TEL AVIV, Israel — You don’t have to understand Hebrew to read the worried faces of Israelis glancing at this week’s newspapers. The picture under yesterday’s bold headlines shows the familiar round face of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il. Looking at him from a Tel Aviv sidewalk near the beach, Israeli readers show a familiar expression: one of profound worry. “Now Iran will feel it can do whatever it wants,” said Nili Orvin, a local businesswoman. North Korea, on Asia’s Pacific rim, lies thousands of miles from the Mediterranean Sea that laps gently upon Tel Aviv’s shore. Still, Israelis know [...]
BASRA, Iraq — Shadows are growing long on the afternoon of Oct. 1 when British Army Captain Steve Morte, 39, strolls into the garden courtyard of a decaying Saddam-era palace-turned-British base in this sweltering city of 2 million. In one sweaty hand he clutches a government-issued receipt book. In the other, $25,000 in cash in a soggy yellow envelope. His grip on the money tightens as he approaches two Iraqi men sitting on a bench, for they are — or were — the enemy. But dealing with erstwhile enemies — and tolerating cultural mores that seem somehow wrong to Westerners [...]
JERUSALEM — When Israeli newspapers shook the newsstands in late September with word that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Saudi Arabian officials — perhaps even the Saudi King — had held face-to-face talks, not everyone was shocked at the revelation. The two countries have no formal relations. In fact, the official enmity is such that Saudi law, as that of most Arab states, bars anyone with a passport showing an Israeli stamp from entering the country. Still, a handful of Middle East observers were not surprised to hear of possible talks between Israel and the Kingdom. That’s because they predict [...]
