CORRESPONDENTS

Sheera Frenkel

‘Sorry’ says Israel’s Netanyahu, opening way for diplomatic relations with Turkey

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized Friday to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ending a nearly three-year-long feud in a phone call brokered by President Barack Obama. | 03/22/13 18:22:45 By - By Sheera Frenkel, Hannah Allam and Roy Gutman

Obama charms Israel but chills Palestinians

Across Israel Friday, news stations aired a special live broadcast of President Barack Obama’s last day in the Jewish state with a headline summarizing his visit: “US President wins our hearts and minds.” | 03/22/13 19:16:07 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel says chemical weapons used in Syrian conflict

Israeli officials said there was "compelling evidence" that chemical agents were used in an attack against civilians in northern Syria earlier this week, citing satellite imagery and reports from the ground. | 03/21/13 18:25:23 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Obama shifts tone on Israeli settlements

President Barack Obama shuttled between the West Bank and Jerusalem on Thursday, prodding Palestinians and Israelis to restart peace talks as he acknowledged decades of frustration but insisted it’s in both sides’ best interest. | 03/21/13 19:41:17 By - By Lesley Clark and Sheera Frenkel

Obama looks to connect with Israeli people on his visit

President Barack Obama hopes to “connect with the Israeli people” when he arrives in Jerusalem on Wednesday, making his first visit in more than four years as president and facing a skeptical audience. | 03/18/13 16:12:32 By - By Lesley Clark and Sheera Frankel

Religious parties left out of new Israeli government as Netanyahu forced to compromise

For the first time in years, Israel’s new government will not include representatives from the country’s ultra-Orthodox religious parties, a condition Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to on Thursday in order to form a coalition that will allow him to be sworn in for a third term. | 03/14/13 17:34:01 By - By Sheera Frenkel

UN officials hopeful Syrian rebels will soon release peacekeepers held in Golan Heights

Syrian rebels have divided kidnapped U.N. peacekeepers into smaller groups and are keeping those groups in separate locations, a move that would make a rescue effort more difficult, according to a video released Thursday. | 03/07/13 18:34:52 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Syrian rebels seize 20 peacekeepers in Golan Heights, demand UN take tougher stand on Assad

Syrian rebels on Wednesday took 20 United Nations peacekeepers hostage in the Golan Heights, demanding that the U.N. and the United States do more to force Syrian President Bashar Assad to withdraw his troops from a village in the area in return for the hostages’ release. | 03/06/13 18:01:29 By - By Sheera Frenkel

New bus service for Palestinians raises charges of racism

For more than a decade, Khaled Abdi and his uncle, Sami, have navigated the circuitous routes of the West Bank to get to low-paying construction jobs in central Israel. They’d wake at 3 a.m. to leave their homes near Nablus to catch one of Israel’s state-run buses, which also ferried Israeli settlers. | 03/04/13 17:36:43 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Autopsy casts doubt over first Israeli version of how Palestinian prisoner died

On the evening of Feb. 18, Israeli authorities arrested Arafat Jaradat, 30, on suspicion that he had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers. Five days later, he was dead. Now his story has come to symbolize what many Palestinians and human rights groups say are the torturous interrogation methods used by Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet. | 02/26/13 18:26:24 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel closely watching what weapons are being sent to Syria’s rebels

Israel is closely monitoring the kinds of weapons that are being sent to Syrian rebel groups, and it’s consulted with U.S. officials about which weapons they consider too sophisticated to be passed to the groups that are battling to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to Israeli officials with knowledge of the situation. | 02/22/13 17:22:10 By - By Sheera Frenkel

It’s still unclear why Israel’s Mossad jailed Prisoner X, Ben Zygier

The most commonly repeated story about why Israel’s Mossad spy agency nabbed one of its own and threw him into prison, where he hanged himself, is probably false or at least only part of the truth, according to people familiar with the way the Mossad operates. In the murky world of espionage, even what comes out in the news is subterfuge, they caution. | 02/22/13 16:28:15 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Ben Zygier, Israel’s ‘Prisoner X,’ may have revealed how Mossad used foreign passports

