This is the pro-Israel lobby’s second “win” of the season. The first was the June defeat of progressive, black congressman from Westchester County, N.Y., Jamaal Bowman, who was a forceful critic of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. AIPAC and its mis-named super PAC, the United Democracy Project, barged into Westchester County to anoint an opponent—white, pro-Israel Westchester County Executive George Latimer—and then shower him with cash. 

The ads against Bowman were not about Israel. Instead, AIPAC smeared the congressman’s character and criticized him as a “hot head” who was not a reliable member of the Democratic team. In the words of President of the Arab American Institute Jim Zogby, the race became  “the angry, frightening young black man versus the calm, thoughtful older white guy.”

By throwing $17 million into the race, pro-Israel groups turned Bowman’s primary into the most expensive one in U.S. history. When Bowman was defeated, AIPAC declared the outcome showed that the pro-Israel position is “both good policy and good politics.” On the contrary. It showed that pro-Israel groups can buy elections and it sent a frightening message to all elected officials that if they criticize Israel, even during a genocide, they may well pay with their careers.

Buoyed by its success, AIPAC then took on Cori Bush, marching into St. Louis, MO determined to defeat a black woman who was one of the most unique voices in all of congress. Once a unhoused single mother of two, and a survivor of gun violence, domestic violence and sexual assault, Bush became a nurse and a pastor, and in the wake of the killing of the unarmed black man Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014, she became an activist on the frontlines of the movement to save black lives. After protesting in the streets for 400 days, she jumped into the political arena. In 2020 made a successful run for Congress, becoming the first black representative from Missouri. 

In Bush’s two terms in Congress, she demonstrated leadership on many fronts, including reproductive justice and abortion rights. At a House of Representatives committee hearing in 2021, Bush was one of three congresswomen to share her abortion story publicly. And after the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, she introduced a host of bills, including the Reproductive Health Care Accessibility Act, the Protecting Access to Medication Abortion Act, the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, and the Protect Sexual and Reproductive Health Act. 

She also championed housing rights. When the COVID moratorium on evictions was about to expire, she grabbed her sleeping bag and lawn chair, and organized a “sleep in” on the steps of the U.S. Capitol that resulted in an extension of the moratorium on evictions.

Foreign policy was not her focus, but in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 9, 2023 and Israel’s subsequent bombing of civilians in Gaza, Bush felt compelled to speak out. Just nine days after the October 7 Hamas attack, she had the courage to introduce a ceasefire resolution in the House. She was one of only nine House members who opposed a resolution supporting Israel. She boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress, calling him a “war criminal.”

As a result of defending Palestinians, she found herself in AIPAC’s crosshairs. “Cori Bush has been one of the most hostile critics of Israel since she came to Congress in 2021 and has actively worked to undermine mainstream Democratic support for the U.S.-Israel relationship, “ AIPAC claimed.

AIPAC’s super PAC spent nearly $9 million, much of it coming from Republican mega-donors, to buy ads smearing Bush and shoring up contender Wesley Bell, a St. Louis County Prosecutor. The attacks were vicious, including ads that darkened Bush’s skin and manipulated her racial features. They also distorted her domestic voting record, condemning her for not supporting Biden’s Infrastructure Bill instead of explaining that her vote was part of a strategy to gain leverage for key social programs in the Build Back Better Act. 

Curiously, in the cases of both Bowman and Bush, the attack ads did not even mention Israel. But if Israel is AIPAC’s singular focus, why did the ads avoid the issue? That’s because most Americans, especially in those liberal Democrat districts, agree with their positions. Most Americans want a ceasefire and disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.  As Jewish Voice for Peace Executive Director Stephanie Fox said during a call to rally support for the Congresswoman Bush, “She has been a life raft for our values and principles in Congress and she has been under attack because far right extremist groups like AIPAC are scared.”

Jim Zogby of the Arab American Institute agrees.  “Pro-Israel groups are running scared,” he said. “They are losing the public debate over policy—especially among Democrats. Most Democrats are deeply opposed to Israeli policies in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian lands. Majorities want a ceasefire and an end to settlements. And they want to stop further arms shipments to Israel.” So AIPAC hides the Israel issue and then claims the “win” is a victory for Israel. 

If we are going to stop U.S. support for Israel’s genocide, prevent the Middle East from erupting in flames and reclaim our elections here at home, we have to stop AIPAC. 

Via Code Pink

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Bonus Video added by Informed Comment:

The Young Turks Video: “Cori Bush Reacts To Loss To AIPAC-Funded Challenger”

She spoke for many Democrats and independents. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who did attend, said in advance, ““Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst leader in Jewish history since the Maccabean king who invited the Romans into Jerusalem over 2100 years ago.  Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress is . . .a cynical stunt aimed at aiding his own desperate political standing at home and meddling in domestic American politics only months before a highly consequential election. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his American allies are seeking to use the United States Congress, the greatest legislative body in the world, as the set for their next partisan advertisement, casting elected Members of Congress as glorified extras. . . tomorrow’s speech should not be happening. . . . As a lifelong Zionist, I am deeply committed to Israel’s fundamental security and opportunity to prosper. . . . For these reasons, and out of respect for the State of Israel and the office of the Prime Minister, I plan to attend . . I feel my voice is more impactful in the room, holding the Prime Minister accountable.”

The speech was a pep rally for a strange amalgam of Israel’s far right Likud Party and the MAGA GOP. Those two parties have been perversely aligned since Donald Trump and Netanyahu began campaigning for one another, which they did again in 2020. Both men are desperately trying to remain in power in order to avoid criminal consequences for their abuses of power. Netanyahu continues to prosecute a war in Gaza to distract Israel from his criminal charges. Trump seeks the presidency again to avoid criminal accountability and return to office, so he can dispense with American Democracy.

No foreign leader has ever meddled with US politics in such a presumptive and arrogant way as Netanyahu has, as if he is the superpower, and the US is the client state. Netanyahu has presumed to dictate to American presidents on each of his three prior addresses to Congress. His presence in Congress today was a divisive element that has splintered the Democratic caucus.

