Distinguished analyst Marzuq Al-Halabi, Palestinian citizen of Israel, explores the different currents of Palestinian-ness from a a focus on political rights through withdrawn concentration on identity to a quiet effort to integrate. Given the threat from the Right he urges an alliance with democratic forces.

This posting on Palestinian writer and thinker Emil Habibi, who coined the term ‘opsimist’, is included now because of the posting above about currents in Palestinians’ thought. Habibi died in 1996.

Here is another very valuable contribution to the debate about what constitutes antisemitism and, where it occurs, how to respond.If all Jews are blamed for Israel’s actions they are also then guilty of dual loyalty. It is written by 3 academics and was sent to the Home Affairs select committee inquiry.

And that, simply, is the naked power to kill your enemies with impunity. When Trump says his foreign policy is to “bomb the shit out of ISIS” “kick ass”, pro-Israel Americans are especially admiring and envious writes Shalom Goldman.

Britain has a strong tradition of radical and political song. Palestine has not figured in that before. Robert Cohen brings to us Coope Boyes and Simpson and their new song, Children of Palestine.

The basic facts of the Israeli occupation, of its treatment of Palestinians and its expansion of settlements have been in the public domain for a long time. So why is a Likud MP now demanding that Hagai El-Ad be treated as a traitor? Because, as the post below suggests, the B’Tselem director stated the need for outside intervention in the face of Israeli complicity and passivity.

Veteran commentator Akiva Eldar is also impressed by Hagai El-Ad’s speech (see post below) – but not by the ignorance of the attacks on him. He points out that at every stage of its existence outside bodies have intervened to press Israel to save itself.

The speech B’Tselem’s director gave to the UN Security Council provides the platform which the opposition in Israel should adopt: The rights of Palestinians must be realized; the occupation must end; the UN Security Council must act; and the time is now.

Defence minister Avigdor has said in an interview – though not a formal proposal – that if Hamas disarms, Israel will lift the siege of Gaza. The response so far has been hostile – the siege is anyway illegal [and Hamas does not control all the armed groups].

It is well-known that Christian Zionists are evangelical about Jews retaking Israel (to trigger the 2nd Coming). Less well-known, points out Richard Silverstein, is that Jewish supremacists in Israel are violently hostile to Christianity.

As a founding member of JfJfP Richard Kuper draws on his personal experience and his extensive knowledge of Israel to analyse the Home Affairs report on antisemitism which floats on a raft of fixed assumptions that Labour antisemitism is a fact for which no further evidence is needed.

This week, 17th-23rd October, 2016, there happened to be two interesting articles about Britain’s imagined role in the Middle East, both suggesting that more power is projected onto this former imperial power than it has actually exercised since 1945. The 1917 Balfour Declaration is a particular paper tiger. Chris Doyle of CAABU is taken aback […]

Israel’s border police have always exercised extreme vigilance about who they allow into the country. Since the setting up of the anti-BDS unit more unwanted British visitors have been identified and sent home after interrogation and strip-searching.

Noam Rotem of +972 goes through the many meanings of Zionism – a nebulous idea. But today, for Israelis, Zionism is what protects their supremacy and national identity. The Left must break with that idea.

Perhaps the best thing about the Home Affairs Select Committee report on antisemitism is the debate it has provoked. Here Asa Winstanley puts forward his view of what Zionism is and argues it is the correct word for Israel’s raison d’etre.

One thing is known by Palestinians: their ills are caused by the Balfour Declaration. Good politics perhaps but terrible history. The declaration was highly conditional, made to get the US on side during WW1. Many UN committees later, the British hurriedly left Palestine, allowing the US to step in as the primary outside force backing very unequal partition and the mass immigration of European Jews.

Gaza was once rich farming country, with 100,000 farmers growing crops to feed extensive family networks. Now there are only 18,000 left, unable to obtain fertilizer. Salt has infiltrated the land and defoliant, sprayed by the IDF, destroys much of the vegetation. Without farming, life is impossible in Gaza.

Thanks to Wikileaks, Barak Ravid can read an exchange between an American political adviser and an analyst. It wasn’t the fear of Iran. It was the fear of Arabs that swung it for the master tactician.

A steady supply of fresh water demands engineering work. In Israel and the oPt engineering work demands permits. Permits require a non-discriminatory, efficient bureaucracy. Which is just what West Bank camps and villages do not have.

Twitter has enabled a new public forum of antisemitism – as it has for all forms of racist and religious abuse. American Jews are less used to being the targets of racism but Trump’s large following of white nationalists has shocked them.