Only Muslims are allowed to pray inside the mosque, but right-wing Jewish groups want that law changed. FMEP’s Matt Duss talks with Al Jazeera about the recent round of violence.

“I believe the blanket boycott of all things Israeli is a misguided and poor strategy,” writes Mitchell Pitnick. “But when you hold millions of people without their rights for nearly five decades, protests, boycotts and international isolation are inevitable. Fighting boycotts in response to such conditions by calling the boycotters bigots is a failed and dishonest strategy.”

“Government endorsement of deadly force against all stone-throwers and making it the law of the land will technically apply to Arab and Jew alike,” writes Allison Sommer.

UN calls for calm, restraint at holy site as Israeli forces brace for more unrest after Friday prayers.

President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Saudi King Salman bin Abd al Aziz al Saud on regional issues including the recent violence in Jerusalem, the White House said in a statement Thursday without revealing further details. According to the Saudi Press Agency cited in a report on the Saudi-run al-Arabiya network, however, King Salman expressed to Obama his strong condemnation of the “Israeli escalation” at the Temple Mount compound which has been the site of clashes between Palestinians hurling rocks and firebombs, and Israeli forces in recent days.

An Israeli bus was set on fire late Thursday in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud after Palestinians hurled a firebomb at the vehicle, witnesses said.

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved on Friday morning calling up reservists from the Israeli Border Police in response to escalating tensions in Jerusalem.

“The government seems hell bent on using force, and nothing but force, in East Jerusalem,” Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem warns.

Israel deployed hundreds of extra police around the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday after Palestinian leaders called for a ‘day of rage’ to protest at new Israeli security measures

“Israel reached agreement in 2005 with the European Union to identify settlement products on export certificates, yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hints at the Holocaust in objecting to the Europeans’ decision to require labeling these products to inform consumers of their origin,” writes Akiva Eldar.

Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Allan suspended his hunger strike on Friday morning, the director of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society told Ma’an.

“Abbas is rumored to be considering putting an end to Oslo in his UN speech later this month. If he does, will Israel reoccupy Palestinian cities? Will he also dissolve the Palestinian Authority? Or will nothing change — as usual,” asks Talal Jabari.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will warn of a “fifth column” trying to destroy the Palestinian Authority from within, in an Arabic media interview set to be published next week.

The Palestinian Authority is concerned about the escalating security incidents occurring between the security services and members of Fatah in the West Bank.

The United Nations’ Mideast envoy on Thursday gave a rare upbeat assessment in the Gaza Strip, saying that reconstruction from last year’s war between Israel and Hamas militants is speeding up.

An overwhelming majority of Israelis are dissatisfied with the performance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the face of the current spate of terrorist attacks, a Panels Politics poll taken for the Knesset Channel found Thursday.