TWO years ago this week, a bomb exploded in a jeep in Damascus decapitating Imad Mughniyeh. It bore all the hallmarks of a Mossad assassination.

ISRAEL’S national election is likely to be a cliffhanger, pollsters said yesterday, on the eve of a vote in which right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party had been forecast to emerge victorious.

The Pope gave Second World War pontiff Pius XII a push toward possible sainthood today and defended his memory from accusations he did little to spare Jews from the Holocaust.

ISRAELI president Shimon Peres yesterday asked foreign minister Tzipi Livni to form a government, opening the way for the new Kadima party leader to become the second woman prime minister in the country’s history.

Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni declared victory today in the Kadima Party leadership race by a narrow margin of 431 votes.

ISRAELI foreign minister Tzipi Livni won a clear majority in the Kadima party’s primary election yesterday, TV exit polls showed — placing her in a good position to become the first female leader in 34 years and sending a message that peace talks with the Palestinians will proceed.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remained defiant today, hoping to beat a rising wave of calls to step down after a report criticising his handling of last year’s war with Lebanon.

Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s massive stroke late yesterday triggered a law of succession granting his leadership duties to his deputy.

Director Steven Spielberg said he is “very proud” of two early endorsements from the widows of two of the 11 Israeli athletes killed in the 1972 Olympic massacre detailed in his controversial new film, Munich.