NEW FROM FMEP
FMEP Legislative Round-Up August 28, 2026 (Lara Friedman)
1.Bills, Resolutions; 2. Big Changes on HFAC; 3. Letters & Reports; 4. PIKER-MANIA is BAAAAAACK; 5. Hearings & Markups; 6. Selected Members on the Record; 7. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements
Settlement & Annexation Report: August 28, 2026 (Kristin McCarthy)
WEST BANK: IDF Formalizes Siege on Qusra, Settlers Expand Yitzav Outpost Near Bethlehem; New Yesh Din Report on Settler Violence in Areas A & B; BONUS READS
GLOBAL/REGION
U.S. designates three left-wing groups in Europe “terrorists”, including UK’s Palestine Action (Drop Site 8/27/26)
“the U.S. State Department designated three European left-wing groups as “transnational terrorist organizations.” Two of the groups, Palestine Action and Masar Badil, are focused on activism in support of Palestine…The U.S. Treasury Department announced, in coordination with the State Department, that it would be imposing sanctions on the groups, allowing its OFAC to block the U.S. property of anyone who supports or is linked to any of the groups. Palestine Action, which describes itself as a “direct action movement committed to ending global complicity with Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime”, has also been banned in the UK, where it is based. The UK ban has been criticized by numerous human rights groups, including Amnesty International.” See also “They Want People Scared”: Former Palestine Action Member Blasts Trump’s Terror Sanctions (The Intercept 8/27/26);
Former British and French diplomats urge action over Israel’s ‘erasure’ of Palestine (The Guardian 8/22/26)
“More than 100 French and British former diplomats have said Palestine is being erased in front of the world’s eyes and called for urgent action including trade and arms sales bans to press Israel to accept a Palestinian state. An unprecedented joint letter dispenses with diplomatic language by accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing and warning that the world no longer sees Israel as a genuine democracy…The letter, given to the Guardian and Le Monde, is published two days after the UK and France along with nine other countries condemned the Israeli government’s publication of construction tenders for the E1 settlement project, saying the proposed housing “will take Israel further from peace and undermine its international standing”.’ See also Reports: UK’s Burnham poised to announce ban on trade with West Bank settlements, in what some fear could be ‘de facto boycott of all of Israel’ (TOI 8/26/26); Canada bars Jerusalem deputy mayor Arieh King from entry over war crimes complaints (MEE 8/26/26); US stresses opposition to Israeli West Bank annexation but avoids condemning E1 plan (TOI 8/21/26);
Israel weighs expelling UK officials from Gaza coordination center amid settlements row (TOI 8/27/26)
“Israel is considering expelling British officials from the US-led coordination center for postwar Gaza, the Financial Times reported Thursday, amid a growing spat over the expansion of Israel’s controversial E1 settlements plan. A source familiar with the matter confirmed the report to The Times of Israel, adding that “other measures” against London are also under consideration.”
Sa’ar boots Dutch from US-backed Gaza coordination center over ‘anti-Israel measures’ (TOI 8/26/26)
“Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Tuesday that Dutch representatives will be expelled from the US-backed international coordination center for Gaza in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat, citing a series of “anti-Israel measures” by the Netherlands…[Saar] cited as the latest example the Netherlands’ July decision to ban imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, beginning September 22.”
