6tj
— Eli Valley (@elivalley) March 21, 2019
— Eli Valley (@elivalley) March 20, 2019
I drew @ChelseaClinton. pic.twitter.com/faI4mW78zc
— Eli Valley (@elivalley) March 18, 2019
I went on @the_antifada to talk about recent stuff and a lot more, including Israel/Diaspora, secular Jewish culture, and the right wing's methodical erasure of American Jews. It was in the midst of drawing Chelsea Clinton so I was still awake 'n alert!!!https://t.co/RYopU2BPWX
— Eli Valley (@elivalley) March 20, 2019
h/t to NYCVG at The Way of the Bern
Comments
On another note, Neoliberal fascists really hate protesters
'Political Reptilian Brains': Cuomo Blasts Democrats and the Left.
Watch (at 5:15) how condescending Harris is about the little protesters, and their little posters, and how they just don't understand how it works:
Ridicules protesters tired of seeing generations of their kind wasting away in prison or shot like dogs in the street. Says she has "three padlocks on her door." What a cold-hearted, heinous POS.
Into the streets. It's the only way we've ever gotten anything, from workers rights to civil rights to gay rights, etc. It does help to have a few fearless progressive Truth-Tellers in government as aforementioned. But as FDR reminded activists, you have to make those on Capitol Hill do it.
These coddled Neoliberal shills are scared to death of protests coming at them. Keep the pressure on.
All Power To The People - right on!
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
How clueless can she be?
Actually, yes they have.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Great point. She is cluelessly inside her bubble.
I would refuse to vote for a congressperson
...a first timer — who did not pledge to decline Israel/AIPAC's all expense paid luxury tour to Israel for members of congress — full-spectrum lifetme surveillance and professional indoctrination included.
This should be illegal anyway.
It is certainly unethical.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
I would add that all frontrunning presidential candidates
...are required to take a pilgramage to AIPAC Headquarters and give a speech about their commitment to Israel.
Perhaps candidates regularly give exclusive speeches to lobbyist groups. Hillary Clinton did a few of those during her campaign on Wall Street. I reject that practice as a potential conflict of interest against the American People. But that's me. Nonetheless, candidates should be warned that if they do suckup to AIPAC with a "special" speech, it wll be parsed and annotated, and widely distributed.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a national membership based group which describes itself as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," and is frequently referred to as "The Lobby" with a capital "L".
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
Perhaps it's time
for the US to start requiring AIPAC to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), adhere to the restrictions imposed on registered foreign agents, and file the required reports and documents, including making their financial records public.
To date, AIPAC has been able to avoid registration by (as I understand it, although there may be more to it) invoking the "defense of the United States" exemption to FARA. In other words, AIPAC describes its purpose as being mutually beneficial to the US and Israel, rather than just benefitting Israel, or whomever in Israeli politics they work to benefit.
K Street lobbying firms have to register if they represent foreign entities, which many (most?) of them do. The news outlet RT has been required to register as a foreign agent. (RT is the media company the late, respected journalist Ed Schulz went to work for, after MSNBC fired him because he insisted on reporting on Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign.)
One of the charges for which Paul Manafort was just sent to the clink was violating FARA by failing to register as a foreign agent lobbying for Ukrainian interests.
Is it possible we're getting closer to re-examing AIPAC's exemption from FARA? That would be a big step to take. The last time it was proposed was during JFK's administration. I guess it might depend on whether the current trend is just political posturing by the Dems.
Link to the text of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended, 22 USC § 611 et seq:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/22/chapter-11/subchapter-II
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Ban all lobbyists, and moveon should take its own advice
Half a page of twitter pasta, and a flashback to ye olde D-Year of the Woman. I cannot believe moveon is still in business, wtf? Bush x2, Obama x2, Trump, and now they want to boycott AIPAC lobby? baah! I never forgot Rachel Corrie. fts
That kinda talk did get out my vote back in the old days for sure, I opened my wallet too and boy am I sorry now. Feinstein and Boxer (now Harris) are plutocrats that led CA to... poverty and homelessness galore. Industry lobby comes first at all levels of government because of course. Regular citizens always second class. Those are the D-Values attached to the identity politics, the duopoly reality. Sucks bigly.
NY is the same but different, if Ds represent your values then vote for them, that's what I say. But please don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. good luck
peace
Yeah, MoveOn is a relic from a different age, but emblematic
still, I think, of that crusty inside of the flailing Democratic Party. I honestly have no idea what they've been up to lately, but remember some years ago a turn toward keeping the status quo for power.
So the fact that they as an establishment apparatchik could have had a result that was such a stunning rebuke of AIPAC just sort of tells me things may really be changing with respect to that situation.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Yeah but ...
Or maybe, "Yeah and ..."
Will they listen?
I'm betting not. I signed up for MoveOn back during Obama 1.0, which technically made me a "member." (Unsubscribed sometime in 2013). Groups like that don't give a shit what their "membership" thinks, so long as said members send cash.
I agree with your broader point that people who have an affinity for such groups are increasingly more progressive -- I just don't think it matters that much to said groups' leaders or their overlords. Even if it did, how would that change things? Just heard Bibi nearly wet himself over Twitler's latest cowtow to Israel's rightful dominion over Palestine.
We'll see if any of them refuse to take the Benjamins.
That's the boycott measure that really counts. Easy to avoid being on the same stage with Bibi. Right, Beto, Kamala, y'all?
Thank you, Mark
NYCVG