Top news stories from Israel/Palestine: May 23, 2019

What We’re Reading

Trump 'peace plan'

Win or Lose, Kushner's Proposal May Help Israel Annex West Bank,

Skepticism about the Middle East peace plan drawn up by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law abounds, but even a failed effort may play into the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu.

How Trump’s approach to the Middle East ignores the past, the future, and the human condition,

Details aside, Trump’s approach not only breaks with international law and long-held U.S. policies, it also enshrines historic U.S. responsibility in an unjust process that will ultimately backfire against Israel, the Palestinians, and American interests.

Palestinians Won't Ever Warm to Trump's 'Deal of the Century,' Israeli Army Tells Government,

Security sources believe the Palestinian Authority will collapse economically within three months, but Abbas is unlikely to accept tax funds from Israel.

Occupation/Human rights

Israel demolishes record number of Palestinian homes in a single day,

The number of Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem that were demolished by Israel’s military in a single day peaked on April 29, when 31 structures were flattened, the UN’s envoy for Middle East peace said on Wednesday.

B’Tselem: Settlers set fire to Palestinians’ fields, threw rocks at them,

A group of masked settlers set fire to fields outside two Palestinian villages in the northern West Bank last Friday afternoon, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Israel Limits Gaza Fishing Zone After Incendiary Balloons From Strip Set Fields Aflame,

This comes only a day after Israel announced it was expanding the fishing zone as part of the cease-fire agreements with the two main factions in the Palestinian enclave, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israeli politics

The Rise in Hate Speech Targeting Palestinians in Israeli Social Media,

Israel is a world leader in cybersecurity technologies and surveillance and, on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, uses predictive social media policing systems to increasingly limit Palestinians’ freedom of expression.

Iran

Even Democrats Keep Thinking Iran Is Worse Than Saudi Arabia,

“The 2020 candidates are resisting the latest brush with war, but they’re not going far enough,” writes Peter Beinart.