The absence of senior leadership was notable, especially the absence of Vice President Kamala Harris. That sent a huge message disapproval. Kamala cited a scheduling conflict for sitting this one out, though she was supposed to preside; but she didn’t want to be tarred with Netanyahu’s residue or any association with him.

While he framed the Gaza conflict as one between barbarism and civilization, and as a proxy war between the US and Iran, Netanyahu himself is responsible for much of the upheaval with his genocidal campaign and resulting global revulsion. His use of hostages and Israeli soldiers as props in Congress were acts of demagoguery.

The address was notable for what he did not say, as much as what he did. He made no mention of his own contributions to escalating the conflict, and acted as though the millions of American protesters, including Jews, were rooting for Hamas. No,, Mr. Netanyahu, they are demanding your resignation for the sake of Israel. While he noted that three Israeli hostages who escaped, he didn’t note that they were killed by Israeli troops apparently instructed to shoot down any adult males they saw in the open.

Netanyahu said he “wont rest until all loved ones are home,” but he has clearly made prosecuting the war to stay in office his priority, rather than negotiating a release of the hostages. That was one of many gas lighting elements, along with saying American protesters were rooting for Hamas. Objectors aren’t sympathizers of Hamas. They object to Netanyahu’s failed policies.

His called the protesters useful idiots of Iran and Hamas, while his own useful idiots in Congress treated him like their own president giving a State of the Union speech. His reference to the prophets and fathers don’t absolve Israel from being a colonialist state under him and other PMs going back to Menachem Begin.

Netanyahu’s demonization of American college presidents and other academics as antisemitic ignores his own role in exacerbating global antisemitism, by his openly genocidal policies, to heights unseen since World War II.  Netanyahu himself is the demon demonizing Israel. Claiming a low ratio of non-combatant deaths to combatant deaths in Rafah is a lie of shocking magnitude, even for him. Then he characterized the 24 people killed as “practically none.”

The Times and the Sunday Times Video: “Congress protest calls Netanyahu a ‘war criminal’”

Then there was the Orwellian assertion that only Israel is standing in the way of a war between the US and Iran, while he is the most persistent instigator of such a horror. Israel is not fighting Iran on behalf of US. Israel is not protecting the US, but increasing our risks and compromising our international standing.

While he has a fantasy of a Gaza with a peaceful civilian administration, his undermining of the Palestine Authority, led by the secular-minded Fatah, destroyed that, while de facto inviting Hamas to fill the consequent leadership vacuum. Another Netanyahu fantasy is his proposed Abraham Alliance, which would build on the disastrous, dysfunctional Abraham Accords of Jared Kushner.

Clearly, the Israeli prime minister wants Donald Trump back in office to achieve his desired outcome, and thanked him for fulfilling his wish list while in office. Basking in the adulation of Republican sycophants, Netanyahu waved to the crowd like Mussolini, to whom he is much closer than to Churchill, though Churchill also displayed a colonial arrogance and disregard for the rights of the Palestinians that should be embarrassing to any contemporary leader.

Israeli journalist Barak Ravid said immediately afterward on CNN, “He didn’t take responsibility. He didn’t say he’d repair the damage he’s done.” With his 32% approval rating, he was speaking to Israelis as much as the Congress. Netanyahu tried to re-assert himself as the most influential Israeli politicians in the US, because his popularity at home is so weak with a 72% disapproval rating.

Perhaps the richest lie of the day was his boasting about limiting civilian casualties, which contradicts all information from the United Nations and international aid groups.

In response, Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “I think in Netanyahu you have somebody who is a war criminal, who is a demagogue. I think he’s a liar and I think in order to save his political skin in Israel — where he is enormously unpopular — he is prepared to starve hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza. It really sad that he was invited to speak before a joint session of Congress.”

Republicans are spending millions of dollars to unseat progressive officials at all levels of government. It is true that sometimes Democrats have crossed the aisle, while Democrats registering as Republicans in local primaries so they can vote out a Christian Nationalist. Going to the polls to cast a vote in one’s district, however, is not the same as spending millions to manipulate a race in a district in which they don’t live. AIPAC’s manipulative presence is US politics is more wantonly destructive than ever and foreshadows the destruction that will be wrought by Bibi’s forthcoming appearance in Congress.

The difference between “progressive” and ‘centrist’ Democrats is a growing chasm, and AIPAC is one of the forces driving it, using Republican mega-donor funds to intervene in Democratic contests.  Bowman said, “Unfortunately some so-called Democrats are aligning themselves with radical, racist Republicans,” which illustrates how Republicans are using Israel as a cudgel to create more conflict. The Guardian notes they spent $20 million in mailers and ads. That sum is what the entire British election to be held on July 4 has cost. It is probably true that Bowman would have lost anyway, given that his district was redrawn to include more of wealthy Westchester County and his real support was in the Bronx. But AIPAC dumping that much money into a primary made sure that Latimer did not face an upset.

16^th District Democrats who voted to oust Bowman ignored the fact that AIPAC has supported over 100 climate deniers and election deniers in Congress, and does all it can to help re-elect Trump. AIPAC is a single-issue organization, with no regard for healthy government in the US. Since Reagan, Republicans have conned a portion of the US electorate into thinking that Republicans are more favorable to Israel than Democrats. Trump injected steroids into that agenda item, to where it’s become a wolf-tree, eclipsing other issues more relevant to American voters, such as preserving American democracy itself. The priority for Democrats should be closing ranks to stop Trump; not punish elected officials for taking a righteous stand on Gaza, however unpopular to some.

Congressmen from both parties need to reconsider Bibi’s July 24 invitation to Congress, considering that some of Israel’s most venerable and respected leaders have encouraged the US to “disinvite Bibi.” Their reasons include: “Inviting Mr. Netanyahu will reward his contempt for U.S. efforts to establish a peace plan . . .”  By appointing David Friedman as US Ambassador to Israel, Trump began fulfilling every element of Bibi’s wish-list. Unlike President’s Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Trump did not stand against the Israeli Right’s compulsion for self-destructive myopia. Rather he ceded to every aspect of Bibi’s far right agenda with the phony Abraham Accords, which has had predictably disastrous results.

