The Forward:
"More than half of all American states have passed laws designed to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. No advocacy group was more important to this push than the Israel Allies Foundation, an American non-profit that supports a network of pro-Israel legislators across the globe. ...
Public records obtained by The Forward show that the Israeli government approved a grant of more than $100,000 to the Israel Allies Foundation in 2019. The IAF has not disclosed this or any previous Israeli grants to the United States government, in possible violation of laws requiring American political advocacy groups to disclose foreign-government contributions. It is one of 11 American groups that received Israeli government funds, according to the documents, which show that the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and a quasi-governmental organization it created has given at least $6.6 million to U.S. organizations since 2018.
According to the Israeli documents, most of the grants to the American organizations were intended to send those groups’ members — and selected guests — on chartered trips to Israel. ... But documents also suggest that some of those trips included instructions for pro-Israel advocacy back home — in statehouses and on college campuses — which legal experts say may expose not just the recipient groups but also anyone who went on their trips to fines and even prosecution for violating disclosure rules."
-->How many reams of pages has the NYT printed on Russia's influence in our government? No word on this story in our supposed "newspaper of record," which eagerly protects Israel's good name.
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FAIR:
"After the spectacle of a Democratic National Convention featuring more Republicans than Latinos, Americans got a Republican Convention featuring—to pick just one thing— gleeful violations of the Hatch Act. That’s the law that prohibits federal employees from taking part in partisan political activities. So, things like having the Secretary of State make a campaign speech from Jerusalem, where they’re engaged on state business, or the first lady stumping with the White House Rose Garden as backdrop, or the head of Homeland Security performing a naturalization ceremony, with Trump looking on, as part of the convention—all patently illegal and unethical.
But besides framing it as 'many Democrats were outraged,' as did USA Today (8/26/20), elite media normalized the behavior with passivity, like the New York Times headline (8/26/20), pointed out by Eric Boehlert in his newsletter Press Run (8/27/20), 'At RNC, Trump Uses Tools of Presidency in Aim to Broaden Appeal.' ”
The same press corps for whom this is just 'oh there he goes, breaking with precedent again,' had a very different response, Boehlert reminds, when Al Gore was accused of violating the Hatch Act for making campaign fundraising phone calls from his White House office as vice president."
-->Major media treats rule breaking in the Trump administration as just anther unconventional use of presidential powers. I wonder if the NYT will have a different opinion when Trump overthrows our government? Another coup, sigh!
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Common Dreams:
"Full Frontal Attack on Rule of Law: Trump Sanctions Top ICC Officials Probing US War Crimes in Afghanistan. Human rights advocates blasted the move as 'another brazen attack against international justice' that 'is designed to do what this administration does best—bully and intimidate.'
Human rights advocates the world over condemned the Trump administration on Wednesday for imposing sanctions on two top officials at the International Criminal Court—just the latest act of retaliation for the Hague-based ICC's ongoing investigation into war crimes allegedly committed by U.S. forces and others in Afghanistan during the so-called War on Terror.
'The Trump administration's perverse use of sanctions, devised for alleged terrorists and drug kingpins, against prosecutors seeking justice for grave international crimes, magnifies the failure of the U.S. to prosecute torture,' said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch."
-->No worries about the US attacking the international rule of law. The NYT didn't think this story worthy of printing. The same goes for most of the empire's war crimes. Check back in 20 years after everyone has forgotten.
