This week, August 3-August 9, 2015 , is likely to be as determining of Israel’s image as was the onslaught on Gaza  a year ago. The media have shone a shocked and shocking light on the violence in Israeli society which has been there since before its actual foundation but which US publications in particular […]

Richard Silverstein casts his knowledgable and sceptical eye over the scrambling of politicians and security services to distance themselves from Jewish terrorism – though terrorism has always been an integral part of Israel.

The apparent uncritical devotion of the USA to Israel raises the question of how they regard the killing by fire of baby Ali Dawabasheh, his father and possibly his mother (who is in intensive care). A sample of the US press.

So that every posting this week is not about Israeli Jewish extremism, we take a look at the European country closest to the Middle East and most marginal in the EU: Greece. It also has the reputation of being the most antisemitic.

The burning of the Dawabasheh family has galvanised Israeli journalists to look into the network of groups which generate or support anti-Palestinian and anti-gay terrorism. One such group is the NGO Honenu which provides various services to such criminals. Oddly it does not appear on the lists of bad NGOs published by NGO Monitor.

PM Netanyahu was quick to condemn the burning of the Dawabasheh family as ‘terrorist’. Amongst the many reasons for his response was the desire to separate this one incident from the overall crime of the Occupation. The PA is marshalling its evidence for the ICC.

The ideas and actions of fanatical religious settlers are not confined to a ‘cell’ which Shin Bet can identify and eradicate. Rather, they run through the body politic of Israel, from government ministers through blocs of rabid rabbis to the ‘hill-top youth’. Annie Slemrod follows their tracks.

An Arab League committee is considering putting a resolution at the United Nations Security Council to protect Palestinians from settler attacks. It wants to break the routine of unpunished violence.

The ‘hilltop youth’, like other fanatical religious sects, have no respect for the laws of nation-states or of civilised society. They take their authority from a higher power, a god of hatred, violence and self-righteousness. Ynet interviews one of them.

David Grossman cannot get the dead baby, Ali Dawabsheh, out of his head, nor understand how the PM cannot grasp the connection between that hideous killing, the occupation and the ‘dark, fanatic reality’ of Israel today. A gut-wrenching piece, 1 of 3.

Pressure is on Israeli security forces to do what they have long promised to do: identify and charge the youth who fire-bomb Palestinians. There is disagreement here over whether this violence has been long-coming or whether it’s sprouted from a new, anti-Israel, fanatical sect.

While authorities vow to crack down on settler violence against Palestinians, studies by rights groups show Israel has a poor track record in bringing Jewish terrorists to justice. For instance, a report published in May 2015 by Yesh Din, found that of some 1,000 complaints filed with Israeli police over alleged violence by settlers between 2005 and 2014, more than 91 percent of investigations were closed without indictments being filed. In around 85 percent of cases , the investigation was closed due to a failure to find suspects or collect sufficient evidence to file charges…

The only language the Israeli government seems to understand is violence. It took the incineration of a baby for them to make any move against settler thugs. Its only response to protesting youth is to shoot some dead, to terrorise the rest.

What harm had Cecil the lion done before an American dentist decided to kill him? What harm had a 15-year-old Palestinian boy called Laith (Arabic for Lion) done before an IDF sniper/hunter decided to shoot him dead? Whose name is now better known? Comment from Palestinian Animal League.

As Israel began so it goes on: terrorist acts against all who have no place in the fantasy kingdom. The failure to create a stable, civil society is now coming back to haunt the country. Two Op-Eds from Ynet.

Shock may have swept through Israel at the murderous attacks on Palestinians and Jewish gays last week by right-wing religious Jews. But there was no common bond of protest, no solidarity with the victims writes Etgar Keret. Israel is not held together by any common sympathy or sense of justice.

This week, July 27-August 2, 2015 , the postings happen to consist of one story after another of violence inflicted by the Israeli state, Knesset, settlers, religious right-wingers on Palestinians. Supreme court, civil administration, Israeli state all agree that the Palestinian village of Susya must be demolished. Despite pouring rain JfJfP and the Jewish Socialists’ […]

Many news outlets present the conflict between Israel and Palestine as equal, a conflict in which Israelis are forced to ‘defend themselves’ against lethal attacks from Gaza. Count the dead. Three more Palestinians were added to the long list this week, killed by settlers (a child aged 18 months) and the IDF (two young men protesting about the baby’s death in Ramallah and Gaza). Evidence-based judgment.

Social factors may explain why Palestinian women are highly educated but lack vocational skills. But, argues Samia al-Botmeh, Israel’s distortion of the Palestinian economy is the principal cause of women’s constricted role in the labour market.

Khader Adnan, now in hospital after a long hunger strike, tells Al Jazeera he refused all supplements, including salt. Politically ‘the prisoners’ movement and hunger strikes in particular are a symbol of the principle and demand for justice in Palestine.’