Noting that I devote an inordinate amount of time to criticizing the Israel Lobby I point out that I do so because negative news about the lobby is censored by the US media, including Democracy Now!
I begin with the case of Sen. Rand Paul who for more than two weeks has placed a âholdâ on two pieces of legislation favoring Israel, preventing them being voted on by the Senate where they would be approved overwhelmingly: the act putting into law the $38 billion arms package to Israel and a bill making it a crime punishable with a fine for businesses to boycott Israel. Outside of the Israeli and US Jewish press there has not been a word about this.
Closer to home I report that my local city council rejected my attempt to prevent it from purchasing a Caterpillar back hoe/loader in respect for the international boycott. My casting its decision as a moral one was rejected by a 4-1 vote.
I then review the case of Prof. Marc Lamont Hill who was fired by CNN for mentioning the Palestinian right to use armed struggle against the Israeli occupiers and that âfrom the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,â at a UN event on the 71st anniversary if the UNGA vote partitioning Palestine and the response of the Lobby's watchdogs.
I go from there to another forgotten story (discredit for that goes to Chomsky) about George Herbert Walker Bush standing up to the lobby in 1991 which may have cost him the election when he refused to support Israel's request for $10 billion in loan guarantees.
I finish with a report that the upper house of the Irish legislature had approved a bill, to a standing ovation, making it a crime, punishable by a heavy fine, to import into Ireland, anything from the West Bank's Jewish settlements.