GAZA CITY, Gaza -- Israel has banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza to cover the deteriorating humanitarian situation there as the country s complete closure of the territory enters a third week.
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised on Monday to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel would release 250 Palestinian prisoners next month ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
EDITORIAL
U.S. President-elect Barack Obamas historic election victory may have done a lot more for Israeli moderates than just boost the election prospects of the Kadima party and its new leader Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. A remarkable public speech by one of the Jewish states espionage chiefs Monday suggests that Obamas emergence is encouraging Israeli doves to spread their wings, even in the military high command.
OPINION
President-elect Barack Obama has already achieved a rhetorical break with the arrogant, pompous and rather totalitarian language of the outgoing George W. Bush administration. Thus, a new grammar is being presented in which the United States is re-invented as a particularly inclusive and exceptional place where everything is possible.
I watched U.S. President-elect Barack Obamas victory speech from Kabul, where his campaign promises have had particular resonance. The stage is now set for Washington to send thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and once Obamas new team reviews the complexities of the counterinsurgency mission there, I suspect the United States will match troop increases with greater civilian resources to support economic development projects and to help extend the writ of the Afghan state.
