Author: Jason Ditz

Israeli officials are usually pretty mad at the UN for something they did or said, or didn’t do or didn’t say. Today, Ambassador Ron Prosor’s outrage centered around a new UN report on Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in the occupied territories, a report he complains mentions Israel altogether too much.

The report was supposed to be something of a compromise. The UN issued a recent report on violence against children in warzones worldwide, and was facing intense US and Israeli pressure not to mention Israel in this, despite the large death toll among children in last summer’s Israeli invasion of Gaza. In the end, they didn’t mention Israel in that official report, but released a separate report about Israel.

But the UN can’t win with Israel, and Prosor complained that the report about Israel, which again, was a report about Israel, mentioned Israel way more than it mentioned ISIS.

That would’ve been a fair complaint if Israel had been in the main report, where ISIS was one of the many violators spotlighted, but it seems absurd that Israel should expect, having gotten out of that report entirely, that this lesser report would also focus on countries other than Israel, even though it’s a report explicitly about Israel.

In mid-May, facing growing public complaints about the militarization of local police forces, President Obama signed an executive order that would ban the Pentagon from transferring certain “inappropriate” military gear, notably grenade launchers and bayonets, to police departments.

Because apparently anything with the word military or any derivatives is going to have support from someone on the Hill, Sen. Pat Toomey (R – PA) today announced a bill aiming to block the president from making any restrictions at all on the transfers.

Toomey complained in an open letter that the White House was weighing the lives of police against the public backlash against militarization and police crackdowns on dissent, insisting the government should never even consider the idea that police are causing unrest through their tactics.

Toomey in particular objected to the banning of certain armored military vehicles from usage except under “certain circumstances.” The ban signed by the White House was related only to vehicles with tank treads.

Interestingly, though Toomey insisted he had no objection to the ban on bayonets, he is insisting on removing all restrictions, including those on bayonets provided to police forces.

ISIS doesn’t have any products, but still…

In a bizarre round of comments today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed international boycotts against Israel as “hypocrisy,” demanding those nations to boycott ISIS-made goods instead.

ISIS doesn’t have a functioning economy right now, nor any real exports to speak of, so it is of course impossible. Netanyahu’s comments are just the latest in an increasingly desperate campaign to damage the reputation of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure Israel for an end to the occupation through economic pressure. Boycotting Israel is illegal in the United States, but is increasingly popular in Europe as the Netanyahu government condemns the peace process.

The strategy to make this somewhat about ISIS is a rather awkward attempt to copy the effort to keep Israel off the list of forces that carried out attacks on children in 2014, which somehow worked on the grounds that it’d be weird to put the IDF on the same list as ISIS, even though the Israeli military did overtly attack UN-run schools full of civilian refugees in the summer Gaza War.

There is, of course, already a substantial international embargo campaign against ISIS, irrespective of its lack of theoretical exports, and it goes far beyond a handful of academic boycotts and private campaigns against Israeli companies in the occupied West Bank. It’s just that ISIS doesn’t have billionaire Sheldon Adelson bankrolling summits against the international campaign on them, so it doesn’t get the publicity the BDS movement does.

As we mentioned earlier in the week, the Patriot Act’s Section 215 expires tonight. This is the section which the Obama Administration has been using as the pretext for NSA telephone bulk surveillance of ordinary Americans.

The great news is, Section 215 will be expiring tonight, as the Senate didn’t vote. The less great news is that the vote for the extension, dubbed the USA Freedom Act, has only been delayed briefly, and could still happen as soon as Tuesday. The Senate did manage to vote to limit debate on the bill too, meaning filibusters won’t be able to stop it.

That means for those of you who didn’t call your Senators yet, and even those who did, there’s still time to call them some more and emphasize your extreme opposition to the USA Freedom Act and any other efforts to extend the Patriot Act.

A vote is unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean the vote will go the way of the pro-surveillance crowd. We can still make a difference if we can convince enough Senators to vote against it.

You can find your Senator’s contact information here, and below is a list of the 10 most important Senators to focus on, along with their contact information. Others should be contacted as well, of course, to emphasize how much we, the American public, oppose the surveillance state.

Paul, Rand – (R – KY)
167 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4343

King, Angus S., Jr. – (I – ME)
133 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-5344

Enzi, Michael B. – (R – WY)
379A Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-3424

Kirk, Mark – (R – IL)
524 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-2854

Cassidy, Bill – (R – LA)
703 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-5824

Ayotte, Kelly – (R – NH)
144 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-3324

Moran, Jerry – (R – KS)
521 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6521

Crapo, Mike – (R – ID)
239 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6142

Toomey, Patrick J. – (R – PA)
248 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4254

Boozman, John – (R – AR)
141 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4843

The Senate is in recess, but they will be returning on Sunday for a last minute vote on the extension of the Patriot Act’s Section 215. This is the section which the Obama Administration has been using as the pretext for NSA telephone bulk surveillance of ordinary Americans. The White House says without the renewal, they will have to end the surveillance program.

That means this is a great time to call your Senator and urge them to vote against any and all resolutions which would renew Section 215 under any terms. Despite very little momentum in the Congress to pass meaningful NSA reforms, we have a golden opportunity here to kill one of the most onerous aspects of NSA surveillance of the general public.

You can find your Senator’s contact information here, and below is a list of the 10 most important Senators to focus on, along with their contact information. Others should be contacted as well, of course, to emphasize how much we, the American public, oppose the surveillance state.

Paul, Rand – (R – KY)
167 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4343

King, Angus S., Jr. – (I – ME)
133 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-5344

Enzi, Michael B. – (R – WY)
379A Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-3424

Kirk, Mark – (R – IL)
524 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-2854

Cassidy, Bill – (R – LA)
703 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-5824

Ayotte, Kelly – (R – NH)
144 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-3324

Moran, Jerry – (R – KS)
521 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6521

Crapo, Mike – (R – ID)
239 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6142

Toomey, Patrick J. – (R – PA)
248 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4254

Boozman, John – (R – AR)
141 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-4843

In 2010, the Obama Administration endorsed, then immediately condemned the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) calls for a nuclear-free Middle East, realizing after the agreement that Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East.

Fast-forward five years, and there still hasn’t been a meeting on the matter. The big obstacle is that Israel, which is not a signatory to the NPT, is willing to attend the talks but not willing to even broach the subject of disarmament, citing the fact that they’re never publicly admitted to their significant arsenal in the first place.

Israel, of course, is blaming the Arabs for all this, saying the lack of talks underscores the fact that the Arab states, none of whom is a nuclear power to begin with, is even willing to sit down and talk with the nuclear-armed Israelis.

Israel’s status at the meeting did indeed loom large, and was a big part of why the talks never took place, though it was the fact that there was no hope of getting the only nuclear-armed nation to disarm that really soured most nations on the talks, figuring there was no point in the absence of that as at least a speculative goal.

Indeed, all these same nations routinely work with Israel on efforts to detect illegal underground nuclear testing as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. In that case, unlike this one, there was hope of actually accomplishing thing, however.

And that’s been the fatal flaw in the push for a nuclear-free Middle East from the moment the US ill-conceivedly endorsed it way back in 2010. They believe it’s “unfair” to single out Israel for disarmament, but Israel is the only state in the region with such arms to begin with, meaning efforts to orchestrate such talks always boil down to Israel insisting it is being mistreated and the US agreeing.