Israel will hold unprecedented second election after Netanyahu fails to form governing coalition
The Washington Post

“In a stunning turn, Israel will head to elections for a second time in less than six months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a government before a midnight Wednesday deadline. Rather than give someone else the chance to do so, his party advanced a bill to dissolve the parliament and trigger new elections in September.”

Image: Netanyahu and Liberman in the Knesset last week. (Sebastian Scheiner/AP)

Trump’s still-murky Israeli-Palestinian peace plan already meeting stiff opposition
The LA Times

“After numerous false starts, the Trump administration is finally preparing to unveil its long-promised Mideast peace plan in coming weeks, and initial indications suggest it is aimed at pleasing Israel while offering financial incentives to the Palestinians but no pathway to statehood, their primary demand.”

Image: President Trump gives a pen to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after signing a document recognizing Israeli control of the Golan Heights in March. (Associated Press)

Palestinians won't ever warm to Trump's 'deal of the century,' Israeli Army tells government
Haaretz

“The Palestinian Authority isn’t likely to retreat from its absolute rejection of the Trump administration’s ‘deal of the century,’ according to an assessment the army recently gave the government. The assessment posits that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will continue opposing even the plan’s first stage, the economic conference to take place in Bahrain in late May. Most Israeli security and defense agencies also say the PA has only two to three months to go before a process of economic collapse begins, given its economic straits.This distress is mainly due to its conflict with Israel over its funding for security prisoners held in Israel.”

Image: Palestinians protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 22, 2019 (Nasser Nasser/AP).

Denied and deported: love and marriage in the Palestinian territories
Religion News

“Elaine Zoughbi just wants to go home. The Israeli government says she can’t. For the past 28 years, Zoughbi, a U.S. citizen, has lived with her family in Bethlehem, which is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. When she returned to Israel on April 3 from a routine trip back to the U.S., she was denied entry by a border agent at the airport. To her surprise, after 28 years of entering Israel multiple times per year on three-month tourist visas, she was told she would not be allowed entry or be able to return home, where she lives with her four children and her husband.”

Image: Overlooking Bethlehem in the West Bank on May 31, 2018. (RNS photo/Dan Rabb)

Buttigieg tells Jewish leaders U.S. should guide Israel toward better policies
NBC News

“Pete Buttigieg told a group of influential liberal Jewish leaders on Thursday that the United States should guide Israel’s government away from steps that he says are harmful to both the U.S. and Israel, and said the Trump administration’s actions on Jerusalem and the Golan Heights amount to the U.S. intervening in Israel’s domestic politics.”

Image: Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks during a fundraiser at the Wynwood Walls on May 20, 2019, in Miami. (Lynne Sladky/AP)

Israeli security: unrest, despair increasing in West Bank
Al-Monitor

“What was considered until a few weeks ago an “estimate with high likelihood” by the Israeli security establishment has turned more into a certainty in the last few days. Experts say that unless necessary, immediate, and substantive steps are taken, a violent conflict with the Palestinian Authority is unavoidable. Former army Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot expressed this concern in a May 7 conversation in Washington with President Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt. ‘The West Bank could erupt before, during or after the presentation of the American peace plan,’ Eizenkot warned Greenblatt.”

Image: A Palestinian woman prays on the first Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, May 10, 2019. (REUTERS/ Ammar Awad)