Israel/Palestine unrest: it’s bad, but could get worse

What We’re Reading

Pic of the day: an ambulance arrives at the scene of a stabbing in the West Bank. The Palestinian assailant fled after attacking an Israeli.

Occupation/Human rights

A Jerusalem village under siege,

Access in and out of al-Issawiya has been severely restricted amid a wave of violence in Jerusalem.

Israeli seriously wounded in West Bank stabbing attack,

Security forces begin searching for assailaint who fled the scene just minutes after soldiers shoot, kill 72-year-old female Palestinian who attempted a vehicular attack.

Jerusalem: Why Should Things Not Get Worse?,

Disingenuous surprise at Palestinian resistance has its intimate twin — the Netanyahu vision of eternal war.

Palestinians in Hebron face provocation and attacks,

Families forced to live next to Jewish settlers in the West Bank city say life has become harder during current unrest.

Does What Palestinians Want Matter?,

“A Rabin approach to the Palestinians – one that looks at the longterm and existential threats to Israel and shapes the strategic environment in the face of those threats – dictates a two state solution and separation from the Palestinians,” writes Michael Koplow.

US-Israel relations

Obama believes Israel-Palestine peace deal not possible before he leaves office,

Barack Obama has made a “realistic assessment” that finding a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians will not be possible before his term in office ends at the beginning of 2017, US officials have said.

Ted Cruz says PLO a ‘terrorist organization’,

The Palestine Liberation Organization on Thursday criticized Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz over a Senate hearing he oversaw on Palestinian and Iranian terrorism that it called “biased and inflammatory.”

Ben Carson: Israel will have a very strong friend if I am president,

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson assured Israel in a video message that if he won the presidential race in the US next year, Israel would have a strong friend in the White House.

Liberals Push Back Against Benjamin Netanyahu's Fence-Mending Effort,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech at a liberal Washington think tank is provoking outrage from some progressives who say that the appearance gives a bipartisan sheen to his government’s right-wing policies.

Israeli politics

Poll: Most Jewish Israelis say terrorists ‘should be killed on the spot’,

More than half of Jewish-Israelis say they believe any Palestinian “who has perpetrated a terror attack against Jews should be killed on the spot,” according to a new survey.

'Centrist' politician's plan for total separation from Palestinians,

Yair Lapid isn’t sure which Palestinians he wants to separate from or even how many of them there are, but he knows he needs a bigger wall to do it.

Wave of violence fuels Arab-Jewish suspicions in Israel's heartland,

Knife attacks fuel fear across a bitterly divided country, with no expectation of a political settlement any time soon

Benjamin Netanyahu Ignores Roots of Palestinian Violence — and Betrays His Party's Founders,

“The new Likud version of reality has been evolving slowly over the decades since Oslo,” writes J. J. Goldberg.

Palestinian politics

Palestinian government shuts Arab newspaper over report on Israel ties,

The Palestinian administration in the occupied West Bank shut down the local office of a pan-Arab newspaper this week after accusing it of “offensive” reporting on Palestinian security coordination with Israel, officials said.