Israel’s hilltop delinquents; Israel-Hamas prisoner swap in the works

What We’re Reading

Occupation/Human rights

New generation of Hilltop Youth: Less ideology, more anti-state activity,

The main targets of ‘price tag’ perpetrators in recent weeks have been Israel’s security forces—the Shin Bet, the IDF and the police—rather than the Palestinians.

I was taught to hate Palestinians — until I met one,

“I grew up believing the Arabs wanted to throw us into the sea. Then I met a Palestinian from Gaza, and started to question everything I was ever taught,” writes Osna Skoblinski.

IDF, settlers clash during razing of illegal structure in Yitzhar,

The IDF on Sunday arrested three people during clashes surrounding the demolition of an illegal structure in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, the army said.

A Palestinian family divided,

The Tailakh family, like hundreds of thousands of others, has been split apart by the Israeli occupation.

Opinion: Two-State Delusion: What’s left of Palestine?,

“Fifty years after being occupied, the West Bank has become a labyrinth of checkpoints, settlements and Israeli-only roads, leaving less and less space for Palestinian life – and almost nothing to bargain with,” writes Mohamed Hassan.

Gaza

Israel, Hamas in advanced talks over prisoner swap — report,

The talks, which are being mediated by an unnamed third party, have gathered momentum over the past two weeks, following the return of Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, from a visit to Egypt earlier this month, Channel 1 reported Monday.

Israel strikes 2 Hamas targets in Gaza in retaliation for rocket attack,

Israel’s Air Force struck two Hamas targets in Gaza hours after a rocket launched from the coastal strip landed in southern Israel.

Opinion: Why Hamas was not on the Saudi list of demands for Qatar,

“Hamas was left off Saudi’s list of demands for Qatar. Days earlier, a Fatah strongman made a deal with one of the movement’s leaders. Only no one else in Hamas knew – and now it threatens to split the movement,” writes David Hearst.

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

U.S. Jews can’t expect Israel to be liberal only where they want it to,

“Liberal American Jewry is up in arms after the Israeli government nixed a deal to allow men and women to pray together at Judaism’s holiest site. But if American Jews want their interests in Israel safeguarded, they must rid themselves of the fantasy of a nonexistent Jewish pluralism,” writes Noam Sheizaf.