In the space of three days, a two-year-old mystery about an unidentified prisoner who hanged himself in a high-security Israeli prison has become a scandal for Israel’s vaunted Mossad spy agency. Many here are predicting that it will cost some top officials their jobs. | 02/15/13 18:02:45 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israelis puzzle over mysterious death of Mossad’s ‘Prisoner X’

A handful of facts are known about Ben Zygier: He was born Sept. 12, 1976, in Australia, and he died in Israel on Dec. 15, 2010. He was involved in Jewish organizations, immigrated to Israel, married an Israeli and fathered children. He also was a member of Israel’s Mossad spy agency. What’s not known is why Israeli security agents detained him and sent him to solitary confinement. Nor is it known how, under 24-hour surveillance in a suicide-proof cell, he managed to hang himself. | 02/13/13 18:02:20 By - By Sheera Frenkel

U.S., Israel pressure EU over Hezbollah after Bulgaria says group behind bus attack

Israel and the United States on Tuesday urged the European Union to declare the Lebanese group Hezbollah a terrorist organization after the Bulgarian government announced that Hezbollah militants were behind the bombing of a tour bus last July that killed five Israeli tourists in that country. | 02/05/13 18:17:48 By - By Sheera Frenkel and Roy Gutman

Israelis: Missiles were at Syrian military base when aircraft struck

The Israeli officials’ accounts, if they’re accurate, help explain the Syrian government’s assertion that Israeli jets had targeted a scientific research center in Jamraya and not a military convoy when they flew low over the Israel-Syria border Wednesday in the pre-dawn hours. | 01/31/13 18:24:49 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israeli aircraft strike Syrian target near border with Lebanon

Israel intervened militarily in Syria’s complex civil war early Wednesday, launching an air assault that destroyed either a convoy of anti-aircraft missiles that were bound for Lebanon or a scientific research center near Damascus that previously had been the target of rebel groups. | 01/30/13 18:19:40 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel: Iran slowing nuclear program, won’t have bomb before 2015

Israeli intelligence officials now estimate that Iran won’t be able to build a nuclear weapon before 2015 or 2016, pushing back by several years previous assessments of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. | 01/28/13 16:31:10 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel’s new political star acclaimed as ‘a man of the people’

Israelis have long valued television celebrity Yair Lapid as the country’s everyman, and this week they made him one of the most powerful political figures in Israel’s next government. | 01/25/13 15:51:27 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Will a new, moderate Benjamin Netanyahu emerge from Israeli election?

Netanyahu will need to secure a majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat Parliament to stay on as prime minister. With Israel’s left- and right-wing parties in a dead split of 60-60 seats, analysts say securing a majority might be harder than he expected. | 01/23/13 17:36:21 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu likely to stay in charge, but centrists’ strength surprises

Israelis voted Tuesday in an election that’s widely expected to hand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a third term, but with a coalition far less stable than one he’s enjoyed in recent years. | 01/22/13 18:55:51 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Netanyahu expected to win re-election in Israel, but shifting politics cloud future

With less then 24 hours before Israelis cast their ballots, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely expected to win another four-year term as the head of the government. | 01/21/13 15:17:16 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Naftali Bennett won’t beat Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli election, but he’s cut the margin

Analysts say Bennett has emerged as a surprising political force. His party, which a few years ago was struggling to scrape into parliament with two or three seats, now looks poised to win 14 to 17, making it one of the top three factions. Seven to 10 of those seats may come at Netanyahu’s expense. | 01/10/13 16:01:42 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Defying West, Israel moves ahead with new settlements

Israeli officials announced this week that they would press on with a surge in new settlement construction, defying criticism from Western governments that the construction would doom fledgling hopes that Israeli and Palestinian leaders might reach a peace deal. | 12/18/12 15:04:06 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Khaled Meshaal’s visit to Gaza another sign of Hamas’ rise

