Sharing a love for music – and head-banging – two Israeli and Palestinian rock bands have joined forces to take a “message of coexistence through rock’n’roll across Europe,” The Guardian reported on Monday. The Israeli band “Orphaned Land” and Palestinian group “Khalas” both believe that music is above politics, religion and conflict and should bring people together.

The US is to host talks with Israel and Palestinian negotiators in the next week following a breakthrough in the drive to revive the moribund Middle East peace process. John Kerry, US secretary of state, called the move a "significant step forward". The agreement, announced on Friday evening after four months of intensive diplomacy, fell short of a hoped for face-to-face meeting between leaders of the two sides.

The US National Football League (NFL) has become the latest terrain in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinian-American player Oday Aboushi as the target. Several sports articles have questioned Aboushi's views on Palestine and his ties to Palestinian organisations. Most recently, Jonathan Mael, the new media co-ordinator for Major League Baseball, compared Aboushi to an ex-NFL player charged with murder. He later apologised for the tweet.

The handsome young man in the bow tie fell to his knees and kissed the ground. Just a few moments later he was composed in front of the camera. “A revolutionary is not just the one carrying the rifle,” he said. “It is the paintbrush of an artist, the scalpel of a surgeon, the axe of the farmer.” Talent show winners are not known for the wisdom of their metaphorical outpourings. But the winner of this year’s Arab Idol had more to say than the usual contestant.

Despite Palestinians' limited opportunities for travel, the city of Ramallah, home to the PA, diplomatic missions and NGOs has become recognized as a crossroads for interaction of different cultures. The West Bank political and economic reality has spawned its own particular social reality in Ramallah. Foreign donors and international NGOs bring with them foreign national employees.

A Google representative from the company's global headquarters has discussed the decision to use "Palestine," not "Palestinian Territories," across the tech giant's products. At the Knesset committee meeting Wednesday, the Israelis didn't get very far in their attempts to change the American's mind.

The only parts of the Palestinian territories with reliable mobile coverage are in major cities or Israeli settlements; high-speed mobile Internet is all but nonexistent. So here's an idea: Light up the West Bank with long-denied 3G wireless Internet connectivity and create an exception in the Arab League boycott of Israeli products for those that have Palestinian-controlled companies in their supply chains.

The problem is not just the fundamental differences in the approaches of the two sides to the key issues ‏(Jerusalem, borders, refugees‏), but developments on the ground − and, above all, the expansion of the settlements. The question, then, is whether the newest American effort has come too late.