Bibi fueled Trump’s alliance with the Evangelical movement by declaring him to be a modern day King Cyrus, when he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018. Evangelical Republicans picked up on that, and really believe the phony “Trump prophecy.”  Bibi embraced American Evangelicals as the new cash cow for Israeli tourism and fundraising, to replace the money from American Jews, who no longer support his brand of Zionism.

The Young Turks Video: “AIPAC Bullies Brag About Jamaal Bowman’s Primary Loss”

AIPAC has escalated its campaign to hold Netanyahu blameless, and to punish American politicians for expressing their conscience over Gaza. New York Times columnists Jesse McKinley and Nicholas Fandos observed, “In the end, the left could not compete with the other side’s vast resources, including a torrent of unprecedented spending by a super PAC tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The group attacked the two-term congressman over his criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza but also the vote he and other members of the “Squad” took against Mr. Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure plan.”

AIPAC is targeting progressives all over the country for objecting to genocide. The alienation and disenfranchisement in play was summarized in a letter sent to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries from over a dozen progressive organizations, including Center for Popular Democracy Action, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, New York Communities for Change and New York City Democratic Socialists of America. It noted that United Democracy Project (UDP), an AIPAC Super Pac, was “funded largely by Republican billionaires, to drown out Jamaal Bowman’s message of humanity, dignity, and a thriving future for all.” As a result, they unseated someone Jeffries had personally endorsed, who had earned “a deep well of support among the Black and brown communities in the district,” in favor of “a conservative politician with a history of racist remarks and governance.”

AIPAC’s ruthless agenda in support of Trump put a spin on reality to distort Bowman’s record, and condemned him for using his office to object to Bibi’s genocide in Gaza. One of Bowman’s campaign slogans was, “The Many Can Beat the Money.” LA Progressive publisher Sharon Kyle summarized the loss saying, “In a district that houses more than 725,000 people, less than 100,000 people showed up to vote. AIPAC proved that the money will always beat the many when the many stay home.”

( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel has long relied on its much-vaunted hasbara — propaganda — to obscure the brutal reality of its colonial occupation of Palestine. Essentially a sophisticated propaganda machine, the hasbara industry, as Professor Ilan Pappe demonstrates in his new book, has been instrumental in shaping the narrative in the service and maintenance of the Zionist project. Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic, as Pappe notes, has a long history. Having founded the state of Israel on terrorism, against the wishes of the native population, the Zionist groups that used violence to disrupt the history of Palestine are now determined to shield the occupation state from the global outrage that its genocide in Gaza has provoked.

New revelations by the Guardian have exposed the extent of Zionist lobbying in the US, revealing a coordinated and well-funded effort by the Israeli government to influence public opinion and political discourse. The goal is to shape American debates on college campuses, in Congress and across social media. Another top priority is suppressing criticism of Israel, which is achieved by lobbying lawmakers to adopt the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Jewish racism, and conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with . . . anti-Semitism.

The roots of this latest campaign can be traced back to 2017 when the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs developed a programme known initially as Kela Shlomo. This was designed to conduct what Israel termed “mass consciousness activities” targeted primarily at the US and Europe. The programme, later rebranded as “Concert” and now operating under the name “Voices of Israel”, was conceived as a vehicle to operate “outside the government” and provide a “rapid and coordinated response against the attempts to tarnish the image of Israel around the world.”

Former Minister Gilad Erdan envisioned Concert as a “PR Commando Unit” capable of launching social media attacks against celebrities who criticise Israel. The programme has since evolved and expanded its scope since 7 October. As of November last year, the Israeli government is said to have allocated at least 32 million shekels (approximately £6.8m) for advocacy efforts to reframe the public debate. This funding is overseen by Amichai Chikli, the 42-year-old Likud minister who now heads the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

During a Knesset hearing in November, Chikli assured lawmakers that there was new money in the budget for a pushback campaign against global opposition to Israel, quite separate from traditional public relations efforts. However, this did not pose a challenge, especially considering the extensive network of Zionist organisations operating throughout the US, all happy to donate generously to such efforts.

Chikli mentioned 80 programmes already underway for advocacy efforts “to be done in the ‘Concert’ way”. The primary goal of Concert, as I wrote in 2022, is to privatise Israel’s propaganda efforts by recruiting influencers and organisations to speak favourably about the apartheid state in various media channels, social media platforms and conferences both at home and abroad.

The initiative was designed to operate indirectly, allowing the Israeli government to fund pro-Israel organisations and activities without appearing to do so overtly.

Several American organisations have been identified as working closely with the Israeli government’s advocacy efforts. These include the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), which reportedly received most of its funding in 2018 from the Israeli agency running Concert. ISGAP has been instrumental in shaping Congressional investigations into universities over claims of anti-Semitism. The Zionist lobby was named as one of the groups that spearheaded the push to drive Harvard University’s first black female president, Claudine Gray, out of office following a row over alleged anti-Semitism.

The Young Turks: “Israel’s Propaganda Campaign To Control Discourse Uncovered by Lee Fang”

Another organisation, the National Black Empowerment Council (NBEC), listed as a partner of Voices of Israel, has published open letters from Black Democrat politicians pledging solidarity with Israel. CyberWell, a pro-Israel “anti-disinformation” group led by former Israeli military intelligence and Voices officials, has established itself as an official “trusted partner” to TikTok and Meta, helping to screen and edit content. This partnership highlights a striking correlation between the inclusion of Zionist lobby groups as “trusted partners” and Meta’s “systemic censorship” of pro-Palestine content.

