This is less a review than a push by David Shulman for what Peter Beinart ignores: that the Israeli state is wholly geared to getting all the land, Jewish-settled. As a generous Arab resister says: “The Jews are not my enemy; their fear is my enemy…but I refuse to be a victim of Jewish fear anymore.”

Regular readers may remember the times Netanyahu has warned, many years apart, of an ‘imminent’ danger of attack from Iran. Here he, and ministers, are at it again, over black immigrants. In Bibi-speak an ‘existential threat’ to Israel means anything from nuclear annihilation through ‘delegitimisation’ to too many of the wrong people having babies in The Only Democracy in the Middle East™. Reports from Mondoweiss, Times of Israel, Guardian, Haaretz 2010.

From the Shoah one can conclude it’s Never Again for Jews (Israel’s position) or Never Again for anyone (and never let it be forgotten the millions of non-Jews who died in Nazi camps and exterminations). Gilbert Achcar says the only true repudiation of Nazism is Never Again at all.

Ilan Pappe describes Israel’s set path as a hybrid between colonialism and romantic nationalism – one which does not bend under internal pressure. That leaves him with one option – to support Palestinian non-violent resistance through BDS – a momentous decision. Extract from latest book.

Jerusalem has been celebrated by Israelis since 1968 and was made a national holiday by the Knesset in 1998. It celebrates the Israeli capture of Jerusalem. It is obviously not an occasion for Palestinian celebration (2), especially those living in East Jerusalem which is sinking deeper into deprivation, (3). But it is an excuse for Israelis to shout insults at Arabs and attack left-wingers (1)

Tikun Olam republishes shocking photos of a settler shooting to kill an unarmed Palestinian boy. The bullet went through his head, just missing his brain. Richard Silverstein rages against those urging non-violence on the Palestinians while ignoring settlers’ gun attacks.

Led by the PSC, JfJfP and others, the BBC is accused of bias for its month-long silence on the historic mass prisoner hunger strike. Rumours of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ in the BBC are alive on the web. This is nonsense. Rather, the undoubted BBC bias is testament to a belief that Israelis are ‘like us’ (Mark Regev is Australian) while Palestinians are the violent ‘other’. Palestinian groups could do more however to cultivate relationships with foreign journalists.

Although the peg of this story is Nakba day, it is in fact about the co-operation on the ground between Hamas and Israeli government officials. As a tax-gathering government, Hamas’ interest lies in stability and forcing the jihadists into Sinai in the judgment of Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz.

So powerful are the images of the 1930s, the intensity of antisemitism and Jewish socialism (some connection surely?) that they still haunt today’s debates. From Israel (1) to a recent NY conference on Jews and the Left (2-4) the shrinking of the Jewish left is notable; though no-one seems to have noted the shrinking – or re-forming – of the left in general. Footnote on ‘Jews for Sarah Palin’.

Although many readers of this website know the meaning of the word Nakba, fewer will know how far plans to expel Palestinians had been laid, and begun to be carried out, before the declaration of the state of Israel and before the attack by the combined Arab armies. Compare the quality of this argument with that offered by Jennifer Rubin in ‘Exile: voices of loss and longing – and hate’ in 6th post below.

The end of the hunger strike is only the beginning: of holding Israeli authorities to the conditions on which prisoners agreed to end the strike; the possible beginning of humane standards for prisoners in Israeli gaols; the start of family visits; the beginning of the end for administrative detention. Richard Falk, Stephen Lendman and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights greet the next stage with scepticism and expectation. Haaretz begins to write of ‘national liberation struggle’ and ‘political prisoners’.

Here’s an example of Israel’s military-industrial complex, which outstrips the USA’s in significance: Israel Aerospace Industries has set up a plant in Mississippi to make drones for the US’s overseas and home use. A cheap and safe (for the operators) means of policing and terrorising those on the ground, as Israel has found in Gaza. Report by Jefferson Morley, Salon.com.

We reproduce here statements and decisions by the TUC and public service union Unison on their policies on boycotting goods from Israeli settlements and Unison’s decision to suspend relations with Histadrut because of its ‘support for the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla ….[and] the military assault on Gaza’. Both Ambassador Taub and some individual union members seem ignorant of these policies. Mr. Taub’s attack on boycotts and several letters in response follow.

One of the glitches with a security state, as many have found, is that short of a Maoist revolution you just can’t get the staff. Book readers, aka dangerous intellectuals, tend not to want to be customs officers (or football managers – that’s a reference to England’s football team for you intellectuals). Richard Silverstein on book-banning and climate change policy by Israeli officials.

“I don’t want to continue through another summer of protest to be partner to the lie” writes Gershon Baskin, a negotiator for the release of Gilad Schalit. Fellow protesters don’t want to talk ‘politics’, meaning the occupation. But that refusal gives them the mere illusion of accomplishing something.

The contrast between Israel as the home to which every Jew has a birthright and the Palestinian land it occupies, to which no Palestinian has a right of return is extreme. Palestinian refugees are the responsibility of the UN Relief and Works Agency. Two reports on their work (Reuters, UNWRA); a vituperative attack on them from Right Turn in Washington Post and an AFP story of the Indian Jews waiting to go ‘home’ to Israel.

CRH is an Irish company which owns 25% of Mashav which owns Israel’s only producer of cement – the material that makes walls that surround Palestinians and holds together the buildings of the settlements that encroach on them. PNN report of the protest at their AGM last week.

The IDF gears up for violence on Nakba day (3), Palestinian Christians hold a peaceful commemoration (4) and PSC holds a protest outside Downing Street at which Diana Neslen of JfJfP gives a moving speech about memory and exile (1 & 2). Haaretz declares Israel should acknowledge the Nakba as part of its history (5).Tel Aviv students defy education minister to hold ceremony (6).

Fear the prisoners on hunger strike would start dying, sparking a third intifada, and behind-the-scenes pressure from diplomats brought the Israeli Prison Service – with, presumably, the agreement of the government– to reach an agreement with the prisoners’ representatives. Solitary confinement and the ban on family visits will be ended. (Now the strike is over, it was mentioned on the BBC news.)

Isobel Coleman’s article on the impact of the ‘Arab Spring’ on women follows an interview with her on US NPR. There is no mention of Palestinian women – a significant absence. Yet the high involvement of Palestinian women in the campaign for imprisoned menfolk has again provoked talk, below the radar, of their own political role – though a ‘modern’ role for women is most associated with the old dictators and Israel.