Israel recalibrates Syria policy, explores path to security deal (Ben Caspit//Al Monitor 8/25/26)
“Israel is moving to de-escalate tensions with Turkey and Syria following its Aug. 18 bombing of the Abu al-Duhur air base in northern Syria, which Israel said was being prepared to host Turkish forces, an Israeli political source told Al-Monitor. Mossad chief Roman Gofman has been tasked with spearheading the effort. The apparent shift from Israel’s hard-line stance may reflect a desire to appease US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for an Israel-Syria agreement, in hopes of securing Trump’s endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection bid, the Israeli political source said.” See also U.S. Removes Syria From Its List of Terrorism Sponsors (NYT 8/25/26); Syria and Israel Hold U.S.-Mediated Talks to Try to Ease Tensions (NYT 8/24/26); U.S. Said to Be Returning Diplomats to Middle East Embassies (NYT 8/25/26); Israeli forces enter villages in southern Syria, state news agency reports (Haaretz 8/27/26);
Gulf between Hezbollah and Lebanese state grows wider as Israeli occupation continues (Guardian 8/25/26)
“As the Lebanese state tries to reassert its authority, it finds the country deeply divided. It faces a challenge that extends far beyond disarming Hezbollah, which the US and Israel are pushing it to do. The state must contend with Hezbollah’s deep-rooted social welfare system and persuade its supporters that it can provide security – even as continuing Israeli occupation and attacks undermine the state’s claim that it can protect Lebanon. The latest round of war has hardened existing divisions over Hezbollah. The group’s supporters accuse the government of humiliating Lebanon by negotiating directly with Israel and not responding to its attacks. Hezbollah’s opponents blame the group for provoking a war by launching rockets at Israel on 2 March, triggering Israel’s invasion and current occupation.”
Trump’s Top Gaza Official Says Israel Is Jeopardizing the Cease-Fire (NYT 8/26/26)
“A senior official for President Trump’s Board of Peace accused the Israeli government on Wednesday of jeopardizing the cease-fire in Gaza and a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hamas. The official, Nickolay Mladenov, is the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza and has been leading negotiations with Hamas to advance a cease-fire reached in October. Mr. Mladenov’s comments, delivered in a speech to the United Nations Security Council, are among the board’s most pointed public criticisms of Israel so far, and come after weeks of rising tensions over Israeli strikes in Gaza. “These strikes do not change the status quo that produced 7 October 2023,” Mr. Mladenov said on Wednesday, referring to the Hamas-led attack on Israel that ignited the Gaza war. “They preserve it.”…In his address to the Security Council, Mr. Mladenov set out the board’s road map for disarming Hamas, and how it would lead to peace and prosperity for Gaza, and security for Israel. As part of the disarmament process, the plan said, Israel would halt its attacks in Gaza, except to defend itself against immediate threats. Mr. Mladenov, in his speech on Wednesday, criticized Israel’s ongoing strikes in Gaza, saying they do not serve Israeli interests…Mr. Mladenov also said that Hamas should follow through on its own commitments in the recent deal by fully halting its military activity and dismantling its underground tunnel networks.” See also UN: Israel has killed at least 100 Palestinians in Gaza in last two weeks (Drop Site 8/27/26); Report: Israeli strike kills three family members in south Gaza (Haaretz 8/28/26); U.S. Patriot Missile Stocks in Europe Are ‘Beyond Critical,’ Officials Say (Haaretz 8/28/26)
GAZA
‘Israel Is Sending Armed Militias in Gaza to Commit War Crimes – and I Have to Protect Them’ (Haaretz 8/27/26)
“A Haaretz investigation, based on IDF soldiers’ testimonies, sources in Gaza and satellite imagery, reveals how Israel is cultivating a network of armed militias in Gaza…Militiamen roam freely around the many IDF outposts established in Gaza, according to witness accounts collected by Haaretz. An officer who served in Gaza said he saw “many militiamen” while visiting some military outposts. The gunmen stage displays of force, film them and upload the footage to their Facebook pages for propaganda and recruitment purposes. For their part, the IDF and Shin Bet extend their patronage to the militias due to their opposition to Hamas, and they maintain close ties. There’s an interest-based synergy between them. “What’s wrong with that? It’s good,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on the matter last year. Sources in Gaza said the IDF even provided militiamen with artillery and drone support during operations against Hamas in the limited area still under its control. But the militias are not only operating against Hamas militants but also against Gazans just trying to survive. According to information collected by the UN, some gunmen coordinated with the IDF to expel Gazans from their homes…In recent months, Haaretz has tracked the militias that Israel is cultivating. Their activation has previously been reported in local and international media. But mapping based on satellite imagery and on social media videos, together with conversations with Palestinians in Gaza, information collected by the UN, the militias’ own public statements and testimony from IDF soldiers and commanders, reveals the depth and extent of the cooperation. The evidence paints a clear picture: The armed Palestinian militias have become an operational arm of the IDF and Shin Bet inside Gaza.”
