“Since the beginning of the year, the area surrounding the Yitzhar settlement has again emerged as a hotbed of violence against Palestinians, left-wing Israeli groups and Israeli security forces. There have been over 150 acts of violence carried out by residents of Yitzhar and the surrounding settlements in the Samaria region of the northern West Bank, principally the illegal Kumi Ori outpost, since January 1, a security official told The Times of Israel Sunday.”

“Violence against Palestinians and their property by extremist settlers is a rather common occurrence – both in response to Palestinian violence and also as part of long-standing land disputes. Violence against Israeli security forces is less common, but still exists. Except for the cases in which settlers murdered Palestinians, only the second category of violence – against Israeli forces – makes its way into the public discourse.”

“Israel’s 1967 occupation owes a very large debt to former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar, who died on Friday. Were it not for his contribution, the occupation may not have lasted so long. Were it not for the stamp of approval that he bestowed, this crime may have been long ago eradicated. Streets in the West Bank settlements of Ariel and Itamar should be named after Shamgar, while Palestinian towns from Jenin to Rafah should remember him in disgrace. Shamgar was the silver platter on which the occupation was delivered, to Israel and to the world: cold, respectable and wrapped in clear cellophane, with the appearance of legality, attractive and enlightened, laundered and neatly ironed.”

“This oft-repeated scenario – where pro-Israeli social media trolls zoom in on aPalestinian media platform while working closely with Facebook management to censor content, bar individuals, or delete whole pages – is now the norm. Palestinian views on Facebook are simply unwanted, and the margin of what is allowed is rapidly shrinking.”

Several of the Arab council heads who attended the meeting in Nazareth said that they would like to advance a law to define organized crime in their communities as a form of terrorism, which would allow for harsher punishments and even setting up checkpoints at entrances to Arab cities. ‘We want to handle crime in our cities like they do in Jenin’ some of them said, alluding to Israel’s harsh treatment of suspects in the West Bank and the country’s actions to quell any activity by Palestinians it views as terrorism.”

“The staff of the Foreign Affairs Ministry was trained to represent the State of Israel. They know that to provide diplomatic protection for Israel, they must create a unique fit suitable for the place, time and target audience. And yet, the Netanyahu government wanted to reinforce the narrative of the Israeli right wing – in Israel and abroad – and to do this he had to mark an international enemy to be fought for cohesion’s sake. That’s how the perfect demon was found: the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.”

Yousef Munayyer writes, “Despite these numbers, which do not induce confidence, Abbas may not have to worry much at all because it is hard to see how elections can actually and practically take place. The divide between the West Bank and Gaza has not been bridged. Hamas has said it wants both parliamentary and presidential elections in the West Bank, Gaza, and occupied Jerusalem. It is not clear that Abbas wants presidential elections at all. Unless there is agreement on these points, moving forward would be very difficult. Further, the distrust between the parties would require agreements on administering free and fair elections, and this too will be a challenge. Finally, all Palestinian parties want to include occupied East Jerusalem, where some 340,000 Palestinians live, in the voting. But Israel is unlikely to allow this. Therefore, unless the elections would be for both the presidency and the parliament and take place in a free and fair fashion in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, they likely will not take place. Since all interested, including the Israelis, would have to cooperate to allow elections to happen, and given the deep distrust among all parties, a coordinated outside effort would be required to push them in this direction. Washington would have to play a role and the Trump Administration seems not to have the slightest interest in doing so. This means both that the chances for elections actually taking place are somewhere between infinitesimal and nonexistent and that there are various parties to blame for such an eventuality.”