Tel Aviv  - Israel will have to withdraw from the territories it occupies, including East Jerusalem, if it wants peace with its Arab and Palestinian neighbours, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published Monday.

"We need to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, whose significance is a withdrawal from almost all the (occupied) territories, if not from all the territories, " he told the Yediot Ahronot daily in an interview to mark the Jewish new year, which begins Monday night, and to mark his own impending departure from office.

Tel Aviv - Israel sealed off the Palestinian territories early Monday, ahead of the two-day Jewish New Year festival, which begins at sundown. The closure is slated to be lifted Wednesday midnight, after the holiday ends, a government statement said.

During the closure the passage of those in need of humanitarian and medical assistance will have to be coordinated though the Israeli liaison office, as will the passage of officials, doctors and medical personnel, the statement said.

Tel Aviv/Bethlehem  - Paul McCartney called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Wednesday, as he toured Bethlehem a day before his historic "Friendship First" concert in Tel Aviv.

McCartney, who landed in Israel overnight, used the afternoon to visit the Church of the Nativity - built on the site where according to Christian tradition Jesus was born - in the West Bank city just south of Jerusalem.

Tel Aviv  - An Israeli El-Al passenger plane was escorted by fighter jets all the way from Paris to Tel Aviv Wednesday, after the Israeli airline received an anonymous email threat, Israel's Channel 10 reported.

The email, received at El-Al's headquarters several days ago, had threatened to harm Wednesday's specific flight, LY324, from Paris to Tel Aviv, the television channel reported.

Tel Aviv - It's taken over 40 years but Beatlemania has finally hit Israel.

Paul McCartney is to give a concert in Tel Aviv Thursday, but what is only a day in the life of a rock icon is regarded in Israel as one of the biggest cultural events in the country's history.

In advance of the concert, McCartney has been given unprecedented coverage in the media for a musician, with interviews appearing in newspapers and on television, and radio stations playing his songs almost non-stop.

Even Israel Radio's daily "Golden Oldies" hour, with oldies at best usually only gold-plated, has gotten in on the act, playing only Beatles and McCartney songs.

Tel Aviv - The turmoil over his forced resignation is still fresh, yet interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to pursue great plans.

During his remaining weeks, or months, in office at the head of a caretaker government, the 62-year-old insists on continuing his efforts to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians.

"Israel and the Palestinians have never been closer to an agreement," says his spokesman, Mark Regev. It is still possible to meet the end-of-year deadline, he surprises sceptics.