When the authorities at the Rafah border terminal closed down their offices on Saturday, they were wrapping up the first day of a new era in Egyptian foreign policy. In a move hailed by many Palestinians and Egyptians as a break from years of unpopular Mubarak-era diplomacy — the joint enforcement, with Israel, of a four-year blockade on the Gaza Strip — Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces launched a new set of border rules that ...

If reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden run the gamut among Palestinians — and do they ever — one end of the spectrum is occupied by Issam Marbough, selling used cell phones from an overturned cardboard box on a sidewalk of downtown Ramallah. Five in the afternoon finds him oblivious to the news of the day and, even after hearing it, he is more inclined to discussion of his financial situation than talking about a ...

It's the end of an era. Gamal Helal, the longtime Arabic translator to four presidents and six secretaries of state, wrapped up his last day at the State Department on Thursday. Helal was one of the only constants in U.S. Mideast policy over the past 19 years, helping the United States navigate both wars with Iraq, the war between Israel and Lebanon, and Israeli operations in Gaza. During every major peace summit -- Madrid, Oslo, Wye and the 2000 Camp ...

Salwa Salah was 16 years old when she was arrested by Israeli forces and jailed for seven months. To this day she says she does not know her crime and is struggling to get her life back on track. She was released shortly before her final school exams but was unable to catch up and now has to re-sit before she can go to university. Salah was held under administrative detention - detention without charge or trial. It is legal ...

A 30-ft. drop was the only way into the dark, earthy abyss, and the Palestinian tunnel workers were giggling nervously at the prospect of a foreign journalist going for a plunge. It didn't seem like a good idea. Apart from the descent, there had been Israeli air strikes for the past three days targeting the dense smuggling network that snakes beneath the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt. An Israeli F-16 was circling overhead at that very moment. I took ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with the top U.S. envoy to the Middle East on Friday was "useful and constructive," the Israeli leader's office said. Talks between American diplomat George Mitchell and Netanyahu focused on efforts to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the two men agreed to continue their discussions in the coming days, the minister's office said. Mitchell will meet Saturday with two of Netanyahu's advisers, Yitzhak Molcho and Mike Hertzog, the office said. He ...

A man arrested in France on suspicion of links to terrorist organizations is a physicist who was working with the agency known for being home of the Large Hadron Collider -- the world's most powerful particle accelerator. Talks between American diplomat George Mitchell and Netanyahu focused on efforts to restart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the two men agreed to continue their discussions in the coming days, the minister's office said. Mitchell will meet Saturday with two of Netanyahu's ...

Mahmoud Abbas is not in the business of doing favors for his bitter rivals in Hamas, which is why the Islamists may have been more taken aback than anyone else at the massive political gift presented to them on Oct. 2 by the Palestinian Authority President. At the instruction of Abbas, the Palestinian delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Council withdrew support for moves to pursue war-crimes charges over Israel's January offensive in Gaza, effectively shelving U.N. ...

Moammar Gadhafi's debut appearance at the United Nations was bound to be memorable, but his long and rambling diatribe Wednesday is one that few will forget. The Libyan leader was introduced as "king of kings" by his countryman Ali Terki, the president of this year's U.N. General Assembly, at the assembly's annual session in New York. Then, dressed in his familiar black beret and sweeping his flowing brown Bedouin robe behind him, the notoriously charismatic leader strode to the stage ...

President Obama on Tuesday prodded Israel and the Palestinian Authority to get moving on talks aimed at a permanent resolution of their decades-old conflict. "Simply put, it is past time to talk about starting negotiations. It is time to move forward," Obama told reporters before a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. "It is time to show the flexibility and common sense and sense of compromise that is necessary to achieve our ...