If the Nakba was the catastrophe that laid the foundation for Israel’s settler colonial state, the Naksa was the defeat that finished the job, setting off a chain of events that has come to define the reality on the ground in occupied Palestine over the past 56 years. 

While the Biden administration claims to oppose “unilateral steps that make a two-state solution harder to achieve,” Israel has already crossed the “red line” of annexation.

At a town hall in Natick, Massachusetts this week Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told a group of supporters that she supported conditioning aid to Israel, but couldn’t remember whether she voted in favor of the United States’s $38 billion military aid deal with the country.

In fact, she cosponsored a 2018 bill that aimed to enshrine the agreement.

In a unanimous vote, the Irish parliament, the Dáil, passed a motion calling Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory as “de facto annexation.” Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq praised the motion on Wednesday, saying “Ireland stood up in defense of human rights and became a beacon for the world to follow.”

François Dubuisson writes that the ICC decision to investigate war crimes in Palestine has huge symbolic significance and will likely lead the court to consider the crime of apartheid, given recent reports.

On Monday morning, Israeli armed forces and Civil Administration authorities arrived at Khirbet Humsah, a Bedouin enclave in the northern Jordan Valley, with bulldozers and proceeded to dismantle at least 28 structures, including homes and agricultural pens. This was not the first time Khirbet Humsah’s residents were left homeless and displaced. On November 3rd, 2020, just hours before the US elections, Israeli forces also completely razed the village to the ground, leaving its residents to spend a cold and rainy winter night without shelter.

The Biden Administration put forth its first detailed comments on its Israeli-Palestinian policy in a speech to the United Nations Security Council on January 26, 2021, which was also the first anniversary of the reveal of Donald Trump’s infamous “Deal of the Century.” A year later, America needs to show goodwill towards the Palestinians to gain their trust. For starters, the Biden Administration should begin by disavowing Trump’s “Deal of the Century” and declare it, and all that which resulted from it, as null and void.

Israeli plans to annex the West Bank are “dead,” says reporter Barak Ravid. That’s a demonstration of the power of Israel lobby organizations in the U.S. to stop the Israeli government. They could do the same thing on unending settlements, if they would just take a stand.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US ambassador David Friedman announced amendments to US accords, sought by Trump’s biggest backer, Sheldon Adelson, that will allow US taxpayer money to be spent in Israeli settlements. Adelson seems to want to get as much out of Trump in what time remains.

Beinart’s declaration of support for one democratic state has exposed intolerant attitudes among liberal Zionists. For instance, Palestinian leader Ayman Odeh says he wants to represent all Israelis and be like MLK, but Michael Koplow of IPF says he can’t represent Israeli Jews. Really? Why not? And why should an American be indulging such racism?