Israeli-Palestinian cauldron tests US as secretary of state visits

(Mohamed Abd El Ghany, Pool via AP)

An alarming spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence and sharp responses by both sides are testing the Biden administration as US secretary of state Antony Blinken visits Israel and the West Bank this week.

What had already been expected to be a trip fraught with tension over differences between the administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right government has grown significantly more complicated over the past four days with a spate of deadly incidents.