“This is someone who is an enemy of the progressive agenda, who has targeted Israeli human rights organizations throughout his term, and was re-elected on the back of blatant anti-Arab race-baiting,” FMEP President Matt Duss told the Huffington Post. TThe idea that the Center for American Progress would agree to give him bipartisan cover is really disappointing.”

“Israeli and Palestinian casualties are a loss to us all and their memories should serve as an eternal reminder to all sides — that without an end to the Israeli occupation there can be no winners or losers, only more mourners on both sides,” writes Sam Bahour.

“At the epicenter of the new escalation of Israeli-Palestinian violence is a deep dispute over Jerusalem’s Holy Esplanade — known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” writes Ofer Zalzberg.

A resident of East Jerusalem says young Palestinians are increasingly falling into two camps: those who want to leave and those who have nothing to lose.

Palestinian Authority ‘serious about peace’, official says, but critics accuse leadership of ‘dis-empowering the people’ by suppressing demonstrations.

New Zealand is preparing a UN Security Council resolution calling on Israel to freeze construction and home demolitions in the West Bank, as well as urging the Palestinians to desist from taking steps against Israel at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, as part of a series of confidence-building steps ahead of a hoped-for resumption of peace talks.

While EU policy towards Palestinian economic development has long been subordinate to a stalled and dysfunctional peace process, this paper argues that the EU should rethink its policy and decouple economic development from the political process.

For Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza since 2007, this month’s surge in violence across Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank is an opportunity not to be missed.

“In retrospect, it is safe to say that Rabin left behind a country torn between two conflicting worldviews, and therefore two conflicting visions,” writes Ori Nir of Americans for Peace Now.

“In order to give preference to contractors located in West Bank settlements, won’t Israel’s parliament first have to distinguish them just as the EU plans to?” asks Michael Omer-Man.

“At his core, Netanyahu is not so much hawkish as conservative: determined to avoid revolutions, wary of the unintended consequences of grand policy designs, and resolved to stand firm in the face of adversity,” writes Natan Sachs.