Another Zionist group mentioned by the Guardian is Hillel International, one of the largest Jewish campus organisations in the world. Hillel has received financial and strategic support from Mosaic United, a public benefit corporation backed by the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. This longstanding partnership is now being leveraged to shape the political debate over Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza. In February, Hillel’s chief executive, Adam Lehman, reportedly appeared before the Israeli Knesset to discuss this strategic partnership with Mosaic and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. Lehman noted that the collaboration had already yielded significant results.

Notably, none of the groups identified have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a US law requiring groups that receive funds or direction from foreign countries to disclose their activities to the Department of Justice. “One struggles to find a parallel in terms of a foreign country’s influence over American political debate,” said Eli Clifton, a senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “There’s a fixation on policing American discourse on the US-Israel relationship, even on college campuses, from Israel, going all the way up to Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

A key aim in this campaign has been the aggressive promotion of the highly controversial IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. This definition has faced criticism, including from its drafter, Kenneth Stern, who has argued that it is being “weaponised” by the pro-Israel lobby. Seven of the eleven examples cited by IHRA conflate criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. The result has been the stifling of free speech and legitimate criticism of the apartheid state. Several US states, including Georgia, South Carolina and South Dakota, have passed legislation recently incorporating the IHRA definition into hate crime statutes.

At the federal level, the US House of Representatives passed legislation in April this year to encode the IHRA definition into Department of Education standards. If enacted, this law would enable the federal government to withdraw funding from universities that fail to curb criticism of Israel and Zionism, as well as impose punitive measures against pro-Palestine advocates. The push to embed the IHRA definition into federal law is part of a wider campaign, particularly targeting US college campuses, where pro-Palestinian activism has surged since 7 October.

Israeli officials have conducted multiple Knesset hearings with American Zionist organisations to discuss co-ordination efforts. Margarita Spichko, an official from the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, testified that her office produces weekly reports based on information gathered from US partners, including Hillel. These reports are utilised to monitor and respond to campus activities related to Israel and Palestine. Additionally, an aide to Israel’s National Security Council noted that the Prime Minister’s office regularly meets with DC-based Zionist groups, further confirming Tel Aviv’s orchestration of American Zionist organisations.

Commenting on the Israeli “PR Commando Unit” targeting the American population, Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said:

“There’s a built-in assumption that there’s nothing at all weird about viewing the US as sort of an open field for Israel to operate in, that there are no limitations.”

Craig Holman, an expert on lobbying rules at Public Citizen, noted the potential legal issues surrounding these activities: “While there are several exemptions to FARA registration, nearly all the exemptions are overridden if a person or group seeks to influence American public policy and public opinion at the suggestion or behest of the foreign government.”

The scale and sophistication of Israel’s efforts to shape public discourse in the US raise serious questions about the extent of its influence in American politics and academia. As the genocidal campaign in Gaza continues and criticism of Israeli policies intensifies, these coordinated efforts are poised to escalate. This growing Israeli influence threatens to undermine free speech and subvert the very principles of American democracy, all in the pursuit of defending what is so clearly a rogue, apartheid regime.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment.

Via Middle East Monitor

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Netanyahu said in a forthcoming interview, “frankly I’m surprised and disappointed,” according to Politico.

I should think so. Netanyahu, who is on trial on two counts of corruption, operates rather as his namesake, the gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel did in Las Vegas, corrupting or intimidating judges and other officials. Though to be fair to Mr. Siegel, he murdered many fewer people.

The backdrop to the plan of troglodytes in Congress to harass the ICC is that Netanyahu’s government in Israel has run a decade-long campaign of spying and intimidation against the judges of the International Criminal Court, according to an investigation of The Guardian and two Israeli magazines, +972 Mag and Local Call, published by journalists Harry Davies, Bethan McKernan, Yuval Abraham, and Meron Rapoport.

It is important to point out that the same cast of cyber-bullies has run an operation against American universities under the rubric of “Canary Mission,” in coordination with the inquisitorial Ministry of Strategic Affairs. headed by the American Ron Dermer. So reported James Bamford in The Nation. Canary Mission smears and doxes students and professors at American universities who stand for Palestinian rights in an attempt to interfere with their careers and for the purpose of intimidating them and others into silence.

Both operations are Israeli government-inspired but aided by local agents. Despite the US federal law, FARA, which requires agents of foreign governments to register, Israeli such agents have been exempted from such requirements for political reasons, including Canary Mission and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The International Criminal Court was envisioned by the internationally-backed Rome Statute in 1998, which came into effect in 2002. The judges are selected by delegates from the 124-member states of the Conference of Parties. Canada, Britain, France, Denmark, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland are among the signatories. So the Israelis were spying on and harassing judges chosen by several NATO countries.

Mossad, Israeli intelligence, directed an operation against Fata Bensouda, the former prosecutor of the court, during whose tenure the court found that it had jurisdiction over the Occupied Palestinian Territories because Palestine, a non-member observer state of the United Nations, had acceded to the Treaty of Rome in 2015. The Guardian story alleges that Israeli operatives attempted to bribe her, showing up at her private home, to come to a different decision.

The Hill Video: “Ex-Israeli Spy Chief THREATENED ICC Top Prosecutor, Pressures Her To Drop Netanyahu Probe: Report”

Israel’s control of telecommunications in Palestine allowed it to tap into any fact-gathering calls ICC officials made to the Occupied West Bank. Israel intensively spied on Palestinian human rights NGOs sending dossiers to the ICC, using the Pegasus spyware that has so harmed journalists and activists, which was developed by a company with close ties to the Israeli government. Pegasus has been banned in the United States by the Biden administration. At one point, Israeli officials attempted to discredit the Palestinian NGOs working with the ICC by falsely accusing them of having terrorist links. Sound familiar?

Mossad director Mossi Cohen, a close crony of Netanyahu, appears actually to have stalked Bensouda, “turning up unannounced and subjecting her to unwanted calls,” according to Davies et al. Some of the stalking was done in New York, so perhaps the zealous New York City officials who were so concerned with students having tents on campus might open an investigation into an actual crime? Mossad also started a smear campaign against a relative of Bensouda in hopes of discrediting her, an operation that failed.

