You are perhaps familiar with the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC, a right-wing think tank that drafts right-wing legislation and then lobbies Congress as well as state legislators to introduce and press passage of their drafted bills. They have had enormous success enacting their right-wing agendas, both at the federal and state level.
There is an Israeli counterpart, Kohelet, a far-Right, US-Funded Israeli think-tank that Shapes Policy and Law in the US and Israel. Kohelet exercises enormous power, flying under the radar in both Israel as well as the US. Today, in a forum sponsored by the Foundation for Middle East Peace, we take a critical look at Kohelet through the eyes of journalists and activists who have been dealing with Kohelet for years. The participants are Ran Cohen (Democratic Bloc), Yousef Munayyer (Arab Center DC), Eran Nissan (Mehazkim), and Lara Friedman (FMEP); moderated by Sarah Anne Minkin (FMEP)
And there you have it. Government controlled by the Right … in Israel and in the US. The kind of US. funding Kohelet commands allows them to buy political connections, which is how the minority right-wing controls governments, including ours.
Before we go, a reminder that the Cambridge-Bethlehem People-to-people Project will be presenting a new zoom virtual forum series called Voices from Palestine. It will feature voices from the ground in the West Bank and Gaza. It starts next Sunday, April 30, 2023, at 1pm. To read more, go to: https://cambridgebethlehem.org/voices-from-palestine-virtual-reports-from-the-ground/ . To register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEkfu-sqD8iHNZZA1o6FKjD3veIMODhbY5h .
This Week In Palestine (a weekly part of Truth and Justice Radio) is an award-winning three-quarter-hour segment of news from Palestine and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization of their homeland. It speaks from the point of view of Palestinians and those who care about them. It's a regular part of Truth and Justice Radio, aired Sundays 6-10am ET on WZBC 90.3FM, Newton, MA, streaming live and archived for two weeks at wzbc.org; Truthandjusticeradio.org has a link to This Week In Palestine archives back thru 1-6-2008. (TJR airs occasional Palestine coverage IN ADDITION to that provided by This Week In Palestine.) We hope you'll write to us at tjradio@fastmail.com if you rebroadcast our work, or have questions or comments.
This Week in Palestine 4-23-2023
Policy Forum on Kohelet, Israel's version of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
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