“Even though Israel assails Abbas for his lack of control over Gaza and claims it can’t make a peace deal with him because of that failing, it would actually be quite happy to keep the situation as it has been for the last few years, as long as its deterrence holds and its security isn’t harmed,” writes Jack Khoury.

The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday blamed Israel for an energy crisis in Gaza, after Israel acceded to a request by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to slash the amount of power it transfers to the beleaguered Strip and defended the move by saying the matter was an internal Palestinian rift.

Officials say Ramallah has reduced the money it gives for healthcare from $4 million to $500,000, leaving patients without medicine and equipment.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper, warned today about the disastrous consequences of a further reduction in electricity-supply to the Gaza Strip on the living conditions of two million Palestinians.

Palestinian officials say there are no plans to stop payments to families of Palestinians killed or wounded carrying out attacks against Israelis, contradicting comments by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

“It’s my hope that before we go home for the August recess that we will have passed out of committee a Taylor Force-like piece of legislation” to address the issue of Palestinian Authority payments to families of terrorists, Corker said during a public hearing on the State Department’s budget featuring Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The attacks Greenblatt is experiencing from the Israeli right, currently directed at the messenger rather than at Trump, could be indicative of an emerging feeling of disillusionment of the pro-settler community with new administration in Washington.

“When American Jews are on the board of Elad, the major settlement organization in East Jerusalem, asking that American anti-occupation activists stay out of Jerusalem is to ask us to abdicate our responsibility and cede the battle to those who perpetuate injustice, violence, and oppression,” writes Yonah Lieberman.

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) appealed to the world’s top sports court on Tuesday, seeking to force FIFA to rule on the future of Israeli soccer clubs playing in the West Bank.

A day after officials in Jerusalem said Israel and New Zealand agreed to end their diplomatic spat surrounding Wellington’s co-sponsoring of an anti-settlements resolution at the United Nations, the country’s leader rejected any suggestion that patching the rift equaled pulling support for the measure.

The indictment, which was approved by Israel’s attorney general, was the result of a years-long petition demanding the state take action. Israel’s quasi-constitution has no explicit protection of free speech.

“The occupation is a cold metal that kills with savage cruelty the most important thing life affords us: time,” writes Ala Helhel.

The Knesset voted 48-13 Wednesday to advance a bill that would require the government to subtract the money the Palestinian Authority gives to terrorists and their families from tax and tariff revenue Israel collects on the behalf of the PA.

Senior Palestinian leader Jibril Rajoub has found himself in hot water for comments he made June 3 on Israeli TV Channel 2. Rajoub, a top leader in Fatah, the main faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization and head of the Palestinian Football Association, came under ferocious attack for apparently suggesting Israeli oversight of the Western Wall as part of any peace treaty.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip are witnessing deep tension that risks further escalation in light of the Arab nation’s decision to cut ties with Qatar, one of Hamas’ main financial backers.