Her successor, British Prosecutor Karim Khan, said that the ICC under his tenure faced “several forms of threats and communications that could be viewed as attempts to unduly influence its activities.”

As for Canary Mission, Bamford wrote at The Nation, “Like all of Israel’s espionage and covert operations in the United States, Canary Mission’s links to Israeli intelligence—and the Mission’s American financiers—are well hidden. But as a result of a slipup on a tax form a few years ago, those links began to be revealed. And in the process was exposed the role played by one of the wealthiest families in California, headed by publicity-shy billionaire Sanford Diller, a major Trump backer who had donated $6 million to a pro-Trump political committee . . . For donations to a variety of causes, the Diller family maintains the Helen Diller Family Foundation. But in order to get a tax break, they turn the funds over to a much larger trust, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, which then channels the Diller family donations. According to The Forward (formerly The Jewish Daily Forward), in 2016 the Diller Foundation donated $100,000 through the Jewish Community Federation to an obscure Israeli nonprofit called Megamot Shalom. Untraceable, off the grid, unheard of, Megamot Shalom was actually the front for Canary Mission.”

So these individuals donating to Megamot Shalom were breaking the Foreign Agents Registration Act Law, attempting to smear and blackball American professors and students on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs. There is almost certainly a RICO offense here.

These two stalking operations, of ICC judges and of American universities, are intended to allow the large scale theft of Palestinian land by Israeli squatters to proceed unhindered, and to shield Israel from the consequences of its war crimes against the Palestinians. The vicious crackdown on protesters against the genocide in Gaza in US universities is being actively connived at by the Dillers of the world. American parents should be outraged that Trumpie Zionists are conspiring to put their children in jail for having a conscience.

Attorney General Merrick Garland must look into Canary Mission and sanction its donors and agents for FARA violations, not to mention a vast conspiracy to interfere with Americans’ first amendment rights and to libel them. It is coming for our children, for God’s sake.

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Helicopters have been throbbing overhead for days now. Nights, too. Police are swarming the streets of Broadway, many in riot gear. Police vans, some as big as a city bus, are lined up along side streets and Broadway. 

Outside the gates of the Columbia University campus, a penned-in group of pro-Israel demonstrators has faced off against a penned-in group of anti-genocide and pro-Palestinian protesters. These groups are usually small, often vastly outnumbered by the police around them, but they are loud and they are not Columbia students. They’ve been coming every day this April to shout, chant, and hold up signs, some of which are filled with hateful speech directed at the other side, equating protests against the slaughter in Gaza with being pro-Hamas, and calls to bring home the hostages with being pro-genocide.

Inside the locked gates of the campus, the atmosphere is entirely different. Even as the now-notorious student tent encampment there stretches through its second week, all is calm. Inside the camp, students sleep, eat, and sit on bedspreads studying together and making signs saying, “Nerds for Palestine,” “Passover is for Liberation,” and “Stop the Genocide.” The Jewish students there held a seder on Passover. The protesters even asked faculty to come into the encampment and teach because they miss their classes. Indeed, it’s so quiet on campus that you can hear birds singing in the background. The camp, if anything, is hushed.

The Real Story on Campus

Those protesters who have been so demonized, for whom the riot police are waiting outside — the same kinds of students Columbia University’s president, Minouche Shafik, invited the police to arrest, zip-tie, and cart away on April 18th — are mostly undergraduate women, along with a smaller number of undergraduate men, 18 to 20 years old, standing up for what they have a right to stand up for: their beliefs. Furthermore, for those who don’t know the Columbia campus, the encampment is blocking nobody’s way and presents a danger to no one. It is on a patch of lawn inside a little fence buffered by hedges. As I write, those students are not preventing anyone from walking anywhere, nor occupying any buildings, perpetrating any violence, or even making much noise. (In the early hours of April 30th, however, student protesters did occupy Hamilton Hall in reaction to a sweep of suspensions the day before.)

As a tenured professor at Columbia’s Journalism School, I’ve been watching the student protests ever since the brutal Hamas attack of October 7th, and I’ve been struck by the decorum of the protesting students, as angry and upset as they are on both sides. This has particularly impressed me knowing that several students are directly affected by the ongoing war. I have a Jewish student who has lost family and friends to the attack by Hamas, and a Palestinian student who learned of the deaths of her family and friends in Gaza while she was sitting in my class.

Buy the Book

Given how horrific this war is, it’s not surprising that there have been a few protesters who lose control and shout hideous things, but for the most part, such people have been quietly walked away by other students or campus security guards. All along, the main messages from the students have been “Bring back our hostages” on the Israeli side and “Stop slaughtering Gazan civilians” on the antiwar and pro-Palestinian-rights side. Curiously enough, those messages are not so far apart, for almost everyone wants the hostages safe and almost everyone is calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a different direction and protect the innocent.

Unfortunately, instead of allowing students to have their say and disciplining those who overstep boundaries, Columbia President Shafik and her administration suspended two of the most vocal groups protesting Israel’s war on Gaza: the student chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. This only enraged and galvanized students and some faculty more.

The Right Seizes and Distorts the Narrative

Then the right got involved, using accusations of widespread antisemitism to take eyes off the astronomical death toll in Gaza — more than 34,000 reportedly dead as I write this, more than 14,500 of them children — while fretting about the safety of Jewish students instead.

The faculty of Columbia takes antisemitism seriously and we have methods in place to deal with it. We also recognize that some of the chants of the protesters do make certain Jewish students and faculty uncomfortable. But as a group of Jewish faculty pointed out in an op-ed for the student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, it’s absurd to claim that antisemitism, which is defined by the Jerusalem Declaration as “discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews,” is rampant on our campus. “To argue that taking a stand against Israel’s war on Gaza is antisemitic is to pervert the meaning of the term,” we wrote. “Labeling pro-Palestinian expression as anti-Jewish hate speech requires a dangerous and false conflation of Zionism with Jewishness.”

