The Palestinian unity government formed last year in a bid to heal rifts between Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party resigned on Wednesday, an official said.

“Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren has published a book that he summarized in a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week entitled, ‘How Obama Abandoned Israel,'” writes Peter Beinart. “Oren’s argument isn’t just unconvincing; it’s trivial.”

“There is growing tension between the United States and Israel not because of Obama’s public disagreement with the policies of the Netanyahu government but because those policies are leading Israel down a path that runs counter to the interests and values of the United States, as well as to Israel’s own long-term interests,” writes Jeremy Ben-Ami.

“If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is genuinely interested in promoting a new diplomatic peace initiative, he must demonstrate his willingness with actions, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and working to bolster the Palestinian Authority rather than Hamas,” writes Akiva Eldar.

Three East Jerusalem children wait for hours in an Israeli police station — their parents aren’t notified and their lawyer isn’t allowed to speak with them. The case exposes a gaping black hole in the laws regulating the treatment of minors and their representation by public defenders in Israel.

Atir is hardly the first case in which forestation has been used by the Israeli government and the JNF as a method of displacement and land grabbing against Palestinians — on both sides of the Green Line.

Israel keeps millions of people under a system of rules so intricate and outlandish that often the military itself fails to make sense of it,” writes Itamar Sha’altiel.

“The mistake made by the armed soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda battalion was that they allowed cameras to document their bestiality and cowardice while attacking a brave Palestinian civilian, armed with a visor cap and T-shirt, last Friday,” writes Amira Hass.

With the European Union seemingly bent on moving ahead with plans to require labeling of all goods produced outside Israel’s internationally recognized borders, speculation abounds over how badly this could hurt the country’s economy.

It’s not quite a case of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but shared concern over Islamic State-inspired militant groups in Gaza could help redraw complex relationships between Hamas and a hostile Egypt and Israel,” writes Nidal al-Mughrabi.