US Congress

The pro-Israel rhetoric of some election hopefuls is so extreme that they make George W. Bush seem reasonable by comparison.

US support for Israel, once a carefully nurtured bipartisan consensus, is fast degenerating in the context of the 2012 presidential election into a mud-slinging partisan contest as to which party, in the words of Mitt Romney, who leveled the accusation against Obama, is more guilty of having “thrown Israel under the bus.”

The administration of US President Barack Obama announced Monday that it would immediately cut US funding for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, just hours after UNESCO’s governing board voted overwhelmingly to grant Palestine full membership.

Despite the many pressing and unrelenting national challenges facing the United States, a record 81 House members, about a fifth of the chamber, spent a week in Israel last month, courtesy of a foundation set up by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest pro-Israel lobby group in the US.

Lucas Koerner, the young American Jewish university student shown violently arrested in a Jerusalem Day video, speaks to The Electronic Intifada about his activism and what happened after his arrest.

Victor Kattan argues that UN membership for a State of Palestine would be a strategic asset to the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, although there are risks involved.

Final preparations are underway for the next big flotilla to Gaza, which is scheduled to occur in late June. The US Boat to Gaza will take part in the largest planned fleet yet, with an estimated 1,000 passengers from an array of countries collaborating to break Israel’s blockade.

For Abd al-Rahim Bisharat, Israel’s goal of taking full and permanent control of the Jordan Valley is clear. “Their goal is that they want us [to] get tired of our land and leave it so that they can expand the settlements.”