Quite simply, loyalty to Israel is no longer the defining issue it was until so recently in political life in the States.
The vice-like grip of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) on the selection of candidates has begun to falter as Jacob Kornbluh makes clear in this account of Michael Blake’s campaign to enter Congress in New York’s 15th District.
We repost below the excellent statement issued by the Jewish Socialists’ Group when news was received of the launch of Reform UK’s Jewish Alliance at a synagogue in London.
When Manchester City’s football manager Pep Guardiola spoke about Gaza’s children he didn’t once mention Israel.
No matter.
Saying things like: “I think we left them alone and abandoned them,” was already too much…
By Mike Cushman
Michael Hauser Tov is clear: Netanyahu has manipulated the facts, lied, and presented half-truths in what he presented to the public.
This behaviour will shock no one, Netanyahu gets his headlines and the careful comparison of his words with the contemporaneous documentation which discloses the mendacity, comes later and attracts much less attention.
The US magazine, The Nation, suspended all other activity for a day, devoting its website only to materials about Gaza, produced by people from Gaza.
“Gaza has been suspended in a bloody limbo for months. Despite the much-hyped ceasefire between Israel and Hamas—declared on October 10, 2025—peace has not arrived in the Gaza Strip…
By Leah Levane
The extent of surveillance, using facial recognition and AI is extensive. Added to this is that Israel literally controls the power and chooses to allow only 75% of what Palestinians need to be available to them. I try to imagine what it is like to be surveilled all the time, having been forced out of your home and surrounded by soldiers and settlements and stay committed to non violence in the face of the violence done to you
By Leah Levane
The future for Gaza ac cording to the plans for the “Board of Peace”: in this vision, Gaza is not a society that has endured a genocide, but a problem space to be restructured and monetized. Palestinians are not regarded as political actors with rights; instead, they are reduced to being obstacles, risks, or future labor inputs. What is being offered is not peace. In business vernacular, this is a hostile takeover.
By Leah Levane
The idea of banning a Jewish organisation for antisemitism should be astonishing but given how Germany has acted towards those opposing the genocide in Gaza, it is par for the course but it cannot be accepted. As well as declaring that defence of, and support for, Israel as Germany’s “Staatsraison”, its stated determination to stamp out antisemitism has led to establishing roles in most German States and organisations focused on combatting antisemitism.
By Leah Levane
Only 77 Palestinians (rather than the promised 200) had been let back in the first four days that the Rafah Crossing was “opened”. Here in their own words, Palestinians describe their longing for return and the appalling treatment they received from Israeli forces. At the “the Israeli security check, soldiers handcuffed the passengers, blindfolded them, and led them to interrogation rooms.”
By Leah Levane
The vilification and attempts to marginalise Hamas have contributed to the tragedy in Gaza today. When, in 2006, it tried the electoral route and won, this result was considered unacceptable to those western powers – especially the USA – claiming to support democracy (unless it does not produce the “desired” result.) “This is a story of Western manipulation that provoked a Palestinian civil war, set the scene for Israel’s devastating blockade of Gaza, and forced Hamas away from seeing the ballot box as a route to political change.”