When Khaled Meshaal crosses into the Gaza Strip at noon on Friday it will be the Hamas leader’s first trip to the coastal territory. It also will be a symbol of how far the Palestinian Islamist movement, which both Israel and the United States have branded a terrorist organization, has come since its inception in 1987. | 12/06/12 15:41:40 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Even moderate Palestinians agree Hamas is winning leadership battle

The U.N. recognition of Palestine as a nonmember observer state should have been one of the Palestinian Authority government’s greatest achievements. But hours after the historic vote last week, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad publically concluded, “Hamas delivered. . . . Hamas has won.” | 12/05/12 16:20:14 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel vows to pursue settlement plans despite international anger

Unshaken by rising international criticism, Israeli officials confirmed Tuesday that they plan to proceed with two new settlement construction projects, including development in a highly contentious area outside Jerusalem known as E1. | 12/04/12 15:44:59 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israelis decry Germany’s abstention on U.N. Palestine vote

Israeli officials had long known that they would be on the losing end of the U.N. General Assembly’s vote on whether to grant Palestine official status as a non-member observer state. Palestinian officials months ago had announced that they’d gathered enough votes to win the declaration. | 11/30/12 17:48:49 By - By Sheera Frenkel

U.N. accepts Palestine as observer state by lopsided margin; U.S., 8 others opposed

Over staunch U.S. objections, the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to name Palestine a non-member observer state, a symbolic victory for the stateless Palestinians and a political boost for their embattled president, Mahmoud Abbas. | 11/29/12 19:36:45 By - By Hannah Allam and Sheera Frenkel

For many Palestinians, Arafat exhumation recalls better days

When Yasser Arafat was buried in 2004, tens of thousands thronged his funeral amid a charged atmosphere in which many swore revenge for the death of the father of Palestinian nationalism On Tuesday, only a few were on hand as Arafat’s political heirs exhumed his body in a final effort to determine what killed the iconic Palestinian leader. | 11/27/12 18:07:45 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel’s Ehud Barak retires, signaling tougher line on Iran

In a development that could lead to a hardening of Israel’s position on Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced Monday that he was resigning from political life, a surprise move that removed a moderate voice from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. | 11/26/12 16:58:24 By - By Sheera Frenkel

U.N. envoy to Middle East acknowledges 'quiet engagements' with Hamas

The United Nations envoy to the Middle East acknowledged in an interview with McClatchy Sunday that he has maintained quiet contacts with the Islamist group Hamas for “years,” despite the international community’s official policy to isolate the group. | 11/25/12 17:55:57 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Many Israelis denounce cease-fire accord, say job is unfinished

Few Palestinians or Israelis were willing to put much trust in the cease-fire deal their leaders reached on Wednesday, saying they remembered all too well the failed cease-fires of years past. | 11/21/12 15:45:37 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel, Hamas declare cease-fire, promise new talks on Gaza issues within 24 hours

With last-minute prodding from the United States, Israel and the militant group Hamas agreed Wednesday to a cease-fire, ending eight days of rocket fire and naval and sea bombardment and bringing to a successful end more than a week of halting Egyptian-led talks as the conflict in Gaza teetered on the brink of all-out war. | 11/21/12 17:41:53 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Sheera Frankel

Hamas, Israel say cease-fire likely after week of bombs, rockets

Israel and the Islamist group Hamas inched closer Tuesday to agreeing to an Egyptian-negotiated cease-fire that would end a weeklong Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that’s killed at least 116 Palestinians and threatened to devolve into all-out war. Both sides suggested that the announcement of the cease-fire could come as soon as Wednesday. | 11/20/12 23:17:08 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Sheera Frenkel

Officials say Israel, Hamas nearing cease-fire deal; Gaza invasion off for now

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators appeared Monday to be homing in on an agreement on a cease-fire that would end Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, which have killed 101 Palestinians in the past six days, and head off what analysts had expected would be a far bloodier incursion by Israeli ground forces. | 11/19/12 19:15:25 By - By Sheera Frenkel and Nancy A. Youssef

