Steve Bannon figured out he needed to put lipstick on Donald Trump’s piggish Muslim ban

The White House plan to expand the Border Patrol and ICE gives Bannon and Trump a growing armed wing that is independent of local police, that can conduct raids anywhere in the United States, and that showed its enthusiasm for Trump by endorsing him well before before the election.

In three months the American Jewish community is going to hit an iceberg called the Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of the occupation/Six Day War. The collision is going to change the Jewish establishment. The fractures that have been developing for years over Israel are going to break out in public agony. The anniversay will change the American Jewish relationship to Israel forever, as the Six Day War did 50 years go.

The subject of Israel and Jews came up very early in last night’s debate on CNN of the eight candidates to be Democratic National Committee chairperson. The job is to be voted on by the DNC this weekend in Atlanta. During the debate one candidate after another denounced Trump on one issue after another, and put down the donor class of the Democratic Party too, in favor of the grassroots. But on the issue of Israel conservative bipartisanship is the only way, officially.

Liberal Zionism has never been under so much pressure as it is in the Trump era. For two reasons: Trump has rendered the death of the two-state solution a naked reality that is no longer deniable. And liberals who are vocally resisting Trump must affirm values that are inconsistent with Israel as it has turned out. Liberal Zionists and anti-Zionists must form a new coalition for progress, and liberal Zionists will have to give up their illusion of a Jewish, democratic state.

In an open letter to progressive Jews, Jewish activists says this moment calls for a strong, broad, united front against the Trump administration’s agenda but there are groups within the Jewish community that progressives should not stand beside: “Specifically, we refer to the February 12 rallies in support of refugees in which Jewish social justice groups cosponsored the action with, among others, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC), two organizations that have toxic anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian policies.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition and J Street are at odds over nomination of David Friedman as ambassador to Israel. With Senate hearing on Thursday, Holocaust scholars publish letter vehemently opposing Friedman’s use of the word “kapos” to describe liberal Zionists.

The response to Donald Trump’s travel ban within the Arab community of east Dearborn, Michigan, has been one of urgent fear and confusion, as evidenced by the overwhelming turnout of town halls and community panels. Abed Ayoub, legal policy director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest grassroots Arab American advocacy organization, reported receiving over 1500 calls to the organization in 48 hours. “The impact it had on the community’s psyche was worse than 9/11,” the attorney said.

A bill to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization has now been introduced in Congress. This action against the Muslim Brotherhood is about political repression in this country, not just abroad. In the US this law will be used to sweep up and act against groups in the Muslim Community. Groups like CAIR, the Muslim Student Association, and American Muslims for Palestine will be some of the first groups attacked, even if there are no provable links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Concerned about a Muslim Registry? This is the registry.

Former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro speculates Trump extracted shocking endorsement of his immigration policies from Israeli PM Netanyahu in exchange — for what? Allowing settlement expansion, or killing Iran deal, or moving embassy to Jerusalem, Shapiro speculates