Who Are They? The California Legislative Jewish Caucus

While University of California students chanted “Divest!” and erected “Free Palestine” encampments, a little-known pro-Israel faction of the California legislature introduced legislation to indoctrinate six million California public school children and stem the rising tide of college resistance to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

What’s in a name?

They call themselves the California Legislative Jewish Caucus and they are Democrats in the state legislature who critics describe as “progressive except for Palestine” or “PEP” lawmakers. Individually, they shepard populist bills to increase fines on white collar criminals, strengthen whistleblower protections, require AI transparency, and expand affordable housing, but collectively they work to erase Palestinians from the political and educational discourse. In the midst of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, the Caucus not only refuses to support a ceasefire, but centers the debate on the protesters’ lack of civility, often conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

Continue reading “Who Are They? The California Legislative Jewish Caucus”

Biden OKs More Weapons for War Criminals

Matthew Petti reports on a string of recent Biden administration decisions to provide even more weapons to Middle Eastern clients:

It’s been a good week for the weapons industry. President Joe Biden signed off on order after order allowing American weapons to flow to Middle Eastern regimes. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration will sell shipments of bombs worth $750 million to Saudi Arabia, breaking its ban on selling “offensive weapons” to the kingdom.

On the same day, the State Department announced over $20 billion in new arms sales to Israel, including fighter jets, armored vehicles, and ammunition. And the Friday before, the administration removed several major barriers to arming the Israeli military. It released $3.5 billion in U.S. taxpayer money for the Israeli military, unfroze a $262 million munition shipment that had been held up since May, and decided not to restrict U.S. aid to an Israeli army unit accused of beating an American to death.

The Biden administration has dropped any pretense that it cares how U.S.-made weapons are used. It will instead reward governments run by war criminals by providing them with as many weapons as they want. That doesn’t come as a surprise after watching the U.S. aid and abet Israel’s atrocities in Gaza for the last ten months, but it underscores the moral bankruptcy of the administration’s foreign policy and confirms that the president has nothing but contempt for our own laws. When it comes to arming war criminals in the Middle East, Biden is indistinguishable from Trump.

Read the rest of the article at Eunomia

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.

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