MIDEAST: Peace Plan May Yet Survive New Twists

U.S. President Obama's Middle East engagement policy reverses the unsuccessful policy of his predecessor, but the U.S. is again committing faux pas aplenty.

Q&A: ‘This Calm Will Not Last’

Leila Khaled became an instant icon of the Palestinian struggle in 1969, when at 24 she was an operative in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacking of a Boeing 707, the first in a series of high-profile actions intended to put the Palestinians on the political map.

MIDEAST: Israelis Show the Light to Palestinian Herders

Hundreds of impoverished Palestinian herders and farmers living in caves and tents in a remote area of the Palestinian West Bank have been provided free electricity due to the ingenuity of two Israeli physicists.

MIDEAST: Harvesting in Death Zone, With a Song

On a quiet October morning, Fida Zaneen, 19, sings a traditional love song as she pulls olives from trees in Beit Hanoun's border region during the annual olive harvest.

MIDEAST: Palestinians File Lawsuits Over Gaza War

As the legal and moral implications of the UN Goldstone report on Israel's military assault on Gaza continue to mount, Gazans are taking matters into their own hands and preparing civil lawsuits.

MIDEAST: Demolishing Hope for Peace

"We knew something bad was about to happen when we saw the roadblocks being thrown up, and police everywhere. It soon came down the grapevine - the Israelis were demolishing more houses."

MIDEAST: ‘It’s the Occupation, Stupid’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself embattled on several fronts as he tries - hitherto unsuccessfully - to ward off the enormous international pressure on Israel unleashed by the Goldstone report for its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza earlier this year.

MIDEAST: Israelis Targeting Grassroots Activists

Israeli authorities are increasingly targeting and intimidating non-violent Palestinian grassroots activists involved in anti-occupation activities who are drawing increased support from the international community.

MIDEAST: Is Jerusalem Burning?

Déjà vu on one of the world's most volatile religious sites, a site deeply revered by both Muslims and Jews.

Q&A: “Women Will Benefit From Secularism”

Controversy stalks dissident writer Nawal El-Saadawi, whose views on women and religion have put her at odds with Egyptian conservatives.

MIDEAST: Rabbis Take on Settlers

Away from the media spotlight that focuses on the widening chasm between Israelis and Palestinians, a group of Israeli humanists is quietly working to break down barriers with their Palestinian neighbours.

RIGHTS-EGYPT: Invoking Religion Against Liberals

Self-appointed guardians of public morality are invoking an ancient instrument of Islamic jurisprudence against those whose ideas they deem immoral or heretical - or simply to gain fame.

MIDEAST: Turkey-Israel Rift Good for Palestine

Turkey's cooling relationship with Israel comes in tandem with its improving relations with the Arab and Muslim world, and this development is expected to impact positively on Palestinian politics.

MIDEAST: Cold Turkey Could Change Political Balance

It's long been among the most durable, strategic relationships in the Near East - perhaps because it was the most unlikely.

MIDEAST: Gaza Gets Ambitious With Mud

On a searing summer morning, workers are adding layers to the mud-brick police station being constructed in Sheikh Zayed, northern Gaza.

YEMEN: Children Flee Fighting

As the conflict between government forces and Houthi fighters grinds on in the mountains of Saada in northern Yemen, thousands of Yemeni civilians, many of them children, are being forced from their homes by the fighting.

MIDEAST: Rift Developing Between PA and Fatah

An increasingly isolated and unpopular Palestinian Authority (PA) has again made a 180-degree turn in the Goldstone report fiasco as it tries to fend off mounting criticism from all and sundry, including its own organisation.

MIDEAST: Another Nobel Message for Peace

In the week of Nobel Prize announcements, the most intriguing comment from the Middle East came not, as one might have expected, as a straight reaction to the shock of U.S. President Barack Obama being awarded this year's Peace Prize.

MIDEAST: Muslims See Victory at Al-Aqsa

Clashes between Israeli security forces and protesting Palestinians have subsided as several hundred Muslims agreed to evacuate Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque following a deal brokered by the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv Saturday.

MIDEAST: Unrest Rising Over Goldstone Report

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is trying desperately to contain the political fallout following its decision to withdraw support for a UN report into war crimes committed in Gaza in December and January.

MIDEAST: Finally Taking Off Their Gloves

Amazingly, just when all four parties - the U.S., its allies in the Arab world, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel - seemed to have hit rock bottom in terms of the prospects of moving the region away from conflict and towards peace, all of a sudden everything seems to be pointing in the exact opposition direction.