For the first time in the history of Israel, a sitting Prime Minister is likely to be indicted on charges of fraud, breach of trust and tax evasion that have led to calls that he declare himself incapacitated immediately.
President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the Middle East peace process, which has so far failed to yield results, will continue after the two lame-duck leaders leave office.
Interim Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused the Islamist Hamas movement on Sunday of "shattering" the Gaza truce after two rockets hit Israel, prompting an air strike which killed four Palestinian militants.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni distanced herself today from comments by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calling for painful territorial concessions for Middle East peace.
"If we are determined to preserve the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel, we must inevitably relinquish, with great pain, parts of our homeland, of which we dreamt and for which we yearned and prayed for generations," Olmert told a memorial service on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl.
The Middle East peace Quartet gathers in Egypt on Saturday to hear Israel and the Palestinians report on progress in peace talks currently stymied by elections in the US and Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called for snap elections on Sunday after failing to form a new government, dashing faint hopes of reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians in 2008.
Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday granted Prime Minister designate Tzipi Livni request for more time to negotiate a new coalition led by the centrist Kadima party.
Israeli leaders are giving serious consideration to a dormant Saudi plan offering a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday.
The investigation was to focus on allegations that Olmert during his term as Industry, Trade and Labour Minister, between 2003 and 2006, granted major state funding to a company represented by his close associate, Attorney Uri Messer.- Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that Israel will have to leave much of east Jerusalem and give the Palestinians a state in an area equal to the size of the entire West Bank and Gaza.
- Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned an “evil wind of extremism'' is threatening Israel's democracy, after a pipe bomb attack wounded a harsh critic of Israel's settler movement.
Israel seriously considered bombing Iran's nuclear sites earlier this year, but US President George W Bush refused to support such a strike, The Guardian newspaper reported on Friday.
- Israel's President Shimon Peres asked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday to form a new government, a day after scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert officially stepped down.
- Israel's scandal-tainted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resigned on Sunday, local television reported, setting the stage for more weeks of political turmoil as the horse-trading begins to form a new government.
- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni won a Kadima party leadership vote by the narrow margin of 431 votes ahead of Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz putting her on track to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, official results showed early Thursday.
Members of Israel's governing Kadima party were voting for a new leader on Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni favoured by opinion polls to replace scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Beleaguered Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, facing corruption charges of bribe taking, breach of trust and money laundering, might have to go to jail, a media report said.- Israeli media reports suggest that Israel's police are recommending indictments against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in a string of corruption cases.
- Israeli police said on Thursday they will decide within days whether to recommend that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be charged in several different cases of suspected graft.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's idea of an interim peace agreement at summit on Sunday, a Palestinian negotiator said, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that virtually ruled out an accord by a January target date.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his Jerusalem residence on Sunday to discuss the state of peace talks as Olmert's exit draws closer.- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is willing to release 450 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a soldier held by militants in the Gaza Strip, a newspaper reported on Friday.
The United States and Israel said on Tuesday that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were making progress despite, what the Jewish state referred to as, its small and limited settlement activities.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet Wednesday for the first time since Olmert announced he will step down, a Palestinian official said on Tuesday.
