Kerry, Netanyahu meet; Israeli crackdown in West Bank intensifies

What We’re Reading

US-Israel relations

Netanyahu Demands U.S. Recognition of Building in Settlement Blocs in Exchange for Israeli Steps in West Bank,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding that the U.S. administration accept construction in the large settlement blocs in return for a package of measures that Israel would implement in the West Bank.

Kerry in Jerusalem condemns terror, says Israel has right and obligation to defend itself,

Israel has both a right and an obligation to defend itself against acts of terrorism, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday morning at a start of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Occupation/Human rights

More crackdowns are just more of the same,

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave carte blanche and his complete support to the army and other security forces in their operations in the West Bank on Monday in order to crack down on the terror that has rocked Israel.

Opinion: Illegal settlements aren't rogue, they're government policy,

“Consecutive Israeli governments have fabricated a sophisticated system designed to lend a guise of legality to the seizure of land in the West Bank,” writes B’Tselem’s Adam Aloni.

Palestinian shot after allegedly ramming car into Israeli soldiers,

Two Israeli soldiers and one border police officer were wounded in the alleged West Bank attack, Palestinian assailant ‘receiving medical care’.

Opinion: Old problems in Jerusalem's Old City,

Faten Ghosheh, a 33-year-old Palestinian mother of five, stands on the roof of her partially demolished home in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Al-Aqsa Mosque visible behind her.

Caring for all of Jerusalem’s residents,

“Creating a system of barriers doesn’t protect us from one another; it merely reduces our ability to see one another and makes the idea of peace too abstract to recognize,” writes Ir Amim’s Betty Hirschman.

Israel draft law allows jail for Palestinians aged 12,

Proposed law would lower age of detention from 14 to 12 for “nationalistic-motivated” violent crimes, including murder.

Palestinian groups present 'war crimes' evidence to the ICC,

“The International Criminal Court prosecutor is conducting a ‘preliminary examination’ into the 2014 Gaza war. But are Israeli officials at higher risk of prosecution for illegally building settlements in the West Bank?” asks Michael Omer-Man.

WATCH: How the far-right glorifies killing of Palestinians,

The leader of a popular Jewish supremacist group circulates a new video that puts CCTV footage of stabbing attack to bouncy electronic music and violent, disturbing lyrics.

Palestinian politics

Abbas: Israel changing Temple Mount status quo, executing Palestinians,

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday repeated two of his accusations against Israel that have drawn a furious response over the past few months — that the Jewish state is seeking to alter the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and that it is carrying out “extrajudicial killings” of those Palestinians perpetrating terror attacks against Israelis.

How the Palestinian diaspora is reacting to unrest in the West Bank,

“As Palestinians in the diaspora watch helplessly the current uprising in the Palestinian territories, they seek nonviolent ways to gather support to their cause,” writes Tom Rollins.

Israeli politics

Opinino: Despite budget approval, Netanyahu's coalition on shaky ground,

“In times of terror, people tend to look for a security expert or hawk to protect them. Netanyahu is sure that his political problems will come from the right, and recent polls confirm this fear,” writes Mazal Mualem.