TEL AVIV (Reuters) – A U.N. report on Israel’s bloody seizure of a Turkish ship trying to carry aid to Gaza will be published on July 27 after delays to enable talks between Israel and Turkey, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to discuss the findings of the committee set up by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and chaired by former New Zealand premier Geoffrey Palmer, saying only they had been finalized.

SOFIA (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commended Bulgaria’s Holocaust record on Thursday, reaching into history in his bid to buttress Balkan bonds as Palestinians campaign for U.N. recognition of statehood.

Though allied with Nazi Germany, the Bulgarians safeguarded their 50,000 Jews. Many later emigrated to Israel, whose status as Jewish homeland Netanyahu wants Palestinians to endorse – a big bone of contention in stalled U.S.-sponsored peace efforts.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Stagnant peacemaking with the Palestinians has not stopped a blossoming of Israel’s relations with Balkan states focused on liberalizing their societies and economies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.

Buoyed by Greece’s grounding of international activists who had tried to sail to blockaded Gaza, Netanyahu pointed to a growing group of central and east European countries close to the United States that were supporting the Israelis in U.N. and EU forums.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli police briefly detained a leading rabbi Sunday as part of a widening probe into a treatise suspected of inciting the murder of Arabs.

The investigation has pitted authorities in the Jewish state against far-right West Bank settlers and has led to scuffles outside government institutions in Jerusalem and a sit-down protest that choked off the main highway to Tel Aviv.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli leaders holed up in a new underground nuclear bunker on Wednesday as part of annual maneuvers to prepare for a possible missile war with Iran, Syria and their Lebanese and Palestinian guerrilla allies.

Officials said it was the first time the security cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had tested the “National Management Center” carved out beneath the government complex in Jerusalem over the past decade.

LONDON (Reuters) – While the Cold War black comedy “Dr. Strangelove” made fans squirm with its portrayal of catastrophic nuclear brinkmanship, Bruce Blair had reason to feel the cult movie missed the real risks.

As a junior U.S. officer responsible for Minuteman ballistic missiles aimed at the Soviet Union and China, Blair was worried about sloppy safeguards and the reflex obedience of those empowered to slaughter millions from the isolation of a silo.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A secret note passed in parliament which halted a televised committee meeting has added to the popular fascination in Israel with a major shipping firm accused by Washington of doing illicit business with Iran.

Ofer Brothers Group denied wrongdoing after being blacklisted by the U.S. State Department last week, but its refusal to address a slew of media reports about past cooperation with Israeli security services deepened the mystery.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – To ask Israeli officials how the border with a future Palestine should look is to invite a deluge of data — from the regional military balance, to topographical surveys, to intelligence projections on Hamas strength.

But no one will map it out. For while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused any return to the “indefensible” lines held before the West Bank’s occupation in the 1967 war, the Israelis themselves have no ready alternative to hand.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – To ask Israeli officials how the border with a future Palestine should look is to invite a deluge of data — from the regional military balance, to topographical surveys, to intelligence projections on Hamas strength.

But no one will map it out. For while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused any return to the “indefensible” lines held before the West Bank’s occupation in the 1967 war, the Israelis themselves have no ready alternative to hand.