Olmert Offers Talks With Arab Leaders

Takes mission to Jerusalem, West Bank

(NEWSER) - Condoleezza Rice took her diplomatic tour to Jerusalem and the West Bank today, hoping to rekindle peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas. Rice comes bearing a promise from Saudi Arabia to support the peace conference proposed by the White House for later this year, Reuters reports. More»

Abbas and Olmert to meet in effort to isolate Hamas

(NEWSER) - Alarmed by the Hamas takeover in Gaza, Egypt will host a summit Monday, bringing together the Western-backed Palestinian president and the Israeli PM, along with Jordanian and Egyptian leaders, Reuters reports. The move is a show of support for the moderate Mamoud Abbas-led emergency government, and an effort to isolate Hamas, reports the AP. More»

(NEWSER) - Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu today called for the creation of a limited Palestinian state for the first time, saying it would have to be disarmed. Netanyahu spoke during a major policy speech about his Mideast peacemaking intentions, in which he called on Palestinian leaders to restart peace negotiations. "In any peace agreement, the territory under Palestinian control must be disarmed, with solid security guarantees for Israel," he said. More»

Neighbors must be involved: Friedman

(NEWSER) - The dominant theory holds that the two-state solution is the answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the war in Gaza has pushed tensions past the point where an equitable sharing of geography is enough, argues New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. He wants a "five-state solution—Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia." More»

Krauthammer: Olmert has a second chance to defeat extremism

(NEWSER) - There are only two possible outcomes of the war in Gaza, writes Charles Krauthammer: the complete destruction of Hamas or an internationally supervised truce à la Lebanon. Under immense diplomatic pressure, Israel is hinting it will accept the French-Egyptian ceasefire plan. That would be "a terrible mistake," writes the Washington Post columnist, who says that Israel is on the brink of destroying "the one-step-from-madness gangster theocracy in Gaza." More»