In its winter 2014-15 issue, the education journal Rethinking Schools has taken another courageous stand against liberal Zionism. In Fall 2014, the journal published an editorial (“The Children of Gaza”) expressing outrage about the recent Gaza war. This editorial generated a letter from a liberal Zionist reader criticizing the journal’s stance, and Rethinking Schools has published this letter in its most recent issue. Not to be cowed, the editors responded to this letter, re-emphasizing the “dire situation” in Gaza as well as the “3 billion a year in military assistance” from the US.

Stories of the power of the Israel lobby have long haunted efforts in the U.S. to advocate for a more balanced American policy toward Israel/Palestine. But at a moment when an unprecedented number of members of Congress are up in arms over Netanyahu’s efforts to sabotage the Obama administration’s policy towards Iran, there are other signs that the pro-Israel lobby may not be invincible in Washington. Here are seven pieces of news from the last year that proponents of a less lopsided policy towards Israel/Palestine should find heartening.

The Israeli government told Abed Qotqot he could not build a structure on his property in the West Bank, so he decided to live in a cave to be able to stay on his land. Samer Jaber writes in memory of his friend, who died at age 54 while remaining steadfast on his land and fighting the Israeli government in court.

Three activists who disrupted a New York City Council meeting to protest an upcoming trip to Israel respond to charges of anti-Semitism: “A few Councilmembers quickly claimed that the protest targeted a resolution memorializing the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp, and many media outlets leapt to suggest that protesters were anti-Semitic. That is a disgraceful diversion. It was a good-faith effort to intervene in a human rights crisis, smeared by those who prefer to paper over Israel’s actions.”

Middle East Monitor reports the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it will respond to Israel’s continued expansion of illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories by referring the case to the International Criminal Court.

London Palestine Action writes about the British government’s government’s decision to drop a case against nine activist who occupied the roof of a Staffordshire factory that supplied engines to Israeli drones and shut down the factory for two days: “Can you really spend two days on the roof of a drone factory, allegedly cost a company thousands in delayed exports and ‘get away with it’? It seems you can and the message from us is, ‘Up the Ante’, take direct action. Echoing Palestinian civil society groups, the UK government needs to shut UAV Engines and impose a two way military embargo on Israel. There is no place for these companies or any trade with Apartheid Israel whilst it continues to violate international law and human rights on an ever more violent scale.”

Israel destroyed 590 Palestinian buildings in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2014, displacing 1,177 people, according to a new study by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This constitutes the highest level of displacement in the West Bank since the UN began monitoring the issue in 2008.

The 70th anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz and investigation of Israel at the Hague are signs that the Holocaust-Israel axis, so central to Jewish identity over the last decades, is on oxygen support.

Bias in the New York Times: Jodi Rudoren fears that an honest Israeli documentary will give “catnip” to the country’s critics, and Isabel Kershner says B’Tselem cleared Israel of targeting civilians in Gaza.

British government and Israeli manufacturer of drones don’t want to release information on arms exports– so a case is dropped against 9 activists who disrupted English factory operations during Gaza onslaught last summer