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Israel's Unhealthy Influence Over (Many) American Jews and Democrats via J Street · IndieNewsNow LIVE! Clips

• 0:00
  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Who are these people?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I did make a thumbnail for this separate portion,
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  SPEAKER_01: because I think that there is something said for the battle in the United States,
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: and I don't know how much of a battle,
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: but I'm certainly waging a battle,
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  SPEAKER_01: and there are a lot of people like me that are waging a battle within
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  SPEAKER_01: the Jewish community for the fight over this narrative,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: like Cookies is talking about.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: And he mentioned earlier that they're doing a good job of making the world think
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  SPEAKER_01: that Israel is Jews.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: And totally, they are.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why they're taking over...
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Different news organizations and outlets and newsrooms and getting rid of anybody
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  SPEAKER_01: that is even close to potentially sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's worrisome,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: frightening,
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  SPEAKER_01: and infuriating that it's being done under the religion that I was raised under.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, leave it maybe, but why should I let them have it?
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  SPEAKER_01: It was around for 3,000 years before fucking Zionism existed.
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  SPEAKER_01: Why the hell should they be allowed to have it?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: So there are two articles out of Bondo Weiss,
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  SPEAKER_01: an Indie Media Award honoree, who I'm a big fan of.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: One is from one of their co-founders and managing editor, Philip Weiss.
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  SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't write very often.
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  SPEAKER_01: He is, I think, more of a Democrat.
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  SPEAKER_01: But an anti-Zionist one who has been unabashedly writing about Palestine for decades
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  SPEAKER_01: and an advocate for Palestinians within the Jewish community.
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  SPEAKER_01: And he writes an article here, American Jews' continued support for Israel is very bad for Jews.
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  SPEAKER_01: We must wake up.
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  SPEAKER_01: The Israel lobby is losing its grip on U.S.
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  SPEAKER_01: electoral politics, but it won't go out without a fight.
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  SPEAKER_01: American Jews cannot wait to see how this plays out.
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  SPEAKER_01: The Jewish future depends on our awakening.
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  SPEAKER_01: And it's a Jewish future without Zionism.
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  SPEAKER_01: If you want any chance of that, the time is now.
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  SPEAKER_01: Again, the political news from Israel is tragic.
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  SPEAKER_01: Whether Netanyahu stays or goes,
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  SPEAKER_01: none of the Jewish parties is talking about the only issue that matters to
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  SPEAKER_01: the world, Palestinian freedom.
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  SPEAKER_01: The leading parties to replace Netanyahu are committed to ethnic cleansing of
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  SPEAKER_01: the West Bank and are openly racist,
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  SPEAKER_01: declaring that they won't form a governing coalition with Palestinians.
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  SPEAKER_01: Even the few left Zionist candidates, quote-unquote, are vague about a Palestinian state.
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  SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, Netanyahu campaigns on two big achievements.
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  SPEAKER_01: He's waging war on Lebanon and convinced the United States to go to war against Iran.
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  SPEAKER_01: Israel's character is plain.
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  SPEAKER_01: It is a militarist ethnostate, not a democracy.
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  SPEAKER_01: And its only answer to its fundamental problem,
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  SPEAKER_01: what does a Jewish state do with the indigenous Palestinian population,
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  SPEAKER_01: is to entrench apartheid and ethnic cleansing,
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  SPEAKER_01: passing laws that give Jews greater rights,
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  SPEAKER_01: and waging endless wars with those who resist, including other Jews.
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  SPEAKER_01: Those realities are at least naked to Americans.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Macklemore dominated cultural news by getting fired from the Ed Sheeran tour for
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  SPEAKER_01: the brave act of saying free Palestine in stadiums.
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  SPEAKER_01: Macklemore's refusal to be silenced was swiftly echoed by every other supporting act
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  SPEAKER_01: on the tour and has been badly damaged, not the pro-Palestinian voices for once.
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  SPEAKER_01: Well, temporarily, will their careers be damaged as a result?
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  SPEAKER_01: Will they be financially hurt?
