Israeli - Palestinian Conflict News:

The commander of the Israeli Air Force, which has reportedly bombarded targets in Syria several times in recent months, warned Wednesday that war could break out on Israel's northern border at any moment, demanding the full engagement of the IAF's resources.

Gen. John Allen has been appointed special U.S. envoy on security issues in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He will not mediate between the parties; his work will almost exclusively involve contacts with Israel. Allen will deal with the U.S. position on Israeli security needs and the security arrangements that would accompany the establishment of a future Palestinian state.

A sketched map of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert's land-for-peace offer to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008 -- hurriedly drawn up by Abbas after a meeting with Olmert that December, and made public for the first time on Thursday -- suggests that Israel was prepared to withdraw to borders very similar to the pre-1967 lines and swap areas of northern and southern Israel in return for maintaining the larger settlement blocs.

President Obama said the United States was trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in part because it could help "reshape attitudes" that foster extremism.

The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from US Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Reviving peace talks with the Palestinians tops Israel's agenda, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday as they met in Jerusalem at the start of the American diplomat's latest visit to the region.