COMMENT: As a small country, there are many similarities between New Zealand and Israel, a country I've been travelling around this week.

New Zealanders have great ideas but the commercialisation of them was "near zero", says Israeli entrepreneur Isaac Bentwich.

The French are pressing ahead with a multilateral Middle East peace conference, even though Israel will not be attending.

Israeli general's speech in which he compared today's Israel to Nazi-era Germany has drawn ire, and also support.

A British Labour MP's Facebook post has sparked debate about when criticism of Israel becomes anti-Semitism. Donna Miles-Mojab and Juliet Moses express differing views.

COMMENT: You can criticise any government in the world, any regime, and state, and it goes unnoticed - except Israel.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully says Israel's latest land seizure deserves response from UN Security Council.

At a time of simmering Mideast tensions and rising malaise, a group of French chefs recently visited the West Bank to bring a little joie de vivre to Palestinian kitchens.

The British Government intends to ban public institutions in the country from themselves banning the purchase of goods from Israel.

Young liberals have made a video of Israelis and Palestinians kissing each other in response to a book being banned.

Benjamin Netanyahu has likened a decision by the European Union to label goods from Israeli settlements to the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses.

An African man shot by an Israeli guard who mistook him for an assailant was then kicked by a mob as he lay bleeding before he died.

Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem are expected to be sealed off and soldiers placed in city centres to support the police amid rising bloodshed and unrest.

The phones have been ringing nonstop at the Gun Hill shooting range, following a week of daily knife attacks by Palestinians and a clarion call by Israeli politicians requesting that permit holders....

A journalist reporting for Lebanese TV channel Al-Mayadeen was allegedly hit in the face with a stun grenade mid-report.

Israeli leaders proposed harsh new measures to curb "Jewish terrorism" after a wave of extremist violence left Israeli and Palestinian children dead in knife and arson attacks.

Now that it is our turn to chair the United Nations Security Council Murray McCully says we will attempt to revive peace talks between Israel and Palestine. Not an easy task.

A Kiwi journalist has arrived home safely after being detained by Israeli military on an activist ship seeking to break a blockade of Gaza.

Two Maori Television journalists are expected to arrive in New Zealand from Israel tomorrow, after the activist ship they were on board was detained by the Israeli navy.

Druze in the Golan Heights can only watch as jihadi forces attack the town that is home to their relatives.

An ambitious attempt to spy on foreign ministers as they negotiated over Iran's nuclear programme has come to light.

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre is visited by Christians from everywhere, writes Kate Shuttleworth.

The general who led Israel's war against Hamas last year believes it is in Israel's interest that Hamas continue to rule the Gaza Strip.

After years of objection from right-wing Israeli groups, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee last month approved initial plans for 2500 houses on 150ha of land in the Kidron Valley in Al Sawahra.

Atriumphant Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be on a new collision course with Barack Obama after the US President bluntly restated his belief in a Palestinian state and criticised the Israeli leader's election campaign tactics.

Israel is facing the prospect of its first national unity government in 30 years.

With portraits of the late Menachem Begin on prominent display, the bustling Jerusalem market should have been comfortable home turf for Benjamin Netanyahu.

Pakistan has test-fired a ballistic missile able to carry a nuclear warhead to every part of India. Yesterday's test was another escalation in Islamabad's effort to keep pace with its neighbouring rival's formidable military advancements.