Former Secretary of State James Baker said Sunday that House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in March is a breach of diplomatic protocol.

“This time, the argument from some American pundits goes, the Israelis have gone too far. This time, to paraphrase Howard Beale in Network, we’re really not going to take it anymore.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to address Congress without even informing the Obama administration is an act that’s just too brazen to be ignored. Such blatant intervention in American politics crosses a red line that requires a tough response,” writes Aaron David Miller. “Only it’s not gonna happen.”

For six years, the pattern has been the same. A dispute between American and Israeli leaders spills out into the open. Analysts declare the relationship in crisis. Then the two sides try to tamp down emotions and argue that the rupture is not as dire as it looks.

US aid to the Palestinians comes under renewed scrutiny this coming week following the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) bid to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this month.

“Destroyed by Arab armies during the 1948 War, Gush Etzion was repopulated after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967,” write Hillel Bardin and Dror Etkes. “Since then, successive Israeli governments have done everything they can to magnify the mythology of the bloc, while settling Israelis on its privately-owned Palestinian land.”

Since the beginning of 2015, the Civil Administration of the Israel Defense Forces has also demolished 77 homes, livestock pens, farm buildings and other structures of Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security conditions for any future agreement with the Palestinians would preclude a Palestinian state all together,” writes Uri Savir.

Hundreds of Palestinians participated today in the funeral of 19-year-old Ahmed Najjar, who was shot to death by the Israeli army on Saturday outside village of Burin, near Nablus. The army claimed that Najjar was about to throw a molotov cocktail at passing vehicles near the village. Medical sources said Najjar was hit by a live bullet in the throat and died at the scene, while another Palestinian was lightly wounded. According to the army, the incident is currently under investigation.

“The representatives of more than one million Israeli citizens must be viewed as worthy and legitimate partners in the governmental equation,” writes Yael Gvirtz.

The Likud party held a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday to offer evidence of what it called illegal campaign financing on the left.

Palestinian faction Hamas on Saturday slammed a decision by an Egyptian court to designate its military arm, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, a “terrorist organisation”. Saturday’s verdict came two days after a series of attacks that targeted military and security sites in North Sinai left at least 30 people dead.