[[link removed]]

THE SMEARING OF CORI BUSH FOR BEING TRUTHFUL ABOUT THE GAZA WAR  
[[link removed]]


 

Norman Solomon
August 1, 2024
Progressive Hub
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ The electoral forces against human rights for Palestinians have
been armed with huge amounts of cash. _

,

 

Soon after the Gaza war began 10 months ago, a prominent newspaper
columnist denounced Congresswoman Cori Bush under a headline declaring
that “anti-Israel comments make her unfit for reelection.” The
piece appeared in the newspaper with the second-largest readership in
Missouri, the _Kansas City Star_. Multimillion-dollar attacks on Bush
followed.

Bush’s opponent, county prosecutor Wesley Bell, “is now the
number-one recipient of AIPAC cash this election cycle,” according
to Justice Democrats. “Almost two-thirds of all his donations came
from the anti-Palestinian, far-right megadonor-funded lobby
group.” _The Intercept_ reports
[[link removed]] that
“AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has gone on to spend
a total of $7 million so far to oust Bush” in the Aug. 6 Democratic
primary in her St. Louis area district.

“The $2.1 million in ads spent for her campaign is up against $12.2
million spent to attack her or support Bell,” _The American
Prospect_ points out
[[link removed]].
AIPAC “is trying to pull voters away from her without ever saying
the words ‘Israel’ or ‘Palestine.’ Instead, their advertising
against Bush centers around her record on infrastructure legislation,
in a manner that lacks context.”

It’s easy to see why AIPAC and allied forces are so eager to defeat
Bush. She courageously introduced a ceasefire resolution
[[link removed]] in
the House nine days after the bloodshed began on Oct. 7, calling for
“an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied
Palestine.”

The _Kansas City Star _article
[[link removed]],
published shortly after Bush introduced the resolution, was written by
former _New York Times_ reporter Melinda Henneberger, now a member
of the _Star_’s editorial board. “A military attack in response
to the massacre of civilians by a group committed in writing to
‘carnage, displacement and terror’ for Jews is not my idea of
‘ethnic cleansing,’” she wrote in early November. “But it is
Missouri Rep. Cori Bush’s, which is why she deserves to lose her
congressional race next year.”

Bush supposedly became unfit to keep her seat in Congress because,
after three weeks of methodical killing in Gaza, she tweeted
[[link removed]]: “We
can’t be silent about Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Babies,
dead. Pregnant women, dead. Elderly, dead. Generations of families,
dead. Millions of people in Gaza with nowhere to go being slaughtered.
The U.S. must stop funding these atrocities against Palestinians.”

Henneberger’s response was hit-and-run. She wrote a hit piece. And
then she ran.

Ever since late April, I’ve been asking Henneberger just one
question, over and over. Every few weeks, I have sent another email
directly to her. I also wrote to her care of an editor at the
newspaper. And I even mailed a certified letter, which the post office
delivered to her office in June.

No reply.

Henneberger’s column had flatly declared that Bush’s tweet was a
“projectile spewing of antisemitic comments and disinformation”
because it said that Israel was engaged in ethnic cleansing.

So, my question, which Henneberger has been refusing to answer for
more than three months, is a logical one: “Do you contend that the
Israeli government has not engaged in ethnic cleansing?”

If Henneberger were to answer no, the entire premise of her column
smearing Bush would collapse.

If Henneberger were to answer yes, her reply would be untenable.

No wonder she has chosen not to answer at all.

What Israel has been doing in Gaza clearly qualifies as “ethnic
cleansing” — which a UN Commission of Experts defined
[[link removed]] as
“a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to
remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population
of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

But denial about Israel’s massive and ongoing crimes against
Palestinian people is pervasive — and often used to attack
principled progressives in election campaigns. And so, two months ago,
in the St. Louis area, 35 rabbis supporting Bell against Bush issued
a statement
[[link removed]] that
alleged the congresswoman “continually fanned the flames with the
most outrageous smears of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of
‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide’ as it has fought to defeat
the terrorists.”

The electoral forces against human rights for Palestinians have been
armed with huge amounts of cash. AIPAC dumped $15 million
[[link removed]] into
successfully defeating progressive New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman
early this summer. While the spending amount set a record, the
approach was far from unprecedented.

In 2022, AIPAC beat Michigan Congressman Andy Levin, who had expressed
support for Palestinian rights. “I’m really Jewish,” Levin said
[[link removed]] in
an interview days before losing the Democratic primary, “but AIPAC
can’t stand the idea that I am the clearest, strongest Jewish voice
in Congress standing for a simple proposition: that there is no way to
have a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people unless we
achieve the political and human rights of the Palestinian people.”

AIPAC excels at strategic lobbying on Capitol Hill, relentlessly
prodding or threatening lawmakers and their staffs to stay on the
right side of a Zionist hardline, always brandishing the proven
capacity to launch fierce attacks — while conflating even
understated criticism of Israel with antisemitism. The basic formulas
are simple: Israel = Judaism. Opposition to Israel’s lethal violence
= antisemitism.

Such formulaic manipulation has long been fundamental to claims that
the Israeli government represents “the Jewish people” and
criticisms of its actions are “antisemitic.”

That’s what the heroic Congresswoman Cori Bush is up against.

_Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and
executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the
author of many books including War Made Easy. His latest book, War
Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military
Machine [[link removed]], was
published in 2023 by The New Press._

_Progressive Hub combines the need to know with the imperative to act.
It’s vital to learn the latest and to take action — and
Progressive Hub is one website where you can do both. Every day. 
Sponsored by RootsAction.org and the RootsAction Education Fund, this
new site is a digital vehicle for the creative energy, passion and
commitment of progressive activists and organizations around the
United States and beyond. As we all continue to learn, we can all
continue to organize — and change the world for the better._

* Rep. Cori Bush
[[link removed]]
* AIPAC
[[link removed]]
* Democratic primary
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]