Turkey has condemned an Israeli plan to construct 283 new homes in Palestine's West Bank. "Israel's illegal settlement units are totally unacceptable," read a statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday. Israel issued tenders on Friday for 283 new housing units, according to the Israel Land Authority.

Israel will sign a deal to supply natural gas from its Leviathan field to Jordan for 15 years, Israeli Energy Minister Silvan Shalom said on Wednesday.  An industry official who asked not to be identified said the deal was worth about $15 billion.

Israel's internal public diplomacy failed during Operation Protective Edge, deputy minister for liaison with the Knesset Ophir Akunis (Likud) charged Sunday in an interview with Israel Radio.  There has been much written about whether Israel's external public diplomacy to the foreign press succeeded during the operation. But Akunis was the first politician to allege a failure in how information about the military campaign was relayed to the Israeli public.

No. 1: Will there be a deal on Ukraine? The crisis in Ukraine has been a colossal failure of analysis and of diplomacy, with plenty of blame to share on all aides. The main victims, alas, have been the unfortunate Ukrainian people. As I've written before, I think the United States and the West played a key role in causing the crisis, mostly by failing to anticipate that Russia was going to respond forcefully and vigorously to what its leaders regarded as a gradual attempt to incorporate Ukraine into the West. 

The Financial Times was blunt in a recent editorial entitled ‘Anti-Semitism is a menace to us all: Criticism of Israel should not extend to Jews worldwide.’ “Israel, a mature democracy, is frequently subjected to a double standard that is not applied to other states. In London this month, thousands marched in protest at Israel’s actions in Gaza.

A broad consensus of the Israeli public still justifies Operation Protective Edge, a month after Israel's government launched it, even though uncertainty remains about how the offensive against Hamas in Gaza will turn out, according to the latest Peace Index.