The newest chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – settler-led physical violence and destruction of both Palestinian and Israeli targets, within and beyond the Green Line – has turned regular conflict patterns of political divisions upside-down. Confusion and irony reign. Settler-led violence isn’t new: attacks on Palestinian civilians has been a regular feature of life in the “Wild East” for years, just as there have been Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets in the West Bank. But something seems different now. Attacks on mosques, cemeteries and property of Palestinians has accelerated in recent months. A brazen attack on an IDF camp in…

The Palestinians are bringing their first challenge of the year to the UN. Hopefully, Barack Obama will just sit back and watch U.S. President Barack Obama may be put to the test as early as next week. Reports say that the Palestinians are planning on bringing their resolution condemning settlements to the Security Council in the next few days. This is a critical junction in the Wild Card campaign (a call for the U.S. to recognize Palestinian statehood in the summer of 2011). Palestinians claim it will be hard for the U.S. to veto this resolution based on official U.S.…