Several hundred Israelis could face arrest in official ICC probe of war crimes in Palestine, Defense minister Gantz says, as AIPAC urges Biden and Congress to condemn the move. The investigation will also target Israeli settlements, which European countries have said are illegal.

François Dubuisson writes that the ICC decision to investigate war crimes in Palestine has huge symbolic significance and will likely lead the court to consider the crime of apartheid, given recent reports.

Gov. Cuomo tries to deflect criticism of his coronavirus restrictions on the Orthodox by bragging on his pro-Israel bona fides. “Nobody has traveled more to Israel. Two of my brothers-in-law are Jewish. Nobody’s fought anti-Semitism more aggressively than I have. First Governor in the nation to do BDS.”

Benny Gantz, who became an American liberal Zionist hero over the last 18 months as he tried to replace Netanyahu– and then folded–spoke at a Friends of Israel Defense Forces gala of a “people’s army” that protects the “Jewish homeland” and draws its ranks from “every walk of life… every type of background.” But very few Palestinians serve in the Israeli army. Only Jews are required to do so.

Those protesting China crackdown on Hong Kong and Minneapolis police over killing seek sanctions and boycott and opposition to normalization– and National Public Radio gives a seal of approval — but such measures are off limits for Israel.

How can I not think of the residents of Gaza who are prisoners of an inhuman blockade that has lasted for more than 13 years when I find myself confined to my home, forbidden to leave my house except for 5 reasons set by the government and provided that I have a certificate? But in Europe at least, we don’t have snipers to enforce this ban.

In a humorous video intended to dispel the rumors about intense tensions within the “cockpit” of four leaders of the Blue and White party – Benjamin Gantz, Yair Lapid, Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon, and Gabi Ashkenazi – Lapid is heard telling Ashkenazi that “Bogie was quite a murderer in the army, in his military career.”

Norman Finkelstein says that the International Criminal Court crossed a “Rubicon” when it announced a formal investigation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza and its ongoing settlement project, but that the ICC will likely use a technicality, that Palestine has no standing as a state, to throw out the case. The real battle will be in public opinion, and the case may help force the reckoning inside the Democratic Party.

News media coverage routinely frames Palestine-Israel as a story of two sides deserving more or less equal portions of blame. In an excerpt from his book, ‘The Wrong Story:  Palestine, Israel, and the Media’, Greg Shupak examines the use of the “both sides” frame in New York Times editorials on Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, Operation Protective Edge which distort events in Israel’s favor by grossly inflating Palestinian wrongs while understating Israel’s.