Soon after the Gaza war began 10 months ago, a prominent newspaper columnist denounced Congresswoman Cori Bush under a headline declaring that “anti-Israel comments make her unfit for reelection.” The piece appeared in the newspaper with the second-largest readership in Missouri, the Kansas City Star. Multimillion-dollar attacks on Bush followed.
Bush’s opponent, county prosecutor Wesley Bell, “is now the number-one recipient of AIPAC cash this election cycle,” according to Justice Democrats. “Almost two-thirds of all his donations came from the anti-Palestinian, far-right megadonor-funded lobby group.” The Intercept reports that “AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has gone on to spend a total of $7 million so far to oust Bush” in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary in her St. Louis area district.
“The $2.1 million in ads spent for her campaign is up against $12.2 million spent to attack her or support Bell,” The American Prospect points out. AIPAC “is trying to pull voters away from her without ever saying the words ‘Israel’ or ‘Palestine.’ Instead, their advertising against Bush centers around her record on infrastructure legislation, in a manner that lacks context.”
It’s easy to see why AIPAC and allied forces are so eager to defeat Bush. She courageously introduced a ceasefire resolution in the House nine days after the bloodshed began on Oct. 7, calling for “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine.”
The Kansas City Star article, published shortly after Bush introduced the resolution, was written by former New York Times reporter Melinda Henneberger, now a member of the Star’s editorial board. “A military attack in response to the massacre of civilians by a group committed in writing to ‘carnage, displacement and terror’ for Jews is not my idea of ‘ethnic cleansing,’” she wrote in early November. “But it is Missouri Rep. Cori Bush’s, which is why she deserves to lose her congressional race next year.”
Bush supposedly became unfit to keep her seat in Congress because, after three weeks of methodical killing in Gaza, she tweeted: “We can’t be silent about Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Babies, dead. Pregnant women, dead. Elderly, dead. Generations of families, dead. Millions of people in Gaza with nowhere to go being slaughtered. The U.S. must stop funding these atrocities against Palestinians.”
Henneberger’s response was hit-and-run. She wrote a hit piece. And then she ran.
Ever since late April, I’ve been asking Henneberger just one question, over and over. Every few weeks, I have sent another email directly to her. I also wrote to her care of an editor at the newspaper. And I even mailed a certified letter, which the post office delivered to her office in June.
No reply.
Henneberger’s column had flatly declared that Bush’s tweet was a “projectile spewing of antisemitic comments and disinformation” because it said that Israel was engaged in ethnic cleansing.
So, my question, which Henneberger has been refusing to answer for more than three months, is a logical one: “Do you contend that the Israeli government has not engaged in ethnic cleansing?”
If Henneberger were to answer no, the entire premise of her column smearing Bush would collapse.
If Henneberger were to answer yes, her reply would be untenable.
No wonder she has chosen not to answer at all.
What Israel has been doing in Gaza clearly qualifies as “ethnic cleansing” – which a UN Commission of Experts defined as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”
But denial about Israel’s massive and ongoing crimes against Palestinian people is pervasive – and often used to attack principled progressives in election campaigns. And so, two months ago, in the St. Louis area, 35 rabbis supporting Bell against Bush issued a statement that alleged the congresswoman “continually fanned the flames with the most outrageous smears of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide’ as it has fought to defeat the terrorists.”
The electoral forces against human rights for Palestinians have been armed with huge amounts of cash. AIPAC dumped $15 million into successfully defeating progressive New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman early this summer. While the spending amount set a record, the approach was far from unprecedented.
In 2022, AIPAC beat Michigan Congressman Andy Levin, who had expressed support for Palestinian rights. “I’m really Jewish,” Levin said in an interview days before losing the Democratic primary, “but AIPAC can’t stand the idea that I am the clearest, strongest Jewish voice in Congress standing for a simple proposition: that there is no way to have a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people unless we achieve the political and human rights of the Palestinian people.”
AIPAC excels at strategic lobbying on Capitol Hill, relentlessly prodding or threatening lawmakers and their staffs to stay on the right side of a Zionist hardline, always brandishing the proven capacity to launch fierce attacks – while conflating even understated criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The basic formulas are simple: Israel = Judaism. Opposition to Israel’s lethal violence = antisemitism.
Such formulaic manipulation has long been fundamental to claims that the Israeli government represents “the Jewish people” and criticisms of its actions are “antisemitic.”
That’s what the heroic Congresswoman Cori Bush is up against.
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of many books including War Made Easy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in 2023 by The New Press.
Can we take a moment to admire the fact that there's an American politician with the last name 'Bush' who is NOT a complete f**king idiot for a change ?
And of course that Politician is thus subjected to relentless attack by the media, typical ¬_¬
Can we take a moment to admire the fact that there's an American politician with the last name 'Bush' who is NOT a complete f**king idiot for a change ?
