“My north star is maintaining a democratic Jewish state. That is the single most important thing I believe that I can do as American ambassador” –US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides on his job description. And that means praising the Israeli military repeatedly despite the fact that it killed a Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. Nides justified the killing by saying Abu Akleh had gone into a “dangerous place.”

The good news of Israeli leaders smearing Emma Watson as an antisemite for a mil expression of Palestinian solidarity is that this time even establishment types questioned the timeworn strategy, and may even have noticed the anti-Palestinian bigotry that animates it.