Israel’s prime minister said today his country could not return to the borders it held before the 1967 Six Day War.

ISRAELI troops clashed with Arab protesters along three hostile borders, including the frontier with Syria, leaving 16 people dead and dozens more wounded in an unprecedented wave of demonstrations marking a Palestinian day of mourning for their defeat at Israel’s hands in 1948.

Four people were reported to have been shot dead today when the Israeli military opened fire on a group of Syrians trying to cross the border along the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said a Palestinian has infiltrated a Jewish West Bank settlement and killed five people.

SHOCKWAVES from the ousting of presidents in Tunisia and Egypt continued to roll across north Africa and the Middle East yesterday, with peoples long subject to autocratic rule demanding to be heard.

The Palestinian prime minister has dissolved his Cabinet – in a new gesture which appears to be inspired by unrest rocking the Arab world.

About 20 Israeli suppliers will help build the first modern Palestinian city in the West Bank but only after promising they will not use products or services from Israeli settlements, the project’s developer said today.

The US prepared today to plunge into a new round of Middle East peacemaking, bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for face-to-face talks for the first time in nearly two years.

Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli car in the West Bank today and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Middle East peace talks in Washington.

An agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks is imminent, US officials said today.

Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said today, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories.

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon was taken to a West Bank observation point by the Palestinian prime minister today for a closer look at a large Israeli settlement and Israel’s separation barrier.

Israel’s new plan to build 1,600 apartments for Jews in Palestinian-claimed east Jerusalem overshadowed US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the West Bank today.

US Vice President Joe Biden yesterday pledged Washington’s full commitment to Israel’s security while throwing his weight behind a renewal of Middle East peace talks after a 14-month hiatus.

THE European Union has urged Israel to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a Middle East peace agreement and make the holy city the capital of two states.

THE continuing punishment of the Palestinian people by Israel will drive moderates into the arms of extremists, Foreign Minister Michéal Martin has warned.

PALESTINIANS will not be pushed into accepting the “Mickey Mouse” state which Israel has in mind for them as part of a peace deal, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad warned yesterday.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad submitted his resignation today, a move that could help pave the way for an elusive power-sharing deal between Palestinian moderates and militants.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Iran’s hardline leaders of fomenting divisions in the Arab world, promoting terrorism, posing threats to Israel and Europe, and seeking to “intimidate as far as they think their voice can reach”.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is using her second overseas trip to assess Mideast peace prospects, reconnect with European allies and remind her Russian counterpart that US efforts to rebuild relations with Moscow have their limits.

Two Irish MEPs are travelling on a fact-finding mission to Israel and Palestine to discuss humanitarian concerns following the four-week Israeli offensive in Gaza.

THE choice of former US senator George Mitchell as special envoy to the Middle East shows that US President Barack Obama is serious about changing the direction of US policy there, experts say.

ISRAEL MOVED closer to a bruising election campaign that will decide the future of peace talks yesterday, as polls showed moderate foreign minister Tzipi Livni in a surprisingly close race with hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama promised today he would preserve the close relationship between the US and Israel.

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has held a breakfast meeting with Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak, the first event in a day packed with meetings and travel across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

British prime minister Gordon Brown called for "justice" for the Palestinian people today, condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Micheál Martin begins a four-day trip to the Middle East today as violence in Gaza threatens a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian group Hamas.

The chief Palestinian peace negotiator today cast serious doubt on President George Bush’s goal of a Middle East peace deal by the end of the year, saying it would take a “miracle” to produce an agreement.

ISRAEL yesterday celebrated its 60th anniversary with displays of military might and parties, as Palestinians marked the plight of hundreds of thousands who lost their land to the Jewish state.

US Vice President Dick Cheney began Easter Sunday with a prayer and the singing of “Amazing Grace” at a tiny chapel in Jerusalem, then launched into a day of talks about the Mideast peace process and the rising influence of Iran in the region.

A Hamas preacher who died in Palestinian custody had been tortured by interrogators from the rival Fatah faction, his family and a fellow detainee claimed today.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak indicated Israel might try to overthrow the Hamas regime in Gaza while Hamas leaders went into hiding after Israel threatened to hunt them down in the battle over daily rocket salvos from Gaza.

Donors began committing funds from around the world today for the troubled Palestinian economy amid a renewed international push for a Palestinian state.

The European Union will pledge €455m in aid to the Palestinians for 2008, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said today.

FOLLOWING the revival of a Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinians at Annapolis on Tuesday, France said it will host a donor conference in Paris on December 17.

Palestinians and Israelis understand that helping the other to realise their aspirations is the key to realising their own, US President George Bush will say today.

Arab leaders and international envoys are preparing for a conference on peace in the Middle East today.

PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was never seriously threatened by an assassination plot and promised to do his best to rein in West Bank militants.

Israel should turn over Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians as part of a peace deal with the moderate government of President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel’s deputy prime minister said today in some of the frankest remarks to date about what Israel might be willing to relinquish.

a meeting with the Palestinian leader today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed releasing some prisoners, lifting some West Bank roadblocks and establishing a team to work on a broad agreement in advance of a US-sponsored peace conference in November.

In their first meeting on Palestinian soil, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today he hopes to launch negotiations “soon” on establishing a Palestinian state, his clearest promise yet to tackle a final peace deal.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Israel is ready to discuss “fundamental issues” with Palestinians who are now governed by leaders accepted by the Jewish state and the West.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the entire Palestinian Cabinet today, a gesture of support for the team of moderates that replaced the Hamas government after the Islamic militants seized Gaza by force.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Ramallah today for talks with the moderate West Bank Palestinian leadership, to lay the groundwork for a peace conference with Israel.