In this issue:
- US Funding for Israel and other benefits of the US-Israel relationship
- Can you be Jewish and antisemitic? Yes.
- When the media promote antisemitism
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TAKE ACTION
But first – kudos to Ron Duncan-Hart and Gloria Abella-Ballen for producing the Holocaust Remembrance event at the NM state capital this past Monday on Yom HaShoah. The integration of speakers and their messages hit the mark. Unfortunately the media did not cover the event; they don’t cover most Jewish-related events, though they are happy to cover anti-Jewish events like those often choreographed by anti-Israel organizations. Are the Santa Fe media biased? Read on and decide for yourself. And thanks to Lonnie Zarum and Peter Zandan for sponsoring the program.
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US Funding for Israel and other benefits of the US-Israel relationship
On Sunday, April 16, 2023 the Santa Fe New Mexican published a letter to the editor by Tania Maxwell with the headline “Hold Israel Accountable.” On Sunday, April 23, the New Mexican published a letter by Ellen Shabshai Fox with the headline “Cut the strings.” Both writers argue that the US should stop its annual funding of military assistance for Israel. Both make additional propagandist remarks against Israel, and link the funding to unrelated issues,
Maxwell decries the 10 year annual $3.8 billion of US funding to Israel for security assistance and joint missile defense research. She claims this funding is “unconditional.” She uses propaganda from the antisemitic organization US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR – the main promoter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions [BDS] movement in the US) to argue that New Mexico’s’ share of the $3.8 billion is $13.3 million that could otherwise go to other programs (some of those she mentions include affordable housing, mental health services, teacher salaries, etc.). She then goes on in the same letter to link West Bank settlement expansion and settler violence against Palestinians to the funding by urging readers to write to their members of congress, presumably to withhold the annual funding to Israel. [Full text of the letter can be downloaded: Letter to the Editor – Tania Maxwell 2-15-23 copy]
Fox claims that the funding to Israel gives the US the right to interfere in Israel’s internal affairs, and therefore the US should cut off the funding. She claims that “…you cannot have an Israeli democracy and an Israeli occupation at the same time. Something has to give, and it is democracy.” [Full text of her letter can be downloaded: 4-24-23 Ellen Fox New Mexican Cut the Strings.]
Here are just a few of the many problems with these two letters:
- The funding for security assistance is not “unconditional” as claimed by Maxwell This is a lie elaborated by the USCPR and other anti-Zionist organizations. It is also a lie spread by certain antisemitic members of Congress.
What’s the truth? The ten-year US-Israel memorandum of understanding (MOU) negotiated by the Obama administration has two annual components: $3.3 billion in foreign military financing (FMF), and $500 million in missile defense research. Conditions on receiving FMF include requiring that increasingly 75% to 100% of the FMF must be used to purchase US military goods and services produced in the US, providing jobs and income to thousands of American tax-paying workers and their families, including in New Mexico.
One source estimates that NM companies have received nearly $144 million from FMF since started under the Clinton administration in 1996.[1]
The second component, $500 million in missile and rocket defense cooperative programs, are conditioned on Israel’s matching the funds and developing systems that will be co-produced at least 50/50 in the US and Israel. This also produces jobs and income for tax-paying Americans. New Mexico has received substantial funds that went, for example, to the White Sands missile testing range in the development of the Iron Dome missile program. These are not offensive weapons systems. They are used defensively in Israel to intercept missiles fired by terrorists from Gaza and Lebanon, and have saved countless lives – both Jewish and Arab in Israel proper and on the West Bank.
2. The dollars are not fungible. Not using these funds for increased security and peace in the Middle East does not mean that the Congress would get its act together to improve other social services, or that New Mexico teachers’ salaries would change. This is either just plain naïveté on Maxwell’s part about how tax dollars are used and allocated, or purposeful propaganda (see below).
3. Linking US funding to Israel with settlements in the West Bank or settler violence is a lie. As noted above, the $3.8 billion is exclusively used for Israel’s security and to enhance US security. The truth: The funds are not allowed to be used in the West Bank or for any other projects other than those designated by the MOU.
4. The US gets many other benefits from its military and security assistance relationship with Israel. Specific military benefits are outlined by Yoram Ettinger (an SFMEW speaker brought to Santa Fe in 2017) in an op-ed printed by the New Mexican, April 23, 2023, “Israeli foreign aid is bonanza for U.S.”
5. Interference in other’s national priorities is not justified on security assistance. Fox writes “If Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want the US to interfere in his business, the solution is simple: refuse the $3-plus billon [sic] the United States sends to Israel for arms…You don’t get something for nothing.” As already mentioned, the US gets a lot for the amount provided. And there are many additional benefits as well in intelligence sharing, etc. We doubt that Fox would argue also that Israel can interfere in US elections or policies because it provides benefits to the US.
6. Israeli democracy is strong – as exhibited by what is going on right now. Fox’s opprobrium about democracy is nonsensical. The “occupation” (as she calls it) is a response to war, terrorism, and the refusal of the Palestinians to come to the table for peace discussions in the last 8-10 years. Even Obama couldn’t get Abbas (in the 18th year of his 4-year term) and his minions to the peace table when Netanyahu put a moratorium on building in the West Bank for 9 months. The Israeli public protests (freedom of assembly), volumes written (freedom of the press and speech), and free voting (the current and past coalitions) regarding judicial reform, for example, are the epitome of a peaceful democracy.