July 31, 2024 The Israeli Terrorist State
It is no longer possible to categorise the nihilistic violence of the Israeli state. It appears to have no objective other than violence and an urge for desolation.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/07/the-israeli-terrorist-state/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/gaza-detainees-israel.jpeg
This too. From Politico: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/19/gaza-hospitals-surgeons-00167697
Israel is the biggest terrorist state in the ME. The IDF Soldiers in the picture lined Palestinians up to torture them in broad daylight. They can get away with what they are doing, they are the people occupying Gaza.
Unfortunately, the U.S. is occupying far more countries than most even have a clue. Since they are not curious and are just programmed by their T.V.’s.
I sure don’t know, but I have an idea.
Freedom means we put up a boot up your … It’s the American imperial way.
This explains it well Luchorpan.
Feb 14, 2023 The U.S. has 750 military bases around the world
The United States reached a deal with the Philippines this month to build four more military bases there, in addition to the five bases already located in the former U.S. colony. In total, the U.S. has about 750 overseas military bases around the world — more than any other country.
https://youtu.be/dimldIX3m8A?si=JSjipI4Mx4FON8Ud
"They’re among the more than 1,000 bases the United States uses to ring the globe (with about 4,000 more in the 50 states and Washington, D.C.). This complex of military installations, unprecedented in history, has been a major, if little noticed, aspect of U.S. power since World War II."
-David Vine
Thank you. I hope more Americans read about this.
You are welcome Mercy, and here is a link for exposing this truth from a great patriot.
November 15, 2022 The USA’s Military Empire: A Visual Database. World Beyond War
The United States of America, unlike any other nation, maintains a massive network of foreign military installations around the world.
https://worldbeyondwar.org/no-bases/?link_id=4&can_id=c588c13bf8ee9be6d564a34438626810&source=email-wbw-news-action-peace-making-in-a-time-of-endless-war-2&email_referrer=email_1738442&email_subject=wbw-news-action-867-bases-no-justification
Great Website! Thank you!
My pleasure Mercy!
https://c.tenor.com/uezQlfavDisAAAAd/hat-tip-leave.gif
Our most important "base" is in the heart of Israel.
Oye Vey! ;-/
When you realize those you CAN'T criticize, then you know who is in charge! Let's face it- it's almost as if this is WW2 and the USA is occupied by Nazi Germany!
Did ethnic cleansing allegation against Rwandian carry any additional ineffable mysterious almost religious honorific like 'anti semtism' ? Does it now against Russia also.?
Anti semtism smacks of some inscrutable deep psychological distortions tapping into historical data set . This is 3 rd rail.
Dont discuss . Once you hear ,you need to get into water,cleanse yourself,denounce everyhting about yourself and enbrace everything about the Jewish people.
Same should apply to to those accusing falsely or correctly of ethnic cleansing. Because it has same psychological angst against those being accused of . Then ethnic cleansing should be dealt with same way everywhere .
Who is really in control in the US? And it does not matter who is in Washington.
Innocent defenseless women and children, who had NOTHING to with October 7, torn to shreds by Israelis using USA ammo and ordnance. Palestinians being BOMBED and executed in places where Israelis told them to be for their safety! Prisoners being tortured, raped and murdered. Aid being destroyed as famine and disease grips Gaza. If this isn't genocide and a war crime, there's no such thing! And the US Congress, stinking like a mile-high pile of cow dung, gives the head executioner Nutty Yahoo over FIFTY standing ovations as he spoke (again) to them! Where is the legal framework on this planet to "Nuremburg" these monsters? I'm not voting for anyone who helps enable this monstrous murderous behavior, including Herr Trump!
AIPAC interferes in the elections of anyone who refuses to rob the American taxpayers and give their hard-earned money to Israel.
This is foreign election interference and both sides should oppose it, AIPAC has not just gone after the Squad, they also tried to unelect Republican Ron Paul in the past and Thomas Massie in the recent primary.
Congress granted AIPAC an exemption from having to register as a foreign agent and AIPAC pays those who put Israel first very well.
This is a vivid demonstration of how private and sometimes foreign interests, with unlimited amounts of money, can control who is elected in Congress and in the White House.
Ordinary voters are drowning in a sea of confusing propaganda and have very limited influence on the choice of candidates and on final results. Some abstain from voting.
Since the curious January 2010 Supreme Court decision that “money is speech“, the US political system has become more and more corrupt. It makes a joke of the principle of “one person, one vote“.
Pro Israel AIPAC has been a big winner of this dubious 2010 decision. Now, AIPAC does not only control elections, it controls also who is nominated during primaries.
How long can such a corrupt political system last before people revolt?