If Obama wins a second term, it is believed likely his policy towards Israeli recalcitrance will become tougher. Bad prospect for Netanyahu who has called a snap Likud leadership election, likely to lead to an early general election. Thus will his position be shored up before Israel is divided by American pressure

Lampooned as a liar Netanyahu is simply the least convncing of successive lying Prime Ministers – who are cheered in their peace words and violent actions by Israeli voters. It’s the G7 leaders who have an interest in denouncing Netanyahu writes Amira Hass (see also http://jfjfp.com/?p=26428 for the military link)

The IDF want to release some Fatah prisoners to bolster Abbas’s weakened Palestinian Authority against Hamas. But Netanyahu and his close advisers are determined to maintain pressure on Abbas as punishment for his unilateral bid for UN recognition of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu has not only reversed the policies of previous Prime Minsters (that outposts – precursors of settlements – were illegal and would be removed) but it is reported that outposts built on privately-owned West Bank land will be ‘legalised’. Report from Peace Now, and Lara Friedman and Hagit Ofran on this abuse of law

The Arab Awakening has broken all the rigidities of regimes round the southern and esstern Mediterannean. In this (abbreviated) essay, Tony Klug clesely examines the options now facing Israel and the Palestininans – including Hamas which must, he says, ‘openly purge its Covenant of its virulently anti-Semitic content’

Liberal diaspora Jews who fail to recognse the move of Israel towards repressive policies and the significance of the settlements, epitomised by the boycott act, are part of the problem not part of the solution

Why is Greece doing Israel’s will in seeking to sink the flotilla? Because with unusual diplomaic skill, Netanyahu has taken up Greece’s debt crisis and is forging a new Balkan alliance based on excluding Islamic Turkey. The article from Ha’aretz is followed by one from Yediot

Prime Minister Netanyahu has no plan to block PA bid for UN recognition says President of World Jewish Congress, former ally of Israeli PM

What the US Congress applauded so loudly was the future of colonialism and apartheid which Israel’s right wing wants. If Obama had recognised the UN’s potential, this future could be averted

As we posted last week (Human rights groups organise public protest at power of AIPAC) Move Over AIPAC! held a conference and protest in Washington DC May 21-24. A supporter heckled Netanyahu in Congress. She was assaulted and taken to hospital – where she was arrested Check the original for photos and video.

The American Congress responded to PM Netanyahu as a supine people once responded to their out-of-touch Arab dictators – with appeasing applause – writes Dima Khatib. They must all know you can’t choose who represents the other side

Jane Eisner, editor of Forward – US Jewish weekly – , believes that the thunderous noise of 30 standing ovations for Behamin Netanyahu in his visit to Congress has drowned out the doubts and anxieties about his intransigence

When the Israeli and British PMs met on 4th May ‘Mr Netanyahu is understood to have expressed Israeli anger that the UK government had decided to welcome Fatah’s deal with a terrorist organisation at the same time as standing shoulder to shoulder with the US over the shooting of bin Laden.’

A leaked document reveals that Israel’s Foreign Ministry think the Palestinian unity deal should be welcomed in order to put pressure on the PA and to keep in with the USA

As anxiety mounts in Israel ovr the opening of the Rafah crossing, sources close to Netanyahu say he is considering sending his special adviser Isaac Molho to Cairo

Statement from JfJfP welcomes unity agreement as essential step towards Palestinian self-determination and deplores Netanyahu’s response

MJ Rosenberg follows up his analysis of Aipac (posted earlier in the week) with this piece in the Huffington Post. Here he deals with the latest contribution by David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker and arguably the most influential Jewish American journalist writing today. Having traditionally given Israel the benefit of the doubt Remnick has now moved decisively against the “Israel First” brigade…

A cynically cheerful take on the peace talks by Uri Avery, as each party – Netanyahu, Abbas, Obama – seeks to limit the damage. Clearly no-one expects peace to come out of these discussions…

The Israeli press (Haaretz, Ynet – Yediot Ahranot online – & the Jerusalem Post) on current US-Israel relations. Has the Obama administration seized the opportunity of Israeli political mis-steps to regain some of the capital lost last year? Has Netanyahu really departed the US having been humiliated? Does the stalled peace process endanger the lives of US troops or US national security?

Gush Shalom’s Uri Avnery on the motives and mistakes that lie behind the recent announcement of a list of Jewish national heritage sites, several of which are in the Palestinian Occupied Territories including Hebron and Nablus.