2. Can you be Jewish and antisemitic?
Being Jewish does not immunize one from being antisemitic. Fox’s assertion that “I am Jewish, and criticizing Israel’s right-wing government does not make me antisemitic” would be true if she also didn’t advocate for harming the Jewish state by limiting its security capabilities. We’ve written on this before in several venues. See, for example, the op-ed by our Chairman, “Can you be Jewish and Antisemitic?” from the Jewish Link.(Fall, 2020). It’s what you say, do, and advocate, not who you are or your personal identity, that makes you antisemitic. More on defining antisemitism from the Governor’s Executive Order posting back in August, 2022 here. And we posted a Wall Street Journal article about this from 2019 here.
Others in our community rationalize their antisemitic behavior as being “OK” because they are Jewish. For example, Richard Eeds occasionally has on his radio show Jeffrey Haas, who has proclaimed that being anti-Israel is not antisemitic. (Most recently on March 24, 2023 with the antisemite Miko Peled.). If the arguments used are not disinformation and attempting to harm Israel, then perhaps that is correct. But if everything spouted about Israel uses falsehoods and lies, with arguments meant to harm Israel, then it clearly and unequivocally is antisemitism.
8. Both letters are also antisemitic by what they don’t say. Aside from Maxwell’s being a follower of the antisemitic USCPR, elaborating disinformation and propaganda, she (and Fox, separately) also demands that the US stop funding Israel, yet neither of them demand that the US stop annual funding of foreign aid to Egypt ($1.3 billion), Jordan ($1.45 billion), and Lebanon ($236 million)?
All of these countries enforce hardships on Palestinians by blockading Gaza (Egypt); refusing to provide refuge to Palestinians but not others from the Syrian civil war (Jordan); and continuing to refuse Palestinians citizenship, work permits, the right to work in 39 professions, or own property (Lebanon). See here for UNRWA on Lebanon).
Apparently Maxwell and Fox only care how the Jewish-majority state acts toward the Palestinians, not how the Muslim-majority states act toward them. If this isn’t anti-Jewish bigotry, also known as antisemitism – what is?
3. When the media print disinformation are they promoting antisemitism?
We would argue that if you purposefully and repeatedly provide disinformation and propaganda from letter writers and op-eds against the State of Israel or the US-Israel relationship you are promoting antisemitism and should be ashamed. We don’t see the New Mexican or the SF Reporter purposefully printing homophobic, misogynist, or racist letters or op-eds. We would guess they avoid them like the plague, and appropriately so. Why do they feel excused to be printing antisemitic letters?
And we do see the New Mexican continuing to use AP wire feeds about Israel, feeds we’ve pointed out to the editor, Phil Casaus, are often highly biased against Israel. An article printed in the New Mexican on April 14, 2023 (“Christians report rising attacks in Holy Land”) was originally entitled by the AP “Holy Land Christians Say Attacks Rising in far-right Israel” and is an example of such bias. As explained in an excellent critique by Tricia Miller of the Committee for Accuracy on Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA),
Except for a reference to three specific incidents including the vandalization of church property that will be discussed below, neither Debre nor Pizzaballa provide proof for the claim that there has been a recent increase in anti-Christian attacks on individuals as described in the interview.
Without substance, these accusations therefore appear to be a perpetuation of decades of criticism of Israel and support for the Palestinian cause – regardless of who leads the government in Jerusalem – maintained by various denominations and rooted in historical and theological error.
We recommend you read the whole article by Miller.
In other words, this piece was a hatchet job by the AP, and inappropriately perpetuated by the New Mexican. It was on top of the New Mexican‘s continuing use of AP wire feeds that include editorializing by the reporters, often with false or misleading information. As mentioned above, we’ve pointed the errors and problems with the AP wire feeds to Casaus in the past. We met with him in person, have provided to him written information, and written critiques about the AP’s bias in this blog (see here, here, and here).
Take Action
Write a letter to the editor of the New Mexican countering Fox’s or Maxwell’s letters, or the AP’s article. Use one of the many points made above (only one). Here are the instructions from the New Mexican:
The Santa Fe New Mexican welcomes submissions to the popular Letters to the Editor and My View features of the Opinion section. Letters to the Editor are limited to 150 words, while My View features provide a space of up to 600 words. All submissions are subject to editing, including for clarity, length, civility and style. Some My View submissions may be edited to run as letters to the editor. Questions about the opinion section can be sent to igomez@sfnewmexican.com. Contact information is required for opinion submissions and will be verified by an editor.
You can make your submission directly to Inez Gomez (igomez@sfnewmexican.com) or via their website, https://www.santafenewmexican.com/site/forms/online_services/letter/letter_editor/
If you’d like hints on how to write a letter or op-ed visit our resources page: https://www.sfmew.org/writing-letters-to-the-editor-and-opinion-pieces/ .
The SF Reporter has also propagated propaganda by publishing a heinous ad. We’ll write more on this in another blog.
As part of the Israel@75 activities, don’t forget to put on your calendar and register for the upcoming Daniel Gordis and Eugene Kontorovich lectures.