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  SPEAKER_01: My guess would be yes, but that remains to be seen.
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  SPEAKER_01: Again, this is a long op-ed that I think People should read.
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  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to read through the whole thing.
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  SPEAKER_01: But I do think it's an important read.
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  SPEAKER_01: I also don't think that American Jews' feelings should be centered here.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's an ancillary issue.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's just one that happens to be important to me because I am one.
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  SPEAKER_01: But I understand that in the grand scheme of things,
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  SPEAKER_01: the center is Palestinian rights and how Palestinians are treated.
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  SPEAKER_01: And how American Jews feel about Palestinian rights
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  SPEAKER_01: and how Palestinians are treated directly impacts how they're funded
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  SPEAKER_01: and how Israel gets funded.
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  SPEAKER_01: And if Israel gets funded.
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  SPEAKER_01: So, again, that's why I think it's important and why I brought it.
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  SPEAKER_01: But I'm not going to read through the whole thing.
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  SPEAKER_01: You can read that if you'd like.
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  SPEAKER_01: Go to Mondoweis.com for that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: The other Mondoweis, oh, .net, I'm sorry, Mondoweis.net.
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  SPEAKER_01: The other Mondo Weiss article I brought is from Mitchell Plitnik.
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  SPEAKER_01: Mitchell also has a Substack called Cutting Through that I am a subscriber of.
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  SPEAKER_01: I like Mitchell.
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  SPEAKER_01: I like his work.
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  SPEAKER_01: Again, I think he leans more to the Democratic side.
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  SPEAKER_01: But again, these guys, they realize that the Uniparty is all pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian.
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  SPEAKER_01: So this is an article talking about,
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  SPEAKER_01: and you know I cannot stand,
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  SPEAKER_01: the theater of uniparty politics,
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  SPEAKER_01: but I also am fascinated by how Israel is right now buying off our politicians and
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  SPEAKER_01: the methods by which they're doing it,
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  SPEAKER_01: and the sneaky ways by which they're doing it.
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  SPEAKER_01: AIPAC.
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  SPEAKER_01: Shadow LLCs, the Hasbara operation that I talked about a couple weeks ago from Arabic Post.
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  SPEAKER_01: Now this,
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  SPEAKER_01: J Street,
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  SPEAKER_01: is another lobbying organization alongside APEC,
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  SPEAKER_01: not as radical, but still fundamentally pro-Israel.
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  SPEAKER_01: So they're the kinder, gentler Zionists, but they're still genocidal Zionists.
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  SPEAKER_01: They mostly back Democrats,
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  SPEAKER_01: whereas AIPAC backs both sides and has no problem backing Republicans.
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  SPEAKER_01: But Mitchell writes here that J Street is trying to rescue Zionism in the battle
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  SPEAKER_01: over Israel's future in the Democratic Party.
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  SPEAKER_01: That the contours of the battle over the future of Democrats' policy
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  SPEAKER_01: toward Israel is starting to take shape.
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  SPEAKER_01: And J Street is trying to cement support for the existence of a Jewish ethnostate as
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  SPEAKER_01: the party's bottom line.
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  SPEAKER_01: And get rid of basically anyone that doesn't get in line.
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  SPEAKER_01: And that includes all the current sitting representatives that are even...
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  SPEAKER_01: Slightly questioning of what Israel does,
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  SPEAKER_01: let alone the Rashida Tlaib's deal held on Omar's to a certain point AOC,
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  SPEAKER_01: but I think they actually like having her there because they like being able
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  SPEAKER_01: to use her as a lightning rod to yell at all day.
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  SPEAKER_01: As Mitchell writes,
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  SPEAKER_01: the traditional pro-Israel wing of the Democratic Party under the thumb of AIPAC
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  SPEAKER_01: and incapable of anything beyond the shallowest rhetorical empathy for Palestinians,
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  SPEAKER_01: if that, is clearly losing control.
