Joseph Grim Feinberg reflects on Jewishness in contemporary political discourse: “Yes, I am troubled by persistent anti-Semitism in the world. But I am also troubled by the damage done to Jewishness when Jewish identity is collapsed into support for Israeli policy, and when accusations of anti-Semitism are wielded as a tool for silencing debate. What I found so compelling about Jewish history is the wealth of ideas that have emerged surrounding what Jewishness can be. That wealth is lost when name-calling replaces debate, and when a single, tendentious version of Jewishness renders itself impervious to criticism.”

Ma‘an reports: Israeli forces demolished the Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev region of southern Israel for the 101st time on Wednesday morning. The demolition followed several weeks of Israeli bulldozers entering the community to level lands, which escalated to Israeli police conducting raids on the community and detaining several Bedouins after locals attempted to stop the bulldozers. The first demolition of al-Araqib took place a little over six years ago on June 27, 2010.

Ali Kurnaz of Orlando electrified Palestinian human rights community by unfurling a Palestinian flag on the Democratic convention floor Monday. Millennials have thanked him for his act, and he says he is the future of the Democratic Party.

Jerusalem official Meir Turgeman says the municipality is taking advantage of U.S. election season to push forward on stalled construction projects in the occupied territories, including expanding the settlement of Ramot.

Activist Bill Fletcher, Jr., says “It’s easy to assume that someone else is giving the funds needed for organizations like Mondoweiss to survive, and to assume that survival is enough. But if we want to expand their influence for real change, it will take resources. Our opponents understand this, and they understand it very well. Knowing the pathbreaking, exceptional work of Mondoweiss, I cannot imagine letting it get to the precipice before contributing—and so I give regularly.”

As U.S. financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel bleeds into yet another presidential cycle, Americans are faced with reconciling lofty rhetoric on justice and security with actual policy domestically and abroad.

During an event in Philadelphia during the Democratic National Convention, Representative Hank Johnson offered comments on the diminishing prospects for a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, citing Israel’s ongoing settlement activity. Rep. Johnson analogized this settlement activity to that of termites hollowing out and undermining a structure, noting that settlement expansion has made the creation of a viable Palestinian state in the occupied territories all but impossible. This analogy was taken out of context in an article with a misleading headline written by a journalist with a longstanding record of anti-Palestinian reporting.

As the Democrats roll out their plan for America this week, it’s instructive to consider how the issue of Israel and the Palestinians plays out on the domestic policy stage. In a New York Daily News opinion piece, Reform movement head Rabbi Rick Jacobs criticizes the Republican Party’s platform for excluding language supporting a two-state solution. But Mark Braverman says the Republicans have actually got it right: their current platform, rather than departing from U.S. policy on Israel, is a more accurate reflection of four decades of U.S. support for Israel’s expansionism at the expense of Palestinian rights.

Wilson Dizard reports from the protests outside the Democratic National Convention where he meets Sameera Khan, 25, former Ms. New Jersey 2015 and a Muslim American opposed to Clinton: “I’ve been involved in the political community for a very long time and studied international relations. I’ve been involved with Democracy Spring ever since I read about the Israel lobby and corporate influence, that’s what awakened me and made me realize that I have to fight. We are only as powerful as what we know. Knowledge is power, and once we realize how much power we hold together then we can start a political revolution.”

Hatim Kanaaneh writes about Brig. Gen. Ofek Buchris, an Israeli general recently indicted for “rape and indecent acts,” who lives one town over from him: “Part of my anguish about the report is the geographic location of the accused general’s residence; Mitzpe Netoufa is practically in my backyard. The basic concept of a Mitzpe—Hebrew for ‘lookout’—the hilltop-positioned barbed-wire-encircled Jewish-only settlement dreamt up by Ariel Sharon in the 1970s to protect the promised land of the Jews from potential ‘goy’ usurpers. Those ‘goys’ turn out actually to be us, the Palestinians who have been ‘squatting’ on the land since the Romans destroyed their second temple! Be that as it may, the good general’s purpose in life and that of his fellow Mitzpe Netoufa religious Jewish residents, is to watch over me so I won’t steal my own Netoufa (Battouf) Valley Land.”