V This could have been Shelly Yachimovich’s week. With a fresh and attractive list emerging from the Labour primaries and the launch of her new economic plan, probably the most comprehensive social and fiscal manifesto ever published by an Israeli party, she should have been well on her way to setting the election’s agenda and re-establishing Labour as a viable political force.

Reports that the Syrian regime may be about to deploy chemical weapons have raised concerns in the region that the civil war in the country may be entering an even bloodier stage.

For two decades, the parcel of land known as E-1 has become a symbol for all sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For the Israeli right, E-1 is a vital neighbourhood in Greater Jerusalem that must be built to stop illegal Arab building around the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh denied over the weekend that the terror group would agree to stop smuggling arms and missiles to Gaza through the tunnels under Rafah. Israel is demanding an end to the smuggling in the ongoing talks in Cairo over the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Following the success of the Iron Dome system during Operation Pillar of Defence, another element of Israel’s planned “multi-layer” defence shield was successfully test-fired this week.

The “David’s Sling” system is de-signed to protect Israel from medium-to-long-range missiles of the kind in Hizbollah and Syrian arsenals.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak surprised both the political and security establishments when he announced on Monday that he would not run in the forthcoming elections. And, once a new government is formed, he says, he will vacate his office “to allow other people to come in.”

Likud took a sharp turn to the right this week as the party members elected the Knesset candidates list for the elections on January 22.

Israel breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday as a military operation which could have gone one of two ways avoided a ground war.

As the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire came into effect, tens of thousands of Israeli ground troops, many of them reservists who had been summoned days earlier from their homes, were stood down.

Many defence experts said that it would be technologically impossible and prohibitively expensive to design a system capable of tracking and destroying incoming rockets with interceptor missiles.

Hamas Chief of Staff Ahmed Jabari believed that the latest round of warfare between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza was over by Wednesday. The Israeli Air Force had not attacked any targets in the Strip in response to the barrage of rocket attacks on the south of Israel.