“When U.S. Jewish leaders falsely accused Rep. Hank Johnson of ‘anti-Semitism’ they proved to American politicians that expressing moral outrage about the occupation can imperil their careers,” writes Peter Beinart.

When it comes to the Middle East on campus, the environment is increasingly uneasy and even hostile. Many universities are grappling with how to balance students’ right to protest with Jewish students’ fears that their culture is under attack.

New bills have barred state governments from contracting or funding entities that support the boycott of Israel.

“The Obama administration keeps condemning settlement construction even during the election campaign period, thus demonstrating that criticizing the policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shouldn’t block the road to the White House,” writes Akiva Eldar.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a delegation of Republican senators last week that he still supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, emphasizing his position three weeks after the GOP eschewed support for such an outcome in its platform.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) on Tuesday urged Israel to annex the West Bank’s Etzion Bloc and Jordan Valley settlements and declare the “era of evacuations” over. At an event marking 11 years since the evacuation of Jewish settlements from the Gush Katif bloc in the Gaza Strip, Edelstein said: “I hope that we will finally see the extension of Israeli sovereignty over places such as the Etzion bloc and the Jordan Valley.”

After a recent increase in violence and ongoing settlement expansion, Palestinians are renewing calls for protection.

A Jerusalem group plans to open the first school of its kind to train priests to serve in a third Jewish temple, which they hope to see erected on Jerusalem’s most contested holy site.

Senior Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said Sunday he is working to ensure money sent to the terror group by Qatar will be used to pay “military personnel” alongside civilian government employees.

Israel’s Ministry of Defense has issued tenders to several companies to build a concrete barrier extending several stories below ground to mitigate the threat of Hamas tunnels; the barriers will have sensors to detect digging, and will completely encircle Gaza.

In a much-discussed video message to Palestinian citizens of Israel last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu lauded the achievements of Arabs in the arts, business, politics and the legal world. “Israel is strong because of our diversity and pluralism — not in spite of it,” he said. For Palestinian citizens of Israel, however, the speech sounded like nothing more than spin — a liberal democratic wrapper on an illiberal reality of discrimination and selective democracy.

The Palestinian government is working on establishing a High Criminal Court and amending the penal code enforced in the West Bank, in a move that many view as an encroachment of the legislative authority by the executive branch.