India's voting pattern in the United Nations with regard to the Israel-Palestine conflict is lately marked by a calibrated distancing from Israel, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Israelis arrested us before this war and continue to do so -- even more so -- now.'
A twitter handle of the Israeli army was taken over by Internet hackers, who posted a message warning that a nuclear facility in Israel has been hit by two rockets, causing a brief torrent of panic.
Intense shelling resumed in Gaza on Monday night after a lull with Israel warning of a protracted military campaign against Hamas despite mounting international calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end the 21-day conflict.
Grandparents of Moshe Holtzberg, who survived the 26/11 carnage at the age of two, talk of how questions by the now 12-year-old boy only add to their grief.
Here's a glimpse of Modi's first day in Israel.
Leaders from 70 countries, including United States President Barack Obama and Arab politicians, gathered in Jerusalem on Friday to bid farewell to one of the last leaders of Israel's founding generation and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres as his funeral began amid unprecedented security.
Israel on Tuesday accepted an Egyptian-proposed ceasefire plan to halt its deadly offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but the Palestinian militant groups rejected it calling it "surrender", even as the death toll in the nine-day long conflict rose to 192.
Israel has found the bodies of the three missing teenagers buried in a grave in southern West Bank, just over two weeks after their kidnapping allegedly by Hamas, and vowed to make the Islamist movement pay for their deaths.
On the eve of his unprecedented visit to Israel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said he will discuss with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu the common challenges like terrorism and ways to boost the economic ties.
Recognising evolving global terror threats, India and Israel have resolved to deepen cooperation in fighting the menace and collaborate in the field of cyber security.
With developments like the Russia-China alliance and the rise of China in the Middle East, India's role has diminished though the India-Israel-US-UAE grouping may assume some importance in the future, observes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
PM Modi would be the fifth foreign leader Trump would have spoken with over phone after being sworn-in as the US President on January 20.
'But unlike Bond who killed an individual, Israel is killing a nation.'
Israel is determined to take the bilateral engagement to a different level that goes beyond defence hardware and intelligence software. Kanchan Gupta reports exclusively from Tel Aviv for Rediff.com
Israel said it had conducted a joint missile test with the United States over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday, hours after Russia's announcement of its detection of missile launches added to jitters about possible military action against the Syrian regime.
Under the deal, Israel would suspend its plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank.
'He is not the leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha or the Lok Sabha. He is just an MP.' 'In the order of precedence of the Republic of India, Rahul Gandhi is at 21st position,' says Sudhir Bisht.
Rouhani said the people of Iran were free to protest peacefully, but rejected violence.
'The purported claim that Israel can defeat Hamas and everything 'would go back to normal' is completely absurd.'
'The real challenge cannot be underestimated considering that this is still very much a "boutique relationship" -- a transactional relationship at its core based on its utility value to both countries -- but enveloped in an aura of romance,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified in Gaza on Tuesday after a brief lull as both sides ignored international calls for restraint and the Jewish state warned of a "prolonged" war that has killed 1,088 Palestinians and 56 Israelis in more than three weeks.
'Hitchens asked which State Israel had most in common with -- and then answered his own question, saying "Pakistan".' 'They were both, he explained "confessional States": Founded to succour the followers of a particular faith,' remembers Mihir S Sharma.
'The Israeli government is saying, "OK, leave northern Gaza, because we're going to fight Hamas there".' 'But Hamas is not stupid. They are going to put militants in southern Gaza too. And then what's Israel going to do?' 'At some point are they going to say, 'Leave southern Gaza too because we want to fight Hamas there? Go across the border to Egypt"'? 'That's what people are worried about. Because they fear that once they cross the border into Egypt there will be no coming back.'
The book claims that Cameron smoked marijuana and took part in bizarre initiation ceremony as part of a university society, called the Piers Gaveston Society.
The wife of a senior Israeli politician sparked a row after she posted a racially charged joke about US President Barack Obama on Twitter wherein she referred to him as "black and weak".
He ordered to start the process of moving the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city.
'Unsurprisingly, the joint statement issued after Modi's visit contains a paragraph on terrorism.' 'It is on the usual lines that India would have with, say, Croatia.' 'The surprising part is that it shies away from getting into specifics,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip on Friday killed six persons, including a pregnant woman and two children, taking the Palestinian toll to 815, as the 18-day conflict threatens to spread to the West Bank after deaths of two youths in anti-Israel protests in north of Jerusalem.
Israel on Monday pressed on with its heavy bombardment of Gaza and foiled major infiltration attempts by Hamas on the 14th day of the conflict that has killed 558 Palestinians and 27 Israelis, even as the United Nations and the United States called for an "immediate ceasefire".
Amid spiralling violence and growing tension over the killing of three Israeli teens and the burning of an Arab boy in retaliation, a bereaved Jewish family has emerged as a steady and calming voice trying to instill reason among people calling for revenge.
Rita Katz, the head of the SITE Intelligence Group, wrote on Twitter that 35 minutes of footage of the attacks were posted online, and that the attacker said in English before the shooting that the "root of all problems are the Jews."
Duterte had consistently led the Time 100 Reader Poll, an online survey in which the publication had asked its readers to vote for who should be included in this year's Time 100 list of the world's most influential people.
Speculation is rife that Trump may skip Sabarmati Ashram to make time for a visit to Agra, Vinay Umarji reports.
Palestinians, who protested massively along the Gaza border clashed with Israeli forces.
'Previous governments in India had reservations about working with Israel.' 'Modi has shed this tag.' 'Disengaging itself from its traditional and ideological foreign policy approach in the Middle East shall serve India's long-term interests.' Rajaram Panda explains why the significance of Modi's visit to the Jewish nation goes beyond markers like the first-ever visit to Israel by an Indian PM and 25 years of diplomatic ties.
The report also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Israel in July 2017.
Over 630 rockets were fired at Israel from Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon, 200 of which were intercepted by Iron Dome missile defence batteries while 150 others fell short of their targets and landed inside the Strip, according to the army.
President Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Israel is a final and critical step in the normalisation of relations between the two countries.
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