Opinion: It’s time to end America’s blank check military aid to Israel
The Forward

“Last month, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that American aid to Israel is ‘something that can be discussed’ in Washington. Her comments made news precisely because America’s policy of giving Israel billions in aid without expecting any policy changes in return hasn’t actually been discussed — or at least questioned — in either party in more than a quarter-century. That needs to change.”

Image: Illustration - “Blank Check Monopoly” (Avi Katz).

UNRWA health services continue uninterrupted throughout 2018, yet health and dignity of Palestine refugees remains at risk
UNRWA

“The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) released today its annual Health Report for 2018, which confirms that, despite facing unprecedented financial challenges in 2018 that endangered the provision of the Agency’s services to 5.4 million registered Palestine refugees,  the provision of primary health care and the facilitation of hospital services  across the five fields of operation in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continued uninterrupted.”

Image: 2018 UNRWA Photo (Carlos Pérez Osorio).

Why some Palestinians are backing Trump’s peace push
Politico

“Some prominent Palestinian activists and politicians are quietly rooting for Jared Kushner as he prepares to unveil the first part of his Middle East peace plan next month. That's not because they think the plan will resolve their decades-long conflict with Israel. It’s because they hope it will hasten the onset of a 'one-state' solution they are coming to support.”

Image: Palestinian youths climb a section of Israel's wall near the West Bank (Abbas Momani/Getty Images).

Trump administration to release part of its Middle East peace plan in June
The Washington Post

“The Trump administration will unveil economic proposals for development in the Palestinian territories next month as part of a proposed Arab-Israeli peace package, it announced Sunday, but will hold back crucial details about a potential political settlement to the conflict.”

Image: White House senior adviser Jared Kushner smiles as he watches President Trump talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in March (Carlos Barria/Reuters).

Netanyahu rebuffs letter of former security officials warning of annexation
Jerusalem Post

“Hitting back at a letter of former Israeli security officials asking him not to annex the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that ‘the region in Judea and Samaria is not just a guarantee for Israel’s security, it’s also the inheritance of our ancestors.’”

Image: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon on tour of West Bank (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO).

Lebanon mourns former Maronite Christian patriarch Sfeir
Argus Press

“The former patriarch of Lebanon's Maronite Christian church, Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, who served as spiritual leader of Lebanon's largest Christian community through some of the worst days of the country's 1975-1990 civil war, died Sunday. He was 98.”

Image: Aug 4, 2001 file photo of Cardinal Nasrallah Butos Sfeir (Hussein Malla).