Israel Lobby Watch

Speaking at the third annual Herzliya conference, Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his audience: “The most important thing is maintaining the Jewish majority in the country and improving the economy to encourage more Jews from the Diaspora to immigrate.” If the Palestinians in Israel “reach 35 to 40 percent of the Israeli population, Israel will become a state with two nationalities,” he said. Israelis — on both the left and right — will have to make a choice. To solve their “Palestinian problem” Israel can opt for four ‘solutions’ EI’s Arjan El Fassed lays them out.

People in the Palestinian solidarity community regularly bemoan the fact that pro-Israeli advocacy groups are far more vocal, far more organised, and have far more political influence than their Palestinian counterparts. This is not happening as a result of some strange magic. The simple fact is that pro-Israeli advocacy groups receive far more in donations than do pro-Palestinian advocacy groups. EI’s Nigel Parry visited charitynavigator.org, a website offering financial and other information about charities, and compiled a list of CEO earnings.

Today and tomorrow, members of the Association Council, the 15 members of the European Union and Israel will meet to discuss pending and new issues disrupting EU-Israel relations. This regular bilateral meeting will be used by the EU to express its concern over Israel’s boycott of Marc Otte, the EU envoy, who since his meeting with the Palestinian president could not talk to Israeli officials. According to various sources, the EU will press Israel over the construction of the wall. EI’s Arjan El Fassed reports.

Between 1956 and 2003, Israel has recruited Dutch UN officers to spy in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. This happened during the peaks of the Dutch-Israeli friendship. In its recruitment of Dutch officers for intelligence gathering, Israel regularly used blackmail. Arthur ten Cate, a researcher affiliated with the Dutch Institute for Military History in The Hague, recently published a book, in which he named two Israeli crimps and Dutch officers who were involved in intelligence gathering for Israel. EI’s Arjan El Fassed scanned the publication.

Israel’s hard-line supporters in the US Congress have fired the latest volley in their sustained campaign against the rights of Palestinian refugees and against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) that provides for their basic needs. They have introduced a resolution accusing the UN agency that looks after refugees, and are trying to rewrite the history of the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinian people from its homeland. EI’s Ali Abunimah looks at the latest moves by pro-Israel organizations and their allies in the US Congress.

Researchers have found that nearly 60 percent of European citizens believe Israel poses the biggest threat to world peace. Iran is considered the second biggest threat, North Korea the third and the United States the fourth. The European Commission survey asked the public in all 15 member states to look at a list of countries and say which they considered potential threats to peace. Israel was selected by a majority in almost all the EU member states. EI’s Arjan El Fassed takes a closer look.

The Board of Deputies was founded in 1760, and claims to be the national representative body of the British Jewish community. As such, it exists to defend the rights and interests of that community in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, under the direction of its chief executive, Neville Nagler, those aims have been suborned to an agenda whereby it has become a political pressure group for the Israeli government, whose policies are anathema to a large section of British Jewry. Michael Halpern wrote this letter in the Daily Telegraph.

“Dr. Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi is a woman, a professor of English, an international human rights activist, and a politician. A year ago she was chosen, unanimously, to receive the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize. The Premier, Bob Carr, will present Ashrawi with her award at State Parliament in 12 days. The first four recipients of the annual prize were honoured at functions in the Great Hall of Sydney University. However, for Ashrawi, the Great Hall is out of bounds.” Allan Ramsey of the Sydney Morning Herald asks why.

A new report released on Capitol Hill today by former officials from the highest level of the American military and government reveals that Israel “committed acts of murder against American serviceman and an act of war against the United States” when it deliberately attacked the American Navy Ship USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 and wounding 172 American crewmembers. Israel had alleged that the two-hour attack with napalm, missiles, and torpedoes was a mistake. After remaining silent for more than three decades, Captain Ward Boston, the Chief Attorney in the Navy’s original 1967 Court of Inquiry into the case, describes in a sworn affidavit how he and many others were ordered to never speak about the attack on the USS Liberty.