Rightwing rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes in the Jerusalem Post that “Israel haters… follow my trail on the Internet like dogs in heat.” But Boteach seems to seek the attention: his latest encounter with critics of Israel was on Madison Avenue last Saturday, when he approached protesters outside a store associated with an Israeli business in the occupied West Bank and taunted the group by loudly celebrating Israel and denouncing Hamas. His children joined in his chants.

Around 50 members of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement gathered at a rally yesterday in response to the premiere performance of Batsheva Dance Company’s four-day run of Sadeh21. Outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), signs and slogans denounced the Israeli Foreign Ministry-funded troupe’s participation in a campaign called “Brand Israel,” which, according to literature distributed by the organizers, seeks “to distract from the facts of Israel’s ongoing occupation and colonization of Palestinian land.”

The summer’s bloodletting in the Gaza Strip has stopped, but the discourse on war that Israel’s assault sparked in the U.S. rages on. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Hollywood, where celebrity criticism of Israel led to recriminations from pro-Israel stars and threats to blacklist those who spoke out against the military operation. The entertainment industry is splitting over Israel in the wake of that state’s punishing attack on Palestinians in Gaza.

A petition protesting partial Israeli government financing of a Sunday panel event of the Brooklyn Book Festival, attended by prominent Israeli novelist Assaf Gavron, attracted hundreds of signatories, including notable authors such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Juno Diaz ("This Is How You Lose Her"), Elif Batuman ("The Possessed"), Brooklyn Book Festival participants and famous music critic of New Yorker magazine, Sasha Frere-Jones.