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Damage control has been top priority for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the wake of fallout from the government’s passage last week of a new National Heritage Sites plan that includes Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

He has been forced to make plain his contention that the move does nothing to change the status quo at the sites, when a smidgen more diplomatic acumen on Netanyahu’s part could have avoided the present crisis. But that does not expiate Palestinians’ violence.