Professor Omer Bartov concludes that the word genocide describes Israel’s conduct in Gaza and as such requires the U.S. and Europe to intervene and stop Israel’s destructive path.

In his forthcoming book, Israel: What Went Wrong, Bartov unpacks how a country founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust by a marginalized people could now become a pariah state that is occupying and displacing the Palestinians with active support, or indifference, of so many of its Jewish citizens.

We discuss all of these issues in this 40-minute conversation with the hopes that the majority continue to use their voices, especially in the U.S. and Europe, to pressure our elected officials to help Palestinians and stop enabling Israel’s genocidal and self-destructive tendencies.

Axios reports:

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) referred to Israel’s war in Gaza as a “genocide” during an event in her district on Thursday, according to a video clip obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: Clark’s comment makes her one of just over a dozen House members to have used that word to describe the situation in Gaza, and easily the highest ranking member of Congress to have done so.

• According to the news outlet Zeteo, 13 other House members have used the word “genocide” to describe the war in Gaza — a dozen progressive Democrats and right-wing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
• Clark is the No. 2 to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) who has been critical of the Israeli government at times but generally supportive of the country throughout his career.

[Continue reading…]

The Times of Israel reports:

A major construction project that would see some 3,400 housing units built in the contentious E1 area in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, was given final approval Wednesday.

Announced last week by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the controversial plan was formally greenlit by the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration, a Defense Ministry department.

Smotrich, who also holds a junior ministerial position in the Defense Ministry that grants him wide say in settlement construction, called the decision “historic.”

He described the construction plan as a “significant step that practically erases the two-state delusion and consolidates the Jewish people’s hold on the heart of the Land of Israel.”

“The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not by slogans but by deeds. Every settlement, every neighborhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea,” the far-right minister declared.

He cast the dramatic move, which will effectively bisect the West Bank, as retaliation against Western states that announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state in recent weeks. [Continue reading…]