Palestinian political prisoner Salah Hammouri writes from Ofer prison, “I know that the love of a homeland is an unrequited love, bringing only hurt, pain, and loss. It has robbed me of the most beautiful years of my life and stolen from me my adolescence and youth. It forced me to grow up quickly, living always beyond my years. Yet I love my homeland still, knowing that even if we do everything we can for it, our country will still only ask “what more can you give?”

It is a zero-sum-equation in the calculations of most people, and I understand this. But for me (my preference), a real life is not waiting at the station for the train of freedom to arrive, but being on the train itself, no matter the sacrifice.”

“An orgy of violence” that killed 49 Palestinians in three days including 17 children — and yet Israel’s supporters have crowed that the Gaza attack was successful and it got wide support in the world press. These advocates have blinded themselves to the moral dimension of such awful force.

Ahmad Ayyad was on his way to work in Israel to help his family in Gaza when he was attacked by Israeli soldiers and beaten to death. His widow Nour Ayyad tells Mondoweiss, “Israel is turning our kids into orphans and planting pain in every house.”

The Mondoweiss Palestine news team discusses what led to the Israeli escalation in Gaza and the West Bank this past week, its impact on Palestinian and Israeli politics, and what Palestinians in Gaza lived through.

Supporters of the IHRA definition of antisemitism often insist that it has nothing to do with stifling dissent or even shutting down criticism of Israel, but Shawn Evenhaim of the Israeli-American Coalition for Action is very explicit about his vision. He believes people should be punished for criticizing Israel.

Polling shows Democrats support BDS by three to one, but Rep. Jerry Nadler said last night that he has stopped BDS from getting a “foothold” among progressives in Congress, and that only a Jew with his seniority can do that. Nadler bragged of supporting Israel since he was 8 years old.

The Gaza attack has heightened Israel’s rightwing political tilt as it approaches its next election. “The only place where you can see real energy is on the far right among young people,” Chemi Shalev says of the surprising support among the young for the fascistic racist Religious Zionism party.

On August 9, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the West Bank, including notable Palestinian resistance fighter Ibrahim Nabulsi, “the lion of Nablus,” during a daytime military raid. Nabulsi’s killing is also connected to the ongoing struggle of hunger striker Khalil Awawdeh, who continues to be held under administrative detention in Ramleh Prison. All of these incidents are part of the same story — the Israeli campaign to eradicate Palestinian resistance.

Pro-Israel groups are praising President Joe Biden’s response to Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza, which the administration has voiced full support for. The airstrikes have killed at least 46 Palestinians, almost half of them civilians and 16 of them children.

After 18 years of seeking justice for their murdered 13-year-old daughter, who was killed during the Second Intifada by an Israeli soldier, the Israeli Supreme Court dismissed the Al-Homs family’s case against their daughter’s murderer in July. “The Israeli judiciary offers no justice at all,” Eman’s father, 68-year-old Sameer Al-Homs, tells Mondoweiss.