Rightwing Texas Senator Ted Cruz is trying to raise money from Sheldon Adelson, Mort Zuckerman, Michael Steinhardt, and other big pro-Israel Jewish donors in New York. You thought he was the Tea Party? Guess again.

Peter Beinart says the left ignores nationalism in supporting a one state solution. Rebecca Vilkomerson says it is one state, and we have to imagine a future of coexistence and equal rights. A highlight of the Open Hillel conference in October.

A huge win for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) annual conference in Washington. Participating members voted overwhelmingly, by a majority of 265 against 79, to adopt a resolution defending their right to boycott Israeli academic institutions, part of the Palestinian campaign for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The resolution will now go to a vote of the full membership.

There have been a number of attacks on Palestinians in the last two days, by settlers and soldiers, in Jerusalem and the West Bank. One died, a 22 year old hit by a bus

Sen. Elizabeth Warren takes her first foreign trip, to Israel, and meets with Benjamin Netanyahu even as he is working to undermine US negotiations with Iran. The road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue runs through Jerusalem.

As Dima Khalidi of Palestine Solidarity Legal Support made clear at a forum in DC last week, Palestinian activism in the US is on the ascent; and efforts to suppress it go against the American commitment to the First Amendment and will only hurt Israel in the end.

Anna-Esther Younes interviews Max Blumenthal about his controversial appearances in Berlin, Germany where he and David Sheen were accused of anti-Semitism because they spoke on racism in Israeli society.

The New York Times says the Israel cabinet’s decision to make Israel “the nation state of the Jewish people” is “heartbreaking.” The emotion would be more appropriate to an American jurisdiction; and Israel has been violating principles of equality for more than 60 years.

Micha Kurz debunks a short piece of inflammatory propaganda circulated by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office about the Temple Mount and the Israeli role in Jerusalem.

A Wellesley College chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine formed this fall and tried to start a conversation about Palestinian human rights. A few pro-Israel students are trying to shut down that conversation, saying it is “menacing.” The campaign represents a bigoted backlash against Palestinian solidarity and in the process Wellesley SJP has been falsely accused of contributing to a growing hostile and anti-Jewish environment on our campus. Three SJP members respond and address the repeated attempts to slander their work for Palestinian and Israeli human rights.