Peter Beinart writes, “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that American Jews and American politicians greet Netanyahu’s announcement with a shrug. To the contrary, Netanyahu’s annexation proposal constitutes good news precisely because it increases the chances that Democrats will finally stop shrugging, and begin telling Israel that if it wants to brutally oppress millions of Palestinians who lack basic rights, it must do so without American money.”

“Mr Netanyahu is prepared to sacrifice almost anything on the altar of domestic politics. He dismisses the occupation, 52 years of Israeli military rule over Palestinians, as “nonsense”. Yet what is the upshot of such thinking? Millions of Palestinians will end up living in segregated enclaves in the middle of the West Bank, with no real political rights and under separate legal and education systems. They will be dirt poor and under a permanent military occupation, with their movements curbed. How would the country reconcile a permanent occupation with its democratic ideals? Israel would not be building peace, it would be constructing a giant open prison.”

“We tell Netanyahu, and whoever follows him, you will not break the Palestinians’ will, you will never break our will, never, never,” said Hassan Al-Abedi, a 55-year-old farmer who lives in the village of Jiftlik. “It’s our parents’ and grandparents’ land. We will hold onto it no matter what it costs.”

“Another complication yet to be explained is that the blue shaded area that the prime minister vowed to immediately annex if he wins next Tuesday’s election includes roughly 62,000 acres of private Palestinian land, according to data from the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration. This includes some 5,000 acres of private Palestinian land seized by Israel for security-related reasons. However, settlers took advantage of the policy to establish Bekaot, Gitit, Yeitav, Mehola, Ma’ale Efraim, Niran, Netiv Hagdud, Ro’i and Rimonim. The High Court of Justice issued a decision in 1979 barring such exploitation of security-related land seizures, but those settlements have remained and are now slated for annexation as part of Netanyahu’s plan.”

“For months there have had inklings that US President Donald Trump’s long delayed peace plan was likely to consider the Jordan Valley a key area for Israel’s security, allowing Netanyahu to pledge to annex it, he said. ‘We cannot do anything without the Americans.’”

“A few days after the family was evicted, a group of Jews came to a plot adjacent to where the house and restaurant had stood and began working the land. A short time later, they erected temporary buildings that in practice turned the site into an unauthorized residential outpost. Although JNF had leased the land to the group of Jews for agricultural purposes, no permits have ever been issued for the construction of buildings at the site, and the new structures therefore have no more legal validity than the Cassia family’s home and restaurant.”

“The prime minister accused Hamas of failing to enact its sovereignty in Gaza and control other groups, like Islamic Jihad, that have staged attacks on Israel. ‘There is a terrorist element that wants to destroy us,’ he said. ‘We have a basic situation of a terror group that has taken over and launches rockets, that doesn’t control errant factions even when it wants to. Hamas understand where they are headed, but can’t stop. Because they can’t, there will be no choice but to enter a war.’ Netanyahu also hinted that Israel may carry out several military steps before setting out on a military operation.”

“Around this time 14 years ago, Israel completed the removal of its military bases and Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip. Many believe that with the implementation of the ‘disengagement plan’, Israel unburdened itself of Gaza and no longer bears responsibility for what happens there. The reality, however, is that Israel still controls many aspects of life in Gaza, and consequently the lives of Gaza’s residents.”

“Netanyahu promised in his speech that after what he predicted would be his election victory on Tuesday, Israel would annex West Bank settlements “in coordination with the United States.” He also highlighted his close ties with the White House and intimated that he had knowledge of the contents of President Trump’s peace plan. But less than an hour later, Trump fired national security advisor John Bolton by tweet, leaving the position open for the third time in three years. The firing — its timing and substance — underscored just how precarious it can be to rely on an erratic president with a trigger-happy Twitter finger.”

“Aside from the Joint List, Labor, and the Democratic Union, the other Israeli parties long ago shed the genteel hypocrisy that defined the first days of the post-1948 state. For them, there is no such thing as a ‘good Arab’ or a ‘bad Arab,’ the way David Ben Gurion — and even Yitzhak Rabin during his second premiership — saw it. For these parties, every Arab is an enemy. No nuances. We may still be living in an era of political correctness, but the Israeli right — from the Blue and White party to Otzma Yehudit to the ultra-Orthodox parties —long ago adopted Ehud Barak’s mantra that there is ‘no partner’ for peace. And any way you look at it, the underlying meaning of this viewpoint is akin to saying, ‘death to Arabs.’ Not in the practical sense, though this does happen as well, but in the declarative, ideological, and symbolic sense.”

“Two pro-Israel groups, the American Jewish Committee and StandWithUs, have each filed an amicus brief calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold Texas’s anti-BDS law. The AJC brief, filed on Tuesday, argues that the anti-BDS law, Texas Government Code Chapter 2270, is constitutional and a lower court judge’s injunction in April, suspending the law’s implementation, should be lifted.”

“The lawfare continues — in the crosshairs of David Abrams and his Zionist Advocacy Center, the ‘anti-Israel’ org known as… Oxfam.