President Barack Obama called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims" during a speech Thursday in Cairo. Some topics he addressed: ...more

June 5, 2009

With its dueling street names, barbed wire barricades and the tomb of a shared patriarch split between two religions, the city of Abraham takes the feud between Israelis and Palestinians to its outer limits. ...more

December 25, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama stepped gingerly through the intractable politics of the Middle East on Wednesday, offering resolute support for Israel's security, warning that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be a "game-changing" event for the world, and pledging to make peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians one of his highest priorities if he becomes president. ...more

July 24, 2008

President Bush began two days of talks with Saudi leaders Monday as his administration sent formal notice to Congress of a controversial U.S. sale of "smart bomb" technology to this desert kingdom. ...more

January 15, 2008

President Bush, on the first visit here of his administration, demanded Wednesday that Israelis shut down unauthorized settler outposts on Palestinian territory, called on Palestinian authorities to take steps to halt rocket attacks against Israel, and issued a sharp warning to Iran. ...more

January 10, 2008

WEST BANK - Gloom was banished from Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem for the first time in years on Monday as Christian pilgrims from all over the world flocked here to celebrate Jesus' birth in an atmosphere of renewed tranquility. ...more

December 24, 2007

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed themselves on Tuesday to negotiate a peace treaty by the end of 2008, setting themselves a deadline for ending a conflict that has endured for six decades. ...more

November 28, 2007

As a wall of pessimism begins to crack, where's the diplomacy? Watching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice making repeated trips to Israel to try to broker some kind of deal between Israelis and Palestinians, while Iraq remains politically unresolved, leaves me feeling like my house is burning down and the fire department has decided to stop along the way to get two cats out of a tree. ...more

November 27, 2007

This week's Mideast peace conference is unlike any previous U.S. attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because the price of failure has risen dramatically: Radical Islamists could gain the upper hand in Palestinian areas and in an increasingly polarized Middle East. ...more

November 25, 2007

The State Department formally announced Tuesday night that the United States has invited representatives of nearly 50 countries and institutions - including Saudi Arabia and Syria - to sit down with Israelis and Palestinians in Annapolis, Md., next week in a conference designed to kick-start substantive peace talks in the region. ...more

November 21, 2007