Since Samantha Brotman began publicly expressing her outrage at last summer’s Israeli assault on Gaza, and especially since she helped to found a local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, several of her Jewish friends and colleagues have sent her links to Alan Dershowitz’s “Ten Reasons Why The BDS Movement Is Immoral,” hoping to bring her back into their Zionist fold. Here Brotman responds to Dershowitz’s reasons and notes “I’m glad Dershowitz is scared enough of BDS to take time out of his very busy schedule to write a list like this. This means something is working.”

Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia professor, says South African apartheid ended through negotiation with whites who did not fear for their security; and today Israeli Jews must be educated to understand that Zionism is not a safeguard against another Holocaust; they can only be safe in historic Palestine if they dismantle the Jewish state.

Israeli ambassador to Europe: “The Jewish people.. will never ever forget that you failed us in the 1940s… And you are failing us again today.” Rep. Steve Israel calls this “honest.”

2000 march to Jerusalem bilingual school to protest attack on it; and international volunteer in West Bank who was shot by Israeli forces declines Israeli hospitalization

Why should Israel, a nuclear power that’s still very powerful economically, be afraid of the nonviolent nuisance of BDS? Omar Barghouti asks at Columbia. Well, maybe because Zionist IQ is dipping, the movement has advanced faster than it did in South Africa, and is no pushing on an open door.

Ahmed Alkhateeb organized an academic panel at Harvard University to discuss the tactics of The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as part of the Harvard Arab Weekend – the largest Arab conference in the United States. He says the event did not pass without being described by pro-Israel advocates as anti-Semitic and advocating the destruction of Israel. Instead of engaging directly in these debates, which carries with it the possibility of adjusting their stance on the occupation, settlements, and the Gaza blockade, pro-Israel groups only attempt to control who holds the microphone. Alkhateeb writes, “Pro-Israel students on US campuses should confront the systemic oppression of the Palestinians instead of sheltering themselves from it. Silencing ‘the other’ will only lead to misunderstanding and thus does not promote peace.”

The number of Americans who want the government to push for one state in Israel and Palestine jumped 40 percent in the last year, to more than a third of respondents in a new poll. That group rivals the number who want the government to push for two states.

The journalism world is up in arms today that Chris Hughes the Facebook mogul who bought The New Republic magazine had the temerity to fire editor Franklin Foer and literary editor Leon Wieseltier. This is a landmark in the era of the Jewish establishment. It’s petering out in an elite generation of far greater diversity. The New Republic has been supported by one neocon after another, from Michael Steinhardt to Bruce Kovner to Roger Hertog. An era is over, and the Israel lobby (whose influence the magazine sought to deny) is losing power.

Blatantly bigoted Islamophobic comments follow a Newsweek piece about a Palestinian’s efforts to protect the Haram Al Sharif from Jewish religious incursion. “Towel head camel humpers,” says Dana Klein of Trumbull, CT

Hillel Int’l has placed sweeping, unsophisticated restrictions on campus Jewish centers. Events at the University of Michigan and Princeton featuring speakers who support boycott demonstrate that young Jews demand greater diversity