Sadly, that’s exactly what the right has succeeded in doing. Not only is the slaughter in Gaza getting lost in the growing fog of hysterical speech about antisemitism on American college campuses, but so is the fact that Arab and Muslim students are being targeted, too. Some students even reported they were sprayed with a mace-like material, possibly manufactured by the Israeli military, and that, as a result, several protesters had to go to the hospital. My own students told me they have been targeted with hate mail and threats over social media. I even saw a doxxing truck sponsored by the far-right group Accuracy in Media driving around the Columbia neighborhood bearing photographs of Muslim students, naming them and calling them terrorists. Again, it’s important to note that most of the harassers have been outsiders, not students.

No, the real threat to American Jews comes not from students but from the very white nationalist MAGA Republicans who are shouting about antisemitism the loudest.

Then came the Republican hearings.

The Congressional Hearings

Having watched the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania stumble and fall in the face of MAGA Representative Elise Stefanik’s bullying accusations of antisemitism in December, Columbia President Shafik did all she could to avoid a similar fate when it was her turn. But when she submitted to four hours of McCarthyite-style questioning in Congress on April 17th — one Republican even asked if there were Republicans among the faculty — Shafik cringed, evaded, and caved.

“I agree with you” was her most frequent phrase. She never pushed back against the characterization of the Columbia campus by Republican Representatives Virginia Foxx and Stefanik as riddled with antisemitism. She never stood up for the integrity of our faculty and students or for the fact that we’re a campus full of remarkable scholars and artists perfectly capable of governing ourselves. She never even pointed out that who we suspend, fire, or hire is none of Congress’s business. Instead, she broke all our university rules by agreeing to investigate and fire members of our own faculty and to call in the police when she deemed it necessary.

The very day after the hearings, that’s exactly what she did.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza was never even mentioned.

A Pandora’s Box

Shafik’s craven performance in front of Republican lawmakers opened a Pandora’s box of troubles. The student protesters swelled in numbers and erected their encampment. Faculty members wrote outraged opinion pieces condemning Shafik’s behavior. And when she called in the police to arrest students, more students than ever joined the protests all over the country.

Then, on April 24th, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson visited Columbia with Republicans Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, and Anthony D’Esposito (and even Foxx from North Carolina), acting as if some kind of terrible riot had gone on here. Standing at the top of the steps in front of the grand facade of Low Library, a century-old building meant to symbolize learning and reason, and surrounded by heckling students, Johnson declared that some Jewish students had told him of “heinous acts of bigotry,” characterized the protesters as “endorsed by Hamas,” and called for Shafik to resign “if she cannot immediately bring order to the chaos.”

“What chaos?” said an undergraduate standing next to me on the steps as we listened.

“He’s saying a bunch of 20-year-old American college students are in cahoots with Hamas?” another asked incredulously.

Johnson then escalated the threats, claiming the National Guard might be called in and that Congress might even revoke federal funding if universities couldn’t keep such protests under control.

I looked behind me at the encampment on the other side of campus. In front of the tents on the grass, the students had erected a sign listing what they called “Gaza Encampment Community Guidelines.” These included: “No desecration of the land. No drug/alcohol consumption. Respect personal boundaries.” And most significantly, “We commit to assuming the best intentions, granting ourselves and others grace when mistakes are made, and approaching conflict with the goal of addressing and repairing.” Designated faculty and students stood at the entrance to make sure no outsiders got in, and that nobody entered the encampment unless they had read and agreed to that list of commitments. The noisiest people on campus were the thronging media. But nobody and nothing was out of control.

The Weaponization of Antisemitism

Sadly, despite the reality on the ground at Columbia, the right’s wild narrative of virulent antisemitism here has been swallowed whole, not just by Republicans but by a long list of Democrats, too, including President Biden and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, not to speak of New York Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, Jerry Nadler, Dan Goldman, and Adriano Espaillat. They have all publicly condemned the supposedly rampant antisemitism on campus without, it seems, bothering to check their facts.

Meanwhile, MAGA Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht posted on X that “Columbia has been taken over by radical Pro-Hamas protesters.”

Back in the real world, the right’s hysteria over such supposed antisemitism hasn’t really been about protecting Jews at all, as many faculty members (including us Jewish ones) have written and spoken about. Rather, the right is weaponizing antisemitism as a way of furthering its campaign to suppress the kind of freedom of thought and speech on campus that threatens its authoritarian goals of turning this country Christian, conservative, straight, and white — not to mention their urge to suppress support of Palestinian autonomy.

When Students Don’t Feel Safe

My students tell me they feel perfectly safe on campus. They may not like some of the chants they sometimes hear. I myself have caught a few that chilled me as a Jew. I’ve also heard chants that sicken me on behalf of my Muslim friends. But those have been rare. And campus is a place where everyone should be free to debate, disagree, express their opinions, listen, and learn. We have to remember that free speech does not mean speech we agree with.

No, where my students do not feel safe is out on Broadway, where extremists on both sides gather. They don’t feel safe when the false narratives of Republican politicians draw far-right angry mobs to the campus gates, something that is happening just as I’m writing this piece. Most of all, they don’t feel safe when police arrive on campus with guns in their holsters and zip-ties hanging from their belts.

I stood and watched that day the police came. Four huge drones hovered overhead, along with those eternally buzzing helicopters. Dozens of police buses were lined up on West 114th Street on the south side of campus as if prepared to deal with some massive, violent riot. Then, in came the police, some in riot gear, to tie the hands of more than 100 students behind their backs and march them onto police buses.

Not a single student resisted. Even the police were quoted as saying they presented no danger to anyone. As NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said, “To put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner.”

Not long later, those arrested students were suspended and the ones who attend Barnard were locked out of their dorms. Faculty and friends had to offer their couches and spare beds to save those young women from being homeless on the streets of New York. One of them is in my building staying with a colleague downstairs. “Nobody told our parents that we were being evicted,” she told me in my lobby.

