An ICC investigation of Israel’s actions against the Palestinians is an instance of long, long overdue justice, of leveling the playing field to some degree. Why? Because while Israel is by no means the world’s worst malefactor, it is definitely the world’s most lavishly indulged one.

Israel should stop threatening Lebanon because it could lead to war in which many thousands would die for no reason. And Israel faces no real threat from Hezbollah. The Israeli bellicosity is the product of Israeli paranoia: primal Jewish fear of annihilation that is illogical under the circumstances.

“We are in a post-political era in this country. The central, over-riding political fact of national life, the occupation, is no longer a subject for discussion,” Larry Derfner writes about Israeli society in his new book “No Country for Jewish Liberals”. Read an extended excerpt here.