Shimon Peres

The White House on Friday posted this preview of President Obama's Middle East trip this week, by Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser.

Taken with a couple of major league newspaper pieces, it adds up to a White House quid pro quo bid to the Israelis: We'll make pleasant noises about the Jewish connection to the land, you make pleasant noises about peace.

Mitt Romney in Jerusalem affirmed the strong alliance between the United States and Israel.

Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, in meetings Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres also spoke of the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to the U.S. and Israel. He had arrived in Israel the previous evening from London.

Yitzhak Shamir, who served as Israel's prime minister from 1986 to 1992, died Saturday at the age of 96.

He had been living in a nursing home in Tel Aviv and had Alzheimer's disease for several years.

"Yitzhak Shamir belonged to the generation of giants that established the State of Israel and fought for the freedom of the Jewish people in its land," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. "Shamir personified loyalty to the Land of Israel and the eternal values of the Jewish people."

Jerusalem — “Tomorrow” was the theme of this year’s Israeli Presidential Conference, a three-day program that attracted more than 4,000 guests from around the world here this past week. But there was an air of nostalgia on the opening evening when host Shimon Peres, the 88-year-old president of Israel, bestowed the Presidential Award of Distinction on Henry Kissinger, 89, praising the former U.S. secretary of state as “a great statesman and a great Jew” for statecraft performed in the 1970s.

An Israeli Supreme Court justice denied a new hearing for former President Moshe Katsav to request a reduction in his seven-year prison sentence for a rape conviction.

Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut on Sunday denied the motion for a new hearing, meaning that the only possibility that Katsav has for a reduction of his sentence is through presidential pardon.

Israeli President Shimon Peres successfully underwent surgery to treat a hernia.

Peres underwent the surgery on Friday at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. Doctors say that the surgery was successful and that Peres is feeling well, according to Haaretz.

The hernia was discovered in Peres’ abdomen during his recent state visit to Canada.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lauded the new government coalition including the Kadima Party as the "broadest unity government in Israeli history."

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon to announce Kadima's agreement to join the coalition government, Netanyahu said the new government would "benefit Israel" and is a way "to restore stability without elections."

Israeli President Shimon Peres has booked tickets on Air Canada rather than pay the $4,700 fee El Al demanded for the oxygen tank he must carry with him, according to Israel’s Channel 2.

Madeleine Albright, Bob Dylan, Shimon Peres and Jan Karski will be among 13 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The list was released Thursday. President Obama had previously announced that he was set to confer the medal on Peres, the Israeli president, and Karski, the late Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to document the Nazi genocide.

Madeleine Albright, Bob Dylan, Shimon Peres and Jan Karski will be among 13 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The list was released Thursday. President Obama had previously announced that he was set to confer the medal on Peres, the Israeli president, and Karski, the late Polish resistance fighter who was among the first to document the Nazi genocide.