“Peace requires accountability on both sides,” writes Dennis Ross. “It’s fair to ask the Israelis to accept the basic elements that make peace possible — 1967 lines as well as land swaps and settlement building limited to the blocks. But isn’t it time to demand the equivalent from the Palestinians on two states for two peoples, and on Israeli security? Isn’t it time to ask the Palestinians to respond to proposals and accept resolutions that address Israeli needs and not just their own?”

“Rejecting efforts to end the occupation and ensure the respect of humanitarian law in the territories is counterproductive,” writes Michael Omer-Man. “It will be seen in Palestine as a one-sided approach, and it will strengthen Palestinians who see bilateral diplomacy as futile. Those Palestinians will argue that the deck is stacked against Palestine and that the country needs leaders who will do more than sit on the low chair at a table with their occupiers.”

A +972 poll puts the details of one such plan to the Israeli public, and finds that a majority supports the general approach.

“Instead of reviling Palestinian accession to the ICC as an effort to delegitimize and isolate it, Israel would be better off focusing inward,” writes Emily Omer-Man. “The only threat to Israeli soldiers and officials abroad is the lack of proper investigations at home. Indeed, the same commitment Israel declared in its signing of the Rome Statute — to ‘the rule of law and the prevention of impunity’ — is its best chance at avoiding ICC jurisdiction.”

Israel is weighing its options for further punishing Palestinians after freezing millions in tax revenues as a first response to their attempt to join the International Criminal Court.

Throughout the past several months, Jerusalem has been a scene of clashes and violent attacks. Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood just steps away from Jerusalem’s Old City, has been at the heart of the unrest, and is becoming one of the most contentious neighborhoods in the most contested city in the world.

“Israel is an extraordinary place, full of people who — in the span of one lifetime — survived the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century, established a sanctuary for millions of traumatized Jewish refugees, and prevailed in three existential wars,” writes Farah Stockman. “Yet its image in the world is still hostage to one question: What will happen to the millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control?”

“Gaza is nowhere,” writes Roger Cohen. “Very few people go in or out of the 140-square-mile enclave. Most people want to forget about it. The border with Egypt was closed in October. A handful of travelers negotiate the labyrinth of inspections at the Israeli border and proceed into the Jewish state.”

“Looming large over the lives of Bethlehemites is the Israeli plan to extend the wall in the north through one of the last remaining green spaces in the region,” writes Jim Zogby. “This portion of the wall is designed to zig-zag along a path that will cut through the vineyards and olive orchards of the Convent at Cremisan, separating the children of Beit Jala from their school, and confiscating land owned by 54 Palestinian families. Once completed, the wall will allow the Israelis to expand and connect two settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo. It is, as described by Bethlehem’s mayor, Vera Baboun, ‘the final knot in the noose around the neck of Bethlehem.’”

A State Department spokesman in Washington said US authorities are “deeply concerned” about an incident in which Jewish settlers threw stones at vehicles from the US Consulate in Jerusalem carrying officials who came to inspect vandalism to Palestinian-owned trees in the West Bank on Friday.