Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu – notorious right winger - said this weekend that he is ready for immediate peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The latter, on the other hand, already said he sees no reason to accept the invitation.

“I call again on the Palestinian leadership in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority, let us meet. Let us make peace, diplomatic peace and economic peace,” Netanyahu said.

“There is no reason for Abu Mazen and myself not to meet anywhere in the country,” he added. “Since we are here in Be’er Sheva, I say to him: Let us meet here and begin to advance peace for the benefit of both our peoples.”

Sadly, Abbas believes peace talks to be useless.| MORE ›

Pope Benedict XVI accomplished the impossible yesterday: his farewell speech pleased both Israelis and Palestinians. 

Pope Benedict XVI ended a politically charged visit to Israel and the West Bank on Friday with new condemnations of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and his strongest appeal yet for the creation of a Palestinian state.| MORE ›

Palestinian officials told U.S. envoy George Mitchell to pressure Israel into changing its ways and goals:

Palestinian officials are asking President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy to push Israel to accept the principle of Palestinian statehood.

Envoy George Mitchell is holding talks Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other leaders in the West Bank.| MORE ›

The Jerusalem Post reports:

At the request of the Egyptians, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas decided over the weekend not to ask outgoing Prime Minister Salaam Fayad to form a new government, to avoid closing the door to the establishment of a joint Hamas-Fatah coalition, a senior PA official in Ramallah said Saturday.| MORE ›

The BBC reported on Wednesday that Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager, out of fear that he would carry out a terrorist attack. The forces said that they found 10 petrol bombs near the boy’s body, which would probably have been thrown at cars of Jewish settlers.

Tensions are rising across the West Bank, with both sides accusing the other of terrorism, violence and spreading and encouraging hatred.| MORE ›

If this report is accurate, it is extremely surprising:| MORE ›

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Reporting from Cairo and Jerusalem — U.S. envoy George Mitchell met in Jerusalem today with top Israeli officials to push for what at the moment appears unlikely: substantive talks between a divided Palestinian leadership and the new right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.| MORE ›

The crisis along the border of the West Bank continues to escalate. We reported yesterday that Israeli security guards has shot and killed a Palestinian teenager who had prepared ten bombs. He planned to throw those bombs at cars of Jewish settlers in the region, thereby not only destroying their property, but possibly also endangering their lives.| MORE ›