Shmuley Boteach was joined by Elie Wiesel, Samantha Power, and Noah Feldman at the Cooper Union on Monday night for a discussion called “Genocide and the Jews: A Never-Ending Problem” — a title that evoked Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history, “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. It was an evening characterized by uneasy contradictions, as the panelists differed on the basis for criticizing Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, the significance of accusing the Jewish state of genocide, and the prospect of a Shoah-like catastrophe in the age of Zionism.

Gaza’s bombardment convinced John Fearey to visit Palestine at last; and the unjust conditions he observed in Jerusalem are seared in his mind and explain Palestinian resistance

Did you read Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech following the attack on the West Jerusalem synagogue Tuesday? Phil Weiss found it bloodcurdling. Netanyahu called on “the state of the Jews” to unite in a “battle for Jerusalem.” Calling Jews to put aside their little differences and take up arms for the “battle for Jerusalem” is a vision of holy war, with fascistic trimmings. The battle for Jerusalem is deadly for all of us. Americans must affirm that this city belongs to the world.

In Jerusalem, “here we go, again again again” — Descent, a poem from Marc Ellis

PNN reports: “Israeli forces on Monday razed the Bedouin village of Al-Araqib in Negev Desert for the 78th time on the pretext that it had been built illegally, eyewitness said. Local resident told Andalou agency that “Dozens of Israeli forces backed by five bulldozers stormed the village at dawn today and began demolishing homes and other structures, the soldiers were heavily armed. They drove us out under the rain before they demolished our homes for 78th time in four years.””

On August 31, Israeli declared that almost 1000 acres belonging to the villages of Jab’a and Wadi Fukin would become state land, marking the largest attempt in decades to expropriate territory in the West Bank.

Bloodshed in Jerusalem and beyond won’t be remedied by apolitical prayers and statements from Rabbis for Human Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace, Marc Ellis says

The University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) undergraduate student government voted 8-2-2 to pass a resolution calling on the university to divest from companies profiting from Israeli human rights abuses and occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. According to a UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine press release, UCLA’s vote marks the sixth undergraduate University of California campus to support divestment from the Israeli occupation.

Israel is not in “the grip of a terrorist onslaught,” as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated in this press conference tonight; it is in the grip of senseless violence spawned by despair and repression… Israel, having given up all pretense of seeking a just solution, has answered Palestinian despair with pure, atavistic repression. — Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

US media bloodbath for Palestinians: Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer says that Palestinians are like Nazis, who also complained of grievances before murdering people; and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer merely nods his head