“The UN says Israel’s West Bank justice system, which tries Palestinians exclusively and has reported an almost 100% conviction rate, violates international law. This is what I saw,” writes Meredith McBride.

“The occupation allows us to demand Palestinians show their identification cards at a whim. It allows us to slap, shove, or shoot them if necessary — even if they are the same age as our fathers or young enough to be our children,” writes Alon Mizrahi.

“The Israeli appropriation of the discourse around victimhood demands a more effective engagement by Palestinian spokespersons, political elites, and activists in the public sphere to expose the reality of Israeli actions and elicit international support for Palestine and the Palestinians,” writes Dina Matar.

David Friedman may have pledged to distance himself from the settlement movement – his son-in-law has not.

Vice President Mike Pence delivered an impassioned address at AIPAC’s annual policy conference Sunday evening, vowing on behalf of a nascent administration to implement an unapologetically pro-Israel policy agenda, which included, he said, the continued possibility of moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“These days, many on the Israeli center-left view AIPAC as nothing more than the U.S. branch of Likud. Here’s what the pro-Israel lobby needs to do to correct that,” writes Liat Schlesinger.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is worried that ‘regional peace’ would prompt normalization between Arab states and Israel, while sidelining the two-state solution. Yet increasingly, Palestinian and Arab actors are pursuing a number of alternative solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The mysterious killing of a leader of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, has raised tensions with Israel and threatened to undermine the fragile cease-fire that ended 50 days of deadly fighting in Gaza in the summer of 2014.