A growing number of Democratic Socialists of America chapters are calling on the organization to take action against Rep. Jamaal Bowman for violating the group’s political platform with respect to Palestine.

A growing number of Democratic Socialists of America chapters are calling on the national organization to take action against Rep. Jamaal Bowman for violating the group’s political platform with respect to Palestine.

B’Tselem published a video today of a disturbing incident in Hebron on September 3 in which Israeli soldiers raided the home of an extended Palestinian family at about 8 PM and forced a dozen children, some of whom were sleeping, to line up for a photograph.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is trying to ban leading Palestinian human rights groups as alleged “terrorist” groups and has bragged of bombing Gaza to “the stone age.” So why are Democrats Chris Coons and Steve Cohen meeting with him and standing for photo opps? They don’t want to be on the wrong side of the Israel lobby.

Sunrise Movement DC’s decision to withdraw from a voting rights rally because of the participation of three Zionist groups reflects the view of many on the left that you can’t be progressive and be a Zionist. This political future is disturbing to the Jewish establishment and rightwing groups called the decision “antisemitic” while liberal Zionists condemned the decision on cancellation grounds (though they cancel anti-Zionists all the time).

As progressives, including two Jewish groups, try to block $1 billion in extra aid to Israel, liberal Zionists are once again stuck in the middle, unable to come out against the funding and thereby alienate the mainstream Israel lobby.

William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Orgs, jumps in to the smear campaign against Ben & Jerry’s board chair Anuradha Mittal for daring not to sell ice cream in “occupied Palestinian territories” — which Daroff says is a meaningless term. The “grownups” at Unilever can override the Ben & Jerry’s decision by “just snapping their fingers,” Daroff proclaims, echoing the rightwing Israeli government position.

Har Bracha is a Jewish settlement outpost that regularly terrorizes the Palestinian village of Burin, whose lands it stole. President Isaac Herzog, who is routinely celebrated by liberals in the U.S., toured the settlement Tuesday and declared that the Jewish people’s connection to that land cannot be “denied or diminished.” So much for all the liberal Zionist talk of a two-state solution that would yield land to Palestinians.

U.S. Jews and not Christian Zionists are Israel’s “bridge” to the Congress and the White House, Israeli minister Nachman Shai tells the American Jewish Committee. “I believe only in you.” And that means shutting down the “Squad” in Congress. “I don’t want to hear those voices coming from the Democratic Party sidelines of refusal to send arms to Israel or to support Israel internationally.” P.S. Shai is a J Street hero.

The liberal Zionist group J Street cannot endorse Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling in the occupied territories even as it seems to try to look as if it does. It is balancing the official Jewish community that is angered by Ben & Jerry’s, and young Jews who see Israel as practicing “apartheid.” It’s a straddle with political risks.