Haim Ramon

With helicopter gunships laying down intense cover fire, Israeli tanks pushed into the northern Gaza Strip before dawn today, taking up positions in three former Jewish settlements. At least two Palestinian militants and a Palestinian police officer were reported killed overnight. The thrust about a mile into the seaside territory came after Palestinian militants for the second time in 24 hours fired a homemade rocket into the Israeli city of Ashkelon, whose center previously was out of range.

Another taboo was shattered in Israel on Wednesday, and quite noisily at that, when parliament held its first-ever public debate on something that is rarely admitted to exist: Israel's top-secret nuclear arsenal. The issue was forced onto the agenda by an Arab Israeli member of parliament, who was promptly attacked for his efforts.

Israel on Tuesday unveiled plans to build 1,120 apartments for Jews in East Jerusalem, a move Palestinians called a setback for U.S.-backed peace negotiations. The announcement by Housing Minister Zeev Boim appeared to be aimed at placating the Shas religious party, which had vowed to quit the coalition government if it conceded anything to the Palestinians on Jerusalem. Shas had criticized a government freeze on approval of new Jewish housing projects in territory claimed by the Palestinians.

Former army Gen. Amram Mitzna took up a quixotic task Tuesday, leading his left-leaning Labor Party into battle against the overwhelmingly favored right-wing Likud in advance of Israel's general elections in January. Mitzna, the bearded, bespectacled mayor of the coastal city of Haifa, crushed his opponents in a three-way race for his party's leadership and early today declared his commitment to restarting peace talks with the Palestinians if he wins in January.

Urged by Israel's president to move swiftly, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert began working Wednesday to assemble a governing coalition in the wake of his centrist party's narrower-than-expected election victory. The pressing nature of the task was underscored in Gaza City by the swearing-in of the new Palestinian government dominated by the Islamist group Hamas -- a regional milestone that will greatly complicate any steps on the peace front.

The kiss lasted a few seconds. The morality play it inspired lasted more than six months, riveting Israelis and their legal system on a single question: Did she or didn't she want it? The drama ended Wednesday when the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court ruled that a 21-year-old female army first lieutenant "did not flirt with the accused, did not initiate the kiss and did not consent to it."

In the next few weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres is expected to make the most fateful decision of his long and sometimes tortured political career. And in parliament's hallways, in the coffee shops of the cognoscente, on editorial pages and televised political talk shows, the debate rages: Will Peres opt to hold elections in May? Should he? At stake, says Labor Party Chairman Nissim Zvilli, a staunch proponent of early elections, is no less than "the future of the State of Israel."

Israeli Minister of Health Haim Ramon startled some of his colleagues earlier this month by suggesting that Israel unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin promptly rejected the proposal, noting that unilateral withdrawal runs counter to the very idea of negotiating a settlement. Yet, even for Rabin, indefinite retention of Gaza has few charms; not long ago he voiced his wish that Gaza would just somehow "disappear into the sea."

President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh ate dinner together Sunday night--the first time in half a century of animosity that Israeli and Syrian leaders have shared a meal, the traditional Middle East ceremony of trust and peace.

With the peace process deadlocked and the Arab-Israeli mood growing increasingly sour, President Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak met at the White House on Tuesday to discuss ways to rejuvenate talks that hold the key to Barak's political future and to Clinton's peacemaking legacy.