News via @repmarkpocan: 40 Democrats send a letter to Mike Pompeo (ahead of his trip to Israel) asking for condemnation of Israel's Election Day demolition of a Palestinian village, and inquiring whether US equipment was used in the demolition operation.
“The Netanyahu government is attempting to use the cover of our presidential election to commit gross human rights atrocities and the largest single demolition of a Palestinian community in a decade." --@repmarkpocan
Notable: this is a broad coalition of Dems on this letter. It includes those who demand conditioning aid to Israel and those who haven't signed on to conditioning aid bills that @BettyMcCollum04 has authored.
THREAD: Here's some crucial background as to why Pompeo visited the Psagot Winery today. It's a simple story of political donors that bankroll politicians and Christian evangelicals.
In July 2020, Pompeo went to a dinner sponsored by Simon Falic, the owner of Duty Free Americas (those airport shops) and a major funder of Israeli settlements. The Falic Family are majority owners of the Psagot Winery.
During that dinner, Falic "encouraged Pompeo and the administration to help Israel make more of the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria part of the current state" flashtrafficblog.epicentermedia.net/2020/07/20/exc…
Notice @AdamMilstein’s tweets accusing @RashidaTlaib and @IlhanMN of terrorism and betrayal of the US? Wanna know more about who he is? Read my story: He’s on AIPAC national council, is a major donor to the group—and funds orgs that smear college students theintercept.com/2019/03/25/ada…
From 2004-2016, the Milstein Family Foundation gave at least $4.4 million to groups in the United States and Israel that work to solidify the U.S.-Israel alliance and harshly attack critics of Israeli policy.
He funds groups that accuse student activists of ties to terrorists, monitor student supporters of Palestinian rights, plaster students’ names on shadowy websites, and file legal challenges that pose a threat to activist work. All while he tweets out Islamophobic rhetoric