UNICEF: Gaza Famine Ended, but Children Still Facing Hunger-related Issues (Haaretz 8/27/26)
“According to a new survey of Gaza conducted by UNICEF, the cease-fire in late 2025 has rapidly halted the famine affecting the besieged strip. However, the survey indicates that there are still nutritional problems among Gazan children suffering from stunted growth and other health issues that were caused by the famine.”
On scraps of land and under constant threat, Gaza farmers struggle to survive (The Guardian 8/26/26)
“As Gaza’s population of 2.1 million has been hemmed into an ever smaller slice of the territory, farmers are using every last remaining patch of unspoiled earth, no matter how tiny, in their struggle to survive.
With severe shortages of water, fertiliser and pesticide, and with more than 80% of greenhouses ruined, it has taken inventiveness and determination to clear land of debris and coax new seedlings into life. Moreover, venturing out into the open to tend to plants can be deadly…Based on satellite data, the FAO estimates that little more than a quarter of Gaza’s total prewar cropland, 4,100 hectares, remains accessible, and only about 3%, 450 hectares, is undamaged, free of debris and ready for immediate cultivation. Most of Gaza’s prewar farmland is under Israeli military occupation, and the proportion has grown as the army has pushed the “yellow line” steadily forward over the course of the ceasefire. Using specialised satellite imagery, the human rights advocacy group Forensic Architecture carried out a survey of flora across Gaza as a measurable proxy for cultivable land. It found that nearly 68% of the territory’s flora was on the Israeli side of the yellow line and another 5% was inside a buffer zone declared by the army, delineated on maps with an orange line, where it is extremely dangerous for Palestinians to venture.”
“Access to Oxygen Is Not a Medical Luxury”: With No Spare Parts Allowed In, Gaza’s Hospital Equipment Is Collapsing (Abdel Qadder Sabagh//Drop Site 8/26/26)
“Israel’s restrictions on medical supplies and equipment are still making health care in Gaza all but impossible.”
Israel warns of ‘forceful’ response to kites flown from Gaza (BBC 8/24/26)
“Israel has warned Hamas that it will increase strikes on Gaza following concern over launches of kites, drones and balloons from the territory. Several kites were found in an Israeli community near the border with Gaza over the weekend, local media reported. “Forceful actions will be taken to put an end to this phenomenon,” Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday. Before the war, kites and balloons carrying incendiary devices were launched into Israel, causing fires that burned forest and farmland. Hamas has denied responsibility for the new kites – which were not carrying explosives – and said they belonged to “children searching for their innocent childhood amid the rubble”. The group also accused Israel of using the kites as a “pretext” for continued air strikes in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreed last October.”
