“Israel has all but made its decision: one country that includes millions of Palestinians who lack basic rights. Now liberal Zionists must make our decision, too. It’s time to abandon the traditional two-state solution and embrace the goal of equal rights for Jews and Palestinians. It’s time to imagine a Jewish home that is not a Jewish state. Equality could come in the form of one state that includes Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, as writers such as Yousef Munayyer and Edward Said have proposed; or it could be a confederation that allows free movement between two deeply integrated countries. (I discuss these options at greater length in an essay in Jewish Currents). The process of achieving equality would be long and difficult, and would most likely meet resistance from both Palestinian and Jewish hard-liners.

“The painful truth is that the project to which liberal Zionists like myself have devoted ourselves for decades—a state for Palestinians separated from a state for Jews—has failed. The traditional two-state solution no longer offers a compelling alternative to Israel’s current path. It risks becoming, instead, a way of camouflaging and enabling that path. It is time for liberal Zionists to abandon the goal of Jewish–Palestinian separation and embrace the goal of Jewish–Palestinian equality…Averting a future in which oppression degenerates into ethnic cleansing requires a vision that can inspire not just Palestinians, but the world. Equality offers it.

“For some time, a growing corps of activists—Palestinian Americans, racial justice activists, left-wing Jews, people of conscience—have been engaged in a reckoning over US support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. And now, this reckoning has reached Congress…This summer triggers flashbacks of pain and hope. The very same week that Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, Israeli police killed Iyad Hallaq, a 32-year-old Palestinian man with autism, on the streets of Jerusalem. And now, global racial justice protests have emerged just as Israel mulls its latest major land grab. For indigenous people in Palestine and for Black Americans, who continue to suffer under systemic racism in this land, this historical awakening is a first and necessary step to fixing our unjust present. It is a beginning, an essential move toward challenging systems of injustice and replacing them with systems of freedom and equality for all.”

“The White House peace team is expected to further discuss how to implement its Middle East vision on Wednesday, a person familiar with the discussions told The Jerusalem Post.”

“The Palestinian Authority announced Tuesday that it was prolonging a lockdown in the occupied West Bank for five days following a spike in coronavirus infections. The lockdown, which began on Friday, will be extended until Sunday evening, Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said.”

“With 82 percent of the West Bank’s confirmed active coronavirus cases, Hebron has emerged as the epicenter of the West Bank’s second wave. Recording hundreds of infections per day for the past two weeks, the West Bank governorate has around as many active cases as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Bnei Brak — the three hardest-hit Israeli cities — combined…Hebron only has 35 ventilators in total, according to the municipality’s numbers. With local hospitals at capacity, al-Kaila has said that sick Hebron residents are being transported across the West Bank to Bethlehem for treatment…Eighty-two percent of West Bank Palestinians with the virus contracted it at weddings and funerals in which participants violated social distancing guidelines, he said.”

“Israel is now seeing more than a thousand infected people a day — more than any European country. Israeli hospitals began to fill up with patients in serious condition as the economic status of hundreds of thousands continued to deteriorate. Israel, which had served as a global model for treating COVID-19, could be heading for another lockdown. How bad is it? At the bleak meeting that went on for hours, Netanyahu warned against a loss of control that could lead to another full lockdown, saying, ‘The pandemic is spreading — that’s as clear as day. It is rising steeply daily and it is dragging with it, contrary to what we had been told, a trail of critically ill patients. … If we don’t act now, we’ll find ourselves with hundreds, perhaps even more than a thousand seriously ill people in the coming weeks. And this can paralyze all our systems’.”

“Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz entered quarantine on Wednesday due to concerns that he may have come into contact with a coronavirus patient – a family member – while the new cases registered in the spam of 24 hours reached the record number of 1,320. ‘I feel great, and intend to continue working as usual,’ Gantz said, adding that he will remain in isolation until a coronavirus test and the epidemiological survey are completed. ‘There is no room to take risks’.”

[Video] “It is not just a professional sport that is making a tentative return to action after the coronavirus break. Child amputees in Gaza are taking to the football ground once again.”

“As public criticism of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic grows, a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday placed the blame solely on the public.”

“Health and policy experts, while crediting the government for dampening the virus’s spread in the spring, cite a raft of failures for its summer resurgence. They include refraining from appointing a coronavirus ‘czar’ to coordinate the response and failing to put together a national network of testing labs and technicians able to track the virus. The government official noted that Israel was averaging more than 20,000 tests a day, but acknowledged inadequate contact tracing. ‘It wasn’t robust enough in terms of manpower,’ the official said. With new restrictions now taking effect, Israelis are again losing the near-normality they had thought was theirs to enjoy. The backsliding has unleashed a torrent of criticism of the government.”

“Two weeks later, after collecting all the necessary documents showing he had inherited the plot from his father, Abu Hijleh returned to his land and found that the settlers had turned the hole in the ground into a pool. ‘Why are you angry? It’s just a pool for our children,’ an Israeli settler reportedly told Abu Hijleh before representatives from the Civil Administration arrived and asked both the Palestinians and the settlers to evacuate ‘until the issue is legally resolved’. I couldn’t trust the Israeli Civil Administration and returned to inspect the land 10 days later,’ Abu Hijleh said. ‘I found a finished pool with some chairs. All their work was completed.’ Abu Hijleh then got in touch with the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, in order to start building a legal case. Meanwhile, he planned to continue cultivating his land by planting olive trees. But when he arrived, the Israeli army denied him access to the area, he said.”

“The Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by the Jaffa Islamic Council against the construction of a shelter for homeless people on a plot that was found to be an old Muslim cemetery. The construction atop the cemetery sparked days of demonstrations in Jaffa, a predominantly Arab city that is part of the Tel Aviv municipality. Judge Limor Bibi canceled a previous injunction against work at the site, which will continue immediately. She also ruled that the Islamic Council must pay the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality and the Tel Aviv Foundation NIS 7,500 each for legal costs.”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said on Wednesday it would back forming a commission of inquiry that will probe conflicts of interest of Supreme Court justices. Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan party called the move “a declaration of war on democracy. The demand to form the commission was filed by far-right lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich of the Yamina faction.”

“Shortly after being appointed, Israel’s new Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi signaled that he was going to change things…Ashkenazi can expect a fierce battle with the Finance Ministry over funding and with other ministries over responsibilities. Still, his greatest challenge lies with Israel’s diplomatic agenda. If Ashkenazi manages to involve the ministry on the Palestinian and the Iran portfolios, then we could start talking about rehabilitating the Foreign Ministry.”

“The attorney of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Micha Pettman, announced Wednesday he would be leaving the premier’s legal defense team over unpaid fees, just 10 days before the second session of Netanyahu’s corruption trial…Pettman said his decision stems from the permits committee in the State Comptroller’s Office’s decision not to discuss Netanyahu’s request to accept 10 million shekels (nearly $3 million) from U.S. businessman Spencer Partrich to help fund the legal defense. In addition, some professional differences arose between Pettman and Netanyahu’s other attorney, Amit Hadad. Therefore, the investigative materials in Netanyahu’s trial were not transferred to Pettman and his role in the defense team was insignificant.”