Lower death toll is key difference between Israel’s two Gaza operations

Less then a mile from the Gaza border, Israeli reserve officer David Mozer sits with his soldiers and waits for news of impending war. | 11/19/12 17:27:06 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel finds Arab Spring has complicated its move against Hamas

In a small cafe not far from the border with Gaza, Israeli reserve soldiers sipped coffee Friday morning and mused about what they might face if they are ordered to invade the densely populated coastal strip that is governed by the Islamist groups Hamas. | 11/16/12 17:15:58 By - By Sheera Frenkel and Amina Ismail

Rocket from Gaza lands near Jerusalem, opening new front

A rocket fired by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip exploded outside Jerusalem on Friday, opening a new front in fighting between Israel and radical Palestinians and increasing the danger that the conflict will spiral into total war. | 11/16/12 15:33:41 By - By Sheera Frenkel

All-out war feared as Israel moves troops toward Gaza, rockets land near Tel Aviv

Israeli tanks and troops moved toward the Gaza Strip on Thursday night in apparent preparation for a possible invasion of the crowded seaside enclave after a day of violence that included two militant rocket strikes on the southern suburbs of Tel Aviv, raising the likelihood that the region was on the brink of all-out war. | 11/15/12 18:57:55 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel launches massive attack on Gaza, kills key Hamas leader

Israeli aircraft and warships struck dozens of targets across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday in the opening hours of what military officials in Jerusalem said could be a days-long military operation. The attacks left at least one senior Hamas leader dead and terrorized tens of thousands of Gaza residents in the strip’s densely populated urban centers. | 11/14/12 20:00:51 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel says Syrian rebels using borders to limit government’s ability to respond

Syrian rebels are using their country’s northern and southern borders as a strategic fighting position, forcing the Syrian military to limit its response to rebel gains in an effort to avoid triggering a confrontation with neighboring countries, an Israeli military officer said Tuesday. | 11/13/12 18:34:56 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel takes fire from Syria, Gaza; vows to ‘escalate’ if it continues

Israel’s military engaged on two fronts Monday, exchanging fire across its northern border with Syria and its southern border with Gaza as its leaders warned that the military was prepared to “escalate on all fronts.” | 11/12/12 18:08:08 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel worries about Netanyahu’s pro-Romney stand now that Obama’s won

Israeli leaders scrambled Wednesday to retract and reword their staunchly pro-Republican statements made during the U.S. presidential campaign, fearful of the fallout that might come with news that President Barack Obama had won a second term in office. | 11/07/12 16:43:20 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israeli report says Netanyahu, military were split over possible attack on Iran

Israel’s military leaders refused two years ago to put the country’s army on alert for immediate action against Iran, telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Israel was not ready to take on Iran alone, according to a new documentary that aired here Monday. | 11/05/12 16:32:13 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Mitt Romney, Benjamin Netanyahu share donors as well as friendship

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have acknowledged a friendship that goes back decades, but the financial ties that also bind them became evident last month when the premier revealed his list of campaign donors. | 11/01/12 16:44:58 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israeli operations in Sudan aimed at disrupting Gaza arms trade, officials say

Israeli intelligence officials said Thursday that their military has been conducting operations inside Sudan for several years in an effort to disrupt weapons supplies and training for militants in the Gaza Strip – tacit acknowledgement that Israel was responsible for the bombing Wednesday of a weapons factory in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. | 10/25/12 16:07:53 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Hamas sends rocket barrage at Israel one day after Qatar’s emir visits Gaza

Hamas militants fired more than 70 rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday, one day after the emir of Qatar became the first head of state to visit Gaza since Hamas seized control there five years ago. | 10/24/12 18:00:13 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Republicans living in Israel plan push to win Jewish votes for Romney

A group of Americans who live in Israel are hoping that they can give the Republican Party in the United States a boost this week and influence the vote in key swing states. | 10/24/12 15:35:10 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Hezbollah drone may have been sent to monitor Israel’s nuclear facility at Dimona

