According to Minnesota activists, Governor Tim Walz canceled an agreed upon meeting with Palestinian families who have lost relatives in Gaza after learning they wanted to talk about state divestment from Israel.

Filings from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveal that the pro-Israel group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent more than $350,000 trying to defeat Rep. Ilhan Omar in the Democratic primary for Minnesota’s 5th district. Additionally the group spent over $400,000 to help defeat New York 10th district candidate Yuh-Line Niou, a progressive assembly member who expressed support for the BDS movement. Both races were very close, Omar’s unexpectedly so.

Memo to Tom Friedman: Israel is not your “ancestral homeland,” that is a Zionist myth. There was never an exile from Judea. Jews were all over the Roman Empire as converts; and your ancestors were surely among them. And mythical Jewish history doesn’t convey rights to someone born in Minnesota.