Portside

Let me take this opportunity to thank J Street for the bold voice that they’ve provided in support of American leadership in the Middle East and efforts towards peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I understand that, given the political climate in this capital, that has not always been easy. I also applaud them for being part of a broad coalition of groups that successfully fought for the historic nuclear agreement between the U.S. and its partners and Iran.

U.S. policymakers and the major media are embroiled in a heated debate over the purported Russian meddling in U.S. politics, but Israeli interference in U.S. politics is the conspiracy in plain sight that no one talks about. Israel intervenes in U.S. domestic and foreign policy all the time, but it never is a scandal. The reason is simple. The U.S. Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, and the major media, including the so-called liberal media, are all complicit.

President of oldest US pro-Israel group salutes ‘new sane era’ as Trump’s views underscore divisions among Jews and influence of evangelical Christians

Can Trump's administration include rabid Zionists and rabid anti-Semites at the same time? Of course it can.

2016 began with a bang: French telecommunications giant Orange announced in early January it was dumping its Israel affiliate. Meanwhile, churches, student unions and local activists continued to organize strong boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns that caused panic among Israeli leaders.

Is the two-state solution for Israel-Palestine still viable? Perhaps it is time to admit, in the spirit of Voltaire, that the two-state solution was never about two states, nor was it a solution, nor could it ever be viable.

The passage of UNSC 2334 marks the first occasion since 1980 that the Security Council has censured Israel's settler-colonialist practices, primarily because the United States had consistently threatened to use or exercised its veto power against similar initiatives for the past thirty-six years. On this occasion, Washington once again refused to support the resolution-but on account of its abstention, the Security Council was able to unanimously adopt the draft text.

Reader Comments: Calling Working People of All Colors; The Scandal of Vast Inequality in Retirement Pay; Ohio Factory Workers Fight for a Union; No Rockettes Will Be Required to Perform at Inauguration; 25 Places That Raised the Minimum Wage in 2016; The UN Security Council Resolution; Israeli Hysteria Over UN Vote; Stop Fueling the Anti-Russia Frenzy; History, Political Strategy - for the Future; Resources; National Single Payer Strategy Conference; and more...

President Obama’s decision to allow passage of a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal has done more to change the shape of the conflict than any other action in the last ten years.

In many ways the Security Council vote is Obama’s last hurrah, the swan song not only of his presidency but of unequivocal American support for a two-state solution and opposition to Jewish settlements.