“In a click-baitingly titled Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday, Michael Oren—the former historian and Israeli ambassador to the U.S., currently a member of the Israeli Knesset—accused President Obama of abandoning key tenets of the U.S.-Israel relationship,” writes FMEP President Matt Duss. “Oren’s piece should be seen as a shot across the bow of Democratic politicians, particularly presidential candidates, and an effort to corral them within a “consensus” that brooks no criticism of Israeli policy and thus further empowers an ascendant Israeli right of which Oren is himself now a part.”

“There is a pro-Israel position from which Americans can demand that our government name the settlements the illegal enterprise they are, and treat them accordingly,” writes FMEP Program Director Mitchell Plitnick. “It is a position from which one can promote a secure Israel within the Green Line that can, at long last, find some peace in that tumultuous region. It just has to stop denying millions of Palestinians their basic rights and any hope for the future. That, not Netanyahu’s demagoguery, is truly pro-Israel.”

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) launched an attack Thursday against MK Michael Oren (Kulanu) for the latter’s accusation that US President Barack Obama “deliberately” tanked US-Israel relations.

An arson attack has gutted part of the church at the site where Christians believe Jesus performed a miracle by feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli fire brigade said.

“As international efforts intensify to resume the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians feel that discussions will go nowhere as long as the Israeli government sticks to its policy of settlement expansion,” writes Ahmad Melhem.

“Last week’s High Court ruling allowing unequal, ethnically-based planning systems doomed hundreds of Area C Palestinians to having their homes demolished every year, because it is almost impossible to build legally in Area C,” writes Arik Ascherman.

“If the Israeli government makes no distinction between Palestinians on either side of the Green Line, there is no reason for human rights activists to do so,” writes Neve Gordon.

Iyad al-Buzm leaned forward against his lavender desk and tried to sound reassuring. “Gaza is perfectly safe. You can walk anywhere at three in the morning,” said the spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry. “There is no Islamic State in Gaza.”

“What renders the situation more and more complicated in Gaza is that Israel wants Hamas to remain weak and unorganised so that the movement will not be able to challenge it, while allowing it to be strong enough to contain the situation in Gaza,” writes Adnan Abu Amer.

“Signs of a peace deal and possible truce give Palestinians cause for optimism during the month of Ramadan,” writes Mohammed Omer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday instructed the head of the Communication Ministry to work on shutting a new Palestinian Authority-funded TV channel based in Israel, which is set to go on air on Thursday, Ynet reported.

Yisrael Beytenu will seriously consider joining the government only if the prime minister and defense minister authorize the building of 1,000 homes in Ma’aleh Adumim, party head Avigdor Liberman said on a tour of the West Bank city east of Jerusalem with his faction Tuesday.

A bill proposed by Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman would prevent parties that call for or encourage boycotts of Israel or Israeli products, or have MKs who do so, from receiving government campaign funding.

The fate of the Palestinian national consensus government, a unity coalition between leaders in the West Bank and Gaza, will be decided in the next few days after reports yesterday that the West Bank heads will resign and establish a new authority late this evening following disputes with Hamas over its rule in Gaza.