In a controverial article Yossi Gurvitz attacks the left outside Israel for seeing the protesters as middle class who won’t go outside their comfort zone and take on the Occupation. Can (pro)Palestinians be allies if they see Israelis as guilty of original sin? In response, Noam Sheizaf remains hopeful of progress, but chides non-Israelis for accepting his Jewishness but not his Israeli-ness

JfJfP sends greetings to all our Muslim readers on the occasion of Eid. ‘Eid al-Fitr is a joyous occasion but its underlying purpose is to praise God and give thanks to him, according to Islamic belief’.

South African Shafiq Morton found much of his critique of Zionist blindness was no longer controversial. The sticking point for his readers was Hamas;despite experience with the ANC of the gap between demagoguery and practical negotiation they could not hear the nuance.

Only the EU remains undecided – waiting for the final resolution – over how to vote at the UN. David Cameron will follow His Master’s Voice , Israel is resigned to losing the General Assembly vote and the PA is still considering tactics. Four reports from Al Jazeera, Palestine Chronicle and Ma’an News

New research by the Center for American Progress documents the people investing in Islamophobia (1st); 2nd, a post-Oslo report from Jadaliyya showing ‘that Islam has now taken the place of Judaism in the paranoid weltanschauung of some of the far right is a result of a transformed global situation’.

Guy Goodwin-Gill, Professor of International Refugee Law at Oxford University, wrote an opinion for the team preparing the Palestinian statehood bid that recognition could deprive the Palestinian diaspora of their right of return (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/238962-final-pdf-plo-statehood-opinionr-arb.html. for the original document) The question depends on the limited authority of the PA as a government, versus the PLO. Here Ma’an collects the opinion of four other experts

B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, responds to last week’s violence with a charge against ‘Palestinians’ (1st) of actual war crimes and a warning to the IDF (2nd) of potential crimes. Its data of Palestinian attacks covers a seven year period.

There are six articles in this post: 1) Larry Derfner’s account of his sacking by Jerusalem Post; 2) the apology he wrote for his post on Palestinian terrorism, 3) Mondoweiss’s republication of that post; 4) a defence of Derfner by Dimi Reider in +972 mag; 5) an attack on Derfner’s argument but defence of his right to post it, by Barry Rubin; 6) an attack on Derfner and his leftist supporters (obscene, abomination, satanic, new shoah) by Donald Douglas, American Power blog

Gary Wexler, marketing expert, asks why companies conceal the origin of Israeli products in the USA and concludes that they know what Israelis won’t face: Israel’s name reflects practices that consumers won’t buy. A selection of comments is included at the end

Last May, Larry Derfner wrote that he supported a Jewish state because, despite its unfairnesses, in the end it replaced something worse – anti-semitism. In response, Richard Silverstein argued that such objections would not apply to a democratic Israel and, moreover, classical zionism consigned diaspora Jewry to being a mere bank of money and people to keep Israel supplied

Glen Beck’s ‘Restoring Courage’ rallies have left most Israelis cold. So why don’t they see the same preposterous values in Likud which has the same aims as Beck – a greater, hegemonic Israel, asks Mya Guarnieri?

A new, non-violent group called Olive Revolution (http://www.olive-revolution.com/news/) led a march last Friday to the checkpoints controlling access to Jerusalem, a manifestation of Palestinian claims to free acess. Following the news report, feminist and left-wing blogger Abir Kopty hopes the small number marching will swell into a new, self-made mass movement for Palestinian liberation

On September 3, 1 million Israelis are expected to march for social justice, democracy and equality- all devastating lacks in today’s Israel. The New Israel Fund has launched a petition of support – letter of invitation 1), preamble and petition 2). Jewish Forward on NIF support for the protest, 3)

Manchester is to hold a ‘Big Tent for Israel’ conference in November. Organizers have rejected the pressure to run it as a BICOM ‘We Believe’ franchise. A report of the PR work for arms companies by the new BICOM director, Luke Akehurst, follows, written by David Cronin, electronic intifada

If Netanyahu hoped his TV appearances flanked by military officers would dispel the still massive social protest, he has again misread it. The protesters are, reports, Aron Heller taking cover but not going home or turning against ‘the Arabs’

Treated as outlaws under Mubarak, the Bedouin of the Sinai have acted as entrepreneurial smugglers for the Gazans, shifting anything from a tiger to fuel – but not suicide bombers. With Al Qaeda trying to recruit them, reports Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, only Egypt can bring them in from the wilderness.

It will be a ‘moral victory’ victory for Netanyahu if Muslim and 3rd World nations support the Palestinian claim for recognition of their statehood, while the US and Europeans reject it, or force the PA to tone it down. Ynet News and JPost give their versions of EU/PA negotiations

At a public meeting for the tent protestors to discuss the ‘Palestinian September’, the sound was of hope for a common civil struggle and the crumbling of the old divisions – the people versus the Left, Jews v Arabs- which have shored up the reign of the right. Haggai Matar reports

Although there is no firm evidence that the rocket attacks on Israel on 18th August came from Gaza, the IOF has responded with deadly airstrikes, continuing after the cease-fire. Personal (Al Jazeera vox pop 1, Eva Bartlett 2, ) and Gazan legal centre (PCHR, 3, Al Mezan Center, 4) accounts testify to the damage

The notorious Glenn Beck, sacked from Fox Broadcasting for being too prejudiced for even their biassed broadcasts, has been welcomed to Israel to preach his support for the ‘Jewish state’. A Haaretz editorial asks why the Israeli right is now in alliance with American Christian Zionists and what it says about their fears and priorities