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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington today for a series of meetings at the White House. He'll hold one-on-one talks with US president Barack Obama before a "working lunch" with Obama, vice president Joseph Biden, and several other officials.

Obama's top priority during these talks will almost certainly be pushing for an extension to Israel's temporary West Bank settlement freeze, which is due to expire in September. The end of the freeze would forestall any possibility of direct talks between the Israelis ri the Palestinians.

"There has been a distinct improvement in the White House relationship with Israel since the last meeting" between Obama and Netanyahu on March 23, said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at Israel's Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. "Obama will be looking for a payback," perhaps in the form of an extension to the settlement freeze, Spyer said.

But from Netanyahu's perspective, the domestic politics of extending the freeze are... difficult, to say the least. His administration has nothing to show for the current freeze: Israeli-Palestinian "proximity talks" have yielded little concrete progress, save for a rumored land swap proposal offered by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

This post will be about yesterday's decision to revive the "King's Garden" plan in East Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, which would demolish 22 Palestinian homes to make way for a tourist center. First, though, a bit of media criticism.

Israel's decision to slightly ease the Gaza blockade drew a very caveated reaction from around the world. Britain's foreign office said "further work is needed"; Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign policy chief, urged Israel to allow "many, many more goods... in to Gaza."

The Obama administration is counting on a carefully-timed sequence of events to jump-start "proximity talks" between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will present a formal proposal for indirect talks when the Arab League's peace process committee meets on May 1. The Arab League already endorsed the talks early last month, but withdrew its support just over a week later after Israel approved new construction in Ramot Shlomo.

It's been a few days since we checked in on the "Scud crisis" in Lebanon, where prime minister Saad Hariri is now launching a major diplomatic offensive (عربي) to push back against the reports that Hizballah received Scuds from Syria.

Hariri held telephone conversations today with a number of world leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. He also spoke with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Hariri assured all of them that Hizballah hasn't received any Scuds, and warned of the broader consequences of a new Israeli-Lebanese war.

Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri says Hizballah has not received Scud missiles from Syria, and likens that report to the weapons of mass destruction claims that preceded the Iraq war.

A new military order scheduled to go into effect tomorrow in Israel could give the Israeli government sweeping authority to deport hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank.

The new order is actually a revision of a 1969 directive aimed at keeping "infiltrators" out of the West Bank. The original version defined "infiltrator" as "a person who entered the area knowingly and unlawfully after having been present in the east bank of the Jordan, Syria, Egypt or Lebanon following the effective date."

An updated version of the order -- first reported this weekend by Ha'aretz's Amira Hass -- would change the definition to "a person who entered the area unlawfully following the effective date, or a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit."

I'm sure there is a fierce debate in the White House right now about rethinking America's Israel policy (I'm skeptical this debate will produce meaningful changes, but at least it's happening). In Jerusalem, though -- despite a rash of angry editorials and worried analysis -- it seems like business as usual for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.

U.S. vice president Joe Biden is wrapping up his Middle East trip with a visit to Petra, in Jordan. A little sightseeing might be a welcome relief after a tumultuous week in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The phrase "turning point" is grossly overused, but this week really feels like a watershed in the region -- and not at all in a good way. Few observers had high hopes for the Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks, but now even that modest dialogue appears off the table. The announcement that Israel is planning another 50,000 homes in East Jerusalem will poison any future talks: How can the Palestinian side negotiate when tens of thousands of illegal homes are considered non-negotiable?

Joe Biden's harsh condemnation of the new construction at Ramot Shlomo -- but the timing of the announcement still made the United States look weak and unwilling to confront Israel.

Evan mentioned on Wednesday that there's slowly-mounting opposition in Washington to President Obama's decision to name Robert Stephen Ford as the new U.S. ambassador to Syria.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports this morning (عربي) that the Israeli government is also lobbying against Ford's nomination (or against Obama naming any ambassador to Syria; this isn't about Ford personally). Defense minister Ehud Barak made that request during a visit to Washington this week; so did an unnamed envoy from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli government will not conduct an independent investigation of the Goldstone Report's findings, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post.

It's a single-source report, and it still hasn't been confirmed by the Israeli government. But an unnamed senior official in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Bibi is satisfied with the IDF's internal probe, the preliminary results of which were submitted to the United Nations earlier this month.

Depending on your perspective, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad this week reaffirmed either that he's the best hope to build a future Palestinian state, or that he'll never win enough popular support to be an effective leader. (Or maybe both?)

Fayyad traveled to Herzliya, a coastal town north of Tel Aviv, to take part in the annual Herzliya Conference. He delivered a 30-minute address to an audience of mostly Israeli leaders; he sat next to Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak; and he was lauded by Israeli president Shimon Peres as "the Israeli Ben-Gurion."

Benjamin Netanyahu wants everyone in his cabinet to shut up about Syria.

Ehud Barak started this week's escalating Israeli-Syrian spat when he made the wholly sensible argument that the two countries could be headed for another war if they don't resume peace talks.

Foreign Policy is holding a foreign affairs Oscar contest, and the editors are looking for ideas, so here's my nomination: The minds behind the Middle East peace process clearly deserve the award for best original screenplay.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is considering George Mitchell's offer for "proximity talks" with Israel, and plans to issue a final response on Thursday, according to an interview with The Guardian.

We've posted a copy of the IDF's preliminary response (pdf) to the Goldstone Report -- though I would suggest that you don't even bother reading it, honestly.

Much of the 52-page document outlines how the IDF investigates allegations of war crimes and other criminal activity. It's useful background -- but also not particularly relevant to the allegations in the Goldstone Report. The presence of a well-conceived judicial system does not guarantee justice. (Just ask O.J. Simpson.)

The second half of the report summarizes the progress of dozens of ongoing investigations, some initiated by the IDF, others by the Goldstone Report.

Conventional wisdom in Israel, nicely summarized in a Jerusalem Post op-ed today entitled "Crying wolf on Iran," holds that Iran is the greatest threat -- an existential threat, even -- to Israeli security. So Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak perhaps raised a few eyebrows yesterday when he declared the stalled peace process a greater concern than Iran's nuclear program.

The headlines from Israel and the Arab world over the last few weeks seem to suggest that another Israel-Hizballah war is just around the corner. Qatar's Al-Watan newspaper reported on Jan. 6 that Syrian officials were worried about Israeli maneuvers along the Blue Line; the Syrian government pledged to attack Israel if it invaded Lebanon. On Friday, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported (عربي) that Syria had mobilized army reservists.

The Israeli military did in fact conduct exercises along the border, and deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon warned on Sunday that Hizballah is stockpiling missiles north of the Litani River.

President Obama's Middle East envoy hasn't even left the region yet, and Israeli and Arab news sources have already declared his visit a failure.

Mitchell met for nearly three hours today with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. But Abbas refused to resume peace talks without a complete settlement freeze -- including East Jerusalem -- which Israel is unwilling to offer. Mitchell met yesterday with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak.

We were never terribly optimistic that the Goldstone Report would lead to meaningful punishments for the perpetrators of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead. Four months after its release, it has largely disappeared from the headlines; it doesn't appear destined for any immediate action at the United Nations.

Still, it continues to nudge both Israel and Hamas towards a measure of accountability.