Boris Johnson and Tony Blair have lauded the interfaith aspect of Mitzvah Day.

Mitzvah Day marks the start of the national Interfaith Week and Mr Blair praised the notion of "Jews working with Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Baha'is to go out into their communities to help clean up the area".

Mr Johnson said such co-operation was a "fantastic example of what can happen when people put

Cherie Blair's former lifestyle guru has won a sizeable payout in her libel case against the Daily Mail.

Carole Caplin launched legal action against Associated Newspapers following the publication of an article that suggested she would spill the beans on the Blairs' bedroom secrets .

The Palestinian Authority is furious with former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the Mideast envoy of the international Quartet, for applying diplomatic pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas not to seek recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN.

Last-ditch diplomatic attempts this week to convince the Palestinian leadership to postpone its plan to receive United Nations recognition of an independent state are not expected to succeed.

Quartet envoy Tony Blair has told an audience at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem that "supporting freedom is an intervention that goes with the grain of human progress".

Tony Blair has said Israel and the Palestinians have "no alternative" other than a return to the peace process.

The Quartet's Middle East envoy said it was crucial to support the Palestinian economy in order to advance the possibilities of success in the process.

Two British Jews are among 30 young people who have been selected from more than 700 hopefuls to become fellows of Tony Blair's Faith Foundation.

From July Catherine Mansoor, from Middlesex, and Anthony Silkoff, from Essex, will be joined on the programme by three Jewish fellows from North America, as well as representatives from Christianity, Islam and other world religions.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pledged to do whatever he can to improve the conditions of captured Israeli Sergeant Gilad Shalit.

Mr Blair, special Middle East envoy to the Quartet, received a 200,000-signature petition in his Jerusalem offices last week presented by Stuart Glyn, chairman of Magen David Adom UK.

William Hague has said that Britain wants to have a good relationship with Israel, irrespective of this country’s links with countries in the region.

The Foreign Secretary, responding to questions put to him on Twitter, said: “We want strong relations with Israel as well as with other countries in the Middle East - it is not one or the other.”

The British government has praised Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement that Israel is to take concrete steps to advance economic growth in Palestinian areas.

The Israeli Prime Minister, along with Quartet envoy Tony Blair, revealed on Friday plans to help Gaza become more independent by developing its sanitation and water treatment plants.

The proposals also included moving forward with plans for a gas supply for the Palestinians, the revenue from which would go to the Palestinian Authority, and boosting exports from Gaza.

Benjamin Netanyahu is an "armour-plated bull****ter" – or so was the view of Britain’s Foreign Office in 1998.

Alastair Campbell, the former Labour party spin doctor, has revealed that this was what “some of the Foreign Office guys” thought of Mr Netanyahu at the time of Tony Blair’s first official visit to Israel in April 1998.

At the time Mr Netanyahu was serving his first term as prime minister of Israel.

Tony Blair is to open an annual human rights event in Haifa this Chanucah.

The former UK prime minister will virtually launch the Leo Baeck Education Centre’s celebration of International Human Rights Day by lighting a candle on the first night of the festival.

Mr Blair will be opening the event on behalf of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.

A special prayer has also been composed by rabbis from the Centre as a symbol of “commitment, as human beings, as Jews and so importantly for us at this time, as Israelis, to the values of Human Rights”.