RIVER TO THE SEA
IDF says it killed 3 Palestinian terror operatives in rare West Bank airstrike (TOI 8/28/26)
“Three Palestinian terror operatives, including a commander, were killed in an Israeli drone strike in the West Bank city of Jenin this afternoon, the military announces.” See also IDF chief orders major bolstering of troops in West Bank due to escalated tensions (TOI 8/27/26); IDF’s West Bank chief said to warn PM that settler attacks could spark major Palestinian terror outbreak (TOI 8/25/26); Smotrich says he will ‘Judaize’ northern and southern Israel: ‘I did it in the West Bank’ (Haaretz 8/27/26);
New Israeli roadblocks entrench siege of homes in West Bank’s Qusra (Al Jazeera 8/28/26)
“When Israeli authorities set up three new roadblocks at the Ras al-Ain hill in the northern occupied West Bank village of Qusra on Wednesday, Abdel Hakim Wadi knew he was about to lose access to his land below once and for all. The roadblocks’ gates – large yellow and orange metal bars placed on two large concrete blocks – are infamous in the West Bank. They’re placed at the entrances of many, if not most villages, and have multiplied since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023. The only ones holding the keys are the Israeli forces. Israeli soldiers had already placed a gate at the main entrance of Qusra itself, forcing Palestinians traveling into the village to take alternative routes – but often find those closed as well. Three homes in this area of Qusra have been besieged by Israeli settlers since August 9, attracting global attention and condemnation. Israeli forces have declared the area a closed military zone, but have effectively continued the siege, with locals trapped in their homes. And now, instead of lifting the siege, the roadblocks erected by the Israelis have been placed in carefully-selected locations. “They are pushing the Israeli settlers 100 to 150 metres away from [our] houses, but now they have established checkpoints,” Wadi told Al Jazeera. “[It is] a much more permanent siege.” See also Nearly 3 weeks into Qusra siege, settlers filmed freely roaming through closed military zone (TOI 8/28/26); Palestinians Asked for Help Against Settlers. Israelis Detained Palestinian Workers Instead. (The Intercept 8/26/26);
Israeli Police Launch Major Raid on Last Remaining UNRWA Facility in Jerusalem (Haaretz 8/25/26)
“Israeli police raided an UNRWA vocational training center in northern Jerusalem on Tuesday for the seventh time in recent months, ordering staff to evacuate and shutting the facility in what National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said was an effort to permanently close it. The center, located near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, was the last UNRWA facility still operating in the city and trains hundreds of teenagers from West Bank refugee camps in trades including carpentry and auto electrical work…National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also participated in the raid and arrived at the site accompanied by a crew from the pro-government Channel 14. The far-right minister said the latest raid is intended to shut the facility down permanently. Just a day earlier, diplomats from 24 countries, including Germany, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Britain, Turkey and Poland, visited the compound.”
What’s behind Israel’s growing assault on West Bank healthcare (Ghada Majadli//+972 Magazine 8/24/26)
“Seeking to push Palestinians off their land, Israel is targeting the infrastructure that sustains life — and the institutions long tied to the anti-colonial struggle…Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) documented 37 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank — including assaults on health facilities and medical vehicles, forces obstructing access to facilities, incidents involving the use of force, and the arrest or detention of health workers and patients. This represents a sharp rise…Israeli checkpoints, military closures, and restrictions on ambulances have also continued to prevent access to care and impede treatment…Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian health sector come as the West Bank experiences one of its largest waves of ethnic cleansing since the Nakba. Nearly 127 Palestinian communities have been partially or entirely displaced since January 2023…And after displacing many Palestinian communities in Area C of the West Bank (which, under the Oslo Accords, falls under full Israeli military control), Israeli settlers are setting their sights on those in Areas B and A. These pressures are unfolding alongside accelerating settlement expansion and what rights groups and analysts have described as Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank. Healthcare is among the sectors being steadily degraded in the process. For rural and marginalized communities — increasingly cut off from basic services due to checkpoints, road closures, and settler violence — losing access to medical care can make an already precarious existence nearly unlivable.”
Under Israel’s watch, Palestinian gangs are sowing chaos in the West Bank (Sami Sawalmeh//+972 Magazine 8/25/26)
“Residents described the group responsible as part of a mafia network whose members appeared to pass easily through military checkpoints to enter the town and leave again. In a landscape dense with Israeli checkpoints, military patrols, and surveillance tools, the residents struggle to interpret such freedom of movement as mere negligence. The same military that chokes Palestinian movement, they point out, suddenly proves unable — or, more likely, unwilling — to stop armed criminal networks from importing weapons and violence across these boundaries. This mechanism is what local residents and Palestinian analysts call “engineered lawlessness”: Israel’s military apparatus, capable of extraordinary levels of surveillance and control, selectively withholds such power when armed gangs and internal feuds tear Palestinian towns apart from within.”