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  SPEAKER_01: Its money and its entrenched presence in Washington mean it will continue to be
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  SPEAKER_01: a problem for some time to come,
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  SPEAKER_01: but that wing has lost the support of an overwhelming majority of
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  SPEAKER_01: the Democratic base and cannot sustain its position of power.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but they have all these other organizations they funnel it through,
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  SPEAKER_01: and that's what he says here.
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  SPEAKER_01: The question is what comes next,
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  SPEAKER_01: and this week there was a major development
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  SPEAKER_01: in how liberal pro-Israel forces are going to try
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  SPEAKER_01: to establish new guardrails around Israel policy.
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  SPEAKER_01: K Street,
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  SPEAKER_01: self-proclaimed pro-Israel,
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  SPEAKER_01: pro-peace lobbying group, announced the formation of a new advisory committee.
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  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yay, everybody!
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  SPEAKER_01: The Jewish Communal Advisory Council will serve as strategic advisors
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  SPEAKER_01: for J Street staff and leaders in their engagement with American Jewish leadership
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  SPEAKER_01: and related institutions.
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  SPEAKER_01: These are all Zionists.
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  SPEAKER_01: They're all stroking each other for how can we get the people to go along with our genocide?
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  SPEAKER_01: That's all this is.
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  SPEAKER_01: The council features some of the most prominent names in the recent history of
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  SPEAKER_01: the so-called mainstream Jewish institutions.
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  SPEAKER_01: I have no idea who they're talking about.
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  SPEAKER_01: Some of them fit easily into J Street's liberal Zionist identity.
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  SPEAKER_01: Others signal that J Street is expanding its leadership to the right,
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  SPEAKER_01: even as it's modified some of its rhetoric.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which is what they do.
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  SPEAKER_01: They pander to you rhetorically while they actually move to placate the money.
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  SPEAKER_01: And the conservatives.
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  SPEAKER_01: The more conservative names include two former chairs of the Conference
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  SPEAKER_01: of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations,
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  SPEAKER_01: a former president of the AJC,
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  SPEAKER_01: a former chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, two former House members, and more.
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  SPEAKER_01: Right.
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  SPEAKER_01: The significance of this move should not be underestimated.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, they're trying to reframe the argument.
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  SPEAKER_01: I mean, will it be allowed?
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  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
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  SPEAKER_01: All right, AIPAC has become a dirty word.
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  SPEAKER_01: The ADL is hemorrhaging credibility.
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  SPEAKER_01: Hemorrhaging?
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  SPEAKER_01: No, they've had no credibility for years since they tried to redefine anti-Semitism.
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  SPEAKER_01: Gen X girl's been all over that shit.
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  SPEAKER_01: Greenblatt's disgusting.
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  SPEAKER_01: Other major pro-Israel democratic organizations are similarly seeing their impact
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  SPEAKER_01: diminish in the party.
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  SPEAKER_01: Sort of, but not really.
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  SPEAKER_01: It's just quieter.
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  SPEAKER_01: This effect has largely been the work of Palestinian,
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  SPEAKER_01: Muslim, Arab, and anti-Zionist Jewish groups, such as.
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  SPEAKER_01: Crucially,
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  SPEAKER_01: their work has been tremendously bolstered by lobbying and educational groups,
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  SPEAKER_01: most notably the Institute for Middle East Understanding,
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  SPEAKER_01: the IMEU,
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  SPEAKER_01: which by the way gets funding from Soros,
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  SPEAKER_01: Open Society,
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  SPEAKER_01: and Friends Committee on National Legislation,
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  SPEAKER_01: and more recently the Center for International Policy, among others.
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  SPEAKER_01: Here we get to J Street.
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  SPEAKER_01: J Street can certainly claim to be a part of this,
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  SPEAKER_01: but its efforts have been much more measured and mitigatory.
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  SPEAKER_01: For instance,
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  SPEAKER_01: they were eventually forced to grudgingly acknowledge the Gaza genocide
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  SPEAKER_01: with J Street founder and president Jeremy Benami writing,
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  SPEAKER_01: until now I've tried to deflect and defend when challenged to call this genocide.