A drone aircraft that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week was apparently on a mission to take pictures of the Dimona nuclear research center in southern Israel, Israeli officials confirmed Friday. | 10/12/12 17:23:09 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu calls early parliamentary elections

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called early parliamentary elections for this winter, roughly eight months ahead of schedule, a move many analysts said was likely to allow him to strengthen his coalition. | 10/09/12 18:59:26 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Romney backer Sheldon Adelson drawing fire over plight of Israeli newspapers

The economic crisis that’s hit the newspaper industry in the United States and elsewhere is threatening some of Israel’s most influential publications and could soon leave the country with virtually no liberal-leaning printed newspapers. | 10/05/12 16:01:53 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Egypt launches air strikes in Sinai for first time since 1973 to avenge weekend attack

Deploying its air force for the first time in nearly 40 years, the Egyptian military launched an air offensive in the unruly Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, three days after Islamists killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in an attack that threatened both the Egyptian-Israeli border and the political standing of Egypt’s new president. | 08/09/12 06:11:15 By - By Nancy A. Youssef and Sheera Frenkel

Assad’s inner circle seen as intact despite defection of Syrian prime minister

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s administration struck a defiant tone Monday, renewing its counterattack on rebel forces in the country’s largest cities and vowing to stay in place, despite the defection of the country’s prime minister. | 08/06/12 19:46:01 By - By Hannah Allam and Sheera Frenkel

Concern rises among Palestinians for their relatives in Syria

For the Hafeiz family in Ramallah, the violence raging in Syria is just a computer click away. | 08/03/12 16:37:30 By - By Sheera Frenkel

In Israel, Romney talks tough against Iran

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney vowed Sunday to stand with Israel against any threat from Iran, eager to show that he’s a better friend than President Barack Obama. | 07/29/12 17:18:21 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Romney heads to friendly turf in Israel

Even before Mitt Romney arrives in Israel, he has friends here. | 07/27/12 17:06:23 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Behind dispute over military service, two very different views of Israel

Shmuel Aharon kept one hand on his prayer book and another on the shoulder of his 17-year-old son as they navigated the streets of Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood one recent day. | 07/27/12 16:32:20 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel blames Iran for Bulgaria bus bombing that killed 6

Israeli officials blamed Iran and vowed to retaliate for an explosion Wednesday aboard a bus carrying young Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that killed at least six and wounded many others. | 07/18/12 16:56:41 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel sees Bashar Assad’s fall as certain, worries about al Qaida in Syria

The head of Israeli military intelligence told his country’s parliament on Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad won’t be able to defeat the armed uprising that’s spread throughout Syria and that the conflict there has allowed what he called “radical Islam” to gain ground on Israel’s northern border. | 07/17/12 19:02:49 By - By Sheera Frenkel and David Enders

Report: Violence against Palestinians by Jewish settlers rising

A video of a Jewish settler kneeling to fire his pistol at dozens of rock-throwing Palestinians was one of dozens of cases presented by human rights groups and United Nations agencies Wednesday in a report that documents a sharp increase in violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. | 07/11/12 17:38:35 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert cleared of most serious corruption charges

Ehud Olmert was found guilty Tuesday on one charge of corruption but cleared on two more serious charges in Israel’s first criminal trial of a former prime minister. | 07/10/12 15:02:59 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israelis protest military draft exemptions for ultra-Orthodox

Among the thousands of Israelis who filled the streets of central Tel Aviv Saturday night to protest the exemption of their ultra-Orthodox countrymen from military service, Yaakov Ben Horim and his best friend were particularly angry. | 07/07/12 19:36:32 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Palestinian officials to exhume Arafat’s body

Palestinian officials said Thursday that they are planning to exhume the body of the late leader Yasser Arafat, as conspiracy theories reignited over his cause of death. | 07/05/12 18:40:05 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Privately, Israeli officials wary of Morsi presidency in Egypt