Far-right MK smashes monument for Palestinian ‘martyrs’ during IDF-escorted West Bank tour (TOI 8/25/26)
“Far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot and several of his aides smashed a monument to slain Palestinians, many of them terrorists, with sledgehammers in the West Bank village of Madama on Tuesday morning, during a military-escorted tour, drawing denunciations from the army and politicians across the spectrum. Footage first published by Palestinian media showed a soldier standing beside the Religious Zionism MK and the other men as they struck the monument, while other troops stood slightly further away beside an army vehicle.” See also Netanyahu on Coalition Lawmaker’s Vandalism: Don’t Take Law Into Your Own Hands (Haaretz 8/25/26); Israeli Lawmaker Smashes Palestinian Monument While Escorted by Soldiers (NYT 8/25/26);
Armed Israeli settler ‘hikes’ aren’t new — but they’re becoming deadly (Aharon Porath & Roei Kleitman//+972 Magazine 8/26/26)
“Another settler “hiking trip,” another Palestinian dead. Less than a month after the deadly clashes outside the Palestinian village of Tel in which two Israelis and four Palestinians were killed, settlers embarked on a similar unauthorized hike last Friday — this time near the village Sa’ir, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank…These organized hikes from Har Bracha to Havat Gilad — including the one that ended last month with the deaths of six people — are part of a broad network of groups, guides, seminaries, and tour centers that have been operating in the West Bank for years. In recent years, this network has been expanding with government support, including through the marking of the “Kedem Trail” and the “Trans-Judea and Samaria” trails…Through these hiking trips, the organizers seek to expand Jewish presence in the West Bank beyond the boundaries of the settlements themselves…For the organizers, the trip is a means of transforming the few places where Palestinians still have some freedom of movement into trails where the presence of settlers becomes routine. First, a small group arrives, either armed or under security escort. In its wake, they claim, the military learns that the area “needs to be secured,” and later, organized groups and families may also arrive.”’
Ex-IDF General and Far-right Hardliner Ofer Winter Reveals New Party Ahead of Israel’s Election (Haaretz 8/25/26)
“Ofer Winter, the newest figure to emerge on Israel’s far-right political scene ahead of the election, announced on Tuesday the slate of a new party under his leadership. In his speech at the party’s launch event, Winter said: “There will never be a Palestinian state here. There is only one solution for Gaza – emigration.”’ See also Netanyahu urges Ben Gvir, Smotrich to unite as poll shows Winter’s new party surging (TOI 8/27/26); Eisenkot says two-state solution ‘delusional’ post-Oct. 7, but E1 settlement plan a ‘mistake’ (TOI 8/27/26);
U.S. SCENE
Democrats Elevate pro-Israel Lawmakers to Key Foreign Affairs Posts, Angering Progressives (Haaretz 8/27/26)
“Democratic leaders elevated one of the party’s most pro-Israel House representatives to a senior role shaping the congressional agenda on the Middle East, sparking anger from progressives who said the decision was out of step with voters. Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, appointed Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Wesley Bell to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, while naming Rep. Jared Moskowitz ranking member of its Middle East and North Africa subcommittee, which oversees issues related to Israel…The decision to elevate the three lawmakers was interpreted by observers on the left as a sign the party remains committed to a status quo on Israel that many in its base have soured on…”It seems absolutely crazy that you’re putting a guy in charge who backed Trump’s Iran war and just completely, unequivocally backed Israel’s obliteration of Gaza,” said Matt Duss, a former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders who is now executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, a progressive think tank…Ben Rhodes, a former national security advisor to President Barack Obama, called Moskowitz’s appointment “a giant fuck you from Democratic leadership to Democratic voters,”…” See also Senate Democrats urge Israel to rein in West Bank violence (Al Monitor 8/26/26)
PIKER-MANIA is BAAAAAACK (Lara Friedman Legislative Round-Up 8/28/26)
“The hook for this round of PIKER-MANIA is a live stream Piker did on Twitch last week, during which he offered some stream-of-consciousness thoughts on antisemitism and Israel, sparked by a clip of (Jewish) authors Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick discussing their new book, Israel’s Lobby, on the Mehdi Hassan’s show…Critics of Piker are accusing him of saying a lot of things that, in fact, he didn’t say. So it is important, as a starting point, reviewing what he DID say…One can agree or disagree with some or all of Piker’s take, but self-evidently nothing he said represents a call to attack Jews, endorsement of attacking Jews, or justification for attacking Jews. Rather, Piker is warning that the conflation of Israel/Zionism with Judaism/Jews is DANGEROUS in that it quite literally creates a permission structure in which people who are angry with Israel/Zionism may feel justified in directing their anger NOT at Israel but at Jews. And notably, this same warning has been articulated previously, in various words/framing, by many, many Jewish experts, academics, pundits, etc. — including the likes of Hannah Arendt, Ezra Klein, Tony Judt, David Klion, Tom Friedman, Sam Seder, and Norman Solomon. For a sampling of additional insightful/non-insane Jewish commentary on the current manufactured controversy, see: Dov Waxman [also here], Leah Greenberg, Glenn Greenwald, Rafael Shimunov, Aaron Regunberg [also here], Arno Rosenfeld, Madeline Summerville, Justin Kanew.”
