Fallout continues from "Nakba Day" protests

A 22 year-old Arab Israeli truck driver from the village of Kafr Kasim was remanded by a court in Petah Tikvah for eight days on Monday after he was arraigned for allegedly carrying out a lethal lone-wolf terror rampage in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

One bystander was killed and 17 others were wounded, some of them seriously, when the truck the man was driving rammed several vehicles and pedestrians on Tel Aviv's busy Bar Lev street during the height of mid-morning rush hour. Police are so far refusing to call it a terrorist attack, but the event took place on the same day as "Nakba Day" protests by Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs in other parts of the country, and tracks with what known agitators were calling on people to do to mark the occasion.

In related news, the IDF Ground Forces Command has drafted a new operational doctrine for dealing with civil disobedience campaigns, including anti-Israel marches, in anticipation of increases in the number, size and frequency of demonstrations ahead of the Palestinians' unilateral declaration of statehood in September.

"The whole idea in incidents like these is to know how to confront the people marching as unarmed - if they really are - and to do everything possible to prevent casualties on both sides," said Brig.-Gen. Miki Edelstein, the IDF's chief infantry and paratroop officer. "A large part of this is being prepared mentally so soldiers will know how to restrain themselves." He added that the IDF will begin drills in late June to test the new doctrine and equipment.

Elsewhere, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday in which he declared that the Palestinians are serious about declaring statehood and that it's not a "stunt."

Also on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister gave a speech before the Knesset in which he declared for the first time that Israel might withdraw from areas of the West Bank not included in the major settlement blocs. He then proceeded to spell out several key demands that his government would not compromise on in its dealings with the Palestinians, in what many analysts believe was a dry run for his upcoming speech before the US Congress in Washington.