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security adviser in the Barack Obama administration. “Anybody who pretends like AIPAC isn’t hugely responsible for the positions that are taken by Congress is just sticking their head in the ground,” Rhodes declares. He recalled the multi-million dollar campaign against the Iran nuclear deal and the effort to embarrass Obama by orchestrating Netanyahu’s appearance before a joint session of Congress in 2015. Obama ultimately prevailed in securing U.S. approval of the multilateral agreement—subsequently revoked by Trump. However, as Rhodes explains, “We spent so much political capital on the Iran deal that it foreclosed” efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians. In addition to Rhodes and the former AIPAC insiders, the film draws on interviews with young American Jews who were cultivated by AIPAC when they were high school and college students, only to come to the realization that the lobby reflected reactionary anti-Palestinian and anti-peace positions that they did not actually support. After breaking with AIPAC, some of the students joined alternative groups such as IfNotNow. “God bless them,” Dine declares in the film. “The Kings of Capitol Hill” also highlights the growing alliance between AIPAC and Christians United for Israel, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding over the union with American Evangelicals. The film suggests that the apocalyptic views of CUFI’s John Hagee, which entail the destruction of Jews to usher in the “end times,” are alienating Jews and empowering liberal alternative groups such as IfNotNow and J Street. But the film concludes with a defiant Kohr declaring, “Our detractors think we are vulnerable; that we will fold when we are pushed. But they don’t know what we are made of.” The former AIPAC insiders do know, however, precisely what AIPAC is made of, though they are now anxious to disassociate themselves from the Frankenstein that they helped create. Their hypocrisy notwithstanding, “The Kings of Capitol Hill” makes an important contribution to the 52
growing movement that is exposing AIPAC for the repressive and monolithic monster that it is. —Walter L. Hixson
“Gaza Fights for Freedom” Sheds Light on Great March of Return
On Nov. 23, the Palestine Foundation held a virtual film screening of “Gaza Fights for Freedom,” as well as a conversation with the film’s producer Michael Prysner and its director/narrator Abby Martin. The documentary was filmed in 2018 during the height of the Great March of Return. For two years, protesters gathered along the Israel-Gaza border demanding their right to return to the homes they were forcefully removed from as a result of Israel’s creation. First released in May of 2019, Prysner and Martin withdrew the film for further editing a few months later. When the new release was ready at the beginning of 2020, the outbreak of the coronavirus severely limited opportunities to screen the film. However, it was well received where it was able to be seen, such as in Los Angeles and San Diego. The film is now available online, at <gazafightsforfreedom.com>. When Prysner and Martin tried to enter Gaza in 2018, the Israelis denied them entry. They thus had to hire Gazan film professionals to do all the filming. “Making this film wasn’t an easy task since both of us weren’t on the ground,” Prysner said. The film focuses on the life and death of a young Gazan woman, Razan al-Najjar, a volunteer medic who was shot dead by
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
an Israeli sniper on June 1, 2018 while assisting injured demonstrators near the fence separating Gaza from Israel. Despite her humanitarian role in the march, Israel attempted to portray al-Najjar as an enemy combatant and launched a propaganda campaign targeting the dead medic. Prysner and Martin hope the film’s footage and narrative will help both neophytes and long-time followers of the conflict to better understand the sordid reality on the ground in Gaza and the rest of Palestine. —Samir Twair
WAGING PEACE Palestine Urged to Present Biden With a New, Unified Vision
The Washington, DC-based Palestine Center held its annual conference virtually on Nov. 7. Titled “The Future of Palestine,” the event offered thoughts on how Palestinians ought to respond to the election of Joe Biden as U.S. president. Speakers repeatedly stressed the importance of Palestinians not embracing a revival of the fruitless decades-old “peace process.” Rather, they called on Palestinians to unify and articulate to the U.S. and the world a clear vision for their future. Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said Biden is likely to take some steps favorable to Palestinians,
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021
