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.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Founded as a Jewish homeland and post-Holocaust haven, forged in border wars with Arab forces, Israel now confronts a redefinition of the conflict after Palestinian refugees massed fearlessly on its frontiers.

The thousands of protesters who surged from Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, flattening some buffer-zone fences and drawing deadly Israeli gunfire, reminded many in the country of the image-corroding consequences of pitting the region’s mightiest military against stone-throwing demonstrators.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Founded as a Jewish homeland and post-Holocaust haven, forged in border wars with Arab forces, Israel now confronts a redefinition of the conflict after Palestinian refugees massed fearlessly on its frontiers.

The thousands of protesters who surged from Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, flattening some buffer-zone fences and drawing deadly Israeli gunfire, reminded many in the country of the image-corroding consequences of pitting the region’s mightiest military against stone-throwing demonstrators.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Smugglers of arms into the Gaza Strip are operating almost freely after a change of leadership in Egypt, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said.

A report by the domestic spy agency said with Egypt’s new leaders preoccupied with stabilizing their country, “governance in Sinai is not high and this allows smugglers to operate almost without hindrance.