Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouti has said that Hamas and Israel are on the verge of reaching a deal for the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, in an interview with the pan-Arab daily Al-Quds al-Arabi published on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that efforts by right-wing activists to prevent the implementation of a freeze on new construction in West Bank settlements were "legitimate" and "natural."
Justice Minister Yaacov Neeman came under fire Tuesday after apparently expressing hopes that the state's current legal system will soon be dictated by the Torah.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are each lobbying European Union foreign ministers to adopt its respective position on Sweden's initiative to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and Palestine. The proposal is to be discussed Sunday in Brussels at the meeting of foreign ministers of EU member states.
The mayor of the haredi town Beitar Illit appealed Sunday to the Obama administration to leave his town out of the building freeze since it was not an ideologically motivated settlement.
Mahmoud Zahar, the Gaza-based Hamas strongman, issued a swift denial on Sunday of a report that four French doctors had visited abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit last week at the secret location in which he is being held in the Strip.
The cabinet's decision to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank for ten months proves that Israel wants peace, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
On Saturday, about 200 people led by the chairman of the Yesha council of settlements, Danny Dayan, and MKs Tzipi Hotovely and Uri Ariel convened an emergency meeting in the West Bank settlement of Ofra to discuss tactics to thwart the moratorium.
A committee headed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Minister-Without-Portfolio Bennie Begin will examine the implementation of the settlement construction freeze and tend to the needs of citizens hurt by the moratorium, the Prime Minister's Office announced Friday evening.
