Under the guise of a bill against boycotts, the Knesset is muzzling the anti-settlement left The Knesset’s Judicial Committee, led by MK David Rotem (Israel Beitenu) approved yesterday the “boycott bill” for its final reading. This likely means that the bill will imminently become a law. The former version of the bill (Hebrew) defined a boycott for political reasons on Israeli products, or products made in the settlements (defined in the bill as “areas under Israeli control”), to be a felony, and allowed suing people advocating such a boycott and fining them 30,000 NIS (about 9,000 USD) without any need…

Israel’s latest hasbara schtick falls flat in days A couple of days ago, a Youtube video of some guy calling himself Mark popped up. Mark claimed to be an American gay rights activist who decided to broaden his horizons and, going all hog, decided to join the Gaza flotilla, representing the gay rights group of which he is a member. He sent an email to the flotilla organizers, but – alas! – after waiting for quite a while, received a negative reply. Upon which Mark experienced a Road to Damascus moment, the scales fell from his eyes, and he saw…