By PATRICK MARTIN, Toronto Globe and Mail

BILIN, WEST BANK - It was an unexpected scene: The man known as a boring technocrat was bringing a crowd to its feet, cheering.

JERUSALEM - Israel has come under harsh criticism for waging a one-sided war against Hamas in Gaza, for possible involvement in assassinations and for belligerent comments by its foreign minister toward neighbors. Now the government has decided to fight back.

JERUSALEM - In Israel, it is being called the Dubai Affair -- a political assassination with a very long afterlife.

In London, Israel's ambassador is meeting Britain's top diplomat. He's been called to discuss why several British passports, in the name of some British Israeli citizens, were apparently used last month in Dubai by a team of assassins who killed a senior Hamas official.

The news was greeted with great fanfare: The Dead Sea, it was announced last week, is among the finalists in the competition to determine the seven natural wonders of the world.

Israel's new coalition government, led by Likud Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, was sworn into office last week amid consternation over what it would mean to prospects for peace in the Middle East.

Who will be Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's heir?
The Middle East loves to swap theories about the succession to Mubarak, who will turn 81 in May.

The Armenian pottery nameplate beside the door is common, even among Jews, but the painting over the door is a dead giveaway. Only a Christian would display outside his home a picture of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, with its black-domed roof and cross on top. And only an unusual Christian would display it here, in the middle of Israel's biggest Jewish settlement.

There may be more than 30 parties in the running, but with just over a week before Israel's parliamentary election, the race has come down to two.

Most people remember the headlines: Massacre Of Innocents As UN School Is Shelled; Israeli Strike Kills Dozens At UN School.

When the leader of Israel's religious-Zionist Meimad Party recently addressed a meeting of 800 high-school students in a Tel Aviv suburb, his words on the virtue of Israeli democracy for all its citizens were drowned out by student chants of "Death to the Arabs."
Not since the days of the now-illegal Kach party has Rabbi Michael Melchior heard such anti-Arab sentiment.