I wish #Charles#Windsor all the best in his battle with cancer...
However, as an #Australian#citizen, I do not recognise him as my king nor that I am his 'subject'.
Equally, I do not accept his assertion of a #divine#birthright to rule.
I very much resent that our taxes will be used to provide him with a luxurious farewell tour of my country and would much prefer that he stay home and tend to his health at his own expense.
#US / everything you need to know about the revered, feared and reviled lobbying and political fundraising group
As the 2024 elections approach, #AIPAC is poised to play a significant role, with a $40 million war chest and plans to target progressive Democrats perceived as insufficiently supportive of Israel.
AIPAC's shift in recent years from its claimed political neutrality to more explicit alignment with the Republican Party and the Israeli right-wing, particularly under Benjamin Netanyahu's leadership led to growing tensions with the Democratic Party's progressive wing and criticism from liberal American Jews, who accuse #AIPAC of not representing the diversity of views on #Israel.
[…] In his memoir "A Promised Land," #Obama wrote that "members of both parties worried about crossing" AIPAC, adding that "those who criticized Israeli policy too loudly risked being tagged as 'anti-Israel' (and possibly antisemitic) and confronted with a well-funded opponent in the next election." He wrote that clashing with Israel "exacted a domestic political cost that simply didn't exist" when dealing with any of the U.S.' other close allies.
[…] It was during the Trump administration that AIPAC's identification with the GOP intensified and it got more explicitly involved in U.S. domestic politics, particularly by criticizing the Democratic Party's rising progressive wing. Since Sen. Bernie Sanders, then a presidential candidate, declined to participate in AIPAC's 2016 conference, the pro-Israel lobby started going on the offensive – but especially after a wave of pro-Palestinian progressive candidates entered office in 2018, several of whom successfully defeated pro-Israel incumbents.
More than 20 progressive groups form a coalition to counter pro-Israel groups before the election
[…] The coalition, called Reject AIPAC, includes Jewish peace organizations and Arab American and Muslim groups that have been organizing in record numbers since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.
[…] The strategy, according to Andrabi, is to link up the grassroots organizations behind a seven-figure “electoral defense campaign” that aims to not only protect members of Congress being targeted by AIPAC but also to bring light to what they see as the group’s divergence from the longstanding values of the Democratic Party.
Considering that they usually have innate powers that are inherited through a specific bloodline, and the fact that they tend to be highly charismatic, I am surprised that we don't have more settings where sorcerers form some kind of "bloodline" aristocracy - with those who have more potent powers are considered to have "purer blood".
Although the #Birthright setting came pretty close...
#israel / After a Decade Inside the Most Radical Circles of Israel's Far-right, He's Ready to Tell All
Q: Apropos tailor-made laws, the coalition agreement between Otzma Yehudit and #Likud stipulates that the clause in the law which prevents inciters to #racism from running for the #Knesset will be revoked. But it doesn’t seem to be on the agenda, from Ben-Gvir’s point of view.
“Correct – he understands that the way things are aligned politically does not enable this at the moment ... But Ben-Gvir isn’t really interested in this. He’s gathered around him a group that obeys his authority and does as he says. He has no interest in bringing Marzel and Ben-Ari back to the Knesset at this stage. But today, if the hard core of Otzma Yehudit would be allowed a little more political leeway, they would take the racial and ethnic segregation laws that Rabbi #Kahane promoted and enact them word for word. Absolute racial separation, with a hope for obliteration.”
[…] ISRAELISM uniquely explores how #Jewish attitudes towards #Israel are changing dramatically, with massive consequences for the region and for #Judaism itself.
[…] Zimmermann is part of a growing trend of young American Jews who are no longer satisfied with the one-sided narrative marketed to them in Jewish communities, Jewish schools, youth movements, and Birthright trips, but are starting to examine it critically, shaking off the automatic identification of #Judaism with loving Israel, and taking action against the occupation and for Palestinian rights.
[…] In debates with Palestinian students, Zimmermann recounts in the film, she felt again and again at a loss. "I remember there were Palestinian students who stood up and said: 'You cry over being silenced and marginalized, but my uncles and cousins couldn't sleep for weeks when bombs fell over their heads in #Gaza,'" she says. "I was thrown into these conversations where people used words I had never encountered: 'occupation,' 'settlements,' '#apartheid,' and 'ethnic cleansing.' I always thought I knew so much about Israel, but suddenly when they mentioned all these words, I didn't understand what they were talking about. I felt embarrassed that we couldn't respond to their claims. Do we not have any successful counterarguments besides 'double standards' and 'antisemitism'? This really troubled me."
If your free #Jewish#birthright to #Israel tour & free holiday in #MiddleEast didn't allow you any access to #Gaza , #WestBank or #Muslim communities & you were totally OK with accepting the govt reasons for blocking access & you've never done your own research on why - beyond what #IDF & Israel govt tells you - you have accepted #indoctrination & OK staying blind while more #Palestinians are murdered, daily.