“Sometime very soon, the U.S. Senate will pass a bill that requires the government to treat the West Bank as part of Israel,” writes Gershom Gorenberg. “Not only that, it will obligate the administration to pressure other countries to do the same.”

American Jews are only ‘engaged witnesses,’ the Forward’s Jane Eisner writes, which won’t help much when the house is on fire.

PBS Frontline takes an inside look at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political rise and his relationship with the U.S.

“An article in the Wall Street Journal about what the journalists describe as U.S. interception of communications of Israeli leaders has caused a stir,” writes Paul Pillar. “[But] unquestionably the activities of the Israeli government fall within the bucket of things going on overseas that bear on important U.S. interests and thus are important for U.S. policymakers to be fully informed about.”

Four Palestinians from the same town near Hebron were shot dead by Israeli forces on Thursday after alleged stabbing attempts in two separate incidents in the southern West Bank, the army said.

Ever since the eruption of the latest round of violence, the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya has been essentially blocked off from the rest of the city by a single checkpoint. Dozens of residents, along with students from Hebrew University and members of Knesset, held a demonstration calling to open the checkpoint and end the collective punishment of 16,000 people.

“Fancy a vacation with breathtaking views of the Holy Land? Airbnb will let you rent out luxurious cottages atop barren hilltops, making no mention of the fact that they are in settlements on occupied land,” writes John Brown.

“Netanyahu demanded this week that Arab citizens be ‘completely Israeli,’ but he knows very well they are not — and the state is a big part of the reason,”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sent a conciliatory message to the convention of Israel’s left wing Meretz party being held Thursday evening in Jerusalem. “We are eager to strengthen our relations with the forces of peace in Israel, during a period in which the influence of extremist forces against peace is rising,” Abbas said in a recorded message to conference participants. “The peace that our people call for is a permanent peace based on justice and accepting the other, and shirking violence and terror in all its forms. We all stand together. A great responsibility is on our shoulders to halt the descent into violence.”

“The government must be transparent regarding property transfers to the settlers, and public officials must act in the public interest, not to please the tendentious political leadership,” write the editors of Ha’aretz.

“Instead of doing all that he can to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s passivity reveals his real strategy,” writes Mazal Mualem.

“The army and government have been singing from the same hymn sheet in recent months, but this week offered signs that this may be about to change,” writes Amos Harel.

“The minute the state is run without a real planned budget with clear, written goals, every day becomes a day for shady deals,” writes Israeli MK Stav Shaffir.