Faculty Response

Many faculty were so shocked by these events that on Monday, April 22nd, some 300 of us gathered on the steps of Low Library, holding up signs that said, “Hands Off Our Students” and “End Student Suspensions Now.” Several professors gave impassioned speeches praising those students for their courage, demanding that academic freedom be protected, and castigating Shafik for throwing us all under the bus.

Still, Gaza was not mentioned. It seemed as if the genocide occurring there was disappearing in the fog.

“I’m worried that the message of our protest is getting lost,” that suspended student told me as we spoke in the lobby. “Everyone’s talking about academic freedom and police repression instead.”

Indeed, not only is the protest against Israel’s pathological spree of murder in Palestine and on the West Bank being drowned out in this debate, so are the student protesters’ demands, so let me reiterate them here:

That Columbia divest of all investments that profit from Israel’s occupation and bombing of Palestine.

That Columbia sever academic ties with its programs at Tel Aviv and other Israeli Universities.

That the policing of the campus be stopped immediately.

That the university release a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The other day, on New York’s National Public Radio station, WNYC, I heard a caller who had been a campus protester in 1968 say something like, “It’s funny how the protesters of 50 years ago are always right, but the protesters of today are always wrong.” The people who demonstrated for civil rights then were demonized, beaten, even murdered, but they were right, he pointed out, as were the people who demonstrated against the Vietnam War. (I would say the same for those who protested against the Iraq War and for the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements.)

One day, the students who are protesting the genocide in Gaza and the persecution of Palestinians today will be seen as on the right side, too. History will prove it. Until then, let’s turn the discussion back to where it belongs: an end to the war on Gaza.

Final Note: This piece was written before the president and trustees of Columbia called in the riot police on the night of April 30th, against the advice of many faculty, to arrest the students in the encampment, as well as those who had occupied Hamilton Hall. Videos show considerable police violence against the students. What happens next remains to be seen.

Copyright 2024 Helen Benedict

Helen Benedict, who is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author most recently of the novel The Good Deed, has been writing about war and refugees for more than a decade. A recipient of the 2021 PEN Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History and the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism, she has also written 13 other books of fiction and nonfiction.

Via Tomdispatch.com

Sen. Warren spoke at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, Massachusetts, and a video of one of her exchanges was posted to X by WGBH reporter Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford).

A member of the congregation asked her if Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, an allegation that has been made in international forums.

She replied:

WARREN: “So, I think what’s happening now is going to be a long and involved debate over what constitutes genocide when you ask a legal question. For me it is far more important to say that what Israel is doing is wrong — and it is wrong. It is wrong to starve children, women, a civilian population, in order to try to bend them to your will. It is wrong to drop 2,000-pound bombs in densely-populated civilian areas. I think I can make a more effective argument by describing the behavior that is happening and whether I believe it is right or wrong and look people in the eyes if you want to tell people you think it is right and it should be the policy of the United States of America to support those actions. So that’s how I analyze this –”

Audience member: “You didn’t answer the question.”

WARREN: “No, I did answer the question. I said –”

Audience member: “It was a yes or no.”

Audience member: “It was a yes or no. The second question was a yes or no question, to clarify.”

WARREN: “So if you want to do it as an application of law, I believe they [the International Court of Justice] will find it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so. What I’m also trying to tell you is that I’m trying to get people past a labels argument, which seems to throw up a screen, and get them to look at the behavior on the ground, get them to look at the children; to get them to look at the moms and the old people and the people who have been displaced and the people who are living outside and the people who are drinking dirty water. And talk about what the role of the United States is in connection with supporting the Netanyahu government, which put the people of Gaza in that position.”

At a Q&A at a Wayland mosque last week, @SenWarren is asked if she thinks that Israel is committing a genocide.

"If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they will find that it is genocide," she says, adding that she's trying to get "past a labels argument" pic.twitter.com/mxqBP6oTlH

— Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford) April 8, 2024

I think the subtext of this exchange is that it is easier for a member of the Senate to decry particular military tactics of the Israeli government than to utter the word “genocide,” because admitting that Israel is committing genocide would require that the US cease transferring arms and perhaps even money to Tel Aviv. Even elements of the Israel lobbies must be feeling pretty conflicted about the horror story in Gaza by now, and might be willing to tolerate severe criticism of it. But “genocide” is a step too far for most of them. Most Jewish Americans, of course, know the score, and young Jews are done out with Netanyahu and increasingly with Israel; I’m talking about the AIPAC establishment.

It is important to underline that we got this admission from Warren, who has a Rutgers law degree, that under International Humanitarian Law, Israel’s conduct in Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide, only because Muslim Americans held her feet to the fire.

Israel in the halls of Congress is now the king with no clothes, and Warren has worked herself toward admitting it in public. Many of the Progressive Caucus among Democrats in the House have been saying these things for some time. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for instance, used the term genocide on the House floor two weeks ago, and so paved the way for this admission by the more circumspect Warren (who began her political career as a Republican).

Then, Power testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Rep. Jaoquin Castro (D-TX) questioned her about the situation the Israeli government has created in Gaza (“House Foreign Affairs Committee Holds Hearing on USAID’s Foreign Policy and International Development Priorities”) (emphasis added):

“JOAQUIN CASTRO:… Administrator Power, thank you for joining us today. And of course, I’d normally ask you about locally led development and some of your great work there at USAID. But I want to ask you obviously, about the very urgent situation, humanitarian situation in Gaza. In your testimony, you said that the entire population of Gaza is living under the threat of famine.

News reports came out recently that certain USAID officials sent a cable to the National Security Council warning that famine is already likely occurring in parts of the Gaza Strip. According to the report, quote, ‘famine conditions are most severe and widespread in northern Gaza, which is under Israeli control.’ Do you think that it’s plausible or likely that parts of Gaza, and particularly northern Gaza, are already experiencing famine?

SAMANTHA POWER: Well, the methodology that the IPC [Integrated food security Phase Classification] used, is one that we had our experts scrub, it’s one that’s relied upon in other settings, and that is their assessment. And we believe that assessment is credible.

JOAQUIN CASTRO: So there’s — famine is already occurring there.

