Palestinians took to the streets in Hebron to commemorate when a US-born Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Palestinian worshippers in the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994, killing 29 and wounding more than 100. The protests this year were held at a time of heightened tensions in the city following the Israeli government’s expulsion of international human rights observers from the city.

The merger of centrists Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid in a joint party to take on Netanyahu in the April election has sparked “euphoria” for liberal Zionists who dream of ending the Netanyahu regime. Dubbed a new Labor Party, the merger gained strength from Netanyahu’s deal with a racist party that angered many American Jewish groups.

Alice Rothchild says it is no longer acceptable for progressives and liberal minded Jews to ignore racist policies and practices in the Land of Israel that are increasingly condemned in the United States.

Israeli premier contender Benny Gantz has chided Prime Minister Netanyahu for lobbying to include the ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party in a future coalition, but in doing so, Gantz incited against the BALAD Palestinian-Israeli party which promotes democracy. The former army chief of staff equated the two.

That Israel’s own mouthpieces, including AIPAC, openly admit to using campaign cash to push pro-Israel legislation, should end any ambiguity: Ilhan Omar and all sensible citizens were being gaslit in the name of preserving the status quo and its decades of silencing Israel’s victims. This was especially clear in the liberal Zionist attacks on Omar, which sought reduce her criticisms of the lobby to little more than an anti-Semitic fantasy.

The Trump administration appears to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. Asked yesterday about US service for Palestinians once the Jerusalem consulate is folded next month, the State Dep’t said “we have active involvement in all of Israel.”

In 1982 Jane Fonda could support Israeli troops invading Beirut because Israel still had some luster of its socialist beginnings. Now the ideological winds have fully shifted, Helena Cobban writes, and Israel’s supporters don’t use moral arguments to justify American backing, but “strategic” role in countering America’s supposed enemies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working hard to make sure a racist, xenophobic, homophobic Ultra-Right wing party called “Jewish Power” that has roots in the banned “Kach” party gets into the next Knesset in the April 9 election so that he can maintain a right-wing coalition and stay in office, Barak Ravid reports.

“Even a thousand films on the Nakba would not suffice,” says Ahlam Muhtaseb, co-director with Andy Trimlett of a new film, “1948: Creation & Catastrophe,” which is based in part on interviews with survivors, many of them of advanced years. The film has been subject to protests by Israel supporters, and a screening in West Hollywood was scratched under pressure in December, now rescheduled for March. Stephen Shenfield interviews the co-directors.

The essential dynamic at the core of the Israel lobby’s activities is American Jews’ belief that they are lesser than Israelis because they have easy lives and their kids don’t serve in the army in a tough neighborhood. So they must buy US political support for Israel no matter what it does. That guilt trip is finally coming to an end.