What will it take to shift the balance towards liberation for Palestinians? Ali Abunimah, Nada Elia and Phil Weiss discussed this topic in an online event sponsored by Haymarket Books, Electronic Intifada, and Mondoweiss.

It would be fair to say that a major earthquake has been happening in the Zionist camp this past week, with Peter Beinart’s essay that he no longer believes in a Jewish state, and J Street and the peace processors are doing all they can to wish the desertion away.

Liberal Zionists should be ashamed of arguments against Israeli annexation — calls for a “strong Jewish majority”, or for “separation” from Palestinians — that echo Jim Crow slogans of yesteryear. And yet J Street and Americans for Peace Now and Israel Policy Forum routinely platform speakers who make such appeals.

Peter Beinart’s embrace of the struggle for equal rights for Palestinians in one state puts huge pressure on liberal Zionist organizations to drop the beastly talk about “separation” and demographics and take concrete steps for Palestinian rights. And how long before the Jewish youth group IfNotNow endorses BDS?

Eric Alterman shows real courage in saying that the Bowman-Engel race in NY was liberalism versus Zionism and liberalism won. And that’s a wakeup call to Jews who thought the two belief systems are compatible.

The only variety of Zionism still on offer is the ethno-nationalist creed of Benjamin Netanyahu and the many politicians in Israel who sit to his right in the Knesset. And with annexation, we are about to begin the final phase of the Palestinian people’s long and tortured dispossession.

Many pro-Israel organizations have condemned the systemic racism in the George Floyd killing while remaining silent on Palestinian treatment. J Street did link the Floyd killing to that of Eyad al-Halaq in Jerusalem, but said the US suffers “deeply entrenched… structural racism,” while Palestinians suffer “deeply entrenched occupation.”

Robert Cohen writes, “Looking the other way when a crime is committed is not a Jewish value I remember being taught in my Hebrew classes. The British Board of Deputies’ effort to build non-existent Jewish unity over Israel turns out to be little more than political expediency in Israel’s favour.”

The biggest impediment to annexation by Israel is a threat that the country will lose the support of the Democratic Party and American Jews, J Street says. The Israel lobby group called on Joe Biden to oppose annexation more emphatically than he already has.

The news that Israel’s new government plans to begin annexing the West Bank in July has been greeted with outrage– and resignation. Even some peace processors seem to accept that the two-state moment is passed. Former White House aide Dennis Ross says, “1 state for 2 peoples is more likely.”