Does the United States seek relations with Hamas in Gaza and to undermine the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leadership in the West Bank? Palestinians officials and insiders asked me this question repeatedly during a recent visit to Ramallah. At first, the question seems strange. How could well-informed insiders come to wonder if the United States prefers to deal with an Islamist terrorist organization to a leadership that avows non-violence and actively pursues security cooperation with Israel on a daily basis?

For more than two years, the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) has sat in Tripoli, making little if any progress toward resolving Libya’s political crisis and ongoing conflict. On May 29, however, amid stagnant UN efforts, French President Emmanuel Macron convened a summit in Paris with the leaders of rival Libyan factions, and the parties agreed, in principle, to presidential and parliamentary elections by December 10.

The Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs will welcome nine Senior Fellows to the Harvard Kennedy School campus between February and April 2018. All fellows will be actively engaged in Project programming, including chairing seminars with students, conducting research, and playing an active role in the intellectual life of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Violet riots continue in Jerusalem after embattled U.S. president Donald Trump moved to recognize it last week as the capital of Israel, indicating that this issue is indeed a regional and world flashpoint. It generated huge news coverage, both negative and positive, even as any Arab states have condemned the move, along with certain elements of the E.U. We spoke with Robert M. Danin of the CFR and the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School on the local and global politics around Jerusalem — and what the (delayed) recognition of Jerusalem would means for Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians and Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israelis.