At least a quarter of a million Israelis protested in August over the cost of living. In Tel Aviv alone, 200,000 people took to the streets. The protests, however, were over more than simply against the high cost of basic essentials and housing: "The people demand social justice!" they cried. As the Occupy Wall Street protests grow around the world, it seems clear that demands for change in the economic stratification have arrived.

I am keeping a photograph that took up two pages in a London newspaper last week. It shows a noisy demonstration in New York against Wall Street and the greed of bankers and large corporations.

Demonstrators called for a march to Wall Street; their cause is purely American, as they want jobs and a reining-in of the control that the affluent have on their daily lives. What caught my eye in the big picture, though, is that some protesters held a large banner declaring, "Stop military aid to Israel".

As good as that idea is I say stop all US aid to Israel. The United States economy is in a mess and the country is near-bankrupt, whereas Israel is doing very nicely, thank you, not least because of the direct and undeclared assistance of more than $10 billion a year it gets from American taxpayers. This huge sum is taken from increasingly poor American citizens thanks to the US Congress, which has been more or less bought by the pro-Israel Lobby. No foreign policy decisions are made by Congress without the approval of the Lobby.

The United States of America is preparing to use its veto in order to block Palestine's admission to the United Nations as an independent state. However, it is doubtful if this vote will have the effect desired by the US State Department because the Americans have renounced using the veto in this way. Not only that, but the vote for membership is based on conditions which don't allow for such a prohibitive move.

Membership of the UN has to follow a two-stage procedure: a recommendation adopted by the Security Council and then a vote at the General Assembly. In the Security Council the adoption of the proposal must be reached by a special majority of 9 to 15 voting states, including all the permanent members.

When it comes to Israel, politicians in Washington can get hysterical, making the stupidest of statements or acting idiotically. Evidence of such behaviour is common and varied; this week, for example, newly-elected Republican senator for Illinois Mark Kirk called for the US to use military means to stop Freedom Flotilla 2 heading for Gaza to break Israel's siege. He said that the United States should "provide all the necessary special operations and naval support to the Israeli naval forces in order to stop the ships before they pose a threat to Israeli coastal security or put Israeli lives in danger". When and how would or could unarmed activists and peace campaigners on ships heading for Gaza "pose a threat to Israeli coastal security or put Israeli lives in danger"?