Currently Israel’s science minister, Danon strongly opposes a two-state solution and has expressed support for the annexation of the West Bank. “Danon’s appointment appears to confirm everything Netanyahu’s critics at home and abroad have asserted about his true intentions with respect to the Palestinians,” writes David Horovitz in the Times of Israel. Danon has been described in the past as the ‘Ted Cruz’ of Israel.

“Instead of adopting the assessment of several top security chiefs that the Iran deal is better than none, Zionist Camp leaders Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog have chosen to imitate the prime minister and deride the agreement in talks with Congressional Democrats visiting Israel,” writes Akiva Eldar.

Brent Scowcroft, former Republican US national security adviser, tells Al-Monitor that US failure to implement the nuclear agreement with Iran “would be an abdication of America’s unique role and responsibility, incurring justified dismay among our allies and friends.”

Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Allan, who has been on hunger strike for two months, fell into a coma Friday morning and was placed on a respirator after his health significantly deteriorated overnight.

The Israeli Prison Service claims that escalating tensions in prisons are not related to changes in the incarceration conditions of the Palestinian prisoners, but the impending shakeup of a new Prison Service chief and the lack of a diplomatic horizon.

“Recent dismissals and appointments among the Palestinian leadership have reignited rampant speculation that President Mahmoud Abbas intends to resign and that the personnel changes are harbingers of who will succeed him,” writes Ahmad Melhem.

“Far from the conflict with Israel or the bitter rivalry between Fatah and Hamas, the most significant crisis brewing in the Palestinian territories is the result of a United Nations financial pitfall,” writes Elhanan Miller.

A year after the devastating war on Gaza, an activist visits human rights defenders still working among piles of rubble and roiling from trauma.