Palestinian-American Raouf J. Halaby was inadvertently added to an email list run by a White House communications liaison whose sole responsibility appears to be to address issues of concern to the American Jewish community. When Halaby responds to one of the emails and questions the administration’s policy towards Israel/Palestine, the reply is less than hospitable.

Most young American Jews have a non-Jewish parent, and intermarriage is the largest factor in distancing Jews from Israel, followed by growing offense with Israeli policies, says Steven Cohen, leading sociologist of Jewish attitudes. He said some “serious” Jewish donors have stopped giving to organizations that give money to Israel.

Latest emails from Wikileaks show that even as Benjamin Netanyahu promised voters he would not allow creation of a Palestinian state, the Clinton braintrust planned to tell Americans that “dozens of hours of convos with Bibi” had convinced Hillary Clinton that Netanyahu had “actively negotiated” to bring about a Palestinian state.

Courting John Podesta to come to his power seder last year, DC Israel advocate Lanny Davis boasted that it was “less traditional,” mostly in English, and had been formerly dedicated to Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese and President Gerald Ford; and the late quarterback/Congressman Jack Kemp had once been a guest.

Why do media bystanders shut their mouths when they see critics of Israel smeared as “diseased” anti-Semites. Because of hasbara culture, a Jewish-Zionist ethnocentric way of looking at the world that is both aggressive and highly politicized.

Maen Nasser al-Din Abu Qaraa, 23, was killed at a busstop outside the illegal Israeli settlement of Ofra in the occupied West Bank Thursday after allegedly attempting to stab an Israeli soldier. 238 Palestinians and 34 Israelis have died since the wave of attacks began in October 2015.

The demonization of Vladimir Putin by the US press, acting as stenographers for intelligence agencies and Hillary Clinton, limits US ability to bring about diplomatic breakthroughs in the Middle East, says James W. Carden in interview with Bob Garfield of “On the Media”

Robert Gardner, a UCLA senior active in Palestinian solidarity, described David Horowitz’s Freedom Center as a “hate organization” because of posters it has put up smearing Students for Justice in Palestine as anti-Semitic. Horowitz has now threatened to sue the student. Palestine Legal has defended Gardner’s statement.

Eamon Murphy reports a recent debate held in Brooklyn on “Syria and the Left” sponsored by Muftah Magazine and Verso Books. The expectation was that the event would be contentious and it didn’t disappoint. The speakers represented sides of a deepening divide over Syria: Max Blumenthal and Zein El-Amine represented skepticism of the opposition and emphasized the threat of regime change while Murtaza Hussain and Loubna Mrie, a Syrian exile who participated in the uprising’s early demonstrations, argued that Assad must go.

Open Hillel is calling on Hillel International to reject $22 million in funding from Mosaic United, a new project led by Naftali Bennett, Israel’s Minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs. Mosaic plans to disburse $66 million over two years to Hillel International, Chabad, and Olami Worldwide in order to combat “the weakening of the Jewish foundations of the family unit” and “critical discourse” around Israel.