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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the conservative Likud Party, has been chosen to form Israel's next government, Israeli President Shimon Peres announced Friday. At a joint news conference with Peres, Netanyahu said he accepted the task and he is willing to work with the moderate parties of Labor, led by Ehud Barak, and Kadima, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "We have different approaches in different areas, but we are all together in our desire to act for the good of the state," Netanyahu said. "We will be able to find the common ground to lead the state toward security, prosperity and peace." He said Israeli leaders need to unite as the country faces "great challenges," particularly from Iran, which he said "is developing nuclear weapons and poses the biggest threat to Israel since the war of independence." A U.N. report released this week found that Iran has enough uranium for a single nuclear weapon, but the uran...

"She can do it?" "It's too much for her?" "It's nothing for him?" What exactly are the technical specifications Israel's policy technicians require of the candidates to win the elections? Since there is widespread agreement that none of them are great leaders, at best capable of leading the Israeli wagon to the next traffic light, the only thing left to ask is whether the next prime minister will at least be able to comprehend the new traffic rules, which are set in Washington, Europe and even in the Arab states. This is because the next decision will not be about the candidates' ability to make a wise military decision at 3 A.M., but whether they can bite their lip and hold back. It will not be about their ability to command air force jets heading toward Tehran, but whether they can avoid issuing such an order. As such, a question that desperately begs an answer is how the next prime minister will respond to the possibility of a direct dia...

International attorneys have filed war crime charges against 15 Israeli political and military officials including Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak. Palestinian and international efforts continue to institute legal proceedings for the prosecution of Israeli officials in the commission of war crimes. Although Israeli forces are involved in thousands of cases, local experts such as the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights believe that the recent major attacks on the Gaza Strip will be successfully prosecuted. "They were well-documented, televised and the world was paying attention," a member of the Gaza City team commented. After the very public detection of large-scale atrocities which included the use of white phosphorus bombs in enclosed civilian areas and the liquidation of children there is little defense, PNN reported. Fifteen specific names are now pending for prosecution in The Hague's war crimes tribunal. Those listed for prosecution include Israeli politica...

US/Israel Sign Suicide Pact, Death Warrant, Letter of Bondage for Obama WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed a deal here Friday aimed at halting arms smuggling into Gaza as part of efforts to clinch a ceasefire. Speaking at a hastily-arranged signing ceremony in Washington, Rice said the deal "provides a series of steps that the US and Israel will take to stem the flow of weapons and explosives into Gaza." Rice, who blamed Hamas rocket attacks for sparking a 21-day military offensive by Israel, said the memorandum of understanding aims to ensure that "Gaza can never again be used as a "launchpad" for such attacks. Livni thanked her US counterpart for completing this "historic MOU in record time." The Israeli top diplomat added: "There must be an end of smuggling of weapons to Gaza… The MOU we sign today is … a vital component for the cessation of hostilities." However, it was not...

" We are all Hamas, " screamed a scrawny Mauritanian, repeatedly, as he determinedly drew his face closer to a TV camera. Behind him, thousands more tunefully chanted similar words, chants that were heard in different Arabic dialects, in fact in many different languages all across the globe. Yet, Israel, somehow is claiming victory in the media war, which it calculatedly unleashed weeks before its most violent attack on Gaza yet. Thousands have been reportedly killed and wounded in little more than a week, starting Dec. 27, in the tiny stretch of land (roughly 140 square miles), yet densely populated Gaza Strip of 1.5 million people. " Whenever Israel is bombing, it is hard to explain our position to the world," said Avi Pazner, former Israeli ambassador to Italy and France and "one of the officials drafted in to present Israel's case to the world media," according to The Jewish Chronicle. "But at least this time everything was ready and in...