The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu used his moral stature to call out and oppose Israeli apartheid, but the U.S. media seem embarrassed about this information. NPR completely leaves it out, while the New York Times and Washington Post and PBS News Hour bury it.

Palestinian human rights activist Fadi Quran describes his detention by Homeland Security at the Dallas airport in October at the behest of the Israeli government as a supposed terrorist– a US lieutenant told Quran his hands were tied to interrogate Quran after an ally filed the claim. While Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace says the Biden administration will spend no energy on Palestinian rights.

The Israel lobby group J Street initially joined an international chorus condemning Israel’s designation of Palestinian human rights orgs as “terrorist.” Then in November, the group took a delegation of six Members of Congress to Israel and Palestine and met with several Palestinian civil society and human rights groups– but none of the six designated groups– and on that trip, the delegation was briefed by Israeli government officials about the “secret evidence” in support of the terrorist designation, a source who was not on the trip tells me. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s disclosure statement from the trip supports that assertion: She says the delegation received “briefings on Israel security” from “senior” government officials.

After Oberlin instructors organized a winter trip to Israel to help progressives understand Israeli democracy– without any mention of Palestine– Students for a Free Palestine circulated a petition on the Ohio campus against the trip that has gotten 600 signatures. The organizers have revised the trip to include Palestine and dropped its price from a whopping $4500 to $2500.

Liberal Zionist organizations could provide Joe Biden with the political capital inside the Jewish community and Democratic Party to confront Israel on its recent designation of six Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist organizations.” But so far they have have done little to take on the designation and even offered a platform to the Israeli government to defend the charge. It’s little wonder the Biden administration is keeping its mouth shut.

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).

The new two-state bill in the House promoted by progressive Congresspeople describes Israel as the “national home of the Jewish people.” This language is “unacceptable” to Palestinians, says Jafar Farah of the Mossawa Center in Haifa, because it prolongs discrimination embodied by the fact that Palestinians are not permitted to build a university in Nazareth over 40 years of demanding that right.

As more and more young Jews say that Israel practices “apartheid” or “genocide” against Palestinians, Israeli President Isaac Herzog calls on the U.S. Jewish community to push back against these Jews. But he never mentions Palestinian conditions that alienate American Jews.