Scoop: Mike Rogers-AIPAC rupture roils Michigan Senate race (Axios 8/22/26)
“Allies of Mike Rogers, Michigan’s GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate, have asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf, triggering a rupture with the powerful but polarizing pro-Israel group. Rogers spoke with AIPAC chair Michael Tuchin in Los Angeles last week. The next day, AIPAC shelved an already-cut video ad targeting Rogers’ Democratic rival, outspoken Israel critic Abdul El-Sayed. Why it matters: The extraordinary tension underscores how far AIPAC’s political standing has fallen amid voters’ anger over the war in Gaza. Even Rogers — a staunchly pro-Israel Republican — fears the group’s public support could be a liability in the Nov. 3 election.”
Mark Ruffalo fires back at Paramount Skydance after it accuses him of using ‘antisemitic tropes’ (The Guardian 8/23/26)
“Mark Ruffalo has fired back at Paramount Skydance after the media company accused him of invoking “antisemitic tropes” in his criticism of its $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). The actor, who has long been outspoken against Israel’s military conduct in Gaza and for the rights of Palestinians, shared a statement on social media on Friday in which he highlighted the links between Paramount Skydance, run by CEO David Ellison, and Oracle, the technology company run by Ellison’s father, Larry. Oracle has supplied software to the Israel Defense Forces, ministry of defense, air force, government and police for decades. Shmulik Hauser, head of Oracle’s sales division, told Ynet last year: “Supporting Israel is in our DNA – even if it costs us clients. That’s our agenda.”…“These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you,” Ruffalo wrote. “Look how [Catz] revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.” Ruffalo urged his followers to oppose the merger, which he argued would be “catastrophic” for the entertainment industry due to job losses and reduced competition.” See also Haim Saban, Lawrence Bender and Teddy Schwarzman Among Industry Group Accusing Mark Ruffalo of “Antisemitism” in Attack on Paramount Leadership (Hollywood Reporter 8/25/26); Mark Ruffalo Is Right: Calling Out Power Doesn’t Make You an Antisemite (Libby Lenkinski//Haaretz 8/27/26); Hannah Einbinder Defends Mark Ruffalo After Paramount Calls His Merger Attack ‘Antisemitic’: ‘Those of Us With a Platform Need to Use Our Voices’ (Variety 8/25/26);
PERSPECTIVES//LONG READS
Why we shouldn’t call colonial Israeli settlers ‘terrorists’ ( Inès Abdel Razek//Mondoweiss 8/27/26)
“Settler colonial violence is, of course, real and terrifying, but “terrorism” is the wrong framework for understanding and confronting it, because it was designed to serve imperial designs and make settler violence look like an aberration. In this way, the label of “Israeli terrorism” often misleadingly characterizes settler violence as confined to the Israeli far right, even though it’s the product of a broad Israeli consensus and a systemic feature of Israel’s colonial regime…There is a reason why terrorism has no agreed-upon definition under international law. It is a political tool whose meaning has been shaped by those with the power to wield it. A framework built and weaponized by imperial powers against colonized peoples cannot become the tool through which we dismantle colonial violence. Another danger of embracing the “terrorism” label for settlers is that it exceptionalizes their violence, turning masked settlers who kill Palestinians, burn their homes, and attack their villages into a violent fringe — “bad apples” supposedly detached from an otherwise legitimate Israeli state and Zionist establishment. But this violence is neither marginal nor new…Nor do settlers act outside the state. Their violence operates alongside — and is enabled and protected by — the military, police, courts, and other state institutions that dispossess Palestinians.”
