The Zionist quest for Palestinian absolution is a fantasy — Middle East Eye (9/12/19)

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained the main obstacle to a “solution” with the Palestinian people. Along with Education Minister Rafi Peretz, Netanyahu attended a ceremony to mark the start of the school year in the Elkana colonial settlement in the Occupied West Bank and gave a "lesson to first grade pupils". When a student from the high school at the same settlement asked him about the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, Netanyahu delivered a rehearsed answer. “The root of the conflict is the Palestinian refusal to recognise the state of Israel within any borders whatsoever and to recognise the state of the Jews within any borders whatsoever … I emphasise this and strive for this, that the recognition of the national state of the Jewish people must be demanded of them,” he said. “This is the first - but not the last - component of any solution.”

Scholars for dollars sell out Palestine and its people — Middle East Monitor (9/11/19)

Netanyahu Hints Trump Peace Plan Will Allow Israel to Annex Key West Bank Territory — The Intercept (9/12/19)

Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hinted on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan, set to be unveiled after next week’s Israeli election, would give him the green light to annex the Jordan Valley, nearly a quarter of the occupied West Bank. Palestinian and Israeli activists condemned a map of the proposed annexation presented by Netanyahu at a televised news conference, in which he argued that his close relationship with Trump would make it possible for him to extend Israel’s borders if he wins re-election. “In recent months, I have led a diplomatic effort in this direction, and the conditions for this have ripened,” Netanyahu said in his pitch to voters. While the Trump administration’s “Vision for Peace,” devised by Netanyahu’s longtime friend Jared Kushner, is not yet public, Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley would make a viable Palestinian state impossible by fragmenting it into enclaves within Israel.

Palestinians in Jordan Valley: 'Our lands are already annexed' — Al Jazeera (9/5/19)

Saudi crown prince hosts Christian Zionists — Electronic Intifada (9/11/19)

Boycotts, Benjamins, and America’s university leaders — Mondoweiss (9/10/19)

If there is one thing that unites American university presidents, it is opposition to the academic boycott of Israel.  The leaders of more than 250 universities have posted letters or made public statements denouncing the boycott.  The provost and president of Johns Hopkins proclaimed in a joint statement, “To curtail the freedom of institutions to participate in the exchange of ideas because of the policies of the government of the country where they reside is to strike at the very mission of our university.”  Harvard’s president wrote, “Academic boycotts subvert the academic freedoms and values necessary to the free flow of ideas, which is the lifeblood of the worldwide community of scholars.”  The president of California State University Northridge, where I teach, echoed the Chancellor of the 23 campus California State University system when she wrote, “the boycott tarnishes the gold standard of academic review and undermines academic freedom — the very heart of the academic enterprise.”