Joshua Lapide

Between yesterday and today, seven Palestinians are killed, including a 15-year-old boy, in attacks in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Kiryat Arba. A 17-year-old Israeli attacks and kills three Palestinians and a Bedouin, describing them as terrorists. Palestinians and the army clash at the Gaza border, as well as in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Galilee. Political leaders seem powerless.

Seven stabbings have been reported in the past few days, prompting Israel to increase its level of security, demolish the homes of the attackers and shoot dead at least four of them. Netanyahu bans MPs form vising the Temple Mount. Israeli Arab lawmakers vow to defy the order and visit the compound on Friday.

Audience focuses on situation in the Middle East; still nascent Bilateral Agreement; the resumption of direct talks between Israel and Palestine; Christian schools. For days now these schools in Israel are on strike because the government has reduced subsidies and blocked the increases in fees. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools are subsidized in full.

The Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem had joined hundreds of Palestinians demanding a stop to the construction of the wall near Bethlehem. Fears over new illegal settlements of Jewish settlers. "This land belongs to us ... and one day will be returned to us” ." You are stronger with your guns, but you are not the strongest when it comes to humanity."

The Assembly of the Ordinaries of the Holy Land, call upon the Israeli authorities to put a stop to "hate" and "the real threat to religious buildings”. Rabbi Benzi Gopstein believes that it is legitimate to burn "idolaters" places of worship according to Jewish law. The Lehava group, which Gopstein heads, is a racist and anti-Arab organization.

Steps include administrative detention without charges. The man who stabbed a teenage girl at Jerusalem’s Gay Pride had been released a few weeks before. Those responsible for the death of a Palestinian child burnt alive are still on the run. For Abbas, Israel’s policy of protecting illegal settlements has led to violence. In ten years, 11,000 attacks against Palestinians have been recorded. Only 1.9 per cent of complaints end in conviction. Israel’s democracy is at risk.

The mother, the father and the eldest son, aged four, are injured, but safe. The settlers have left graffiti praising the "Vendetta" and the coming of the "Messiah". The Israeli army defines the gesture an act of "terrorism". In 2015 there were 120 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem. Many settlers share a vision of radical Judaism who wants to "purify" the Land of Israel also by killing.

Yinon Reuveni, 20, carried out the arson attack with the help of Yehuda Asraf, 19. Reuveni "sees Christians as idol worshippers and their destruction as a mitzvah”. Christian churches ask for changes to teaching curricula, which are often laden with racist content and intolerance.

The 60-year-old analyst from Texas, son from Jewish parents, transferred volumes of sensitive information to Israel. Accused of espionage, in 1985 sought refuge in the Israeli Emabssy, but was rejected. In '96, Tel Aviv granted him the Israeli citizenship and admitted that he was a spy on their payroll. He will remain in the US for five years on probation. No link with the Iran-US nuclear accord.

Israel is blamed for carrying out intensive airstrike and shelling in densely populated areas, giving civilians little time to evacuate, and considering anyone who did not flee as enemy. The Palestinians are accused of seeking to spread terror among civilians through tunnel infiltration and thousands of rockets targeting civilian areas. Hamas welcomes the part of the report that slams Israel. Netanyahu criticises the report as a whole. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is set to make a submission against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Mother Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas and Mariam Baouardy will be proclaimed saints next Sunday in St Peter's Square. Mahmoud Abbas will attend. No word on whether Israel will send a representative. The miracles required for canonisation occurred in Cana of Galilee and in Sicily. The two new saints are possible sign of reconciliation between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

The plan was approved in 2010, leading to a clash with the US administration. The new settlement of Ramat Shlomo makes peace and the two states solution increasingly difficult. The green light given to new settlements just hours after the launch of Benjamin Netanyahu’ so-called "government of the settlers".