Kushner meets with Netanyahu; State Dept says endorsing 2 states would be ‘biased’

What We’re Reading

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

Jared Kushner meets with Netanyahu in US bid to restart peace talks,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and a delegation of American diplomats trying to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Opinion: The Policies Kushner Should Push For,

“The time is now for Trump’s Middle East team to speak loud and clear about the role it intends to play in negotiations,” writes Zaha Hassan. “That role can’t be merely focused on facilitating Palestinian “economic development” projects or other goodwill gestures.”

State Department: Endorsing two-state solution would make us biased,

Committing to the two-state solution would bias Washington in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, a US official said Wednesday, as a high-level delegation arrived in the region to try and jump start talks amid Palestinian protests over a lack of clarity from the White House.

Netanyahu tells Congress: Remove sunset clause from Iran deal,

During a meeting with Republican Congressmen this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the lawmakers to “get rid of the sunset clause” from the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement, Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) told Jewish Insider. Under the deal signed by former President Barack Obama, certain restriction on Tehran’s centrifuges cap would be lifted after 10 years.

Occupation/Human rights

Israel to allow MPs to visit flashpoint Jerusalem holy site,

Benjamin Netanyahu is to relax a ban on politicians visiting the Jerusalem holy site home to the al-Aqsa mosque, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Thursday.

Palestinian's Family Kept in the Dark After Israeli Troops Shoot Him Seven Times in Nighttime Raid,

The Israel Defense Forces troops who raided Deheisheh refugee camp, outside Bethlehem, before dawn on August 9 – apparently to arrest 22-year-old Raad Salhi – probably knew nothing about the circumstances of his family. It’s unlikely they knew about the tragic situation in his home or were aware that they were compounding it.

Arab Israeli man charged with aiding Temple Mount terrorists,

An Arab Israeli man was indicted Thursday for assisting the three gunmen who killed two police officers just outside the Temple Mount compound last month.

Raed Saleh charged with incitement linked to unrest in East Jerusalem,

An Israeli court had charged Raed Saleh, a prominent Palestinian cleric, with incitement to terrorism, the justice ministry said.  The charge was given in connection with the deadly unrest that rocked East Jerusalem last month after Israel installed metal detectors at the entrances to Haram al-Sharif, which houses al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Palestine: Dangerous escalation in attacks on freedom of expression,

The Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and their rivals, the de-facto Hamas administration in Gaza, have both tightened the noose on freedom of expression in recent months, launching a repressive clampdown on dissent that has seen journalists from opposition media outlets interrogated and detained in a bid to exert pressure on their political opponents, said Amnesty International.

Gaza

Still in ruins: Reviving the stalled reconstruction of Gaza,

Opening up to alternatives through the empowerment of fresh, local perspectives is the only way to revive the reconstruction of Gaza. These new possibilities will never realize their potential if the U.N. and other stakeholders—Israel included—do not consider the repeal of the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism.