vjp-global

http://fpif.org/democrats-blowing-middle-east-peace/ In the first major foreign policy vote of the new Congress, most Democrats sided with Donald Trump — and against international law — on Israeli settlements… On January 5, a majority of House Democrats joined virtually every Republican in voting for a resolution that criticized the U.S. refusal to veto an otherwise unanimous UN Security Council resolution opposing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The House resolution called opposition to Israel's illegal colonization efforts "anti-Israel."…In effect, 109 of the House's 193 Democrats declined to challenge Trump on the first foreign policy vote of the new Congress, raising concerns that there will be little opposition in Congress to Trump's agenda once he comes to office...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member  

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=18090   Electronic Intifada's Asa Winstanley says Israel has set up astroturf organizations in the UK whose purpose is to sabotage Palestine solidarity   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/watch-soldiers-prevent-palestinians-israelis-from-protesting-together/124246/ Israeli activists had hoped to join Palestinians to protest a new settler-only road that would uproot hundreds of olive trees. The Israeli army saw to that. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/the-guide-for-leftists-who-want-to-stop-preaching-to-the-choir/124239/ For years the Israeli Left has excluded the vast majority of the country from its ranks. Here are eight steps on how to broaden the tent….e.g., Learn to sit with honesty, bravery and determination with Jews who think differently…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://electronicintifada.net/content/cruel-experiments-israels-arms-industry/19011   …The idea that the Israeli arms industry benefits from the occupation through having a captive population it can test new weaponry on is now widely accepted.   Israel tries out weapons in the West Bank and Gaza and then presents them as "battle proven" to the international market… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://forward.com/opinion/358879/congrats-on-burying-the-two-state-solution-president-trump-now-what/?attribution=home-hero-item-text-1   This is addressed to President-elect Donald Trump, his pick to be the next ambassador to Israel, the Republican National Committee, many Israeli government leaders and — judging from the recent outcry against the Obama administration — many in the American Jewish chattering class…If not two states, then one? Well, what does that look like? How are you going to get there? How will it work? How will you avoid civil conflict? How will you persuade Palestinians that this is in their best interests? Or will you not bother, arguing that what the Palestinians think isn't important? How will you persuade the world that this is not apartheid or some version of the kind of legal segregation that existed for too long in America?   How will you persuade people like me that this isn't the end of Israel as a democratic state?... P

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/03/far-right-israel-minister-naftali-bennett-bill-annex-maale-adumim-settlement-palestinian-territories Naftali Bennett vows to introduce a bill this month to formally annex Maale Adumim in the occupied Palestinian territories…Bennett's proposal does not tally with Israeli political consensus, with only about a third of voters supporting annexation.   However, his recent success pushing a weakened Netanyahu into supporting another piece of legislation – a proposal to retroactively legalise illegal Jewish outposts built on private Palestinian land – has underlined Bennett's skills in leveraging the right of the country's political debate. Posted by Judith Ferster, AMIE member