Support for armed struggle has almost doubled among Palestinians in the last six months, while Israeli backing for a decisive military offensive to end the conflict increased during the same period by almost 60 percent, according to a poll published Thursday that said the rise was most likely linked to  US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In light of the receding diplomatic option for Israeli-Palestinian peace and the uselessness of a military option, more and more Palestinians are concluding that they are doomed to live forever under occupation. But the newly built Palestinian West Bank town of Rawabi on the outskirts of Ramallah presents them with a third option: a Palestinian declaration of economic independence. Palestinian-American businessman Bashar Masri, who created this ambitious project flourishing in the center of the West Bank, has proven that such an idea is feasible.

Trump threatened Thursday to write off the Palestinian leadership and withdraw further U.S. aid if Palestinians are not serious about negotiating peace with Israel, deepening a diplomatic rift and putting Trump’s hopes for a historic agreement on hold.

Trump cast doubt on whether talks could happen now, and he blamed Palestinian intransigence rather than his decision to shift decades of U.S. policy on the status of Jerusalem.

“That money is on the table, and that money is not going to them unless they sit down and negotiate peace,” Trump said…

Even before details of the plan emerged, blowback was building among parts of Trump’s base.

“Immigration Shock: Amnesty Don Suggests Citizenship for Illegal Aliens,” read a headline on Breitbart News, the conservative, nationalist website once run by Trump’s former strategist, Stephen K. Bannon.

At the same time, advocates for immigrant rights warned Democrats against taking Trump’s bait and accepting restrictive changes to the immigration system in return for legalizing the so-called Dreamers, a group that polls show has broad support among Americans.

[Trump’s] use of confrontation and sometimes vile language strikes many Americans, including me, as distasteful. But it has also helped him frame issues, including immigration, his way.

…Trump continues to have leverage on immigration, and he will as long as he keeps emphasizing the specific provisions he is demanding, in non-euphemistic language if necessary. Of course, this could still get bollixed up. But the only way to get a permanent DACA-like solution is, if he insists on it, Trump’s way.

Democratic lawmakers and activists say they will refuse to accept any proposal that requires them to forsake the well-being of other immigrants, including the parents of the Dreamers, to secure the fate of the young immigrants themselves.

“It is shameful that the White House is holding these youth hostage in exchange for their extreme immigration agenda,” said Kevin Appleby, the senior director of international migration policy for the Center for Migration Studies.

Her apparent antipathy toward the job has made her more willing to ignore the rules and traditions that govern it. This quiet rebellion started with her decision not to move into the White House until five months after her husband took office. It gathered force when she swatted her husband’s hand away on an airport tarmac in Israel last year. By the time the Trumps leave the White House, Mrs. Trump may have done more to change our notions about this archaic position, which has no job description and no pay, and comes with impossible expectations, than most of her predecessors.

For all of the “Free Melania” signs evident at the first Women’s March, however, actual empathy for Melania Trump isn’t abundant. She’s vilified as a gold-digger—someone who knew exactly what she was getting into, even though though no one could have predicted when they wed that Donald Trump would ever occupy the White House… Yet the same accusation that wouldn’t be levied at other women, or men, who end up in a relationship with a known bully with anger issues.

…she’s unprecedented in many ways — first nude model, first immigrant, first third wife — but none more so than her refusal to play along. She’s more interested in being a mom than holding a ceremonial office. Save the occasional White House statement, rumors about her marriage, her moods, her state of mind go unacknowledged. She refuses to answer for her husband. Whatever thoughts she has in her head are not for public consumption.

Some corners of the media want Melania to be more vocal, more active, to defend herself and her husband, to justify her marriage. But as she has made abundantly clear: Melania Trump doesn’t owe us anything.

The past few weeks have pretty much mapped out the contours of the next election campaign. Despite the prayers of Yesh Atid leader MK Yair Lapid, the issue of religion-and-state will certainly not be the only theme, although its presence will be felt intensely. The fear of the ultra-Orthodox parties of a Yesh Atid victory over Likud, and their intra-coalition wrangling with Lieberman, which has become far more hostile of late, is affording some of us some moments of satisfaction.

One such moment was played out in Ashdod, courtesy of the defense minister and his entourage. His perfectly normal act of weekend shopping – which only in Israel is headline news – is shaking up the coalition…

Ashdod Mayor Yechiel Lasry slammed Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday, after the Yisrael Beytenu leader made a purchase in the city at an open shop on Shabbat amid growing protests by residents against increased enforcement against businesses operating on the Jewish day of rest.

“I welcome the social involvement on the matter,” wrote Lasry… “But I condemn all attempts by political elements—both local and national—who make divisive, cynical use of the situation for their own benefit.”

Earlier during the day, Lieberman visited the “Big Fashion” shopping center in the city to express his solidarity with the protesters.

The sudden eruption of cultural battle, in the city of Ashdod and beyond, is no mystery. A simple examination of the political calendar reveals the source, the motivation, and the expected time of expiration: October 2018, municipal elections.

Parties and candidates are positioning themselves for this battle. The mayor who must get the solid Haredi vote, the opponent hoping for a Russian secular vote, all of them pit Jew against Jew, sector against sector. You must vote for me – or all hell breaks loose, and Shabbat is canceled. You must vote for me – or all rights will be taken away from you, and religious coercion will turn your life into a nightmare.

No and no. Vote for him, or for her, and the battle in all likelihood will be over. Until the next municipal election.

A fossil found in Israel indicates modern humans may have left Africa as much as 100,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Scientists say that an ancient upper jawbone and associated stone tools could also mean that our species appeared far earlier than fossils now show.

Researchers calculate that the jawbone, complete with several well-preserved teeth, was between 177,000 and 194,000 years old. Previously, the oldest fossils of modern humans found outside of Africa were somewhere from 90,000 to 120,000 years old, also in Israel.

Archaeologists have claimed to decode one of the last few remaining obscure parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Sixty tiny fragments of the ancient text were pieced together over the course of a year and are believed to identify the name of a festival marking the changes between seasons.

It also revealed a second scribe corrected mistakes made by another author.

…a 2,700-year-old seal bearing the mark of the governor of the city of Jerusalem has been discovered under the Western Wall plaza, at a site where a First Temple–period building has been found. The monumental building is thought to have been home to a government official. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said it is the first time that such a seal has been found in its archaeological context. In the upper part of the impression on the tiny piece of clay, two figures wearing striped, knee-length garments stand facing each other. “Sari’ir,” which the archaeologists believe is ancient Hebrew for “sar ha’ir,” or “governor of the city.”