Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands to know what contortions the Republican hopefuls for president will do for Israel. Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush do their best to impress, while Donald Trump ends up in a very dark place.

A growing number of Israelis believe that the Duma firebombing that killed eighteen-month-old Ali Dawabshe and his father Sa’ad were carried out by Palestinians. “There’s no proof there was an attack,” said Lior, a restaurant owner in the settlement of Kiryat Arba. “But everybody thinks it was Palestinians who did it.”

In a blitz tour of Israel and one Israeli settlement to fundraise and campaign for his presidential bid, GOP candidate and former governor of Arkansans Mike Huckabee managed one major gaffe, and doubled down views about Israel that are far to the right of any other Republican runner, and most of the Israeli government.

Many Jewish voices are lamenting the tragic division of the US Jewish community over the Iran Deal. The historic division is over a critical question, the US national interest versus Israel’s, and it signals the day when the many Jews who support BDS will at last get a hearing in synagogues and community centers

Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi writes about his friend Ali Abu Afash, who was killed by an unexploded Israeli missile last summer in Gaza: “Ali, you were killed by a missile but you still live in my mind and heart. I will continue fight for freedom and defend journalists’ rights, and in this way your work and journalistic spirit will continue.”

Robert Piper, Coordinator for Humanitarian and UN Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territory: “The strategic implications of these demolitions are clear. These demolitions are occurring in parallel with settlement expansion. ”

Grabbing more land in the Bethlehem area, Israel uprooted 15 ancient olive trees. The trees may well end up on Jewish colonies in the occupied West Bank

Over 1,000 Black activists, artists, scholars, students, and organizations have released a statement reaffirming their “solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.” The list of signatories includes scholar-activists Angela Davis and Cornel West, political prisoners Mumia Abu-Jamal and Sundiata Acoli, rappers Talib Kweli, Boots Riley and Jasiri X, and Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors. 40 organizations signed, including the Florida-based Dream Defenders and St. Louis-based Hands Up United and Tribe X, which were founded after the killings of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, respectively, as well as the 35-year-old Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis. The statement debuted Tuesday afternoon on the website of Ebony, the largest Black publication in the US.

As Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell indicates that Obama has won the Iran Deal, the parties prepare for 2016: a divided Israel lobby, and Joe Biden’s camp saying he has “Jews” behind him