Israel’s political class is struggling to make sense of a crumbling Arab order and the loss of the certainties it embodied, reports Thomas O’Dwyer.
A series of legislative measures in Israel will further constrain Israel’s beleaguered human-rights groups. A proposed commission to monitor their work highlights the real motive behind these efforts, say Lisa Magarrell & Iain Levine.
The much-recycled image of a region inhospitable to peace, human dignity and freedom has damaging effects in practice, say Foulath Hadid & Mishana Hosseinioun.
The UN Secretary General has promised to investigate the Gaza flotilla incident in a manner which is "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent" and "conforming to international standards". But it looks as if politics is triumphing over justice
The prospects for progress in the direct Israeli-Palestinian talks in Washington are meagre. But breakthrough is essential if Israel is to be saved from itself.
The disconnection between the international left and its counterparts in Israel has become near total, to the detriment of the causes that both espouse. But a situation with complex roots can be remedied by looking more closely at the work of people on the ground, say Keith Kahn-Harris & Joel Scha
As darkness descends on more and more parts of Gaza, and temperatures soar, another kind of darkness is creating havoc with people’s equilibrium
Successive Israeli cabinets have worked to enforce on the ground in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories a situation that they could present as irreversible. Have they now reached the point where the biblical book of Daniel’s prophecy is once again relevant?
Palestinians’ vicarious yet passionate identification with the national teams in South Africa’s football world cup reflects both local concerns and global longings, finds Khaled Hroub in Ramallah.
Many voices warn that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is corroding the country’s democracy. Now, a worrying onslaught by Israel’s right-wing government on domestic dissenters raises further concerns. But the two issues are distinct as well as linked, say Keith Kahn-Harris & Joel Sch
Israel's assault on an aid flotilla heading to Gaza is a decisive episode in the country's challenge to international humanitarian law and its advocates. But it may have unexpected results, say Thomas Keenan & Eyal Weizman
Traditional items on the Seder plate in the ceremonial meal which marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover prompt thoughts on the myth and reality of national liberation
