The different views of the outcome of last weekend's talks between the international powers and Iran have already caused a public spat between Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama.

Iran's delegation to last Saturday's talks in Istanbul with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) refused to discuss the specifics of the demand that they curtail their uranium enric

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, boycotted a planned meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

The meeting, which was the first high-level contact between Israeli and Palestinian representatives since talks in Amman broke down nearly three months ago, was convened so that the Palestinian Authority could deliver its conditions for a renewal of negotiations.

Inste

Israel has begun marking its annual Holocaust Memorial Day.

As is customary, sirens went off at 10am local time across the Jewish state and pedestrians and drivers came to a standstill, in memory of the six million Jews who perished during the Shoah.

Nobel Prize-winning writer Gunter Grass has criticised Israel for "endangering the already fragile world peace".

Mr Grass, 84, is known for his left-wing political views.

Reading through the seemingly endless list of resolutions adopted against Israel on March 22 at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the first impression was the same as it always is.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, what is it? That's right: it's a lame duck political party. It's Kadima.

This is the sorry state of Kadima now: on paper, it is the largest political party in the Knesset, but in reality has lost much of its electoral support to a resurgent Labour Party and newcomer Yair Lapid.