Abraham Greenhouse

Within hours of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla being intercepted and besieged in international waters by Israeli commandos, news of the bloody attack had spread across the globe. Rage, condemnation and calls for an international investigation followed. Meanwhile, Israel’s campaign to spin the attack, distort the facts and quell an outraged public was already in full swing. Abraham Greenhouse and Nora Barrows-Friedman analyze for The Electronic Intifada.

On a sunny but chilly Sunday morning, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun was preparing to welcome temple members and other local Jewish families to his synagogue to “strengthen the Zionist dream” by purchasing new houses in the occupied West Bank. The enticement of Jews to move to restricted, Jewish-only enclaves on land seized from Palestinians is nothing new: whether through the lure of cheap housing or the dream of bringing about the coming of the Messiah by “redeeming the land”, religious and secular Jews alike have been drawn to these enclaves since the first settlement Kiryat Arba was established in 1968.