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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.

Here's a funny headline to start your Monday morning: Fayyad is inciting violence.

Fayyad would be Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, who's routinely called an Israeli collaborator (and far worse) by his countrymen. But unnamed IDF sources are whispering to the Jerusalem Post that Fayyad is trying to incite an intifada -- because he decided to hold his weekly cabinet meeting in Hebron (عربي), a small act of protest against Israel's decision to list the Tomb of the Patriarchs as a national heritage site.

Several Palestinians were injured in Hebron this morning (عربي) in fighting between protesters and Israeli security forces.

Dozens of marchers allegedly threw rocks at Israeli soldiers near the Tomb of the Patriarchs; the IDF fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the crowd. Four Palestinians were detained, according to an AFP report. None of the injuries sound serious (عربي).

One more word on Bronnergate: Al-Jazeera's Listening Post program did a thoughtful segment on the controversy this weekend. It discusses Bronner's son's service in the Israeli Defense Forces, but it also explores a bigger question: the extent to which Bronner is enmeshed in Israeli society, and how that affects his coverage.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thinks the world should immediately slap oil sanctions on Iran -- even if the United Nations doesn't approve.

Netanyahu told foreign Jewish leaders that if the world "is serious about stopping Iran, then what it needs to do is not watered-down sanctions, moderate sanctions ... but effective, biting sanctions that curtail the import and export of oil into Iran."

"This is what is required now. It may not do the job, but nothing else will, and at least we will have known that it was tried. And if this cannot pass in the Security Council, then it should be done outside the Security Council, but immediately.

Netanyahu didn't really elaborate, but for unilateral sanctions to really be effective, they would require a naval blockade -- an act of war. The U.S. has already gone about as far as it can with unilateral sanctions: Washington bans American individuals and companies from doing business with Iran, but it's unlikely that foreign firms -- Royal Dutch Shell, Russia's Lukoil, Chinese companies -- will sacrifice their Iranian contracts because President Obama asks them to.

Not because I'm a huge fan of his or anything. But Nasrallah gave a speech today -- delivered, as usual, via giant video screens in south Beirut -- and much of the reporting on his talk is woefully out of context. Yedioth Ahronoth, for example, headlines its story Nasrallah threatens to attack Ben-Gurion Airport. The Jerusalem Post goes with Nasrallah warns TA will be targeted in next conflict.

These headlines are factually correct -- but they ignore the fact that Nasrallah's speech (عربي) was largely defensive.

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.

Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri made some remarks about Hizballah in an interview with the BBC that are getting a lot of attention in the Israeli press.

The New York Times' public editor, Clark Hoyt, thinks Ethan Bronner should be reassigned from the paper's Jerusalem bureau for the duration of his son's service in the IDF. He bases his recommendation mostly on avoiding the appearance of bias -- rather than any actual bias in Bronner's reporting.

The paper's editor, Bill Keller, disagrees:

It is, in addition to those things, a sign of respect for readers who care about the region and who follow the news from there with minds at least partially open. You seem to think that you... can tell the difference between reality and appearances, but our readers can't. I disagree.

Not to turn this into a media criticism blog, but I agree with Hoyt -- and with Evan, who wrote about Bronner last month.

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.

Israeli officials still haven't responded to The Guardian's report that the el-Bader flour mill in Gaza was destroyed by an air-dropped bomb -- and not a tank shell -- during Operation Cast Lead.

We tracked down a photo of the remains of the bomb; this was taken by a United Nations de-mining team on Jan. 25, 2009, about a week after the war ended.

Hard to tell anything conclusive from a single picture -- but the shape of the ordnance, the lightly tapered body and the flat top, is characteristic of an Mk82 bomb.

Hamas is now walking back claims that its initial investigation into Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's killing exonerated Mossad and placed the blame on unnamed Arab governments.

"The Israeli press is disseminating dozens of stories and versions about the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, some of the unfortunately are quoted by Arab and international newspapers, but all of these stories are far from the truth," Moussa Abu Marzouk said.

An Abu Dhabi police commander said the investigation is going well, though he still hasn't identified the killers (عربي).

Hamas apparently tried to retaliate by floating barrels filled with explosives towards beaches in southern Israel. A bomb squad defused one barrel; the other blew up while a police robot was inspecting it. Israeli F-16s launched airstrikes in Gaza within the last few minutes -- likely a response to the failed Hamas attack. The jets targeted an abandoned building and several smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border.

The United Nations is already poking holes in Israel's preliminary response to the Goldstone Report.

The IDF's response says the el-Bader flour mill -- the only working flour mill in Gaza, destroyed during Operation Cast Lead -- was hit by tank shells. But a United Nations de-mining team says it found the remains of a 500-pound Mk82 bomb inside the mill, according to a report in The Guardian by Rory McCarthy.

We blogged yesterday about the IDF's preliminary response to the Goldstone Report, which includes a rebuttal of three specific allegations of war crimes. A commenter raised a fair point: Since we wrote extensively about Goldstone's allegations, we should do the same with the IDF's rebuttal.

So, after the jump, a little detail on each of its three responses.

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.

I've been waiting rather eagerly for the IDF's response to the Goldstone Report (probably a sign I need to find new hobbies); it was rumored to be ready for release as early as this afternoon.

Looks like we'll have to wait a while longer, though. Israel gave United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon a response today -- but it's only a 40-page explanation of how the IDF investigated allegations of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead, and not the results of the investigations themselves.

Diplomatic officials stressed that this letter is not the IDF's answer to the Goldstone Commission report. The IDF rebuttal is currently being completed, will number more than 1,000 pages and will answer point-by-point all the allegations in the Goldstone Report.

Israeli officials haven't said much about Goldstone this winter -- happy to see it recede from the headlines, I'm sure -- but they've stepped up their criticism over the last few days. Barak denounced it as "warped" in a press briefing earlier today.

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.

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.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh wants the other armed groups in Gaza to stop firing rockets into Israel.

The group, worried about the potential for Israeli retaliation, has spent weeks trying to broker a Gaza-wide cease-fire. Haniyeh said in late November that he had reached a deal, but Islamic Jihad and the PFLP quickly denied those reports.

If you just woke up from a year-long sleep and wanted to know the current state of the Arab-Israeli "peace process," these three quotes -- from three Israeli ministers -- pretty much sum up the situation.

Israel's foreign minister, Yuval Steinitz, said today that Israel doesn't need loan guarantees from the United States -- the same loan guarantees at the heart of George Mitchell's purported (and now, denied) threat to cut off foreign aid to Israel if the peace process remains stalled.