PARIS -- A quiet move is afoot in Europe to persuade the next American president to give Colin Powell, the distinguished U.S. soldier-statesman, the difficult task of reviving the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

JERUSALEM -- Israel will be forced to hold early elections next February or March, instead of 2010 as scheduled, after Israeli foreign minister and chairwoman of the ruling Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, was unable to form a coalition government.

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Foreign Minister and the leader of Israels ruling Kadima Party Tzipi Livni has just three weeks to cobble together a coalition government. If she is able to do this she will be Israels next prime minister, the second female to hold this post since the late Golda Meir.

There is a new Israeli prime minister and the U.S. government is virtually bankrupt: Many people across the Middle East are happy at both developments for very understandable reasons, but we should be careful about what we wish for. And we need to understand how the two developments affect each other.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has been elected the leader of the ruling Kadima party, beating her opponent, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, by a mere 2 percent.

JERUSALEM -- A top peace negotiator and a hawkish former general battle it out on Wednesday in a party vote that could give Israel its next prime minister and determine the course of Middle East peace efforts.

By all accounts, the Israeli-Syrian indirect negotiations through Turkish mediation are going well, and the fact that a fourth round of talks is scheduled for the end of July suggests that both sides expect to make further progress. The reports from Damascus and Ankara, however, indicating that Syria will not enter into direct negotiations with Israel before the advent of new American administration show an obstructive apprehension on the part of the Syrian government. Indeed, Damascus should not only agree to direct negotiations with Israel – as Turkish officials strongly recommend – but time has come for it to make a bold move toward the Israelis.

At a gathering last May 26 Jimmy Carter said Israel possesses 150 Nuclear weapons. Carters revelation is the first credible public acknowledgment by a former U.S, president that Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal. Israel has never admitted having nuclear weapons, nor has any U.S. official ever deviated from that Israeli line. But while the possession of nuclear weapons by Israel is a threat to its enemies, it is also a threat to its friends and allies.

JERUSALEM -- As Israels ruling Kadima party gears up for its primaries, a preliminary step before general elections later this year, prominent party members are jockeying for its leadership as a step toward the coveted position of prime minister.

It must be ecstatic for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to be in Washington for three days, a brief escape from a quasi political inferno.