18 students in Gaza who were supposed to travel to study in Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan and Germany have been prevented from doing so. Said al-Yacoubi was one of the lucky ones.

It is all too easy to point the finger at wild-eyed fundamentalist settlers, who have created their own version of a Biblical Wild West (Bank), terrorizing Palestinians, uprooting olive trees, vandalizing property and more recently, burning families. But let’s not forget: the settlers are not there on their own design. Without the Israeli army’s protection, without their superior legal status granted by the Israeli judicial system, without the resources and Israeli government support, they would not be there. By cracking down on “extremist settlers”, the Israeli government hopes to legitimize the ten-fold larger expansion of settlements.

Israeli forces on Sunday shot dead a Palestinian man after he allegedly took part in a stabbing attack that left an Israeli civilian lightly injured in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army said. An Israeli army spokeswoman said that “a group of Palestinian assailants” attacked and lightly injured the Israeli near Ofer checkpoint on Route 443.

Benjamin Netanyahu is a revolving-door American citizen, according to his former aide Michael Oren. The Israeli PM has twice renounced US citizenship, to serve in the Israeli army in 1967 and to become an embassy official in 1982. He may have got his citizenship restored in the 70s. Why not do so again, and run for president?

What did then secretary of state Hillary Clinton care about whether the Edinburgh Film Festival returned $465 to the Israeli government in 2009? Well, her pro-Israel political supporters cared about it; so she hopped on it.

“Israel lobby” is a descriptive term, not an expression of bigotry. If Bill Kristol responds to Obama’s statement that Israel is only country publicly to oppose the pact by saying, “All the greater Israel’s glory,” I have a right to say that the Iran Deal opponents care about a foreign country.

Much of the lobbying for the Iran Deal has been an inside Jewish game, with the White House begging to address AIPAC activists, with two Jewish officials, Wendy Sherman and Adam Szubin. Chuck Schumer’s defection is damaging this effort.

Benzi Gopstein, leader of anti-Arab group Lehava, allegedly called for the burning of churches at a panel held this week for Jewish yeshiva students, using ancient Halachic, or Jewish law, to condemn what he called Christian “idol worship.”

Hundreds of mourners from the northern West Bank poured into the hamlet of Duma to lay to rest a second Palestinian killed today after succumbing to wounds from a settler arson attack last week. Sa’ad Dawabshe, father of baby Ali Dawabshe who burned to death in the attack, died in the early morning hours in a hospital in southern Israel where he was being treated. His remains were transferred to his parents’ home outside of Nablus.

Shocker. On its front page, The New York Times runs a p.r. release for the ISrael lobby group AIPAC, saying Obama’s battle with it raises fears of a lasting rift. Why not hopes of same?