“It’s fine to reaffirm the international consensus behind the two-state solution and warn against steps that undermine it, but without the serious prospect of consequences for those violations, it’s difficult to see how any improvement in the negotiating environment—an ostensible goal of this effort—will be achieved,” writes FMEP President Matthew Duss.

U.S. Secretary of State Kerry prevented France from successfully launching a strong new peace initiative last week that could have impacted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi said on Monday.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sudden positive statements on the Arab Peace Initiative reflect his fears of a Palestinian statehood resolution at the United Nations, possibly backed by the United States,” writes Ben Caspit.

“Last week’s statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the Arab peace plan is not the endorsement that the media is reporting it to be,” writes Sharif Nashashibi.

“The fact that this year’s Jerusalem Day did not include violence and racist chants against Palestinians signals a change of strategy in winning the hearts and minds of average Israelis,” writes Orly Noy.

While the Oslo Accords and Israel’s military withdrawal from Gaza may have created the impression that Israel’s hold over the Palestinian territories is waning, the fact is that the fragmentation of these territories serves precisely to entrench Israeli control over all Palestinians living in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza.

“Pro-Israel activists who are battling the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territory emphasize the freedom and democracy of Israeli society and juxtapose it to the intolerance of the BDS movement. With his new anti-BDS bill, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has made it that much harder for activists to take the moral high ground,” writes Ari Paul.