News stories by Jerrold Kessel, page 3

Suddenly, the Middle East is awash with talk of war this summer. Or, is the talk of war merely meant to keep war at bay?

There's a Jerusalem saying that the city wears too many hats -- Jewish hats, Muslim hats, Christian hats -- so it's difficult to get at its brain.

He is among the most respected international jurists. But in Israel today, and in much of the Jewish world, he is among the most reviled.

As the world grapples with controlling the spread of nuclear weapons, it's a time of complex choices in a Middle East edging between possible confrontation with Iran and possible movement towards Israeli-Palestinian peace.

President Barack Obama has made plain he means to deconstruct Israel’s 43-year-old grip on East Jerusalem. But, for all Washington’s pressure, Israel seeks to tighten its hold on the occupied part of the city.

Less than a hundred days to go, and the world looks on, often more with scepticism than anticipation.

'The best laid-schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley' (Scottish for 'going wrong').

Outside the Bedouin-style protest tent in the heart of this Palestinian neighbourhood, the anger is palpable, but controlled.

When last December Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, delivering to an international conference in Herzliya outside Tel Aviv what has become the equivalent of Israel's 'State of the Union' address, chose to focus not on Iran's nuclear ambitions or on the prospects of Middle East peace, but on 'the need to re-enforce our national heritage,' his vision was dismissed by supporters and critics alike as inconsequential.

An Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film, Israel's 'Ajami', is a tragic, yet realistic, pointer to the multi-layered conflict of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians.