BDS efforts to curb Israel travel have failed badly

Posted on March 31, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

THE TOWER
Israel’s Tourism Triumph: The Air Bridge
by Edwin Black
March 29, 2019

…In 2016, 2.9 million total worldwide visitors came to Israel. By the close of 2018, that number had boomed to 4.1 million — and the totals keep climbing. Within the coming decade, Israel expects to employ 98,000 people in its tourism sector. When Israeli tourism prospers, so does the Palestinian community. Christian pilgrims make a beeline for Bethlehem. Thus, tourism breeds economic interdependence and strengthens co-existence…Today, most North American travelers to Israel are not Jewish; they are Christian, often seeking Biblical discovery. From North America, Jews comprise about 40 to 45 percent of the travelers, while Christians generally hover at about 60 percent year to year…READ MORE

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AIPAC Breakout session with CAMERA, Algemeiner and Haaretz scrutinize media

Posted on March 31, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH JOURNAL
Israeli Media Outlets Scrutinize U.S. Media Coverage of the Jewish State
by Kelly Hartog
March 24, 2019

…“The coverage fluctuates to some extent with events that are happening in Middle East,” [CAMERA’s Andrea] Levin said. “I don’t think there’s a sufficiently wide range [of coverage].” She cited — in several instances — the New York Times as one of the most influential media outlets and said there is far too much coverage of Israel’s actions and not enough about Israel’s adversaries. “[The media] tends to focus on the Israeli’s, their behavior, their alleged misconduct, and there is far too little coverage of the forces that operate within the Palestinian Authority, the corruption in the Palestinian Authority and the fact that journalists are being imprisoned and tortured in the Palestinian Authority,” she said. READ MORE

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Chicago has a new mayor: “A reformist outsider disrupts politics in the Windy City”

Posted on March 31, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
Changing the Chicago Way?
by Aaron M. Renn
April 3, 2019

Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor of Chicago on Tuesday, defeating Cook County Board of Commissioners president Toni Preckwinkle. Lightfoot, who swept all 50 city wards, won by a 74-to-26 margin that rivals the biggest election routs of Richard M. Daley. She becomes the city’s first black female mayor, making Chicago the largest city ever to elevate a black woman (who is also gay) to executive power. In choosing Lightfoot, Chicago has clearly voted for change. Though she’s worked in government for years, Lightfoot is a political outsider by Chicago standards. READ MORE

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Obama’s timing of 2016 anti-Israel UN Resolution 2334 was to milk Jewish donors and “we didn’t want Clinton to face pressure to condemn the resolution or be damaged by having to defend it”

Posted on March 29, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Obama aide reveals U.S. was behind U.N. 2334
March 28, 2019

The Obama administration had control over the timing of the UN Security Council resolution (UNSC 2334) rollout. This was revealed on Thursday when an anonymous former Obama official told the New York Times that the White House wanted the resolution to wait until after the 2016 election, so as not to create political problems for Democrats. “There is a reason the U.N. vote did not come up before the election in November,” the unidentified former official told the Times in an article set to appear in the paper’s weekend Magazine section. “Was it because you were going to lose voters to Donald Trump? No. It was because you were going to have skittish donors.” READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Did Obama control timing of anti-Israel UN resolution? In December 2016, following the 2016 presidential election, the Obama administration ordered the US mission to the UN to abstain from a Security Council vote on resolution 2334, which condemned Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem as ‘flagrant violations’ of international law with “no legal validity”.

BREITBART Ben Rhodes Blames Jewish Donors for Obama Not Being More Anti-Israel Ben Rhodes, a former national security aide to President Barack Obama, told the New York Times this week that the “donor class” had prevented Obama from taking more anti-Israel steps than the administration had wanted to take.

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The Truth About American Aid to Israel: U.S. commitments to Asian and European allies require more risk and sacrifice

Posted on March 29, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

THE ATLANTIC
Quit Harping on U.S. Aid to Israel
by James Kirchick
March 29, 2019

…The size and advisability of U.S. military aid to Israel, like any appropriation of taxpayer dollars, is fair game. But U.S. assistance to Israel demands far less—in both blood and treasure—than many other American defense relationships around the world. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the United States annually spends roughly $36 billion on military capabilities in Europe, almost 10 times its annual assistance package to Israel. Of course, that spending accounts for operations in more than two dozen countries. But those are countries that, unlike Israel, Washington is treaty-bound to defend. READ MORE

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If you do one thing today, hear Dr Einat Wilf explain the March Of Return: “80% of Gaza residents don’t think of Gaza as their home”

Posted on March 29, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

Dr Einat Wilf, author of “War of Return” brilliantly unpacks the Israel-Gaza conflict.

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“Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal has paid dividends”

Posted on March 28, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK TIMES
The Foreign Policy Fiasco That Wasn’t
by Bret Stephens
March 29, 2019

It’s been nearly a year since Donald Trump made the decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, to loud cries that it would bring nothing but woe to the United States and our interests in the Middle East. So far, the result has been closer to the opposite. That much was further made clear thanks to excellent reporting this week by The Times’s Ben Hubbard. “Iran’s financial crisis, exacerbated by American sanctions,” he writes from Lebanon, “appears to be undermining its support for militant groups and political allies who bolster Iranian influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere.” READ MORE

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“Blood Money” Fascinating short documentary on the Qatar-Saudi Arabia conflict playing out in DC media and think tanks

Posted on March 28, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

MIDDLE EAST FORUM
“Blood Money: How Qatar Bought Off the Entire DC Establishment”
March 27, 2019

The film includes commentary from professionals of two Middle East Forum Education Fund grantees, the Center for Security Policy and the Security Studies Group. It also includes speeches delivered at MEF’s Qatar: U.S. Ally or Global Menace conference by Congressman Jack Bergman and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach…“Blood Money” deals with how the tiny Gulf Emirate of Qatar funds lobbyists, media outlets, think tanks to advance its agenda in Washington at the expense of the US and our allies. It explains, through this case study, how the foreign influence and information warfare game works inside the Beltway. It also addresses the emergence of a new, anti-Islamist Middle East and how this unique moment came about. READ MORE

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“Accordingly, I have no hesitation in stating that as of now, not one of the candidates for leadership can even remotely match the qualifications of Netanyahu”

Posted on March 28, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Considering the national interest in the forthcoming elections
by Isi Leibler
March 26, 2019

…Netanyahu’s principal asset is that his opponents, Blue and White co-heads Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, aside from their inexperience, are largely perceived as “nice” guys but political lightweights lacking the ability to step into his shoes. Many Israelis who currently support Gantz are not enamored at the prospect of a rotating leadership that would provide Lapid the driver’s seat. The small parties upon which Netanyahu will be relying to form a majority are also problematic. The biggest obstacle to Netanyahu’s re-election appears to be mandates lost by right-wing parties not passing the electoral threshold (3.25% of valid votes). READ MORE

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No, Dana Milbank, Washington Post “The AIPAC crowd has not “‘beyond a doubt’ become mostly pro-Trump conservative””

Posted on March 28, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
What AIPAC conference did YOU attend?
by Rabbi Daniel M. Cohen
March 28, 2019

My mind is playing tricks on me. I just spent the last three days in Washington DC at the AIPAC Policy Conference, and I thought I heard speaker after speaker express support for the US-Israel relationship. I thought I saw 18,000 people, some Democrats and some Republicans, singing together. I thought I saw more than 4,000 students from every corner of the US come together to secure the future of the pro-Israel movement. I thought I had breakfast with three progressive Israeli activists. READ MORE

FREE BEACON Omar Falsifies Record to Attack AIPAC Claims she has ‘not criticized AIPAC because of its membership or the country it advocates for’

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