“If the U.S. wants to save Palestinian and Israeli lives, it is time to put real political capital on the table. Recognizing the state of Palestine, next to the already recognized state of Israel, would be an act of leadership, a commodity sorely missing for so many years on this issue,” write Sam Bahour, Geoffrey Lewis and Nomika Zion.

Often with the blessing of conservative politicians, funders, and pundits, right-wing Christian and Jewish groups in the United States have consistently offered financial assistance for the construction and maintenance of settlements in the West Bank that international law says are illegal, as well as lending support to fringe “outposts” that even the Israeli government often does not formally recognize.

“For the United States, it is not enough to simply talk about keeping the two state solution on life support,” writes Anthony Cordesman. “U.S. efforts to reassure Israel in terms of security aid need to be matched with carefully calibrated civil aid to the Palestinians. The United States needs to push hard against Israeli political extremism, more settlements, and actions that do not serve Israel’s security and longer-term interests.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry told an Israeli gathering at the United Nations on Wednesday that a two-state solution in the Middle East was “not an impossible dream” but would require courage.

“Unilateral withdrawal makes sense in a lot of ways, and it can be done in a way that fulfills Netanyahu’s stated concern about meeting Israeli security criteria,” writes Michael Koplow.

The Shin Bet security services said that a “bleak reality,” along with personal problems and false rumors spread on social media, has been driving the current wave of grassroots Palestinian terrorism that has killed nearly a dozen Israelis and injured over 80.

An elite Israeli unit raided a hospital in Hebron at dawn on Thursday and killed a Palestinian related to a man who allegedly carried out a stabbing attack last month, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

“Rather than boycotting Israel, the EU’s new ‘differentiation strategy’ specifically separates out the democratic and internationally recognized Israel within the 1967 borders – with whom it seeks close ties – from the non-democratic and non-recognized settlements,” writes Anders Persson.

Producers must clearly label products coming from settlements built on land illegally occupied by Israel and sold in EU.

Speaking at Washington’s Center for American Progress, Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked about his government’s West Bank settlement construction policies. His replies were littered with falsehoods and misrepresentations.

“All of this talk about a binational state is nonsense. Between you and me, we all know that Israel will never grant citizenship to all of those Arabs,” writes Gershon Baskin.

A Yesh Atid bill passed in a preliminary vote Wednesday because two Bayit Yehudi MKs were absent in protest over a lack of construction in Jerusalem.