Danny Ayalon, a vigorous advocate for Israel and former ambassador to the U.S., says he is worried about the growth of Jewish anti-Zionism in the United States.

For those concerned that Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms will threaten democracy in Israel I simply ask, “democracy for whom?”

Benjamin Netanyahu’s radical rightwing ministers’ agenda is the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. And yet high Biden officials are meeting with Netanyahu today, and Secretary Blinken is due out within a couple of weeks, all to give Biden’s blessing to the new government — and perform what the State Department admitted yesterday is “triage” on the failure of the two-state solution.

Hillel Halkin moved to Israel from the U.S. 50 years ago because he believed in the Zionist vision. Now the author confesses that the project failed because it could not deal with the central question, Palestinian demands, and he was naive when anti-Zionists made that argument to him years ago. Today the country is going off a rightwing-religious “cliff” — a quarter of all nonreligious Israelis between ages 18-24, and half of all religious ones, think Israel’s Palestinian citizens should be stripped of the right to vote!

Liberal Zionists like David Grossman have to own up to their ideology and admit that Israel’s drift towards the right is because of Zionism, not in spite of it.

The longest serving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in a rush to name his new government before January 2 and first order of business will be an override bill that allows the parliament to set aside Supreme Court overturnings of laws as mere “recommendation.” That’s one way Netanyahu plans to sidestep his corruption trial. Two of his ministers are convicted criminals.

The Biden administration is giving Israel’s new radical right government the thumbs up. “Bibi Netanyahu is in charge of this government, okay? He’s made it very clear that his hands are on the wheel, and we’ll work with him. And most importantly, Joe Biden has a strong working relationship with Bibi Netanyahu,” says US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides.

Longtime leaders in the U.S. Jewish community, including Abe Foxman, Thomas Friedman, Rick Jacobs, and Dan Kurtzer, express fear that the new Israeli government will break the supposedly unbreakable U.S.-Israel relationship. Or as David Makovsky and Dennis Ross wrote a few weeks back in the first major sign that American Zionists are panicked by the plans, the new government will arm Israel’s “fiercest critics,” including progressives who seek to end U.S. aid and distance the U.S. from Israel. Not all these leaders are concerned about Palestinian rights. Indeed, Abe Foxman doesn’t question Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, but is upset that Israel might change the definition of Who is a Jew?

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians soared in 2022. Palestinians say the worrying trend will only worsen as right-wing extremists make their home in Israel’s new government.

Racist rightwinger Itamar Ben-Gvir gets the security portfolio in Netanyahu’s next government and promises to visit the Al-Aqsa mosque in a provocation to Palestinians reminiscent of Ariel Sharon’s deadly visit there in 2000. But this is not news for the New York Times, which blinds its readers to the frightening developments in Israel.