Jerusalem

Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday morning in a desperate attempt to hold on to power after a scathing report on his handling of last year’s war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. This week’s report has fuelled a growing chorus of calls for Olmert’s resignation.

A member of Ehud Olmert’s Cabinet quit on Tuesday, opening the first crack in Israel’s government after the Prime Minister vowed to ride out a scathing reprimand by an inquiry into last year’s costly Lebanon war. Eitan Cabel told a news conference: ”I cannot sit in a government headed by Ehud Olmert.”

A government commission on Monday blasted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and top army brass for ”serious failure” in handling last year’s Lebanon war, dealing a heavy blow to his flagging leadership. A retired judge held Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz and former chief of staff Dan Halutz principally responsible for the failures of the conflict.

An Israeli inquiry panel will publish a report on Monday on the start of last year’s war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas that could damage Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government. The publication of interim findings on the first five days of the war by the government-appointed Winograd Commission is worrying for Cabinet members.

United States restaurant chain Hooters, known for waitresses in short shorts and tight tops, will open its first branch in Israel this summer, in the Mediterranean seaside city of Tel Aviv. ”I strongly believe that the Hooters concept is something that Israelis are looking for,” said Ofer Ahiraz, who bought the Hooters franchise for Israel.

Israel on Thursday rejected any contacts with the new Palestinian unity government, denying earlier statements by a senior official that it could work with it under certain conditions. ”The Israeli position remains the same,” government spokesperson Miri Eisin told the media in the first official reaction to the new Palestinian Cabinet line-up unveiled on Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has testified he launched last year’s war against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon in line with a contingency plan he approved four months before, the Haaretz daily said on Thursday. Olmert told a judicial inquiry last month that Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 triggered the plans for a large-scale attack, the Israeli newspaper said.

Israel expressed concern on Friday about a potential Russian sale of advanced anti-tank weapon systems to Damascus amid persistent fears in the Jewish state about a future conflict with its enemy. The weapons in question are capable of ripping through the most modern armour and penetrating even bunkers, the country’s top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper warned.

Israeli-Palestinian talks hosted by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended on Monday with a vague promise to meet again and little sign of progress on reviving long-stalled peace moves. The talks, attended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, were overshadowed by a Palestinian unity deal that calmed factional fighting.

Israeli police forces entered the area around the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and dispersed stone-throwing worshippers with stun grenades at the end of Friday prayers, the police said. Muslim leaders had called for protests over excavations near Islam’s third holiest shrine.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party will name senior statesman and Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres as the party’s candidate for president, a senior government source said on Sunday. ”Kadima ministers have agreed to name Shimon Peres as the party’s candidate for the presidential election,” the source told the media.

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed on Monday to hold a three-way meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on reviving peace talks, an Olmert adviser said. The adviser, Miri Eisin, said the three would convene for talks in the ”near future”.

Two Israeli soldiers whose capture in July by guerrillas from the Lebanese movement Hezbollah sparked a 34-day war, are still alive, a former Lebanese president was quoted on Friday as saying. Amin Gemayel was approached by a reporter from the Israeli daily Maariv on the sidelines of a conference in Madrid.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz on Monday proposed a fresh plan for peace in the Middle East that includes talks on the future borders of a Palestinian state within six months, army radio said. ”We need a new roadmap, which will combine the Saudi initiative with the larger principles of the [current] roadmap,” Peretz was quoted as telling a meeting of Labour MPs.

Israel’s security Cabinet on Wednesday agreed to press on with military raids and ”targeted killings” in Gaza but did not order a large-scale assault in response to a wave of Palestinian rocket attacks. A government statement said the security forces had been told to prepare and present a plan for a broader operation.

Israel is using nanotechnology to try to create a robot no bigger than a hornet that would be able to chase, photograph and kill its targets, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday. The robot, nicknamed the ”bionic hornet”, would be able to navigate its way down narrow alleyways to target otherwise unreachable enemies such as rocket launchers.

If as a Jew you are observant but modern, scientists and rabbis are developing gadgets to meet your needs. At a modest cottage in a suburb of Jerusalem, the Institute for Science and Halacha, founded in 1965, has found a way for religious physicians to write prescriptions on the Sabbath, when such activity is banned by ritual law.