Mike Pompeo will use his visit to sound out Benny Gantz more closely now he is inside the government and, if needs be, gently lean on him – on Netanyahu’s behalf – to ensure he doesn’t publicly waver on annexation from within the coalition.

In what many critics claim amounts to a power grab, Netanyahu began pushing through changes last week to Israel’s basic laws, the equivalent of a constitution. The move was described as “terrifying” by Elyakim Rubinstein, a conservative former supreme court judge.

Palestinian workers’ dependence on Israel is now placing them in harm’s way. Although many are likely to catch the coronavirus in Israel while working, Israel is refusing to take responsibility for their welfare.

Labour leader Keir Starmer is desperate to put the antisemitism episode behind him and the party. Recent history is his warning. He knows that any effort to defend Corbyn’s record will simply revive the campaign of smears. And this time, he will be the target.

What is already a health crisis in Gaza barely needs a nudge from the coronavirus to be tipped into a health disaster. And make no mistake: the blame will land squarely at Israel’s door.

Benny Gantz, supposedly the great defender of ‘democratic values’, has revealed the deeper priorities of Israeli politics. He has chosen Netanyahu, ‘the king of corruption’, over the fifth of Israel’s citizens who are Palestinian.

Renowned for his ability to pull off political miracles, Benjamin Netanyahu gradually wore down rival Benny Gantz’s resistance to joining a unity government over the past 12 months. The coronavirus epidemic proved the final straw.

What does Benny Gantz fear most: Netanyahu exploiting the coronavirus crisis to evade justice and stay in power, or damaging his own public image by seeking temporary assistance from the Palestinian parties of the Joint List?

Benjamin Netanyahu’s election win means he may yet pull off his great escape, with a criminal trial less than two weeks away. He has worn down voters by refusing to go, while his rival Benny Gantz’s racist refusal to sit with Palestinian parties means he has no visible path to power.

Much of Israel’s electorate – at least the Jewish majority – agrees on political fundamentals. They believe it is time to permanently seize much of the territory that was one day meant to form the basis of a Palestinian state. They disagree less on what needs to be done than on who should do it.

The next leader of the Labour Party has already made themself a prisoner to the “institutional antisemitism” narrative. That means their hands are chained not only to support for Israel, but to the reactionary politics in which Israel as a Jewish state makes sense – a worldview that embraces its style of ethnic, chauvinist, militaristic, segregationist politics.

The UN’s timing in publishing its list of 112 companies operating in the settlements could not be more tragic. It looks like the last gasp of those who – through their negligence over nearly three decades – have enabled the two-state solution to wither to nothing.

For Israel’s so-called peace camp, the past 12 months of general elections – a third ballot is due on 2 March – have felt more like a prolonged game of Russian roulette, with ever-diminishing odds of survival.

Under the terms of Trump’s “peace” plan, the US could allow Israel to strip potentially hundreds of thousands of its own inhabitants – members of a large Palestinian minority – of their citizenship in a so-called “populated land swap” with the settlements.

Trump’s “Vision for Peace” is needed only because Oslo has outlived its usefulness. It radically overhauls the Oslo formula: instead of a supposed sharing of obligations – “land in return for peace” – those obligations are now imposed exclusively on the Palestinian side.

The White House has discarded the traditional US pose as an “honest broker” between Israel and the Palestinians. This was a deal designed in Tel Aviv more than in Washington – and its point was to ensure there would be no Palestinian partner.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs all the help he can muster before voters head to the ballot box on March 2 – for the third time in a year. Once again, it seems as though US President Donald Trump intends to ride to his rescue.

This was the year that the antisemitism smear against the left proved the political weapon of choice. Centrists let the genie out of the bottle, but the populist right will ultimately benefit by stoking further hatred of minorities, including Jews.

Israel’s decision to trap Christians in Gaza this Christmas is only a prelude to a larger, seemingly contradictory longer-term plan. The choking blockade is designed to sap the people of the will to stay and struggle for what is theirs.