From the “You couldn’t make this up” file:

Israeli TV star Dudu Topaz , once known as the “TV Ratings King”, has been arrested on suspicion that he hired a couple of heavies to put the hurt on TV execs and an agent who turned down his pitch to make a comeback – 5 years after his show was yanked from Israel’s airwaves.

The assaults left two men and a woman battered and bruised (and presumably somewhat vindicated in their decision not to extend Topaz’s career)

Our report on the story of a fallen star is here. See the stories from Ynet here and from Haaretz here.

And here’s some video of Dudu in happier times courtesy of Channel 2.

Modern vacation tastes have long-since evolved from the ‘sun, sea and sangria’ beloved of our forebears. 

Niche holidays are all the rage these days and a cursory browse of the web quickly throws up an eclectic mix of possibilities from this Elvis Presley-themed trip to the United States,  to a pleasant vacation in Germany looking at tractors and other farm machinery, right through to this combination “boat trip on the Seine/making a quilt” holiday. (And those are all from just one web site).

But even these high-adrenalin holidays pale by comparison to the week-long tour of Israel we spotted on the web being offered by Shurat HaDin Israel Law Centre whose motto is “Bankrupting Terrorism – One Lawsuit at a Time”.

Their “Ultimate Mission to Israel” offers a range of unusual activities sure to put the smile on any vacationers face, to whit:

- Briefings by Mossad officials and commanders of the Shin Bet.

- Inside tour of the Israeli Air Force unit who (sic) carries out targeted killings. 

US President Barack Obama told his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their White House meeting that “under the roadmap and under Annapolis that there’s a clear understanding that we have to make progress on settlements. Settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward. That’s a difficult issue. I recognize that, but it’s an important one and it has to be addressed.”

To give an idea of just how difficult it will be take a look at this extraordinary map designed by French cartographer Julien Boussac. It might look like Indonesia or the Caribbean at first glance, but the map is a fanciful reworking of what is actually happening in the West Bank with the blue/water areas representing areas under full Israeli control with the dark and light green ‘islands’ representing areas where the Palestinian Authority exerts some control.

This puts me in mind of high school geography and studying the amazing engineering feat of land reclamation in the Netherlands – where polders and dykes enabled the Dutch to push back the North Sea and expand their living space.

For the Palestinians politics and diplomacy, not polders and dykes, are going to be needed to reclaim the land they want for a future state in a feat even more spectacular than anything those Dutch engineers could pull off.

And for the settlers – as we explain here – they think there’s no point even thinking about it. In this video, settlers in Efrat, between Jerusalem and Hebron, comment on the issue, preceded by the reaction from Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

One of the most closely watched meetings for decades between an Israeli Prime Minister and a US President took place yesterday when Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu sat together at the White House.

The two men met for two hours - during which time Obama pressed the ‘two state solution’ to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on a reluctant Netanyahu, while Netanyahu underlined his belief that Iran was a more pressing concern than Palestinian statehood.

White House watchers pointed out that 2 hours is a long meeting by Preisdential standards and also that the body language of the two men as they sat together suggested none of the fireworks that some had predicted went off in the private encounter.

Here’s a video report on the public comments made by the two leaders as they finished up their marathon chinwag.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper has a full transcript of the Q&A here.

Pope Benedict has left the Holy Land bequeathing a message of peace, tolerance and love between all religions and peoples.

We hope that message also filters through to the eternally fractious relationship between journalists and security men – which gets even more strained when a high-profile visitor like the Pope is in town.

Months of elaborate preparation went in to ensuring the Pope’s visit was safe and successful and also to ensure journalists got controlled access to major events to tell the stories their readers and viewers want to see.

This planning process is hostage, however, to a simple dichotomy which pits journalists against bureaucrats and security officials.

In the eyes of the security men, journalists are bothersome, quarrelsome and disobedient and need to be coralled (even though that process is often like ‘herding cats’). Notions of a free press and unlimited access take a back seat to security concerns.

In the eyes of the journalists, security men are unthinking automatons with no common sense or an appreciation of the (self-)importance of journalists – and they need to be challenged and confronted whenever possible. The elaborate coverage restrictions, security sweeps, shuttle buses and byzantine pool regulations are, of course, both ridiculous and the main obstacle between the journalist and his/her exclusive, prize-winning story.

Here’s a slideshow of the best pictures from the first days of Pope Benedict’s visit to the Middle East. Click on the photo to enjoy.