MIDEAST: Israel and Syria Step Closer

As reconciliation talks between the various Palestinian factions continue to falter, and peace between Israelis and Palestinians seems even more remote, the chance of Syria and Israel reaching an agreement remains a real possibility.

ISRAEL: Green Group Resists Oil Exploration

A group of Israeli environmentalists is campaigning to prevent oil exploration inside a nature reserve by the Dead Sea.

Q&A: Play for Peace

Sport could be one way of alleviating the thousands of children drawn into armed conflicts around the world. Certainly Prince Feisal Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, also president of the Jordanian Olympic Committee, believes this, and has been using sports to heal traumatised children all his life.

Q&A: Plenty of Water in the Desert, if Only…

Most policy makers draw a bleak picture of dramatic water scarcity in the Middle East, warning of water wars to come. But there is plenty of water in the desert, says Tunisian geographer and water expert Habib Ayeb.

MIDEAST: Border Areas Bombed Again

Almost two months after the war on the Gaza Strip, the border area between the battered coastal enclave and Egypt continues to come under frequent Israeli aerial bombardment. Israeli officials say the strikes target cross-border tunnels used to smuggle weapons to Palestinian resistance factions.

MIDEAST: Palestinian Unity as Elusive as Deal With Israel

Intensive unity talks are under way in Cairo as five Palestinian committees, representing 13 factions and independents, face each other across a table in a bid to form a new Palestinian unity government.

MIDEAST: Home Demolitions Threaten Peace Talks

Eight months pregnant Shireen Abu Sbeh, 20, mother of a two-year-old, lives with eight other people in a two-bedroom apartment that is on a list of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem to be demolished by the Israeli authorities.

MIDEAST: Hot Air Brings no Winds of Change

Last November, on the day marking the assassination of Israel's peace-making leader Yitzhak Rabin, the now outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israelis something which, for decades, not even Rabin had dared say - we must end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and return to the 1967 borders.

MIDEAST: Israeli Settlers Terrorise Palestinian Villagers

"I couldn't run. My pregnancy was too far advanced and there was nowhere to hide," said Amna Salman Rabaye, 31, as she recalled the terrifying incident several months ago.

MIDEAST: Where Every Day Is a Woman's Day

We've been warned she's a "harsh case". Hesitantly she enters, a withdrawn smile hidden behind glasses and a canopy of thick black hair. Impassively, she tells her life story - as if it's about someone else entirely: She's 19. Since seven, she's been sexually assaulted by "an influential family relative."

MIDEAST: Suddenly, Home Was Gone

Dates in the calendar to mark the rights of women mean little to Manwa Tarrabin (56) and her two daughters. They have lost home, and any rights to it.

ENVIRONMENT-ISRAEL: Bury the Bridge

If all goes to plan, passengers will not get to see the beautiful Yitla Stream, or what is left of it, on the train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

IRAQ: Medical Care At Last, At a Price

Prompt medical care is at last on offer in Iraq, for those who can find the dollars for it.

MIDEAST: Gaza Reconstruction Has a Political Price-Tag

A conference held this week in Cairo devoted to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip succeeded in raising more than 5 billion dollars from international donors. But some critics say the issue is being used as a means of isolating Gaza-based resistance faction Hamas.

MIDEAST: The Political Roads Lead to Tehran

The obvious objective of the first visit to the Middle East by the Obama administration's U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to contain the still potentially explosive situation in Gaza following January's Israeli offensive against Hamas, and to rescue the two-state solution policy in face of the emergence of a far-right administration in Jerusalem.

ISRAEL: Slowly Beating Back the Persecution Psyche

A new study shows that Israelis are moving towards an understanding of the Palestinian position on the conflict, even though a vast number still hold on to simplistic notions about good Israelis and bad Arabs.

EGYPT: Solidarity With Gaza Brings Jail

Magdi Hussein, secretary-general of Egypt's suspended Socialist Labour Party, has been sentenced to two years in prison by a military tribunal. Hussein, along with two others, was charged with "infiltrating" into the Gaza Strip following Israel's recent campaign against the coastal enclave...

MIDEAST: How to Aid Gaza and Not Hamas

"There's no doubt there's been a huge amount of damage done, including whole sectors of private sector buildings which have been razed to the ground and, in any event, given the numbers of people that have died, I find the conversation about proportionality not really a sensible conversation to have. What we've got to do is to find a way of ensuring this doesn't happen again." The pointed comment came from former British prime minister Tony Blair, special international envoy to the Middle East, during his first visit to Gaza after Israel's offensive against Hamas.

MIDEAST: Rice Is Aid, Pasta Not

Red-faced and unusually tongue-tied Israeli officials were forced to try and explain to U.S. Senator John Kerry during his visit to Israel last week why truckloads of pasta waiting to enter the besieged Gaza strip were not considered humanitarian aid while rice was.

MIDEAST: Fatah and Hamas on an Uphill Road to Rapprochement

Representatives of rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas met in Cairo this week for talks aimed at national reconciliation and the formation of a unity government.

MIDEAST: Early Jitters for Netanyahu

He's yet to be installed as Israel's prime minister, let alone starting to govern through the customary 100 days of grace, and already Benjamin Netanyahu is being allowed no respite: neither by those whom he envisages as his potential coalition partners nor by the international community, most pertinently the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.