Kerry calls Netanyahu and Abbas; brief first round of negotiations in Washington may coincide with release of first group of long-time security prisoners

Backed by Hezbollah, Bashar Assad’s forces launch major offensive against rebel-held areas in key city

Worshipers are not allowed to bring a Torah from outside the Western Wall, but requests to use one of site’s 100 scrolls have been rebuffed

Ami Popper, who killed 7 Gazans in the 1990s, seeks release under same criteria being applied to long-term Palestinian incarcerees

Opposition’s Arab and ultra-Orthodox parties attack proposal, saying it’s hypocritical and anti-democratic

It’s fashionable to say the government is beholden to the far right, but on the prisoner release vote, Netanyahu proved he could get his way with the entire right against him

Amid international calls for restraint, interim leadership moves to dismantle pro-Morsi sit-in camps; Islamists remain defiant

Israel-based company is using the Internet to identify heirs and close the books on a dark chapter of German history