Israel Communications

Israel began reconnecting international telephone lines to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday after cutting them last March, a spokesman for the civil administration said. Israeli authorities had instructed international operators not to place calls from the occupied territories to prevent coordination between Palestinians staging an anti-Israel uprising and Palestinian leaders abroad. The reconnection is expected to take several days.

The K5M is a hole in the wall on the main drag here, a diner whose hamburgers, draft beer and cappuccino have long appealed to the city's ample Arab American crowd. Now it is expanding its menu to include megabytes, hoping to lure a generation of Palestinian computer mavens into the West Bank's first Internet cafe. Proprietor Majed Totah inaugurated the landmark cafe earlier this month with four computers in a renovated back room and a high-profile ad campaign in the Palestinian press.

A severed cable caused a power failure that blacked out much of Israel and the occupied territories, stopping factory production, causing traffic snarls and disrupting telephone and other communications. Utility officials ruled out sabotage. In Arab East Jerusalem, three Israeli children returning from a school hike were injured by flying glass when their bus was stoned by Palestinian high school girls, a police spokesman said.

Hello, is Yasser Arafat in? Israel's telephone company inaugurated direct-dial service to 10 Arab countries Thursday, ignoring protests from some Arab governments that they should agree by treaty before such direct links are opened. The list includes Lebanon and Jordan, both of which border Israel, as well as the oil-producing states of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Hello, is Yasser Arafat in? Israel's telephone company inaugurated direct-dial service to 10 Arab countries Thursday, ignoring protests from some Arab governments that they should agree by treaty before such direct links are opened. The list includes Lebanon and Jordan, both of which border Israel, as well as the oil-producing states of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

When war broke out in the Persian Gulf, the American public heard the news from CNN, the British public from the BBC and the Israeli public from a kindly, balding man in corduroy slippers reporting from his modest home in the heart of Tel Aviv. Mickey Gurdus, dubbed "the Eyes and Ears of Israel" by the local press, rules by satellite dish and shortwave antenna over an electronic empire that stretches across the globe.

The K5M is a hole in the wall on the main drag here, a diner whose hamburgers, draft beer and cappuccino have long appealed to the city's ample Arab American crowd. Now it is expanding its menu to include megabytes, hoping to lure a generation of Palestinian computer mavens into the West Bank's first Internet cafe. Proprietor Majed Totah inaugurated the landmark cafe earlier this month with four computers in a renovated back room and a high-profile ad campaign in the Palestinian press.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider blocking a constitutional challenge to the government's secret wiretapping of international phone calls and emails. At issue is whether Americans who have regular dealings with overseas clients and co-workers can sue to challenge the sweep of this surveillance if they have a “reasonable fear” their calls will be monitored. The case, to be heard in the fall, will put a spotlight on a secret surveillance program that won congressional approval in the last year of President George W. Bush's presidency.

In a rare mutiny against the power of Yasser Arafat, Palestinian legislators Wednesday forced his newly appointed Cabinet to resign--the latest sign of his crumbling authority. Arafat also announced that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held Jan 20. He had hoped that at last fixing a date would stave off the challenge to his Cabinet, but the maneuver failed.

A struggle that began with rocks and bullets and quickly moved to roadside bombs and helicopter gunships has jumped to a precarious new level, as Israelis and Palestinians hurtle toward what an increasing number on both sides fear could be full-fledged war. By unleashing fighter jets Friday against population centers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Middle East's mightiest army crossed a Rubicon in its attempts to crush a bloody Palestinian revolt.

When war broke out in the Persian Gulf, the American public heard the news from CNN, the British public from the BBC and the Israeli public from a kindly, balding man in corduroy slippers reporting from his modest home in the heart of Tel Aviv. Mickey Gurdus, dubbed "the Eyes and Ears of Israel" by the local press, rules by satellite dish and shortwave antenna over an electronic empire that stretches across the globe.

Israel began reconnecting international telephone lines to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sunday after cutting them last March, a spokesman for the civil administration said. Israeli authorities had instructed international operators not to place calls from the occupied territories to prevent coordination between Palestinians staging an anti-Israel uprising and Palestinian leaders abroad. The reconnection is expected to take several days.

A severed cable caused a power failure that blacked out much of Israel and the occupied territories, stopping factory production, causing traffic snarls and disrupting telephone and other communications. Utility officials ruled out sabotage. In Arab East Jerusalem, three Israeli children returning from a school hike were injured by flying glass when their bus was stoned by Palestinian high school girls, a police spokesman said.

History is written by the victors, it is often said, but in Israel even the winners do not agree on how to portray their past. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Jewish state, government-run Israel Television is airing a 22-part documentary series that has enraged many Israelis and apparently enlightened others by telling the story of their country's founding from the perspective of the vanquished as well as the victors.

Palestinian gunmen dressed as Israeli soldiers ambushed an armored bus near the entrance to this Jewish settlement Tuesday, disabling the vehicle with a roadside bomb before climbing onto the roof and firing inside, killing seven people, including an infant. Among the dead, hospital officials said, were three members of the same family: a woman, her son-in-law and his 9-month-old daughter.