SAMANTHA POWER: That is — yes.

JOAQUIN CASTRO: Yeah. OK. And more than half of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, as you know, and are seriously affected by the lack of access to food and nutrition. And various organizations, including the United Nations, have warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children may die, if they don’t get necessary food and nutrition assistance in just the next two to three weeks.

Has USAID made such an assessment itself? And do you have a sense of how many such children might be at risk of dying if they don’t get access to food and nutrition that’s currently unavailable?

SAMANTHA POWER: I do not have those assessments on hand. but I will say that the — in northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition, prior to October 7th, was almost zero. And it is now one in three kids. But extrapolating out is hard. And I will say, just with some humility, because it is so hard to move around in Gaza, because the access challenges that give rise, in part, to the malnutrition are so severe, it is also you know, hard to do the kind of scaled assessments that we would wish to do. But in terms of, you know, actual severe acute malnutrition for under fives, that rate was 16 percent in January, and became 30 percent in February.

And we’re awaiting the — the March numbers. But we expect it to continue —

JOAQUIN CASTRO: So it got markedly worse.

SAMANTHA POWER: Yeah, markedly worse . . .

President Joe Biden apparently lives in a world where it is unthinkable that Israel is committing a genocide or deliberately starving the civilian population to, as Sen. Warren put it, “to try to bend them to” its will. But the people around him are not blind or stupid, and they know the score. They haven’t been able to get through to him in any significant way. He finally admitted that 30,000 are dead in Gaza and said “it cannot become 60,000.” He is not doing anything practical to forestall that result, however, and the likelihood is indeed that 60,000 will be murdered if not more.

Power declines to resign, even though she helped propel the Obama administration into a war in Libya to try to prevent the killing of 25,000 protesters by Gaddafi in 2011. If she were consistent she would be calling for a US war on Israel to make it withdraw from Gaza.

Warren, meanwhile, continues to vote to give ever more arms and money to Israel, so she appears merely to regret the genocide but prefers to be senator than to try to do anything practical to stop it.

Despite these frank admissions, which come far too late, the reek of rank hypocrisy in the Democratic Party concerning the impunity of Netanyahu and his fascist henchmen continues to lie like a thick layer of fog over our nation’s capital.

As for the truly unhinged Republican Party, which may be to the right of Netanyahu, its bright idea is to condemn Biden for being too hard on the Likud. Some Democrats say they will go along, for all the world like politicians of the Hutu Power faction denouncing Rwandans who were too soft on the Tutsi minority.

TRT World: “Pro-Israel AIPAC slammed for being ‘complicit in Gaza genocide’

 While the NYT article accurately highlights AIPAC’s involvement in financing electoral campaigns against left-leaning Democrats perceived as not adequately supportive of Israel, it overlooks AIPAC’s broader antidemocratic effects. For example, AIPAC raises funds for many right-wing politicians, including individuals commonly described as insurrectionists. In the 2022 midterm elections, AIPAC endorsed 109 Republican candidates who voted in favor of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.
 
3. Typically, around 75 percent of American Jews vote for liberal or progressive candidates. This trend is exemplified by instances such as Barack Obama winning 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008 and Joe Biden receiving 77 percent in 2020.
 
   Given the substantial achievements and freedoms that American Jews have enjoyed under the principles and opportunities afforded by liberalism, it’s unsurprising that the majority of them align with liberal values and consistently vote for Democratic candidates. Moreover, a consistent majority of American Jews express support for US pressure on both Israel and the Palestinians if it would help secure a peace deal.


   Accordingly, the right-wing policies championed by Likud embody what American liberals reject: occupation, apartheid, and ethnic tribalism. However, while AIPAC’s alignment with these policies places it well outside the mainstream of American Jewish opinion, its electoral practices make it very challenging for politicians to support reasonable pressure on Israel to conform to international law.


   In a 2022 Democratic primary, AIPAC allocated significant financial resources towards opposing (and ultimately defeating) the candidacy of progressive Jewish Congressman Andy Levin. Despite Levin’s robust advocacy for Israel, he aligned himself with the liberal lobby organization J Street, which espouses a pro-Israel, pro-peace stance. (Additionally, Levin supported progressive domestic policies such as the expansion of Medicare coverage.)
 
4. While Jewish donors as a whole tend to favor liberal Democratic candidates and causes, a significant portion of extremely affluent Jewish donors, such as billionaires Robert Kraft, Paul Singer and Bernie Marcus, typically endorse the AIPAC/Likud agenda. These megadonors wield considerable influence due to their substantial contributions, enabling them to lobby for specific foreign and domestic policies.


   Consequently, AIPAC not only promotes Likud-aligned foreign policies but also generally supports Republican domestic policies. The latter tendency is to be expected, as the individuals who oversee and finance AIPAC tend to be affluent, and therefore favor policies that benefit their personal and business affairs.


5. A reflection of AIPAC’s priorities is evident in its failure to initially endorse one steadfast supporter of Israel in 2022: former Republican Representative Liz Cheney. As former President Trump vehemently criticized Cheney for her condemnation of his disgraceful words and actions concerning the 2020 election, AIPAC, consistent with other Republican entities, opted to align with Trump rather than stand alongside Cheney, a vocal proponent of democratic principles. However, after public criticism from Cheney and others, AIPAC reversed its embarrassing position.
 
In conclusion, AIPAC has played an important part in shifting Israel to the far right. By consistently promoting Likud’s policies, it has undermined moderate Israeli politicians. Imagine how different Israel might look if AIPAC — easily the biggest, wealthiest and most influential player in the Israel lobby — had advocated for limitations on illegal settlement expansion, thereby fostering a climate more conducive to peace and stability. Instead, Likudniks could rightly tell Israeli voters: We can maintain a harsh occupation, expand Jewish-only settlements, all while continuing to benefit from substantial American military, economic and diplomatic support.

Via Detailed Political Quizzes

Comments can be sent to Israel-Palestine-Quiz@live.com

Detailed Political Quizzes