International Law After Gaza: Demise and Political Power (Noura Erakat, Jake Romm//Al Shabaka 8/25/26)
“The Israeli genocide in Gaza has laid bare the extent to which the world remains structured by racial colonial hierarchies and exposed the limits of an international legal order that emerged alongside Western imperial expansion. In this roundtable, Palestinian legal scholar Noura Erakat and Jake Romm, legal advisor and US representative for the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), reflect on what becomes of international law after Gaza. They examine the strategic deployment of international law in the service of political struggle and how international legal obligations can be mobilized through domestic courts to pursue accountability. They argue that the Palestinian liberation struggle not only exposes the contradictions of international law as it is applied today, but also remains central to any effort to build a more egalitarian system.”
‘Ready for the Backlash?’ Hasan Piker Talks Hamas, anti-Zionism and Why Americans Are Fed Up With Israel (Haaretz 8/24/26)
“This is the first time that Piker, an anti-Zionist Twitch streamer who has become a boogeyman for many in the Jewish-American world, speaks to the Israeli media…But Piker says much of the outrage against him stems from misunderstanding – some of it by “professional misunderstanders” – and from the nature of streaming eight hours a day, leaving behind more than 21,000 hours of live video since 2018…His rhetoric and growing influence come as American attitudes toward Israel – particularly among younger Democrats – have shifted dramatically since October 7 and the war in Gaza. Piker sits at the leading edge of that shift: not simply calling for an end to the war or Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, but rejecting the idea of a Jewish state altogether…Piker says the media and what he calls “the Hasbara apparatus” present Americans with a false view. “That’s the last element of the defense of the Israeli narrative: the idea that these are barbaric, monstrous hordes animated purely by the type of antisemitism that Westerners understand, not dissimilar to what the Nazis did, not dissimilar to neo-Nazis here in the United States of America, and it’s not. I want Americans to really think: ‘What would you do in that situation?'” [Haaretz:] When does that cross the line from analysis to support? “What I support is international law. Despite the excesses, despite the war crimes, international law has always been very clear that occupied people have a right to militant resistance, whether in the West Bank or Gaza.”…Piker argues Americans should focus on the Israeli violence their government can influence.”
Farewell to the artist who connected Palestinians to themselves (Abed Abou Shhadeh//+972 Magazine 8/27/26)
“On Monday, Mansour — one of the most important Palestinian artists of recent generations — passed away in Jerusalem, and was buried in his hometown of Birzeit in the occupied West Bank…Mansour belonged to a generation of Palestinian artists who, in the wake of the Nakba, sought to use art to rebuild the connection between Palestinians and their land, memory, and sense of place. That is why the olive tree, the orange, the Palestinian village, traditional embroidery, the Palestinian woman, and other things that represent the connection between people and their land recur throughout his works. In this sense, Mansour was not merely a painter: He helped create the visual language through which generations of Palestinians have learned to imagine Palestine — and ourselves.”
