Date

News:

The Middle East Quartet will meet later this month to discuss next steps to address the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. (New York Times/AFP/Times of Israel) 

The UN calls on Israel to unlock taxes owed to the PA. (AFP) 

The Arab League says it will support a new Palestinian UNSC resolution. (AFP/The National)

FM Wallstrom says Israel has irritated close allies by over-reacting to Sweden’srecognition of the State of Palestine. (Reuters/Ha’aretz/Ynet)

200 Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to travel to Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (Ma’an)

Hundreds of Palestinians pray in front of the Rafah crossing in Gaza to protest its prolonged closure. (Ma’an)

PM Netanyahu rules out a unity government with Opposition leaders Herzog and Livni. (Jerusalem Post)

The Pentagon says it will deploy more than 400 troops to help train Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. (Reuters)

UN aid workers have started delivering food to tens of thousands of people trapped in a besieged district in Homs. (Reuters)

Two Italian aid workers held hostage in Syria have been freed. (AP/New York Times)

Saudi Arabia postpones today’s scheduled public flogging of activist and blogger Raif Badawi on medical grounds. (Reuters/The National)

Libyan factions agree to continue UN-backed negotiations in Geneva next week. (Reuters)

Sec. Kerry and FM Zarif will meet in Paris for a second face-to-face get together this week.  (Reuters/AP)

Commentary:

Ha’aretz says Arab parties in Israel must unite. (Ha’aretz)

Raphael Ahren says FM Lieberman has joined the camp of those warning that  Israeli annexation of the West Bank will create an “apartheid state.” (Times of Israel)

Ben Caspit says Herzog and Economy Minister Bennett are battling over dueling visions of Zionism. (Al-Monitor)

Harris Engelmann asks if Moshe Kahlon is Israel’s “new Lapid.” (The Forward)

Gregg Carlstrom says Netanyahu's effort to lure French Jews to Israel is playing politics with fear. (Foreign Policy)

Anshel Pfeffer says Europe needs to wage a campaign to hold onto its Jewish population for its own sake. (Ha’aretz)

Hussein Ibish says both Muslim-majority and European states lack moral clarity on free speech. (The Forward)

Kenan Malik says the arrest of a French comedian for a comment on Charlie Hebdo exposes a dangerous double standard. (New York Times)

The New York Times says “widespread censorship and intrusive surveillance” will only undermine personal freedoms and could even make Europe less secure. (New York Times)

Mohammed Fahad al-Harthi asks if the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices are really the French 9/11. (Al Arabiya)

David Ignatius says the Internet alone is not to blame for the surge of terrorism. (Washington Post)

Amir Taheri says democracy is the answer to terrorism. (Asharq al-Awsat)

The New York Times says Iran must end the unjust imprisonment of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. (New York Times)


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