Israeli officials are eyeing warily the ascendancy of Mohammed Morsi to Egypt’s presidency, but they say for now that they think Egypt’s military has effectively tied his hands in one of the areas of greatest concern to Israel: cooperation in isolating the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. | 06/26/12 16:27:26 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israeli activists worry that Netanyahu’s new majority will mean new measures against dissent

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cemented his power this week with a strategic coalition shift that makes him the most powerful head of government Israel has seen in nearly three decades. | 05/11/12 17:28:43 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Palestinians press case of hunger strikers in Israeli prisons

There is no official word on how many Palestinian prisoners are now observing hunger strikes _ estimates vary from 1,500 to over 2,500 _ but there is little doubt that they account for a substantial minority, if not a majority, of the 4,700 Palestinians currently held by Israel. Two, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahlah, are listed in critical condition after going without food for 72 days. | 05/10/12 17:10:46 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Egyptian candidates’ tough words on peace turn Israel wary

With less than two weeks to go before the first round of Egyptian presidential elections, many in both Israel and Egypt are wondering if peace will hold. Every Egyptian presidential candidate has publically questioned the peace deal, leaving many in both countries to wonder if an arrangement that ousted President Hosni Mubarak defended for three decades isn’t about to fade away. | 05/10/12 15:33:31 By - By Sheera Frenkel and Mohannad Sabry

Israel’s new ties to Azerbaijan worry neighboring Iran

The burgeoning relationship between Israel and Azerbaijan is raising eyebrows throughout the Middle East, not least of all because Azerbaijan is Iran’s neighbor to the north and shares close cultural and demographic ties with Iran. | 04/25/12 00:00:00 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Egypt reportedly cuts natural gas supply to Israel

Egypt has terminated its contract to supply natural gas to Israel, ending a joint venture that served as a cornerstone of the peace process between the neighbouring states. | 04/22/12 00:00:00 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Palestinians boycott meeting with Israel’s Netanyahu that would have been first in 20 months

Palestinian leaders failed Tuesday to show up for what was to have been the first high-profile meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials in more than 20 months, signaling how distant the two sides have become. | 04/17/12 05:00:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Already, U.S. and Israel’s Netanyahu are at odds over progress at Iran nuke talks

Just two days after representatives of key world powers met in Istanbul with Iran to discuss its nuclear program, Israel has thrown cold water on the effort, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charging Monday that Iran was being given a “freebie.” | 04/16/12 05:00:00 By - By Sheera Frenkel

Israel sees new advantage in Iron Dome anti-missile system

Israel's newest weapon sits squarely along the border of this southern Israeli town. The Iron Dome, a rocket interception system built by Israel, guards many of the cities that lie within the range of rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. | 03/26/12 14:56:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Amid war fever, some Israelis and Iranians talk of peace

Hoping to counter the incessant saber rattling from their respective governments, some Israelis and Iranians have started an online campaign to exchange simples message of friendship and love. | 03/21/12 15:02:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Tweets of misleading photos feed Israeli-Palestinian feud

Photographs posted on opposite sides of the Twitter divide are reigniting online tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian activists, even as the recent spate of violence has calmed. | 03/14/12 16:44:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Violence renews debate over Israel's targeted killings in Gaza

For the last four days, the area around Sarah Ziski's home has been the target of frequent rocket attacks by militants in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Along with about 1 million residents of southern Israel, she's fallen into the range of an extended arsenal of rockets and missiles. Life as they know it, she said, has effectively stopped. | 03/12/12 18:22:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Still no certainty on how, or if, Israel would strike Iran

On a drawing pad in his office, Alon, a senior Israeli military intelligence officer, sketches out the possible scenarios facing Israel and Iran. | 03/07/12 17:33:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Israelis express relief at lack of news from Washington meetings

Speeches given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama that focused almost exclusively on Iran and its nuclear program broke little new ground in Washington this week. For some Israelis, that was a relief. | 03/07/12 18:37:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Israel push on Iran included a steady dose of media leaks

