US Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is promoting a bill to suspend Washington's assistance to three elite Israel Defense Forces units, alleging they are involved in human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Leahy wants aid withheld from the Israeli navy's Shayetet 13 unit, the undercover Duvdevan unit and the Israel Air Force's Shaldag unit. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a long-time friend of Leahy, met with him in Washington two weeks ago to try to persuade him to withdraw the initiative. Leahy began promoting the legislation after protesters staged a rally outside office, demanding that he denounce the killing by Shayetet 13 commandos of nine Turkish activists who were part of the flotilla to Gaza in May 2011. Leahy, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee's sub-committee on foreign operations, was the principle sponsor of a 1997 bill prohibiting the US from providing military assistance to foreign military units suspected of human rights abuses or war crimes.

An estimated 300,000 marched in cities and towns across Israel Aug. 6—the biggest mobilization yet in a growing movement for economic justice. More than 200,000 marched in Tel Aviv alone—one of the largest demonstrations in the history of the Jewish state. Even after the march ended, a hardcore of several hundred protesters blocked the intersection of Rehov Kaplan and Ibn Gvirol, two of the city's main arteries, singing Jewish songs late into the night and and chanting the movement's token slogan: "The people demand social justice!" (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 7) Israel's progressive 972Mag shows a photo of a giant banner from the rally with the word "Go!" in Arabic—a key symbol of the protest movement that brought down Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and a clear reference to Benjamin Netanyahu. Below, in Hebrew, are the words: "Egypt is here!"

In what the Jerusalem Post calls a "signal of growing Sino-Israeli ties," Gen. Chen Bingde, chief of General Staff of China's People’s Liberation Army, will visit Israel next week as a guest of Israeli Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen.Benny Gantz. Bingde’s visit follows Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s visit to China in June, the first by an Israeli defense minister to the Asian superpower in a decade. The visits come as Israel Aerospace Industries is bidding to set up a factory in China to build executive jets with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. Although this would be a deal to build civilian aircraft, it is portrayed as a step towards rebuilding commercial military ties, which have stagnated in recent years due to US pressure on Tel Aviv.

We recently noted that militant West Bank settlers have joined the Tel Aviv tent town protest, pitching a line that aggressive settlement of the West Bank is the solution to the crisis—a fascistic pseudo-solution predicated on expropriating others of their lands. We asked whether the protest movement will take the bait. Here, fortunately, is a statement from the opposite tendency—linking the expropriation of the Israeli working class to that of the Palestinians, and building unity rather than sowing further division. A "Letter from Tel Aviv," Aug. 4:

The Supreme Court of Israel on Aug. 2 issued for the first time an order for the Israeli government to dismantle an illegal outpost in the West Bank. The order calls for Migron, the largest "illegal" outpost in the West Bank, to be razed by the end of March 2012. The action came as the result of a petition filed by Peace Now in 2006 calling for the court to order Migron to be dismantled. In response the government had decided to remove the flagship settlement outpost (established by the Binyamin Regional Council) by August 2008, but later reached a compromise with settlers that delayed the razing until the state could build them a new neighborhood in a nearby settlement. However, the delay only allowed more houses to be built, and the Court noted during deliberations that the intended two-year postponement had actually turned into an indefinite delay.

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas Aug. 5 to disperse the weekly anti-wall protest in the Palestinian village of Bil'in, west of Ramallah on the West Bank—marking the first Friday of the Ramadan holy month. (Ma'an News Agency, Aug. 5) Thousands gathered at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque for prayers, despite Israeli restrictions that barred Palestinian men under the age of 50 from entering the city. (MSNBC, AFP, Aug. 5)

We've already noted that the angry rent protests Tel Aviv hold the potential for an historic and truly threatening (to the power structure) convergence of the global econo-protests (most advanced in Greece and Spain), the Arab Spring, and the Palestinian struggle. But we've also noted how, if the movement fails to explicitly solidarize with the Palestinians, it can be derailed by the lure of fascistic pseudo-solutions. Here, alas, is evidence for this latter tendency. Ha'aretz reports Aug. 3 that a group of far-right West Bank settler activists who call themselves the "Hilltop Youth" have established their own camp within the Tel Aviv tent town.

Twelve Israeli settlers accused of setting fire to Palestinian mosques, property and vehicles have been slapped with restraining orders limiting their movement in the West Bank, the Israeli military said Aug. 2. In a statement, the Israeli military said it had signed off on the restraining orders based on recommendations from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). The orders range from three months to a year, with six settlers told to stay away from certain communities, three prohibited from entering the Yitzhar settlement south of Nablus, and three more prevented from entering the West Bank at all.