• Despite strong pressure from the Americans, Palestinian President Abbas continues to resist direct talks. [AP/Haaretz]
• German authorities charged the 88-year-old who was number three on the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s most-wanted list with aiding the murder of 430,000 Jews at Belzec as a guard and personally shooting ten himself. [NYT]
• In an op-ed, deputy foreign minister (and former ambassador) Danny Ayalon defends the blockade and calls flotilla-type activists hypocrites who don’t really care about Palestinian suffering. [WSJ]
• The 11th Commandment at Agudas Achim outside Washington, D.C., is: Thou shalt not bother Rahm about politics. [Page Six]
• 47 congresspersons are co-sponsoring a non-binding resolution that would articulate support for Israel’s right to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. [Suite 101/Vos Iz Neias?]
• A reporter catches up with New York Knick and Jew Amar’e Stoudemire dining with his girlfriend in Jerusalem. “I have been aware since my youth that I am a Hebrew through my mother, and that is something that has played a subtle but important role in my development,” he said. “I have never hid my spiritual roots. They just weren’t something that came under the spotlight.” [JPost]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.