“The next time anyone tries to blame the Palestinians for refusing to return to the table, remember that Israel’s prime minister repeatedly states his unwillingness to end the occupation,” writes Michael Omer-Man.

The Mateh Binyamin Regional Council spent millions of shekels to build infrastructure in wildcat outposts in the West Bank from 2013 to 2015. Documents from the regional council are part of the correspondence with contractors building the infrastructure, roads and buildings at the outposts.

The first four trailers of a new industrial zone were installed on a hilltop adjacent to the Kiryat Arba settlement on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry body responsible for authorizing West Bank construction said.

The occupation municipality’s bulldozers demolished on Tuesday morning a commercial establishment in the neighborhood of Bi’er Ayoub in Silwan without prior notice and under the pretext of building without a permit.

B’Tselem provides an update on home demolitions in East Jerusalem.

The outgoing head of the IDF’s Central Command called on settler leaders to denounce radical lawbreakers among their West Bank constituencies on Wednesday.

“The real problem confronting Schumer isn’t that young Americans are ignorant. It’s that more and more of them are knowledgeable enough to realize that Israeli policy in both the West Bank and Gaza massively violates Palestinian human rights. And to wonder why a Democrat like Chuck Schumer is supporting policies so antithetical to the progressive principles he claims to hold dear,” writes Peter Beinart.

“Having finally decided to wean themselves from dependency on an American-only sponsorship of the peace process, Palestinians are realizing that there is nothing to be gained by engaging with either the current Israeli or American leaders,” writes Daoud Kuttab.

“The organization is desperately trying to maintain its bipartisan membership and avoid the pull of polarization—but it’s almost certain to fail,” writes Peter Beinart.

The diplomatic compound that will serve as the American Embassy until a permanent site is found lies partly in a contested zone known as No Man’s Land.

“Although AIPAC activists regularly acknowledge that, of course, Israel is not perfect, it felt like the people there were cheering and stomping for a different country,” writes Dahlia Scheindlin.

Undercover Israeli troops, reportedly impersonating a news crew, arrest a Palestinian student leader at a major West Bank university. Israeli journalists’ union issues strong condemnation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he is not seeking elections but that a fresh vote will be held if coalition parties can’t agree on legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox students from military service and commit to avoid infighting over the next year and a half.

Arab foreign ministers insisted on Wednesday that Jerusalem must be the capital of a future Palestinian state, even as the US prepares to move its embassy there in a step that has angered the Arab world.

Yehuda Shaul (Breaking the Silence) and Rabbi Jill Jacobs (T’ruah) discuss the challenges facing civil society in Israel at an event cosponsored by FMEP, Americans for Peace Now, and the New Israel Fund.