A professor at Syracuse University invites Israeli filmmaker Shimon Dotan to show his new documentary The Settlers, a critical assessment of the Israeli settler movement that portrays it in a negative light. The invitation is later retracted because of faculty members’ fear of a political backlash on campus.

“A new poll shows that most Israelis and Palestinians support the idea of two states, but reject the practicalities of it. But there is a way out of this mess,” writes Michal Haramati.

A former head of the IDF’s Central Command, Maj. Gen. (res.) Gadi Shamni on Wednesday criticized the political echelons for the occupation of Palestinian territories, saying it prevents the army from preparing for genuine threats.

Attorneys defending an IDF soldier accused of manslaughter for his shooting dead of a disarmed and injured Palestinian stabber earlier this year have presented new evidence challenging the army’s autopsy of the assailant and claiming he was already dead when he was shot in the head by the soldier.

Israel’s ambitious project to construct a canal linking the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea will also see the transfer of 30 million cubic meters of water to the Palestinian Authority, under an agreement signed Wednesday at a global water conference in Stockholm.

Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem are asked to adopt Israeli curriculum if they want extra resources.

“Will America’s now troubled “alliance” with Israel prevail and flourish as peace process negotiator and presidential advisor Dennis Ross argues and advocates in his book? Or are fundamental differences between the two nations over a two-state peace with Palestine and other tensions undermining this relationship?” Philip C. Wilcox, Jr. asks.

The White House lashed out at Israel over its announcement Wednesday of settlement plans, warning that such activity increasingly threatens the two-state solution.

A US appeals court on Wednesday threw out a $655.5m judgment against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organisation after they had been found liable to a group of American families who accused them of supporting attacks in Israel. The appeals court said neither the attacks nor the Palestinian groups had sufficient ties to the US for the defendants to be subject to federal court jurisdiction. It also found no evidence the attacks specifically targeted American citizens.

“A rumored Israeli-Palestinian summit in Moscow is a maneuver by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to try to thwart a new US initiative,” writes Ben Caspit.

MK Amir Ohana (Likud) submitted a bill aimed at denying national service positions from NGOs whose main funding comes from foreign states.

Already-tenuous relations between Egypt and Hamas recently worsened with the release of a photo showing two of Hamas’ men who were abducted in Sinai a year ago in an Egyptian cell.