Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat explained to the visiting NY City Council delegation why it was necessary for Jerusalem to be Jewish, but a report on three days of travel indicates that the council members left out any tour of the occupation of Palestinian territories.

The divide between the U.S. and Israel just gets wider and wider. The White House and the State Department yesterday said openly that the Obama administration is restricting the information it gives to Israel about the Iran talks because Israel is misrepresenting the talks in its efforts to derail them. There is “no question that some of the things that the Israelis have said in characterizing our negotiating position have not been accurate,” the White House press secretary says.

An article blasting Alan Dershowitz for calling a 15-year-old girl a prostitute rather than a victim of sexual trafficking appears in the Harvard Law Record, a further sign of Dershowitz’s alienation from traditional support because of a Florida sex case

“I’ve read quite a bit on this whole one-state jazz,” says Mikhael Manekin of Molad, a liberal Zionist Israeli thinktank — and no one envisions what the army of a single state would look like. How do you answer him?

By 63 to 33, Americans say that Republicans should not have invited Israeli PM Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress next month to try and overturn Obama’s Iran policy — CNN poll

This is one of the craziest stories we’ve ever reported. The student government at the University of Toledo is so frightened by a debate over divestment from Israel that it is rigging the debate on the topic tonight. It will hold the debate behind closed doors and limit how many students can come to the meeting. Only five representatives from two campus organizations. And each organization has to leave the room when the other side is making its case. Though guess what– two officials of the Jewish Federations of Greater Toledo are invited to the debate! “We are fully 100 percent opposed to this model of debate,” says Derek Ide of SJP

James Baker was purged from the Republican Party as an “Arabist,” neocon Bill Kristol once bragged. Well he’s speaking at the J Street conference next month, a sign that the lobby is splitting

The stakes are rising over the Netanyahu speech to Congress to push a hardline on Iraq. The White House has reportedly cut off some communications with Israel following leaks by Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani calls Obama a “moron” for talking to Iran.

A shocking cartoon made by a settlers’ group uses anti-Semitic imagery of a hook-nosed, money-loving Jew to portray B’Tselem and Peace Now as collaborators with Nazis because they document Israeli human rights abuses