The American political commentator and Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz has strongly attacked South African judge Richard Goldstone, who headed a UN panel that produced a damning report on Israel’s conduct during the Gaza war.

Police in Egypt have arrested 25 Muslim extremists suspected of having planned a terrorist attack against Jewish pilgrims who visited the grave of the Kabbalist rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira near Alexandria several weeks ago.

The Israel Defense Forces on Monday denied that two of its senior officers had been summoned for disciplinary action after headquarters staff found that the men exceeded their authority in approving the use of phosphorus shells during last year's military campaign in the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli government wrote in a recent report.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon declared Monday that Israel's relations with the United States have "never been better", telling delegates to the Herzliya Conference that the allies' ties go well beyond dealing with the Middle East conflict.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners as part of efforts backed by the United States and Egypt to jump-start the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas claimed on Friday that Israeli agents assassinated one of the Islamist group's veteran operatives in a killing allegedly carried out last week in , and vowed to retaliate.

Jewish groups say the liked what they heard in President Obama's first State of the Union address but are reserving final judgment until they hear more specifics.

According to the report, Israel used the more than 8,000 rocket attacks on its civilians merely as a pretext, an excuse, a cover for the real purpose of Operation Cast Lead, which was to target innocent Palestinian civilians - children, women, the elderly - for death.

Speaking on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel’s President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder have highlighted the dangers posed by the Iranian regime.

The Israel Defense Forces team dispatched to Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake two weeks ago returned home on Thursday morning, receiving a hero's welcome from top Israeli officials at the Ben Gurion International Airport.