Kushner talks Middle East peace; Most Israelis, Palestinians still support two states: poll

What We’re Reading

US-Israeli/Palestinian relations

Kushner on Middle East Peace: "What do we offer that's unique? I don't know.",

On Monday, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner spoke to a group of congressional interns as part of an ongoing, off-the-record summer lecture series. WIRED has obtained a recording of Kushner’s talk, which lasted for just under an hour in total.

US Senate unveils revised version of Taylor Force Act,

The new text of the Taylor Force Act incorporates some of the advice given to the panel during a hearing last month, but does not include a waiver that would allow the US president to disregard the law on national security grounds.

Ex-Cruz Aide Joins Trump Envoy's Team, Signaling Interest in Beefing Up Mideast Peace Efforts,

Victoria Coates, a member of President Trump’s National Security Council, was recently promoted to the position of senior director for international negotiations, in which she will be working under Jason Greenblatt, the President’s special envoy in charge of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Occupation/Human rights

Poll: Majority of Israelis, Palestinians still support two state solution,

Support for the two state solution rises among Palestinians but declines among Israeli Jews, while support for a comprehensive peace agreement remains unchanged among Palestinians but drops among Israeli Jews. But a package of incentives shows that attitudes are flexible on both sides, and motivates significant shift in favor of the peace package leading to majority support on both sides.

The Palestinian women's uprising that electrified Jerusalem,

Religious Palestinian women are taking in active role in the protests at the Temple Mount, shattering stereotypes of Muslim women as docile and subservient.

Muslim states slam ‘provocative’ Israeli actions at Temple Mount,

At an Organization of Islamic Cooperation gathering, members cited ‘excessive force against peaceful Palestinian worshipers.’

Archives belie Israel's narrative of Palestinian conflict,

Early members of the Zionist movement and later Israelis have consistently attempted to control the narrative of the conflict with the Palestinians, including by seizing photographic evidence of Palestine and the Palestinians’ history.

High Court petition: Unauthorized signs obliterate Palestinian identity from Hebron,

Rabbis for Human Rights and Palestinian residents of Hebron submitted a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice demanding the removal or replacement of signs posted by the “Committee of the Renewal of the Jewish Community of Hebron” on Shuhada Street.

Settlers install mobile homes on Palestinian village lands near Nablus,

Israeli settlers reportedly set up 10 mobile homes on private Palestinian land in the northern occupied West Bank on Monday morning, a Palestinian official told Ma’an.

Israeli politics

Poll: 70% of Israelis support death penalty for Palestinian terrorists,

Some 70 percent of Israelis favor giving the death penalty to Palestinian terrorists who murdered Israelis, according to the monthly Peace Index that was released by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University Wednesday.

The craziest things Netanyahu has said this summer, so far,

“From outlawing foreign funding for human rights NGOs to reviving the death penalty (for Palestinians), to population transfer and more, Benjamin Netanyahu is going a little wild. It probably isn’t unrelated to the multiple police investigations into him and his friends,” writes Michael Omer-Man.

Opinion: Netanyahu’s empathy for Hebron shooter reveals a lot about Israel,

“The support by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his party members for the IDF soldier convicted of manslaughter in Hebron demonstrates the moral decline of the Likud,” writes Mazal Mualem.

Netanyahu’s legacy: dividing Jews and uniting Arabs,

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling in the recent Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif crisis threatens to turn the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a nationalist struggle into a religious conflagration,” writes Akiva Eldar.

Gaza

Gaza: Surviving Shujayea,

How a young girl was rescued from the rubble of her home in Shujayea after an Israeli bomb killed most of her family.

Palestinian politics

Abbas holds rare reconciliation talks with Hamas in Ramallah,

The meeting, held at the PA’s headquarters in Ramallah, came amid reports that lightning talks aimed at restoring PA control in Gaza and getting the PA to lift sanctions against Hamas in the Strip are underway. The talks were initiated by Abbas, according to London-based pan-Arabic daily Rai al-Youm.