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  SPEAKER_01: But I have,
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  SPEAKER_01: however,
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  SPEAKER_01: been persuaded rationally by legal and scholarly arguments
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  SPEAKER_01: that international courts will one day find that Israel has broken
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  SPEAKER_01: the International Genocide Convention.
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  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't stop him from advocating for Israel.
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  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't stop him from holding anybody in Israel accountable.
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  SPEAKER_01: Here, while J Street has called for arms sales to Israel to be conditional, conditional on what?
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  SPEAKER_01: And for the U.S.
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  SPEAKER_01: to stop selling some weapons to Israel,
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  SPEAKER_01: it remains dedicated first and foremost to preserving Israel's existence as
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  SPEAKER_01: a Jewish state.
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  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was a democratic state.
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  SPEAKER_01: How can you be a democratic as well as a religious ethnostate?
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  SPEAKER_01: While many of the groups listed above do not specifically oppose that concept
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  SPEAKER_01: in practice,
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  SPEAKER_01: it is at the very least not a priority for And is often seen as implicit in some
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  SPEAKER_01: of their other policy stances.
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  SPEAKER_01: This sets up a struggle over the direction of the Democratic Party in
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  SPEAKER_01: which J Street starts with a distinct advantage.
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  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, funding.
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  SPEAKER_00: But not just funding.
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  SPEAKER_00: Some of the leading figures in pushing for change among
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  SPEAKER_01: the Democrats are very comfortable in the J Street camp.
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  SPEAKER_01: The obvious example is Chris Van Hollen,
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  SPEAKER_01: Senator from Maryland,
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  SPEAKER_01: who's been the most vocal proponent in the Senate for a different approach to U.S.
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  SPEAKER_01: policy in Palestine,
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  SPEAKER_01: and one of the clearest voices in defense of Palestinian humanity.
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  SPEAKER_01: He also has been one of the few that's been demanding the investigation
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  SPEAKER_01: into Americans that were killed or held hostage prisoner in Israel by the IDF.
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  SPEAKER_01: Van Allen is an honored speaker at J Street conferences and a strong ally of the group.
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  SPEAKER_01: Again, while J Street doesn't support Rashida Tlaib,
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  SPEAKER_01: Ilhan Omar, and everyone else, they also don't act against them in most instances.
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  SPEAKER_01: Okay, but so yeah, they look the other way.
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  SPEAKER_01: J Street gives Democrats a soft landing space where they can unload on Netanyahu,
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  SPEAKER_01: criticize Israeli settlements,
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  SPEAKER_01: and even call the assault on Gaza a genocide,
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  SPEAKER_01: all while affirming Israel's ethno-state structure,
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  SPEAKER_01: which most supporters of Palestinian rights correctly call apartheid.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Again, a lot more to this article.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Go read Mitchell's article.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Go support Mondo Weiss.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, again, Indie Media Award Honoree.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're one of the best of the best of the best.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because I do have a lightning round and I do have the mutual aid stuff to get to.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for bearing with me there.
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  SPEAKER_01: Fuck Israel, as like I said.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, all right.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: Support independent media also,
• 14:05
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• 14:08
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• 14:14
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• 14:17
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• 14:23
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• 14:27
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• 14:29
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• 14:31
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• 14:33
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• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, and then Substack.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you're on Substack, indiemediatoday.com is my Substack.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's where we're live right now with this show.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And the replay for this show is also ad-free on Substack anytime.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's also innnewsletter.com where all the other INN shows basically are housed
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: and all their podcasts are as well.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: D2T, yes, fuck Israel.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate that.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, everyone, for supporting Independent Media.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, we need it more than ever.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: I will see you next Tuesday.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's what she said.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Love you all.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Night, everybody.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: No!
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: We just fucking lost the stream!
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I guess this isn't such an awful place Is that what you want me to say?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: You'll prove it's possible to sleep for days And I still think you're right here awake.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: The cost of living isn't much to make.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: But God, it's so hard to save.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And when they told you everything, I
• 15:49
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