US Republican presidential candidates last night battled over who could declare the strongest support for Israel, all pledging to strengthen the bond between the two countries.

Addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said his first foreign trip as president would be to Israel.

The White House has cautioned the UN heritage organisation UNESCO to cease meddling in the Palestinian attempt unilaterally to gain statehood.

The warning came after the cultural agency began considering admitting the Palestinians into its ranks.

Two American hikers, imprisoned in Iran as “American spies” for more than two years, have landed in Oman after being released.

Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal were greeted by their families, who described it as “the best day of our lives”.

The FBI has been accused of secretly recording discussions at the Israeli embassy in the US.

According to a blogger, who spoke to the New York Times, a translator for the intelligence agency shared transcripts of recorded conversations and telephone calls with him.

The United States special envoy to the Middle East is expected to announce his resignation today.

George Mitchell, 77, was appointed by President Obama in 2009 with the intention of restarting the peace process.

Mr Mitchell was at the forefront of peace discussions between Israel and the Palestinians in Washington last September. The negotiations made little progress.

The US Senate has agreed unanimously to a resolution calling on the United Nations to rescind the Goldstone report into Operation Cast Lead following comments by the author discrediting parts of it.

Two weeks ago Judge Richard Goldstone admitted in the Washington Post that the report had wrongly accused Israel of indiscriminately targeting civilians.

One of the most senior Jewish politicians in the United States, and the only Jewish vice-presidential candidate in the history of the major parties, has announced his departure from the Senate today.

Senator Joe Lieberman, who was first elected to represent Connecticut for the Democratic party in 1988 but left to run as an independent in 2006, said he will not contest a fifth election next year.

Speaking to an audience including six of his grandchildren, he recalled the journey his grandparents had made to America a century before.

One of the most senior Jewish politicians in the United States, and the only Jewish vice-presidential candidate in the history of the major parties, is expected to announce his departure from the Senate today.

Senator Joe Lieberman, who was first elected to represent Connecticut for the Democratic party in 1988 but left to run as an independent in 2006, will not contest a fifth election next year.

A Republican politician from Virginia will become the most senior Jewish politician in US history later today.

Eric Cantor will be officially sworn in as the House majority leader when the Republican Party takes control of the House of Representatives, following its success at the mid-term elections in November.

The Republicans have already vowed to challenge much of President Obama’s agenda, including a push for a repeal of his healthcare reform with a vote on January 12.

The US diplomat credited with bringing peace to the Balkans has died at the age of 69.

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who was of Jewish descent, was serving as the Obama administration's envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He was admitted to hospital on Friday for a torn aorta, but died after unsuccessful surgery.

A diplomat since the 1960s, Mr Holbrooke worked for every Democrat president since John F Kennedy. He served in Vietnam in the 1960s, and later as ambassador to Germany. Most notoriously he was Assistant Secretary of State for Europe under President Bill Clinton.

Only two American presidents have been impeached – Andrew Johnson in 1868, and 130 years later Bill Clinton.

While the first scandal was largely about political expediency and partisan politics, the second centred around the Jewish daughter of a prominent Los Angeles doctor.

Possibly the most famous intern there has ever been, Monica Lewinsky grew up in Beverly Hills and attended a Conservative synagogue school. She was voted “most likely to have her name in lights” in her high school yearbook.

The leading pro-Israel organisation in America has praised the re-election at the 2010 mid-terms of “many of the strongest friends and supporters of the US-Israel relationship.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) congratulated those elected to the112th Congress, which convenes in January.

AIPAC offered special praise for the three Jewish politicians voted in to congress for the first time, including Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal and David Cicilline, the new representative for Rhode Island and the third openly gay Jewish congressman in office.

Lyndon Johnson had already been president for nearly a year when he was actually voted in, taking on the role in the wake of the assassination of President Kennedy. But the election of 1964, the results of which were announced on November 3, put him in office with a landslide of 61 per cent of the vote.

Remembered for escalating American troop levels in Vietnam, and also for “the Great Society”, his expansive programme of domestic legislation, he remained in the White House until 1968 when he chose not to stand for reelection.

Theodore Sorensen, John F Kennedy’s speechwriter, has died at the age of 82.

Mr Sorenson, whose mother Annis Chaikin was of Russian Jewish descent, died in New York following a stroke.
He joined the future president’s senatorial staff in 1953, when he was 25 and just out of law school.

He worked with President Kennedy during the 1960 presidential election and was one of the main figures in what came to be known as Camelot.

President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel will meet Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today and President Shimon Peres tomorrow.

Mr Emanuel, who is in Israel for his son Zach’s barmitzvah, is expected to have an informal chat with both men about the current proximity talks with the Palestinians and to discuss general US-Israel bilateral relations.

The barmitzvah ceremony will be held in Jerusalem, but it is not clear if it will take place at the Western Wall.

The BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has said that a report where he described the tension in US-Israeli relations as “enjoyable” was down to an editing glitch.

In his piece ‘Analysis: Bleak climate for Mid-East talks’ for the BBC News website, Mr Bowen wrote: “It has been an unusual and enjoyable new experience to be able to look on as the Israelis argued with their most important ally.”

Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel has sparked outrage in Jerusalem for an open letter he wrote to US President Barack Obama urging him not to ‘politicise’ Jerusalem.

The American-based academic and Holocaust survivor wrote to President Obama: “For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics.

"It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain.

“The first song I heard was my mother's lullaby about and for Jerusalem. Its sadness and its joy are part of our collective memory."

US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have met for lengthy, private talks in the White House.

Mr Netanyahu, along with Defence Minister Ehud Barak, met Mr Obamafor a 90 minute discussion in the Oval Office.

But debate was reportedly so heated, that after the talks were due to conclude, both sides went their separate ways to seek advice from aides and after a short break Mr Netanyahu requested a further 35 minute meeting with the President.