There is no consensus on what Yitzhak Rabin – military commander and PM- stood for when alive or stands for 22 years after his death. Amir Hass and Guy Ziv offer different facts.

Last Saturday, November 4th, was the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who signed the Oslo accords. The act, the trial and aftermath show the incompatibility of religious and democratic law. Tomer Persico in +972

The longest, harshest occupation, the largest Jerusalem, the least democratic Israeli government, the most steps ever taken on Hamas/Fatah reconciliation and other non-superlative items of interest.

Deborah Maccoby reviews a new translation of ‘The Wandering Jew has Arrived’ by French journalist Albert Londres. The Jew doomed to ever wander the earth is a powerful legend though Londres finds that only in the ghettoes of eastern Europe, where many Jews are highly religious and passive, are there waves of unsettling pogroms.

If the Israeli Labour party does not get rid of its new leader ASAP – he is an anti-Palestinian nationalist – it will have torn up its own history and future as a party for Arab-Jewish equality and co-existence. Two strong articles

Neither Mr. Balfour, nor the Liberal government of which he was foreign secretary, had the power to re-arrange the Mid-East in the way PM Lloyd George imagined. The Balfour legacy is about the creation of Israel, the squashing of Palestinians and Britain’s delusions of grandeur.

The Balfour Declaration, November 2nd 2017, is a date now lodged in Palestinian minds if not most people’s. Here we reproduce the photos of anti-Balfour protests in the major cities of the oPt and Jordan.

This is a short extract from a long essay by historian Simon Schama on Balfour and the birth of Israel, published in the FT. His father remembered the Russian pogroms, the ‘knees-up’ for Balfour and his fellow East End Jews were acutely conscious of the immanent risk of homelessness.

For the first time in 10 years the Israel/Palestine status quo has shifted. Hamas and Fatah, under Egyptian prodding, reached a reconciliation agreement and on 1st Nov. Hamas guards on border crossings were replaced by PNA officials. It has promised to take part in a general election. A formula for putting their weapons out of use will have to be reached.

The military aid given by the USA to Israel is massive. It doesn’t all go on super F16 fighter planes. It’s paying for a hi-tech find and drill machine and an acoustic sensor. The more expensive a new ‘security’ machine, the happier the PM. In fact, as Richard Silverstein says, the claim that the new machine detected a tunnel was a lie. It was found through a method as old as time – an informant.

Former defence minister Moshe Ya’alon has launched another attack on the PM, calling on him to resign as a threat to democracy. He also attacked other ministers for their rhetoric of decisive security actions but doing nothing.

How is it that ‘the world’ tolerates such an anomaly – the longest occupation that becomes harsher by the day? And is illegal? UN Rapporteur S. Michael Lynk spells out some small steps that all governments could take if they acted on their principles.

Plus Rabbis against Israel arms sales to Burma, settler attacks on Palestinian harvests, SOAS meeting On Antisemitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice, IJV film on Balfour and more snips and tips.

November 2nd, centenary of the Balfour Declaration, is the day when the British government smiled upon a Jewish homeland in Palestine and simultaneously handed Palestinians over to fate. This did not go well.

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz is for civil rights but not Palestinian rights; he is for free speech, but not speech that is critical of Israel. These contradictions are caught in a student cartoon (shown in post) in which an Israeli soldier has shot a Palestinian man who is lying in a pool of his own blood. Dershowitz hits back with a phrase that few will dare argue with lest they be thought antisemitic – blood libel.

The centenary of the Balfour Declaration – November 2nd, 2017 – has galvanised acts of penance, solidarity and education across Britain writes Robert Cohen. A pilgrimage to Jerusalem organised by the Amos Trust has fascinated Arab media which call them ‘the justice pilgrims’. Walk on.

Pres. Trump has said no deal to the Greater Jerusalem bill, which would incorporate all nearby settlements as well as E. Jerusalem within wider city boundaries. It’s on hold. It’s worth knowing the arguments – some are about reinforcing the symbolism of a Jewish city; more are about ensuring Jews can outvote Palestinians in city electins.

Amongst this week’s postings: Marc Ellis on the wound of the Occupation; dissidents and outlaws – forms of Jewish identity; Greater Jerusalem – land grab by ‘municipalisation’. More besides.

Without force or fanfare town planners have shown the way to increase Israeli control over the West Bank: they classify settlements as Israeli municipalities and they widen municipal boundaries – as in Greater Jerusalem – to encompass more land and people.

A new report from NGOs documents the testimonies of sixty Palestinian teenagers who have been arrested, interrogated and tortured by soldiers because they have thrown stones. HaMoked and B’Tselem record their accounts. Why is this treatment not an international scandal? Has the IDF not got larger threats to face?