US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Russian counterpart clashed openly on Thursday over the planned startup this summer of Iran's first, Russian-built nuclear power plant, highlighting a split in views over how to steer Iran away from nuclear weapons.

The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators on Friday called on Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch peace negotiations in order to achieve a two-state solution within 24 months.

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip struck the western Negev on Friday, for the fifth time in 24 hours.

Terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired several rockets against Israel, killing one civilian. Israel’s Air Force retaliated on Friday by bombing smuggling tunnels on Gaza’s border with Egypt. One of three rockets that were fired into Israeli territory on Thursday smashed into a greenhouse of an agricultural community in the Israeli village Netiv Haasara, killing a Thai worker there.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is backing new legislation aimed at protecting refugees and asylum seekers.

Sarah Palin called on the Obama administration to hit the reset button with Israel.

While Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his six senior ministers to discuss the tension with Washington, US President Barack Obama on Wednesday night said the US-Israeli relationship was not in crisis over the approval of an east Jerusalem building plan during US Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel last week.

Opinion polls in Holland show that a majority of voters favor the Jewish former mayor of Amsterdam for prime minister.

Four well-known Jews received Hungarian state awards.

Renovation work on the Choral Synagogue in Tomsk, one of the oldest synagogues in Siberia, is well underway with hopes of the project being finished as early as September 2010.