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.

Liz Rose wrestles with the Zionism she found so enthralling as a girl. “I didn’t care about my Russia Ukraine history. From a very early age–and with enormous help from the Zionist lobby’s efforts to create a brilliant branding campaign–I fantasized about and idealized Israel far more than I ever wondered about the true place my family was from. Instead of learning about Russia Ukraine, I dreamt of working in a field picking tomatoes on a kibbutz in Israel, singing songs while tilling the land, and putting down new roots with other young Jews who, like me, had cut the branches from their families in the U.S. (and Europe) and left their old lives behind.”

For a while we’ve pointed out how much energy the Anti-Defamation League spends attacking anti-Zionists, including younger Jews, as supposed antisemites. Now the American Jewish Committee has thrown in. I watched a few hours of the AJC’s conference this month in New York, and my jaw dropped as speaker after speaker directed criticism at young Jews for not standing up for Israel.

After the Mapping Project published a study of links between establishment institutions responsible for the colonization of Palestine, and the economy of imperialism and war, and policing and gentrification, critics landed on it as a supposed antisemitic hitlist. We honor the Mapping Project’s work in a tradition of activist journalism; and recognize a familiar pattern: Whenever Israel lobby organizations in the Jewish community are held to account for their power over the discourse and U.S. policy, those same organizations seek to stifle the criticism by alleging antisemitism.

We are U.S. Jews who are deeply troubled by a recent speech given by the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, in which he defames grassroots and civil rights organizations committed to Palestinian justice and falsely conflates anti-Zionism with far right and violent extremism. Jewish communities must embrace anti-Zionist and non-Zionist voices, along with all other voices for justice.

The State of Israel is responsible for upholding the status quo in Jerusalem, and guaranteeing the sanctity of the Haram al-Sharif and the dignity of its Muslim worshippers. Violently disrupting Ramadan prayers, beating unarmed worshippers and intimidating Muslims in Jerusalem is absolutely not the way of peace. We call on the State of Israel to immediately commit to abstaining from any further violations of the Waqf’s authority on the Haram al-Sharif. — A letter to Illinois Muslims from 13 rabbis of T’ruah.

American Jews overwhelmingly support the renewal of the Iran deal, and very few American Jews consider Israel a political priority, according to a new survey of American Jewish voters.

In February a Rochester, NY, radio station aired a wonderful panel, of pro-Palestinian activists, one of whom deplored children being “taken from their parents” in nighttime raids. Pro-Israel groups attacked the station for the allegedly antisemitic charge that Israeli soldiers “rip children from their parents’ arms.” Well, they do rip children from their parents arms. And the silence of local progressive activists in the face of the antisemitism claim is dismaying.

Last week all 25 Jewish congresspeople took the highly unusual step of condemning Paul O’Brien, director of the U.S. branch of Amnesty International, for remarks opposing Israel’s definition as “a state for the Jewish people” and questioning Jewish support for Israel. The Congress members were acting strategically: trying to discredit the recent Amnesty report that Israel practices “apartheid.” But they and O’Brien have raised a key issue. Just how many American Jews oppose the idea of a Jewish state?

Florida Congressman Ted Deutch announces that he is stepping through the revolving door from being an advocate for Israel as the chair of the Middle East subcommittee of House Foreign Affairs to being the head of a lead Israel lobby group, the American Jewish Committee, starting in October. The smooth transition makes smart people cynical about the extent to which Democratic politicians are dedicated to supporting Israel.