A new report sharply criticizes Israel’s conduct of last year’s Lebanon war, singling out Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and amplifying calls for his ouster.

Recent Mideast diplomacy has produced no breakthrough, but a new offer from Israel—an Arab-Israeli peace conference in Jerusalem—has injected some light into the picture.

Secretary Rice agrees to wait and see if a new Palestinian unity government can meet international conditions for further talks, including recognition of Israel's right to exist.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this week invited Palestinian leaders to return to the bargaining table. But he and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may lack the necessary political capital to change the current tenor of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Violent clashes between rival groups appear to have derailed Palestinian unity talks and could escalate into civil war. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—in the region to appeal for moderation—has gained little traction.  

After a week of waffling, France commits a large number of troops and offers to lead the UN peacekeeping effort in Lebanon. The move is expected to clear a diplomatic logjam that delayed the deployment of peacekeepers. In the absence of a sizeable force, Kofi Annan is in the region attempting to stabilize the still-shaky cease-fire.

While the war raged in Lebanon, the other theater in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Gaza, was often overlooked. Though a cease-fire has stopped the fighting in the north, violence continues in Gaza. But Palestinian officials may form a "national unity" government as a result.

The UN-mandated truce between Israel and Hezbollah holds fast, but huge questions remain about Hezbollah's willingness to cede authority to the Lebanese government and Israel's faith in a UN-backed peacekeeping force.

A UN Security Council truce finally forced Israel and Hezbollah to cease fire, but a final weekend of rockets, artillery, ground combat, and air strikes, as well as the blood spilled already, left the region's hatreds in full bloom.

The U.S. and French-led effort to draw up a Mideast cease-fire plan for UN Security Council consideration has fallen far short of the most basic consideration: winning the support of the two combatants.

As Israel and Hezbollah continue to battle it out in Lebanon, each side is vying to win both on the battlefield and in the court of public opinion.

In a further sign that a cease-fire may be some way off in the Middle East, Israeli officials say over 200 rockets crashed into Israeli territory Wednesday, even as Israeli forces fought to consolidate a new security zone in southern Lebanon.

After an Israeli air strike kills nearly sixty civilians in a Lebanese village, Israeli officials call a two-day halt to aerial attacks on Lebanon. But other fighting continues, and efforts to arrange a cease-fire and peacekeeping force fall victim to confusing signals from Washington and other diplomatic players.

Two missile-driven crises on opposite ends of the planet point up several realities about anti-missile technology: first, that nothing in current arsenals can counter them, and second, that the small, cheap artillery rockets fired by Hezbollah pose a far more difficult challenge today than complex ICBMs.

Israel calls up reservists in preparation for a wider war as U.S., European, and Arab foreign ministers fail to agree on terms for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the killing continues in Lebanon and northern Israel.

Israeli air strikes continue to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure as Hezbollah rockets target Israeli cities. Experts say the violence is the result of regional political maneuvering by Iran and Syria—using as their proxies Hezbollah and, to a lesser extent, Hamas—that makes a quick end to the conflict unlikely.

Israeli forces enter Lebanon as back-and-forth missile attacks between Hezbollah and Israel escalate. EU and UN officials have called for the deployment of international peacekeepers to defuse the crisis.

Violence worsens as Israeli forces move deeper into Palestinian territories in search of an Israeli soldier held by militants. Regional efforts to secure the soldier's release have had little effect as Palestinians continue launching rockets at Israel and the Israeli government escalates its military campaign.

Israeli forces have broadened their ground and air assault from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, where they arrested some dozen Hamas cabinet ministers and lawmakers. The operation came as Palestinian factions neared agreement on an approach to peace talks that could commit Hamas to an implicit recognition of Israel's right to exist.

The Hamas leadership of the Palestinian Authority has come close to an agreement that calls for a Palestinian state, but denies it is recognizing Israel. Reports of the agreement between Hamas and Fatah come after weeks of bitter negotiations and escalating violence have prompted Israeli forces to mass on the Gaza border in preparation for an invasion.