The New York Times has run two pieces in the last couple of days arguing that religion has nothing to do with the real world. Passover is offered as a source of mystery, but not as a window on what is happening in Israel and Palestine. The Times is serving the winners, Leon Wieseltier and Shmuel Rosner, in the religious project that is Zionism.

Liberals supported the boycott of North Carolina over the bathroom bill, and it forced North Carolina to change. But those same politicians oppose boycott of Israel, though it’s the only means of ending discrimination there nonviolently.

The Obama administration was hard on Israel from start to finish, in perception of US Jews. Donald Trump’s messaging is better “out of the gate,” says leading liberal Zionist rabbi Elliot Cosgrove.

US politicians swearing fealty to Israel at AIPAC know there are cracks in US support. “When people sometimes say to me, the United States is so overwhelmingly partial to Israel in this discussion, I say Yes of course. We have been friends for a long time,” Nancy Pelosi admits.

VP Mike Pence was introduced at AIPAC as an enemy of BDS and told the group that Trump is seriously considering moving embassy to Jerusalem. Meanwhile,, young Jewish protesters outside call the occupation a moral crisis in the Jewish community.

“Senator Hatfield said– and I will never forget these words as long as I live– ‘In this great distinguished institution of the United States Senate, when the Israel lobby says jump, 90 plus of my colleagues say how high. They never ask why.'” Khalil Jahshan at the annual Israel lobby conference in Washington, D.C.

If a definition of Deep State is being impervious to elections, then what about the influence that AIPAC has exercised in both parties: fostering Trump’s Islamophobia and trampling a Democratic Party thinktank’s efforts to expose that Islamophobia. Eli Clifton shows that AIPAC supported Frank Gaffney, the Islam-basher, to the tune of $60,000.

Aid to Israel is a “cutout” in the Trump budget, says the State Department. Climate change is a loser, so is aid to foreign countries. But Israel stays at the highest level, and the Republican Jewish Coalition is thrilled.

At a Brooklyn synagogue NYT reporter Joseph Goldstein says “alt right” is obsessed with losing a white majority in the US; while Seffi Kogen of AJC says that the “alt left” is anti-semitic because it supports BDS — though some Jews do so out of “love.”

On visit to Israel, NY Gov Andrew Cuomo says Israel has developed response to “lone wolf” attacks to “an art form” — but Amnesty Int’l says Israeli execution policy shows “shocking disregard for human life.”