The strategic timetable for the next nine months is becoming increasingly clear. Israel's apparent plans to strike Iran this year are limited by one crucial date: November 6 - the day of the US presidential elections.

Although he wishes with all his heart for a Republican victory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is predicting the re-election of Barack Obama.

Concern is mounting in Israel regarding the fate of missiles and chemical weapons as the civil war in Syria deepens.

The Syrian army, which is currently involved in the bloody repression of the uprising against President Bashar Assad, holds major stores of artillery shells and warheads capable of delivering nerve gas and biological agents.

The new, democratically elected Egyptian Parliament convened for the first time on Monday. Seventy per cent of the MPs are members of Islamist parties.

But disputes were already apparent at the swearing-in ceremony of the 508 MPs. Many of the Islamists added statements of allegiance to Islam to their oaths, while some members of liberal parties referred to the ethos of the revolution.

The round of sanctions against Iran decided upon by the United States and the European Union over the past couple of weeks is unprecedented, but Israeli leaders are still not convinced that they will be enough to force the Iranian regime to forsake its nuclear ambitions.

A day after EU leaders voted to approve a package of sanctions forbidding the purchase of Iranian oil and petrochemical produ

Repeated attacks by Saudi Arabian hackers on Israeli websites and the hacking of Israeli credit-card details has led to a series of tit-for-tat attacks.

The round of cyberwarfare began two and a half weeks ago when a Saudi hacker with the web nickname 0XOmar posted 15,000 Israeli credit-card numbers and passwords.

Yair Lapid has yet to announce the establishment of his new party but some polls are already predicting that over 15 per cent would vote for it were elections to be held this week.

Iran is planning to begin uranium enrichment soon at a new subterranean facility, bringing forward the moment when Israel and the United States will have to decide whether to launch a military strike.

Meanwhile, the clandestine campaign against the nuclear programme continues. This week another Iranian nuclear scientist was killed in Tehran.

Senior Israeli analysts are convinced that some Hamas leaders genuinely want the terror group to become a legitimate political force.

Hamas has been under pressure in recent weeks from Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to renounce violence, and there are clear signs that a new direction is being considered.

One Israeli expert on Hamas said this week: "There is a true change of direc

There was no breakthrough in the first official talks between Israeli and Palestinian representatives on Tuesday in Amman but the fact that the meeting did not end acrimoniously and both sides agreed to meet again next week is seen as progress in itself.

The meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's personal emissary, Isaac Molho, and the Palestinian Authority's senior negotiator, Sae

I first met Mark Sofer in a humid Mumbai car-park in November 2008. The multiple terror attacks on the city - which included an assault on a Chabad centre - were still in progress, Israeli security teams were scouring mortuaries to discover how many of the country's nationals had been killed, and the Israeli ambassador had agreed to give an impromptu briefing to reporters outside the consulate.

The dictatorships of the Middle East have long repressed religious Islamic parties, imprisoned their leaders and forbidden them from participating in elections.

The first relatively free elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco have seen major gains by Islamist parties, which are suddenly facing the challenge of participating in government with all the consequent compromises.