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In a 23-3 vote on Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee signed off on a Republican-led amendment that grants an additional $25 billion to next year’s defense budget. The new proposal boosts spending levels to a total of $778 billion and proffers more in funding than what the Trump administration allocated in 2021.
The funds will go directly to the Pentagon and its myriad projects. With the increase, more resources will go to pushing back on Beijing; funds will subsidize projects that counter China’s rising regional influence in the Indo-Pacific, where the DoD plans to accelerate its militarization of the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Delegates react to then-Vice President Joe Biden s speech during the closing night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention held at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C., on September 6, 2012. (Jared Soares/PBS NewsHour/CC BY-NC 2.0)
Since launching in January 2019, the lobby group Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) has marketed itself as the flagship organization for those wanting to integrate “progressive values” with support for Israel. But a recent series of offensive social media posts made by two DMFI board members, coupled with a history of other troubling statements, has undermined the group’s attempt at laying such a claim.
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May. 5, 2021 12:58 PM
I appreciated Rabbi Eric Yoffie’s recent opinion piece in Haaretz (Hate the Occupation? Back U.S. Military Aid for Israel) recognizing J Street’s growth over the past decade, the breadth of support we have in Washington and the success of our annual conference.
I appreciated as well his acknowledgement that the most challenging issues critical to Israel’s future never receive the meaningful discussion they need at prominent Jewish organizations such as AIPAC.
The end of Bibi? LISTEN to Anshel Pfeffer’s quick-fire guide to the latest political drama
The word “apartheid” has undoubtedly become a centerpiece of the mainstream public debate around Israel-Palestine this past year and today, the once-taboo term may have received one of its biggest endorsements yet.
Human Rights Watch, a leading organization monitoring rights abuses worldwide, released a major report on Tuesday arguing that Israel is committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution both defined by the Rome Statute as crimes against humanity on both sides of the Green Line. The 213-page report, which is accompanied by graphics co-produced with Visualizing Palestine, details the ways in which Israel is intentionally pursuing the domination of Jews over Palestinians in all parts of the land, as well as in the diaspora, regardless of their legal status.
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Khalil Yusef Ali Jabarin (Photo:The JC)
Accompanying this essay is a picture of Khalil Yusef Ali Jabarin. At the time the picture was taken Jabarin was a 16-year-old Palestinian minor from the Arab village of Yatta, south of Hebron. Israeli police detained, arrested and jailed Khalil. Like so many other Palestinian minors, he will never be free again, and the Israeli army destroyed his family home to “act determinedly to prevent terror attacks and to deter terrorists.” His family will never be with him again and they’ve lost their home. It’s heartbreaking.