The CUNY staff congress that represents 30,000 members across the university system passed a resolution calling out Israel as a settler-colonial and apartheid state, and committing to lead chapter discussions of BDS in Fall 2021.

An international group of Jews is calling on Jewish institutions to take down the Israeli flag saying, “The Israeli flag has the status of the Confederate flag. We are appalled at the idea that it represents us. It should be taken down.”

Liberal Zionists are celebrating Israel’s new rightwing prime minister, Naftali Bennett. Why? Although many secular Zionist leftists may not see him as “Our guy”, they may still identify with him on his militarism and the startup ideology, and this may be enough to sanitize him for them, as a pragmatic partner whom they can emotionally accept.

Israel’s assault on Gaza is a painful reminder of how the United States bombed my country to the Stone Age. In times where interracial solidarities are being revived, most prominently Black-Palestinian solidarity via a mutual understanding of anti-Black and anti-Palestinian racism, Vietnamese and Palestinians ought to look within ourselves and our histories, and hopefully we can see the common struggles that once united us and will reunite us in the present.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s progressive allies, in Congress and outside, rushed to her defense. Had this exchange happened just a few years ago she would have been left to twist slowly in the wind, alone. Instead, more than 50 progressive U.S. groups said clearly that “the repeated targeting of Rep. Omar is rooted in sexism, racism and anti-Muslim bigotry.”

Netanyahu easily moved U.S. policy for over a decade, due to the force of his will and the use of the powerful Israel lobby in U.S. politics, especially on the Democratic side. Today one force is gone– Netanyahu is an opposition politician to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — and the other is in disarray.

Israel commonly uses administrative detention against Palestinians in the occupied territory. Now, the Israeli government is also indefinitely detaining Palestinian citizens of Israel following the recent uprisings in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza.

It never crossed the minds of most pundits or politicians or Democrats to be critical of Blinken’s pathologically dishonest response to Rep. Ilhan Omar about U.S. and Israeli accountability. His response was normal, entirely mainstream, precisely because Israel is an apartheid state and the US is a superpower and neither is accountable to their victims and we aren’t supposed to notice the lack of accountability.

Liberal Zionists are secretly exultant over Naftali Bennett unseating Benjamin Netanyahu, hoping it will end the politicization of Israel in U.S. politics. But Apartheid is a hard sell and Bennett will quickly be on a collision course with a lot of people in the United States who think Palestinians should have rights.

While Democratic unity continues to fray in the Senate, a party rift also developed in the House this week when Dems (once again) attacked Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar for comments about Israel.