DON GIVENS’ Irish U21s will take on Israel in Herzliya today hoping to get their European Championship qualifying campaign back on the rails after successive defeats by Switzerland and France.

THE last time Tel Aviv got this excited about a football match in its own back yard the Berlin Wall was still thumbing its grubby nose at the west.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today held out the prospect of a historic breakthrough in the Middle East peace process by telling Palestinians: “We have no desire to rule over you and control your affairs.”

Israel’s foreign minister offered peace talks to the Palestinians and Syria if they moved against violence, endorsing the US-backed “road map” peace plan again after a year of going it alone.

The United States has criticised Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon over his threat to draw his own borders and isolate the Palestinians if peace efforts remain deadlocked.

Palestinian leader humiliated

Israeli troops shot dead five armed Palestinians and a nine-year-old boy in separate incidents near a Jewish settlement yesterday, hours after a suicide bomber blew up a fast food restaurant, killing a 15-year-old girl.

A 15-year-old Israeli girl has died of her injuries in a Palestinian suicide bomb attack at a restaurant in a coastal resort.

At least 15 people have been injured in an explosion at a restaurant in near Tel Aviv.