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UNITED NATIONS -- In the two days following its commando raid on an aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip, Israel has been accused by Turkey and several other governments of behaving like an outlaw state, and engaging in acts of piracy and banditry on the high seas.

As a recent visitor to Israel, I want to commend you for the article describing nonviolent resistance to Israeli authority by Palestinians. The article, however, should not have characterized it as a “new approach.” Much of the resistance during the first intifada was nonviolent, including a tax revolt in Beit Sahour. Nonviolent protests against the separation wall in Bilin have occurred weekly since 2005.

JERUSALEM -- After spending most of Tuesday celebrating what he called the "unshakable" bond between the United States and Israel, Vice President Biden ended the day strongly condemning the longtime U.S. ally for approving 1,600 new housing units in disputed east Jerusalem -- an awkwardly timed move that threatened to kill a new push for Mideast peace by the Obama administration.

A spokesman for the State Department, Philip J. Crowley, said that Mrs. Clinton had not been signaling a shift in policy. She has mentioned 1967 borders before — notably in a statement after Israel announced a 10-month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank — though always in the context of the Palestinian position. This time, he said, she was merely speaking in shorthand.

“Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here. This place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity,’’ Netanyahu proclaimed, just as envoy George Mitchell was trying to restart peace talks after a yearlong stalemate.

Obama concluded that “if we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high.’’

Israeli analysts charge that other examples of “lawfare’’ are condemnations by human rights groups and the UN of Israeli actions against Palestinian militants, especially last winter’s military operation in Gaza that left about 1,400 Palestinians dead, including many civilians, and caused widespread destruction.

JERUSALEM - Ehud Olmert, former prime minister, offered to swap Israeli territory near the Gaza Strip and West Bank in exchange for settlement blocs in the West Bank, the Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday, in the most detailed account of the former Israeli leader’s proposed peace offer to the Palestinians.

Opposition lawmaker Haim Oron warned of a “troubling process of Talibanization’’ in Israel.

JERUSALEM -- Israel last year revoked the Jerusalem residency of more than 4,500 Palestinians, far more than in any other year since Israel took full control of the city in 1967, according to government figures obtained under the country's freedom of information act by a local human rights group.