One of Joe Biden’s political achievements this year is that he has taken what seemed to be a big issue for Trump– Israel — out of the campaign. The Israel lobby trusts Biden because he promises to use American force overseas and try to end the politicization of the Israel issue here. Biden and Harris have actually run against their own Democratic base on Palestinian rights.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s withdrawal last Friday from an October memorial to Yitzhak Rabin is an act of irreverence for an Israeli leader we’ve not seen before at her political level; and the drama has roiled the pro-Israel community. Even the Biden campaign spoke up, an aide saying that AOC’s decision was “problematic” for the Democratic Party.

Trump’s Bahrain-Israel pact is a power politics move and has been embraced by Israel lobby groups, Democratic reps, and the NYT, all of which bash Palestinians. But in fact it only advances the one-state struggle for democracy inside Israel and Palestine.

In a delusory column in the New York Times, Bret Stephens says Israel only wants to annex land because it has been “ostracized” in the West. And American Jewish status is “fragile,” unlike in Israel. These crazed claims show that Israel advocates cannot deal with an argument for Palestinian rights.

Members of both parties spent months last year lambasting Rep. Ilhan Omar for claiming that the pro-Israel lobby influences US policy and discourse with its political spending. As the controversy’s latest installment plays out, federal campaign finance records show the pro-Israel lobby is doing just that. A Mondoweiss analysis of Federal Election Commission records and Facebook’s ad library found pro-Israel PACs have spend around $2 million in an effort to oust Omar.

Pro-Israel forces are seeking to smear Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar as antisemitic because she made an issue of the fact that her opponent in Aug. 11 primary has raised millions from out-of-state donors.

Bari Weiss’s exit from The New York Times is good news for Palestinian news and opinion. Weiss has made a career as a Zionist warrior, often smearing anti-Zionists in ways that she is quick to call McCarthyism when others employ the same methods.

The recent victory of Jamaal Bowman over AIPAC-backed Eliot Engel; AIPAC being forced to “give permission” to members of Congress to oppose Israeli annexation plans for the West Bank; and the recent letter to U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, from 12 Representatives and one Senator not only opposing annexation, but promising legislation to condition U.S. aid to Israel to their policies in the West Bank – all provide evidence that AIPAC may be losing its grip on Congress.

Peter Beinart’s embrace of the struggle for equal rights for Palestinians in one state puts huge pressure on liberal Zionist organizations to drop the beastly talk about “separation” and demographics and take concrete steps for Palestinian rights. And how long before the Jewish youth group IfNotNow endorses BDS?

European opposition to Israeli annexation plans mean nothing to Trump or Israel because Europe hasn’t articulated “a single concrete sanction,” says Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. And Democratic opposition to annexation is just as “soft,” she says, and therefore if you hope that annexation can be turned back, “hope would be deeply, deeply misplaced.”