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Obama to Visit Israel in SpringPresident Barack Obama plans to visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this spring, the White House has announced, raising the prospects of a new U.S. push to restart long-stalled Israel-Palestinian peace efforts.Obama’s trip, his first to Israel since taking office, signaled that he intends to make the volatile Middle East - where Iran remains locked in a nuclear standoff with the West and Syria is caught up in a bloody civil war - a top priority in his second term.click Israel Matters! 67 to read the complete issue.

Netanyahu to US Senators: Priority is IranPrime Minister Benjamin Netanya-hu told a group of visiting US Sena-tors during January that if reelect-ed he will work to stop Iran’s illicit nuclear march. “My priority, if I’m elected for a next term as prime minister, will be first to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons,” he told the group, which included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY, photo at left). “I think that was and remains the highest priority for both our countries. I appreciate the American support and your support for that end.”click Israel Matters! 66 to read the complete issue.

Operation Pillar of Defense: Lessons LearnedAs Israel and Hamas mostly stilled their guns after reaching a cease-fire agreement, ending eight days of intense bombardment, both sides took home some new lessons about their foes.click Israel Matters! 65 to read the complete issue.

Special Issue: Israel - Operation Pillar of DefenseUpdated as of November 20, 2012click Israel Matters! 64b to read the complete issue.

Israel Quiet on Mystery Explosion in SudanIsraeli officials did not confirm nor deny that the Israeli military carried out a recent attack on a weapons factory just south of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. Sudan directly accused Israel of launching a night time air raid on the Yarmouk factory, with a senior minister telling reporters, “The people have seen it with their eyes — four planes coming from the east, and we have no enemy other than Israel.”click Israel Matters! 64 to read the complete issue.

Netanyahu Draws “Red Line” on Iran's Nuclear Program During U.N. SpeechHolding up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb with a fuse, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu literally drew a red line just below a label reading “final stage” to a bomb, in which Iran was 90 percent along the path of having sufficient weapons-grade material. Experts put that at the point that Iran has amassed enough urani-um, purified to a level of 20 percent, that could quickly be enriched further and be used to produce an atomic bomb.click Israel Matters! 63 to read the complete issue.

Israel Under International Pressure Not To Attack Iran AloneIsrael is facing growing international pressure not to attack Iran unilaterally, with the United States in particular making clear its firm opposition to any such strike. Recent rhetoric by Israeli leaders that time is running out to halt Iran’s contested nuclear program has raised concern that military action might be imminent, despite repeated calls from abroad to give sanctions and diplomacy more time to work.click Israel Matters! 62 to read the complete issue.

U.S., Israel at Odds Over Iran Nuclear ProgramThe White House recently expressed confidence that American intelligence will know if Iran escalates its nuclear program in a sprint to build an atomic bomb. The announcement came a day after Israel’s defense minister warned that the allies might not know “in time” to prevent it.“We have eyes, we have visibility into the program,” press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing. “We feel confident that we would be able to detect a break-out move by Iran towards the acquisition of a nuclear weapon.”click Israel Matters! 61 to read the complete issue.

U.S. Aides in Israel Give Assurances About IranPresident Obama and his senior advisers have said little publicly about Iran since the resumption of negotiations over its nuclear program in April, preferring to let the diplomats hash out the issues in the hope that tensions with Tehran can be managed, at least until the election in November. In Israel, however, the United States is saying plenty, with a stream of current and former officials traveling there to threaten additional sanctions on Iran and to reiterate President Obama’s readiness to use military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.click Israel Matters! 60 to read the complete issue.