The Israeli-Palestinian peace process appears at an impasse.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has endorsed a Palestinian state (with limitations) and a 10-month freeze on settlement construction outside the security barrier.  But President Mahmoud Abbas insists on a full construction freeze based on the pre-1967 border, including east Jerusalem, before he will agree to further negotiation.

 

In parallel, however, the West Bank is experiencing positive changes, thanks to the Prime Ministers of both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

 
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has an ambitious plan to transform the West Bank from its poor and violence-prone past into an area of security, economic progress and credible government.  The US is training professional police units to maintain security.  Israel is easing travel within the West Bank, ceding control to the new security forces, and facilitating business for Palestinian companies.
 

Against the background of a general increase in aggressive behaviour by the ultra-Orthodox community in Jerusalem, a woman was recently arrested by the police for wearing a tallit and carrying a Torah at the Kotel (Western Wall). 

 

Anat Hoffman, Director of the Reform movement's Israel Religious Action Centre, was among the women and describes the incident in The Forward.  She is also quoted in a New York Times report on the increase in tensions between the haredi and non-haredi communitites.

 

 

In response, thousands of Israelis protested attempts by haredim to impose their practices in the public space.