“The Middle East is a… place where the most bizarre theories often have real policy consequences,” Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg writes in full Orientalist mode. Yes well what about his bizarre theories about Saddam’s links to Al Qaeda that helped get the U.S. into the Iraq war?

Palestinians must recognize the “right and reality of Jewish state,” and US left is “equally wrong” to Trump in not criticizing Palestinians for their failure to do so, says Biden aide Tony Blinken, signaling that Biden will be far more supportive of Israel than Obama was.

On May 15, Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL reported a Jewish site in Iran was “set afire overnight.” The report was widely picked up, but looks very doubtful. Iranian media say an attack on the site was unsuccessful. Greenblatt has revealed himself as another ideologue in the campaign for regime change in Iran.

Pompeo’s lightning visit to Israel shows that Republicans have a lot to gain by making Israel a political football, possibly gaining Jewish votes in Florida.

When young Jews marry non-Jews they become more distant from Israel, and in time they will undermine the “backbone” of Israel support, the American Jewish organizations that mount the case for Israel. That’s a “tragedy,” says Steven Bayme of the American Jewish Committee.

Rashid Khalidi’s great great great uncle tried to tell Herzl not to colonize Palestine in 1899 but Herzl assured him that Zionists would bring Jewish acumen to the country and improve everyone’s lives. Yet after 100 years of settler colonialism, aided by superpowers, Palestinians remain undefeated. An interview with Khalidi about his new book.

“I am proud to support Vice President Biden, and that’s in large part because I know that he stands where I stand on the importance of strengthening the US Israel relationship,” Rep. Ted Deutch tells the American Jewish Committee. But he didn’t mention Israel when he endorsed Biden in March. He knows that’s a special interest.

Daniel Pipes’s op-ed in the NYT opposing annexation of the West Bank because it would increase number of Palestinians –without any concern about how annexation will affect Palestinian human rights — confirms critique that Zionism is racist. But op-ed editor Bari Weiss will do anything to try to maintain Israel’s hold on elite opinion.

Mike Flynn lied to the FBI about trying to undermine then-President Obama’s decision to rebuke Israeli settlements at the UN. The press typically leaves out this angle in covering the Justice Department’s decision to drop the case 3 years later. Another case of Russian interference!

Trump has made the establishment nostalgic for the last Republican president. But Bush made the most destructive executive mistake of recent times, the decision to invade Iraq in 2003. It was based on lies, and a weakminded strategy of bringing democracy by gunpoint, and its wrongness was obvious at the time to millions who protested it.