Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in Washington DC was interrupted May 24 by pro-Palestinian protesters affiliated with the Move Over AIPAC coalition. The five protesters—apparently all American Jews— unfurled banners and chanted slogans before they were escorted out of the conference hall by security. "Do you think they have these protests in Gaza?" Netanyahu jokingly asked the audience.

The voluminous media commentary dedicated to President Barack Obama's May 19 speech on the Middle East has overwhelmingly focused on his extremely modest and reasonable demand that a peace settlement must be based on Israel's 1967 (that is to say, legal) borders—and the scandalized Israeli reaction. Nearly lost in all this noise is the first three-quarters of the speech, which speak to why the White House has for the first time in history embraced this minimal demand. The imperative to control the political trajectory of the Arab Spring—which is, as we have argued, what is really driving the Libya intervention—can be detected in every syllable of the transcript...

An open letter from Israel's progressive +972 Magazine, where it first appeared in Hebrew and Arabic on April 24:

Ruh Jedida: A New Spirit for 2011
We, as the descendants of the Jewish communities of the Arab and Muslim world, the Middle East and the Maghreb, and as the second and third generation of Mizrahi Jews in Israel, are watching with great excitement and curiosity the major role that the men and women of our generation are playing so courageously in the demonstrations for freedom and change across the Arab world. We identify with you and are extremely hopeful for the future of the revolutions that have already succeeded in Tunisia and Egypt. We are equally pained and worried at the great loss of life in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, and many other places in the region.

Violence erupted on Israel's borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on May 15, leaving at least 12 dead and scores wounded, as Palestinians commemorated the Nakba ("catastrophe") of the Jewish state's founding in 1948. Israeli troops also opened fire as dozens of Palestinian refugees tore through a border fence and crossed into the Israel-occupied Golan Heights from Syria, leaving at least four dead. Four were killed as Palestinian refugees attempted to cross into Israel from Lebanon. Some 60 were injured as troops fired on Palestinians approaching the Gaza Strip border fence.

Ethnic cleansing by degrees. From Ha'aretz, May 11:

Justice Ministry admits it covertly canceled residency status of 140,000 Palestinians
Israel has used a covert procedure to cancel the residency status of 140,000 West Bank Palestinians between 1967 and 1994, the Justice Ministry admits in a new document obtained by Haaretz. The document was written by the ministry's Judea and Samaria office after the Center for the Defense of the Individual filed a request under the Freedom of Information Law.

From Amnesty International, May 10:

Israeli authorities should release or charge a Palestinian writer and academic held for almost three weeks in the occupied West Bank, Amnesty International said today. The Israel Security Agency (ISA) say they want to keep Ahmad Qatamesh in detention in connection with allegations of involvement with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which he denies.

Israeli tank fire wounded several people near the central Gaza Strip's al-Bureij refugee camp April 28. "Israeli tanks fired shells at terrorists and hit them as they were about to place explosive devices near the security barrier" between the Strip and Israeli territory, an Israeli military spokesman said. (Middle East Online, April 29) The violence comes as Hamas chief Khaled Masha'al prepares to meet Palestinian president and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo next week to sign a unity deal. It will be the first time the two men have met since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, ousting Fatah from the coastal territory after a week of street battles. (Maan News Agency, April 29)

Israeli army and Border Guard forces detained some 40 settlers from the extremist "Hilltop Youth" and "Hebrew Cities" movements who entered the Balata refugee camp in Nablus late April 27, in an apparent effort to make an unauthorized visit to Joseph's Tomb. The infiltrators, who clashed with the Israeli security forces, were accompanied by right-wing activist Baruch Marzel and MK Michael Ben-Ari. The situation has been escalating since April 24, when an Israeli settler was apparently shot dead and four others were injured by Palestinian police after a group of Jewish worshipers entered Nablus to visit Joseph's Tomb without coordinating with either Palestinian or Israeli security. Nablus and Joseph's Tomb are officially under full Palestinian control. The man killed in the incident is identified as Breslov Hasidic worshiper Ben-Yosef Livnat, 24. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the shooting as a "terrorist attack" and called on the Palestinian Authority "to take harsh steps against the perpetrators who committed this heinous act against Jewish worshipers who were on their way to prayer." (YNet, Maan News Agency, JTA, April 28; YNet, April 24)