Nestled deep in the halls of Israel's defense headquarters, a man known as Agent 83 fingered with care his model of what a potential Iranian nuclear bomb might look like. The agent, who had become an expert on the Iranian nuclear program, was showing off the model to a group of foreign reporters, the third such time he had been asked to showcase his expertise in the second half of 2009. Such access to Israeli experts for international journalists has been critical to spreading Israel's view that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. | 03/07/12 17:33:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

After years, uncertainty still colors talk of Iran's nuclear capability

On the morning of May 9, 2006, Amos Yadlin, Israel's head of military intelligence, walked away from his parliamentary committee meeting with a sense of triumph. He knew he had successfully shifted Israel's national agenda. That morning Yadlin had told the Knesset's Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense that Iran could have a nuclear weapon by 2010 if no "sanctions or roadblocks" were put in its path. | 03/07/12 17:33:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

With Egypt in turmoil, Israel builds fence to keep out trouble

Sparks flew across the desert sand as Mohammad Omar welded barbed wire to the top of a 16-foot fence that winds its way across the Israeli-Egyptian border. Against the brown and tan landscape, the gleaming white metal of the fence stands out, an ominous warning to those attempting to cross into Israel. | 02/17/12 14:56:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

After killings of Iran nuclear scientists, Israeli diplomats targeted

Israeli officials blamed Iran on Monday for nearly simultaneous attempts to bomb Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia in what some analysts suggested may be Iranian retaliation for a series of attacks on its nuclear program that have been widely blamed on Israel. | 02/13/12 17:32:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Another Iranian nuclear scientist killed; Israel blamed

An Iranian scientist working at a key nuclear facility in that country was killed Wednesday in Tehran, the latest act in what appears to be a widening covert effort to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. | 01/11/12 16:15:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Israelis, Palestinians meet in Jordan for 1st time in a year

Israeli and Palestinian officials met Tuesday in Jordan's capital, Amman, in the first attempt at peace talks in more than a year. As expected, there were no breakthroughs. | 01/03/12 14:54:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Extremists' jeers at 8-year-old the last straw for Israelis

Thousands of Israelis poured into this Jerusalem suburb Tuesday night in a protest against religious extremists who've targeted women and enforced strict division of the sexes in public life. | 12/27/11 17:05:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Palestinian residents of Bethlehem fear Israeli expansion

Israel plans, within the coming months, to construct a circle of Jewish settlements around the city as well as to complete work on a section of the imposing Israeli-West Bank security barrier that essentially will surround Bethlehem. | 12/22/11 15:51:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

For Palestinians, prison time is a badge of honor

As Israel prepares to release 550 Palestinians on Sunday in the second stage of a prisoner exchange deal with the Islamist Hamas movement, many Palestinians already are calling it an empty gesture, because historically prisoners whom the Israelis have freed are likely to be rearrested on similar charges. | 12/16/11 17:10:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Jewish attacks prompt Israeli debate: Who's a terrorist?

A young man calling himself Yehudi Tzadik — "righteous Jew" — picked up a rock and rolled it around in his hand, as if considering pitching it at a police car parked nearby. | 12/15/11 16:28:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Israeli travel ban cuts studies short for Palestinians

For more than a decade, Emal Abu Aisha has run a women's center in the Gaza Strip that provides women with training and classes to improve their education. But Abu Aisha, 42, said she'd been denied that opportunity herself. | 12/08/11 14:33:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Iran explosions prompt speculation of secret attacks

A series of mishaps at Iranian nuclear facilities and weapons sites may be part of a covert organized attack on Iran's nuclear weapons program, according to Western intelligence officials. | 12/05/11 15:15:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

Israel preparing for day when it has no relations with Egypt

The surreptitious departure of Israel's ambassador from Egypt on Tuesday symbolized to many Israeli officials the new state of affairs between the neighboring countries. | 11/22/11 14:42:00 By - Sheera Frenkel

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