Bradley Burston

If he means to take unilateral steps, Sharon, the feared and respected warrior who has now spent more than half his adult life as a political revolutionary, must first remake the Jewish state's original party of revolt, the Likud, into the spearhead of the moderate center.

In what was said to be the first time the voice of a sitting Shin Bet director was broadcast on Israeli airwaves, Dichter addressed what has become a central event in enunciation of Israeli policymaking, the Herzliya Conference on security and aspects of national strength.

It can come in many guises, in the form of obfuscation or obstinacy, misdirection or tantrum, the height of charm or the depth of petulance. But its essence is one: The Power of No. In the case of the Geneva Accord, it can even come disguised as a Yes.

It has taken all the diplomatic running that Ariel Sharon can do, to keep in the same place. But Bush's worsening plight in Iraq may actually be working to Sharon's advantage, inadvertently lending the prime minister an effectively free hand in policymaking.

As evidence of anti-Semitic sentiment mounts across Europe, Israelis have begun asking if foreign criticism of their government's policies has crossed a line of no return into virulent Jew-hate and serious debate over the very right of Israel to continue to exist.

Driven to distraction by the tragedies of eternal warfare and the burdens of economic strife, Israelis woke Wednesday to a peace initiative so outlandish as to accomplish the impossible - defy immediate condemnation.

It may be the last sacred cow left standing in the Jewish state. But if an army-appointed panel of experts has its way, the army, too, will change radically - and the sooner the better.

It may be the last sacred cow left standing in the Jewish state. But if an army-appointed panel of experts has its way, the Israel Defense Forces, too, will change radically - and, according to many observers, the sooner the better.

The West Bank security fence that was to have kept Palestinian militants from crossing into Israel has come to delineate - and exacerbate - new divides, distancing Israel from its closest ally Washington, and dividing Israelis from one another.

It is the largest cemetery the world has ever known. For the living, it remains the most potent symbol of the least comprehensible darkness of human behavior. This week saw a fresh chapter in a boundlessly painful dispute - how to honor the victims of Auschwitz.

Has George Bush come to believe that an unapologetically deadly Israeli drive to crush Hamas - a bid to literally bury the armed Islamic movement's hierarchy - could ultimately pave the way to his road map for peace? Has the world?

As Israeli hardliners geared up to demonstrate against the prime minister they had labored to elect just three months ago, Israelis voiced fears that the prime minister's sudden peacemaking bid may make him the next target of a fanatic, perhaps deadly, fringe.

The question is old hat in Israel, but after PM signals a possible policy shift in a Haaretz interview, it is being asked with fresh urgency: Is this a new, more flexible Sharon, and, if so, will his old comrades on the right bring him down before he can make peace?

After two years as a wartime prime minister, he now finds himself forging a new coalition, battling an "intifada" among activists of the party he helped found, scrabbling to allocate the spoils of a landslide vistory, and all the while springing political surprises.

For Israelis, the last flight of a quiet hero was at once inconceivable and familiar - the unbearable juxtaposition of the Holocaust and the nascent, tensely nurtured hopes of millions dashed without so much as the promise of a grave to grieve upon.

The government watchdog meant to oversee the democratic process appeared to turn on its handler this week, raising fears over the direction of Israeli democracy.

A scandal-shadowed Likud primary election that seemed to hand a ringing slap to party chief Ariel Sharon might ultimately enable him to realize a principle goal: the rebuilding of a unity government following January 28 general elections.

A home-grown corruption scandal in the Likud, potentially the strongest obstacle yet to a Likud landslide, may hand Sharon the leverage he needs to renew a unity coalition.

In the Middle East it is a physical law as dependable as gravity: to every action there will be an equal and equally undesirable counter-reaction. As the Gaza Strip reels from a major IDF raid, the next move could be up to the bombmakers of Hamas.

Eyeing future run at premiership, Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer aims his West Bank security fence squarely at the Israeli consensus, rattling rightists, who fear stakes in the heart of their vision of an expanded Jewish state.

In deadly serious minuet of survivalism, Bush, Sharon, and Arafat have one thing in common: each has a strong interest in keeping the peace process stalled, and each hopes to be the one able to stall the longest.

Rolling out tattered red carpets for CIA boss, Israelis and Palestinians take skewers to Washington's Middle East policies, but with no U.S.-driven peace plan on the horizon, even a slap seems par for the course.

On the eve of another U.S. mediation mission, the prime minister is turning aside pressure by settlers and their allies to order a new, even more intensive military assault in response to a sudden, deadly daily ration of terrorism.

Summarily firing the cabinet ministers of the powerful, controversial Shas party, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has pulled the rabbit of a political triumph out of a tattered hat - but no one knows the politics of vengeance like Shas.