Jerusalem, Nov. 20 : Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has expressed her opposition to the Obama administration''''s freeze settlement demands by saying that all the Jews moving to Israel need a place to live.

In an interview with ABC''''s Good Morning America, Palin said: “I disagree with the Obama administration on that. I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow.

Jerusalem, Nov. 20 : Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will seek a final-peace accord with the Palestine Authority if talks resume, and not an interim solution.

In recent days, there have been various reports of cabinet ministers, and even President Shimon Peres, pressing for an interim accord that would include a Palestinian state with temporary borders.

Jerusalem, Nov. 20 : In the wake of Iran refusing to export 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium for further processing, Israel has urged the international community to impose sanctions aimed at denying Teheran any nuclear fuel cycle capabilities.

Iran’s refusal has already prompted US President Barack Obama to declare that the US was now moving to negotiate new sanctions with its allies.

Jerusalem, Nov. 19 : Israeli aircraft struck a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, in response to recent rocket attacks on Israel, CBS quoted Israeli military sources, as saying.

Palestinian security officials, however, reported no injuries.

Israel went to war against militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza last winter to quash eight years of rocket and mortar fire that terrorized southern Israel and killed 18 civilians.

Jerusalem, Nov. 17 : The European Union has rejected the Palestinian Authority’s appeal to support its endorsement as an independent state by the United Nations.

Sweden''s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU presidency, said: “The conditions are not there as of yet" for such a move.

Bildt added that the Palestinian plan was "clearly an act borne by a difficult situation where they don''t see any road ahead."

Jerusalem, Nov. 16 : Israel has said it will take unilateral steps if the Palestinian Authority (PA) leaves the peace talks midway and moves to the UN to endorse it as an independent state.

Jerusalem  - Israel would answer to any Palestinian step toward an unilateral declaration of independence with "one-sided Israeli measures," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted by Israeli media as saying in a forum Sunday in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, Nov. 13 : Israel has signalled fresh hope for talks with the Palestine Authority following Palestinian officials postponing the elections in their territories indefinitely. The polls were originally scheduled to be held on January 24.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had recently announced that he would not run in the elections, but many world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu, have urged Abbas not to quit.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy phoned Abbas on Thursday to discuss conditions for the renewal of diplomatic talks.

Jerusalem  - Israeli prosecutors Thursday indicted a militant Jewish settler who has confessed to a host of attacks against Palestinians, the gay community in Israel and left-wing Israelis opposed to Jewish settlement of the occupied West Bank.

The indictment against Yaakov Teitel, 37, born in Florida but a resident of the northern West Bank settlement of Shevut Rahel since 1997, charged him with two murders, three attempted murders and other acts of violence.

Jerusalem  - Israel Friday rejected an Arab-backed UN General Assembly resolution, giving it three months to launch an independent, credible investigation into last winter's Gaza war.

The resolution, adopted by the international body with a 114-18 vote on Thursday, endorsed a UN Human Rights Council report on the Gaza offensive, and ordered Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send the report on to the Security Council for debate and a vote.

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday in Jerusalem with US special envoy George Mitchell, in a further bid to find a solution to an impasse which has prevented suspended peace talks with the Palestinians from restarting.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not return to the negotiating table until Israel halts all construction in its West Bank, settlements.

Jerusalem - US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East arrived in Israel Thursday, in another bid to revive suspended peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Senator George Mitchell opened his latest visit to the region by attending a memorial service at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl graveyard for late Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin.

Jerusalem, October 27 : Following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea in Israel, a scientist has determined that there is a likely chance of tsunami waves striking the shores of the country.

The study was carried out by Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa, Israel.

"Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence," she said.

Jerusalem  - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to form a team of legal experts and Foreign Ministry officials to collate all material gathered by the military in its investigations of the Israel offensive in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.

Israel Radio reported Monday that Israel will present these findings as a probe which it is conducting into the offensive, instead of an investigative committee, as demanded by a United Nations Human Rights Council Commission which looked into the fighting.

Jerusalem/Washington - Israeli President Shimon Peres expressed Saturday his concern about Iran's nuclear plans and insisted on a policy of "prevention and not just of inspection" to stop Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.

In an interview in the Washington Post, Peres said "I'm a little bit worried because the policy should be of prevention, not just of inspection, to prevent the building of a bomb."

"Later on to inspect the procedure of enriching uranium will be very, very difficult, particularly when the Iranians are extremely economical about telling the truth," the Israeli president added.

Jerusalem  - Hamas authorities in Gaza should immediately launch a "credible investigation" into allegations of serious laws-of-war violations by its fighters during last winter's Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Wednesday.

The call came in a letter HRW sent on Tuesday to Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the de facto Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.

Jerusalem, Oct. 21 : A former US official has said that both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are extremely paranoid about the Israeli secret service Mossad and Jews, and adds that the charges of espionage against US Defense Department scientist Stewart Nozette reflect this fear and "extreme view".

These fears against Israel, former AIPAC staffer Steve Rosen tells The Jerusalem Post, could harm US-Israel relations.

"One of the things that our case revealed is the very extreme views that are held by some in counter-intelligence agencies of the CIA and FBI about Israel," Rosen said.

Jerusalem, Oct. 16 : Israel has issued a new travel advisory asking its citizens to be wary about travelling to India.

The warning issued by the country’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau states that there is a concrete terror threat at places frequented by Israelis, specifically the Chabad houses and synagogues across the country.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the warning comes in the wake of new intelligence received by Israeli officials indicating that a Global Jihad group had teamed up with the Pakistani terror cell responsible for the 2008 Mumbai massacre for a fresh attack.

So, the duo Abu Jani & Sandip Khosla (much to my surprise and much left to desire to the professionalism in the fashion design world) backed out of the HDIL India Couture Week. But, as they say, life has to go on... And it did.

Jerusalem  - Israeli human rights group called on the Israeli government Wednesday to ditch a practice, under which it jails without trial Palestinians it deems a "security threat" for extendable periods of up to six months.

Some 335 Palestinians are currently held by Israel without trial in administrative detention, including three women and one minor, said the rights groups.