Israel

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) vowed Sunday to clear her name after the revelation of a wiretapped conversation in which she reportedly agreed to intervene in the federal investigation of two pro-Israeli lobbyists in exchange for help getting a coveted congressional post.

Israel has warned for years that it might carry out military action to prevent Iran from building an atomic bomb. But as the United States and other powers prepare to confront Iran in talks this week, the message from Jerusalem is more restrained. Israeli leaders say they are willing to wait as President Obama plays out his strategy of negotiating with Iran while threatening stronger sanctions if talks fail. They say last week's disclosure of a previously secret nuclear enrichment plant under construction in Iran strengthened the case for harsh international measures.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday defended his support of Israel's military action against Hamas, a day after he met privately with local Muslim leaders who had criticized him as being one-sided and ill-equipped to wade into the complex Middle East conflict. At a rally outside the Israeli Consulate earlier this week, Villaraigosa said Israel had the "right and responsibility to defend itself" from the rocket attacks being launched from the Gaza Strip.

Every day, the Hamas rocket teams sneak through the fire and fury of Gaza to launching sites such as trucks, rooftops, school courtyards and mosques. Groups of three to five militants scramble to set up short-range Qassam rockets made in clandestine workshops in the Gaza Strip and longer-range Grads smuggled from Iran. Wary of Israeli jets hunting above the squalid urban maze, the rocket teams aim with the aid of Google Earth and landmarks such as the twin smokestacks of an Israeli power plant.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to meet Wednesday to formulate a joint vision of a peace deal to be presented at a November conference in the United States, their aides said. Abbas and Olmert have met five times in recent months, but the two sides remain far apart on how specific the document should be. The Palestinians want to take a detailed framework agreement to the conference, while Israel wants a shorter and vaguer statement.

Gaza City police have redeployed in force, as Hamas works to maintain law and order in the Gaza Strip amid a prolonged Israeli air assault that has leveled dozens of police stations and left nearly 400 people dead. But many officers on patrol are now wearing civilian clothing and carrying sticks rather than guns to avoid being targeted by Israeli warplanes. "We are trying to cope with the situation," said Officer Abu Ahmed, 47.

A week ago Ehud Barak was trailing so badly in Israel's election campaign that he appeared, awkwardly, on a satirical television show to tout his leadership skills. The next day, a massive Israeli air assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip thrust him center stage in a deadly serious role. It was Barak -- defense minister, decorated war hero, military strategist par excellence -- who planned the operation.

Israel's week-old assault on the Gaza Strip has widened the rift between Palestinians who back the search by moderate leaders for a peace accord with the Jewish state and those drawn to Hamas' call for armed struggle. The breach was on display Friday in the West Bank as the territory's U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority leadership, striving to contain rising anger over the death toll in Hamas-ruled Gaza, sent police to put down pro-Hamas demonstrations.

With little sign that the soon-ending Bush administration will press Israel to halt the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, diplomats and political leaders throughout the Middle East and Europe scrambled to find ways to bring an end to the violence. But as the weekend drew to a close, the frenetic diplomatic activity appeared to have made scant progress. The United States used its U.N.

Israel's ground invasion of the Gaza Strip has abruptly increased the stakes for Washington at an awkward moment when President Bush's power is ebbing and his successor is choosing to remain on the sidelines. The ground assault that began Saturday raises the chances of a sharp increase in casualties, perhaps on both sides, that would heighten international pressure on the United States to intervene in an attempt to end the conflict.