“The hearing was meant to take place on Thursday and will be delayed at least until September. It is being postponed in order to grant the state time to prepare after Amnesty International and a group of former Israeli diplomats have joined the appeal as friends of the court.”

“One day after police and army personnel demolished some 70 apartments in the Palestinian-controlled Wadi Hummus neighborhood of East Jerusalem, the neighborhood looks like a war zone that had taken a direct artillery hit. Some of the buildings are completely destroyed, others are partially destroyed, and cement dust is suspended in the air. Residents are walking around, staring at the ruins, their faces fallen. Until Monday, they had tried to live normal, sane lives despite the fact that the Israeli separation barrier divides their neighborhood. Now they are full of anger, frustration and hopelessness.”

Yara Hawari writes, “Since the demolitions began, videos have emerged on social media showing Israeli soldiers and police revelling in the demolitions. One particular video shows a masked soldier counting down from 10 before pressing a demolition button and blowing up a Palestinian building in the background.”

“Three senior administration officials said the purpose of Kushner’s project is to connect with local populations as effectively as possible – to better understand ‘what’s driving the street’ across the Arab world, so that he and his team can target their communications with greater precision.”

“King Abdullah II met on Wednesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and restated his position that the creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital is the only way to end the conflict. Kushner will be returning to the Middle East this week to promote the Trump administration’s economic peace plan for the Palestinians. He outlined the plan’s ambitious investment and development goals at a conference in Bahrain last month.”

“The United States on Wednesday blocked an attempt by Kuwait, Indonesia and South Africa to get the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes on the outskirts of Jerusalem, diplomats said.”

“To claim that Israel is the victim of the Palestinians isn’t just to ignore the occupation, it’s to justify its practices entirely. And since the occupation is a proven and ongoing act carried out by Israel, justifying it is just a cheap provocation.”

“In Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ chambers, the meeting was described as ‘a watershed moment’ that will redefine the organization’s relationship with Israel.”

“The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip is currently in the process of merging ministries, to ultimately 14 ministries instead of 23. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was dissolved July 21 and its staff have been transferred to several other ministries, Al-Monitor learned from government sources. Other ministries will meet the same fate in order to ease the financial burden their budgets are causing.”

“Mudalal said Israel does not want to give Hamas additional reasons to respond to the killing of one of its members. Therefore, the Israeli army did not adopt its usual habit of responding by attacking Gaza when two rockets were launched from the enclave toward southern Israel on July 12. Palestinians in general expressed satisfaction, as seen on social media, that Israel had actually admitted error. However, the admission of error angered Israelis, especially those who live close to the Gaza Strip, who considered it a sign of Israel’s fear of Hamas rockets. Israeli journalists saw the admission of error as an erosion of Israeli deterrence of Hamas.”

“We are 55 days from the elections, which are (again) labeled as fateful for the future of Israel. We are also about a week from the closing of the lists on Aug. 1. Israel’s political map is undergoing an accelerated evolution. Both right and left are making desperate, against-the-clock attempts to unite as many small parties as possible with the goal of averting what happened to the right in the last elections: Small parties did not cross the electoral threshold, leading to a critical loss of votes.”

Anshel Pfeffer writes, “Even if the three center-left parties survive and add to their current combined tally on September 17, they have no prospect of winning a Knesset majority — not even with the addition of the Joint List’s seats. The Democratic Union’s real test will come on the day after the election when it turns out that the only prospect of replacing Netanyahu is through a governing coalition with right-wing partners: Avigdor Lieberman, Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett.”