The End of the American Middle East (Marc Lynch//Foreign Affairs Sept/Oct 2026)
“The American Middle East is finished. The regional order that has prevailed since 1991 has been one of the many casualties of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. The American and Israeli failure to dislodge the regime in Tehran has proved the bankruptcy of decades of sanctions and violence. The inability of the United States to protect its Gulf allies from Iranian attacks or to keep the Strait of Hormuz open has fatally undermined the core security bargain that justified its network of military bases in the region. And Israel’s increasingly threatening posture and abandonment of any pretense of interest in reaching an accommodation with the Palestinians have ended Washington’s decades-long mission of bringing its Arab allies and Israel together into an enduring security partnership…At first, it may not look as though the war has had much effect on the alliances that form the American order. Facing an inconclusive war and an empowered Iran, the Gulf states may ramp up their arms purchases and their demands for renewed security guarantees, creating the illusion of continuity. But the old order is in fact giving way to something new. The 1956 Suez crisis is remembered today as the last gasp of British and French imperial power in the Middle East, but it took years to reach that inevitable end. American primacy will not disappear immediately, either, but long-building doubts about American power and purpose have passed their tipping point. The revelations of the Iran war and of the Israeli war in Gaza before it have already changed the calculations of U.S. allies and adversaries. Another round of fighting or the election of a different American president will not repair the rupture. The years ahead promise further discord.”
Netanyahu’s ‘total victory’ vow kept him in power. Now it may be his undoing (Meron Rapoport//+972 Magazine 8/28/26)
“Over the last three years, [Netanyahu’s] coalition has survived nearly every parliamentary challenge placed before it. It has passed budgets and legislation central to its agenda, and has even expanded: With Gideon Sa’ar and four members of his party joining the “emergency government” in the aftermath of October 7, the coalition now holds 68 seats compared with its original 64. There are several possible explanations for the government’s remarkable stability after what was undoubtedly one of the gravest failures in Israel’s history. But the most convincing explanation is that the government has transformed war into a permanent state of affairs, without a clear endpoint. Nothing captures this better than Netanyahu’s “total victory” mantra, a concept whose meaning he has never even bothered to define. The war, in its various forms — annihilation and expulsion in Gaza; occupation and destruction in Lebanon; remote warfare with Iran; settlement expansion, land seizures, and Palestinian displacement in the West Bank — has served two political functions at once. It has been the glue holding together a coalition riddled with internal contradictions and tensions. And it has provided the government with public legitimacy even among constituencies hostile to it, including many of those who spent years protesting against Netanyahu in the streets of Tel Aviv.”
Stop Treating the Mass Killing in Gaza as a Series of IDF ‘Exceptions’ – It’s the Rule (Yagil Levy//Haaretz 8/24/26)
“There’s no point in being satisfied with the demand that the military investigate how more than 20,000 children and 10,000 women were killed, as if this were a collection of isolated exceptions. The central question is not who deviated from orders, but what policy created this outcome. The military acted according to an organized policy that set new thresholds for permissible civilian harm (“collateral damage”) – up to 20 civilians in an attack on a Hamas activist, and even over 100 civilians in an attack on a senior Hamas official. Policy does not require an investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division.”
Why Israeli Authorities Are Encouraging Settler Violence Against Palestinians (Isaac Chotiner interviews retired IDF colonel Doron Meiner//New Yorker 8/24/26)
“Violent attacks by Israeli settlers have accelerated across the West Bank in recent weeks, adding to what has already been a horrifying year for Palestinian communities in the territory. (The United Nations found that, as of early August, Palestinians in the West Bank had faced more than fourteen hundred attacks from Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties or property damage in 2026.)…Some Israeli organizations have tried to prevent violence against Palestinian communities. Doron Meinert, a retired colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, was arrested earlier this month while trying to protect a Palestinian community in the West Bank that was under attack from settlers. I recently spoke with Meinert about his work with the group Looking the Occupation in the Eye, and about how the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated so rapidly…[Chotiner:] Recently, there has been some international attention to some of the violence, and even some attention to the military standing by while the violence—[Meiner:]That is not true. I don’t agree with that. Most of the military support the settlers. Most of the government, of course, does. But also the army and the police. They do not stand aside. They help them. They don’t just let them do what they want to do. They help them with money and roads.”
Forget a Map, This Is How Palestinians Are Navigating Unpredictable West Bank Roads (Haaretz 8/26/26)
“Taxi drivers, commuters and ambulance crews rely on a crowdsourced web of radio broadcasts and messaging groups to cross a landscape of checkpoints and roadblocks that can change by the minute”