The three-week excavation was the first part of a national campaign to recover as many artifacts as possible left behind by Jewish rebels who hid in the desert some 2,000 years ago.

Even though Michaela Ivri Mendelsohn legally changed her name eight years ago, it’s only now that she feels ready to undertake her Jewish renaming ceremony.

Netanyahu’s double play in appointing an extremist defense minister may mobilize and unify the center, left, and soft-right against him.

It is pure politics that compelled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring Avigdor Liberman on as defense minister. But it will make regional peace even harder to achieve.

COGAT will enable Gazans to visit relatives in Israel and the West Bank. They will be authorized to pray at the Temple Mount, and attend a number of Ramadan religious events, the statement said.

According to one report, the United States was one of the nations involved in pushing compromise.

Herzog said that should Netanyahu distance himself from the far-right, his party would "gather and decide," if, perhaps there is room for talks over a unity-government.