Ever since the standing ovations Congress bestowed on Netanyahu last May, unconditional support for Isael has beeen in decline. Salon reviews this shift first followed by a piece highly critical of that support by Thomas Friedman, influential Jewish columnist on the NY Times

Talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began in Jordan on 3rd January following sustained pressure from King Abdullah and the Quartet. The building of new settlements on land occupied by Israel was and remains the break point for Palestinians

Israel’s former ambassador to S.Africa recalls its laws designed to disable civil society, destroy community organizations and stamp out human rights. But, unlike the ‘strikingly similar’ laws being proposed in Israel, at least there was due process in the apartheid state.

The charity Community Service Trust, CST, whose report was instrumental in the detention of Raed Salah, has sent names of individuals and groups it deems ‘anti-Zionist’ and thus ‘extreme’ to the Home Office. At least one of these, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, is a member of JfJfP. Asa Winstanley queries the charitable status of the CST

Mossad chief Tamir Pardo has followed other establishment critics in rejecting PM Netanyahu’s claim that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel’s existence; as such this would justify a pre-emptive attack by the IDF against Iran. Haaretz report

Despite the fear of Gazans that ‘nobody stands with us’, word and picture of the damage caused by Operation Cast Lead and its repercussions have spread far. Here we post an Open Letter by trade unions and NGOs in Gaza, and more personal accounts from the PCHR.

There are electric lifts, railways, petrol pipe-lines and little red tape.. Israel’s siege of Gaza, an act of reprisal, was intended to bring bring the people to their knees and destroy support for Hamas. Gazan ingenuity and Hamas flexibility have produced the opposite result.

Haredi Jews, whose pressure to confine women and girls has prompted strong disapproval in Israel, dressed their children in striped prison clothes and wore yellow patches in a demonstration on Saturday. The claim that they are the Jews and other Israelis are the Nazis has caused outrage

Barak Ravid hears unhappy mutterings from Israel’s ambassadors; they can’t answer the questions about reports of right-wing and religious attacks on the country’s democracy – though they congratulate themselves on stopping the flotilla and UN recognition for Palestine

‘Anti-normalization is one of the hottest topics in the Palestinian community’ writes Aziz Abu Sarah who opposes the strategy as going along with Israel’s rule by separation of Arab and Jew; PACBI defends the policy as refusing ‘colonisation of the mind’ and preventing any appearance of Israel as a ‘normal’ state

Carlo Strenger, liberal commentator on Haaretz, declares 2011 the year the two-state solution died. He takes hope from the community who share his values and will continue, at least, to stand for civil and human rights and stop their further erosion in Israel

Like Carlo Strenger (above) Palestinian American and Jpost columnist Ray Hanania despairs of leaders or ‘extremists’ making peace; he launched the Yalla peace party “to promote peace based on two-states non-violence and compromise”.

EU members of the UN Security Council call on Israeli government to halt the devastating effects of building settlements and of escalating settler violence and asks for political leadership on both sides. Israel responds with ‘outrage’ at European assault

Marwan Barghouti, the popular Palestinian leader, has been in prison since 2002 for his alleged role in the second intifada. It is widely assumed that he was not freed in the prisoner swap because the official Palestinian leadership regard him as a threat to their authority. Joseph Dana describes this complex man who has supported non-violent and violent resistance but always ia commitment to intellectual work

High Court rules that Israel’s ‘unique’ occupation allows it to transgress international law on the fruits of the land, thus enriching Israel but impoverishing its own status as an upholder of law and justice

On the third anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s deady onslaught on Gaza, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights publishes a series of stories about some of those killed, maimed, bereavd. Here we post the first two.

At Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year – 2011 the Jewish Chronicle gathered 5 people for a discussion on being Jewish in Britain. For our coming secular New Year, we post this round-table which ranges, calmly and crossly, over identity, Israel, God, anti-semitism, parenthood, judgmentalism, Palestine, the diaspora and much else.

President Shimon Peres has added his voice to the thousands who have rallied in defence of the right of girls and women to move and mix freely in public space. Like the settlers, the Haredim are now using violence against police as well as neighbours they disapprove of in order to get their own rule enforced.

Israel’s minister for information, who is active in the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism, has denounced all Arabs as deplorable, damaged, worthless. Ben White reports, Yossie Gurvitz adds and definitions of a few words are offered

Hannah Arendt, 1906-75, was a rare philosopher who combined deep grounding in the classics with an acute and lively appreciation of contemporary politics, 1st. Her sceptical inquiries into Zionism, Israel, nationalism, what constitutes a people remain provocative as shown in Judith Butler’s review of her Jewish Writings, 2nd