• Palestinian negotiators told the United States that Israel must extend its construction freeze, and make it include East Jerusalem, for talks to continue. [Haaretz]
• Meanwhile, several allies of Prime Minister Netanyahu, including from his own Likud Party, have urged him not to extend the freeze—set to expire September 26—anywhere. [WSJ]
• The previous two points are part of why George F. Will sees no hope for anything to come out of this latest round of direct talks. [WP]
• A U.N. probe concluded that Israeli soldiers remained in Israeli territory during last month’s skirmish with Lebanese troops; the tree they were pruning, in other words, was theirs to prune. [JPost]
• The papers outlining the Nuremberg Laws were turned over to the U.S. National Archives. They had originally been spirited out of Germany by none other than General Patton. [AP/NYT]
• The Park51 debate has confirmed everyone else’s opinions of America, no matter what those opinions happen to be. [NYT]
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.