Saturday’s New York Times featured an absurd piece of anti-Israel, pro-ceasefire propaganda, headlined “As Gaza Death Toll Mounts, Groups Urging Israel-Hamas Cease-Fire Are Outmatched,” by Kate Kelly, who covers “money, policy and influence” for the paper.
Kelly set up The Friends Committee, part of “Washington’s peace lobby,” as a plucky little underdog against AIPAC, much like the left tries to make terrorist Hamas sympathetic against big bad Israel, which was the actual victim. She dutifully forwarded the group’s propaganda.
Amazingly, nowhere in her call for unilateral ceasefire, which would benefit Hamas, was mentioned the major ceasefire sticking point: The hundred or so Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.
When the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most influential pro-Israel group in the United States, wants to use its muscle, it can call on its considerable resources to run negative ads against lawmakers who oppose its agenda and pour money into funding a challenger.
When the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker group that is pushing for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, wants to push its message, its Middle East lobbyist turns to tactics like playing guitar with schoolchildren in the occupied West Bank and sharing video messages about their fears with members of Congress on Capitol Hill.
Going up against the many forces backing Israel is a challenge for any group. But the clash is especially striking when it comes to the Friends Committee, whose antiwar positions are in sync with much of the left of the Democratic Party but run counter to Biden administration policy in the wake of the Hamas terror attack and face intense opposition on the right.
AIPAC, founded about 70 years ago to promote Israel’s interests in the U.S., is a juggernaut. Last year, its nonprofit arm reported more than $73 million in revenue….
The Times much prefers groups like the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamic pressure group masquerading as a Muslim civil rights organization linked to terrorism by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and others and whose leader Nihad Awad declared himself happy about the October 7 massacre.
The group has draped a banner stating “Ceasefire Now!” in English, Arabic and Hebrew on the facade of its Second Street office, which faces the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.
“We’re clearly being outspent, but I think the saving grace is that our ideas are just more popular,” said Hassan El-Tayyab, the Friends Committee’s Middle East legislative director.
The paper liked that quote so much it used it as a photo caption, topping the page online.
As Congress grapples with providing more aid to Israel, the Friends Committee and its political allies are pushing for an immediate cease-fire, more humanitarian aid for Gazans, continued funding for the U.N. aid group UNRWA and a cleareyed assessment of Israel’s human rights record.
Kelly didn’t even mention the dozen UNRWA employees counted among the terrorists who invaded Israel October 7. Instead, she painted a sinister picture about the Jewish lobbying group, even referencing Barack Obama, who was and remains hostile to Israel, during and after his presidency.
AIPAC, which is supporting scores of Democrats and Republicans for re-election this cycle, is well known -- and feared -- in Washington. “Members of both parties worried about crossing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,” former President Barack Obama wrote in his 2020 memoir, echoing a refrain heard from lawmakers today.
AIPAC has recently run harsh ads spotlighting some lawmakers’ refusal to condemn the Oct. 7 terror attacks carried out by Hamas. It plans to challenge incumbents like Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Jamaal Bowman, Democrat of New York, whose stances on Israel and the Palestinians it disagrees with.
Why shouldn’t ads against “progressive” terror supporters be “harsh”?
….As the Gazan health ministry reports [Editor’s Note: That would be Hamas] that more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, Mr. El-Tayyab and his fellow peace lobbyists are pushing for a cease-fire not only on moral grounds, but also on practical ones.
Leftist media outlets too often inaccurately describe taking the side of terrorists as a "peace" platform. The way Kelly pushed “peace” echoes the ironic line from Tacitus, “….where they create a desert, they call it peace.”
Kelly cowrote a hit piece of a book on Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which was quickly and thoroughly discredited by journalist Mollie Hemingway.
