Author: AFSI Staff

For the last two weeks we have reported on the anti-Israel/anti-Jewish activity of freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. AFSI is keeping a close watch on the disturbing rhetoric coming from this American politician.

We are pleased to see Tlaib is starting to be challenged as reported by Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). The first is Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to approve a proposed congressional delegation to Judea and Samaria led by Tlaib.

Babin stated in a letter to Pelosi, “I am writing to express my extreme concern. This action, from an outspoken supporter of the ‘BDS’ Israel boycott movement … is both ill-conceived and inconsistent with our national values.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt posted in a Twitter thread: “Days ago, @RashidaTlaib was photographed at an event with Abbas Hamideh, a man who has praised terrorist groups Hamas & Hezbollah and equated Zionists with Nazis. We ask her to clarify his attendance and denounce his anti-Semitism.”

On the same subject, newly elected Somali American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is a BDS supporter and virulent anti-Semite. She now sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the group that determines funding to foreign countries. This appointment could have and should have been nixed by Nancy Pelosi. A complete lack of bias and hatred should be a pre-requisite for an appointment to such an important committee. Shame on Pelosi for undermining our national values.

“Open Jew and Israel-haters Are Now in the US Congress” by Alan Bergstein who speaks out in his Arutz Sheva OpEd.

AFSI’s mission of educating the public about the REAL ISRAEL includes exposing both Tlaib and Omar. We are grateful organizations and individuals have begun to step up to the plate to denounce these open and unabashed Jew haters. Now words must be met with action.

Both politicians are a serious threat to the national values of the United States and a complete threat to Israel and the Jewish people.

Speaking the truth about Israel is Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom, Mark Regev.

In a recent BBC interview, Regev defended Israel’s actions at the Gaza border.

“I’d ask you the following question: In Gaza we pulled out, we redeployed behind the 1967 line, which is, from the international community’s point, the recognised [sic] border. “If we can’t defend that border, what border would you have us defend?”

Source – The JC Reporter.

Arutz Sheva reports that Israel is stepping up its fight against UNRWA.

Starting next year, UNRWA will not be permitted to operate in eastern Jerusalem and will be replaced by municipal schools.

It appears that US President Donald Trump’s decisions against the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees” provided the impetus needed to further tackle the UNRWA matter.

Reports surfaced this week that the forthcoming Trump peace plan will include dividing Jerusalem and establishing a Palestinian state on 90% of Judea and Samaria. —Wait!

Not True! US Special Representative Jason Greenblatt said Israeli TV’s reporting of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ is not accurate nor helpful.

Nevertheless, Women in Green’s Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar responded to the information revealed this week: “We must wake up and respond with an absolute ‘NO!’ to the rumors and totally reject the American plan.”

Hint, hint…It was, is now, and always will be about Israeli SOVEREIGNTY!!

We like Matti Friedman’s piece in The New York Times. It’s a truthful and honest article on the Middle East conflict. It’s not such a simple story though people like to think it is. In a nutshell, it’s a far bigger picture with some confusing realities people prefer not to face.

Friedman’s Opinion is today’s suggested read.

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is proving to be a true friend of Israel.

In reaction to Airbnb’s decision late last year to de-list Judea and Samaria, DeSantis has ordered Florida state officials to refrain from using Airbnb while conducting state business.

A moral obligation to oppose the Airbnb policy is DeSantis’s mantra. He said, “BDS is nothing more than a cloak for anti-Semitism, and as long as I’m Governor, BDS will be DOA.”

We like that. More HERE.

Congressman Rashida Tlaib should be no surprise to anyone as to how virulently anti-semitic and anti-Israel she is. The fact that she was elected by the American people at all is even more disturbing.

Why is the entire Democratic party not confronting this? Not a word of criticism or censure of Tlaib. have you heard of any Democrats distancing themselves from her? Tlaib was not elected to push her personal agenda and spread hate. She must be disciplined for her open anti-semitism and extremist hate filled diatribes against Israel. Read Jonathan Tobin’s New York Post Opinion.

And how are Jewish organizations responding to Tlaib?

Florida’s Hallendale Beach Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub said Tlaib was a “Hamas loving, anti-semite” on her Facebook page. Lima-Taub was criticized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) for posting “hateful rhetoric” toward Tlaib.

We would like to know how the AJC suggests we refer to Talib’s stance on Israel.

Writer and blogger Daniel Greenfield exposes Tlaib’s political alliance with supporters of terrorists – like the ones who murdered a 4 year-old girl in Israel in 1979.

On the subject of Judea and Samaria…

Aliyah and Integration Minister Yoav Galant visited the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council and made it clear that no PA state will be established in Judea and Samaria.

“We will work to realize sovereignty throughout Judea and Samaria and increase the settlement enterprise. Only settlement is the key to holding onto sovereignty and Zionism. Judea and Samaria are the eastern defense belt of the State of Israel.”

And Not Here Either! A World Israel News (WIN) news report reveals that the World Council of Churches runs BDS programs that brings 1,800 volunteers to Judea and Samaria to “witness life under occupation.” AFSI invites them to join our Chizuk Mission trips to learn about and experience the REAL ISRAEL – shame on them – NO to BDS!

Prime Minister Netanyahu confirmed yesterday that Israel was responsible for the strike on Damascus on Friday.

Israel’s strike was aimed at Iranian warehouses and was intentionally timed to target a meeting of Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders who were meeting with Syrian military leaders.

Source – Israel Hayom

The Combating BDS Act of 2019, introduced by Senator Marco Rubio, part of a larger Senate bill, affirms the right of states to enact laws that would prevent contracts or investments in companies that boycott Israel.

Congress failed to pass the Act. Senators, including NY’s Schumer, blamed the government shutdown, saying nothing can go forward until that’s resolved. Some Democratic senators are shooting down this bill saying it prevents freedom of speech. Absurd! Support for Israel was once a bi-partisan matter. With Democrats becoming more radicalized, polarization on support for Israel seems to be setting in.

We suggest those against this bill take a refresher course in anti-semitism and read up on the truth about Israel. Anti-semitism has become a bandwagon that the detractors of Israel like to jump on to further their Israel hating agenda. This proposed bill is about combating anti-semitism – not prohibiting free speech.

Despite the bill’s initial setback, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, welcomed this bill. “The US Congress is again at the forefront of the effort to strengthen the US-Israel relationship. This legislation is another tool in the important campaign to stop the BDS movement, which, in the clearest expression of modern anti-semitism, demonizes and singles out the world’s only Jewish state.”