Major powers and key donors met in Paris Monday for a conference aimed at raising billions of dollars to help the emergence of a viable Palestinian state and give political impetus to the newly-relaunched peace process with Israel. The one-day Conference of Donors for a Palestinian State, was the biggest of its kind since 1996, and aimed to shore up the process jumpstarted in the US city of Annapolis last month.

Eighty-seven countries and international organizations pledged $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians. The total is set to cover the next three years. The Palestinians had hoped to secure $5.6 billion in budgetary and development support over the next three years, but the amount pledged exceeded that figure.

In a concerted effort to suppress rocket fire from Gaza, Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinian militants, eight of them from Islamic Jihad, in 24 hours on Monday and Tuesday. Despite the lethality and accuracy of the Israeli airstrikes, Israel finds itself with no effective military answer to the problem of rockets from Gaza. Israelis living near Gaza in towns like Sderot bear the brunt of the rocket attacks, but the government is reluctant to order a large-scale military invasion of Gaza, especially with American-sponsored peace talks about to begin again with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

Meanwhile, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza wounded a 2-year-old boy in a community on the Gaza-Israel border, Israeli police and rescue services said Sunday. The toddler was hit by shrapnel and taken to hospital, and his mother was being treated for shock, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. A Qassam rocket slammed into a kibbutz factory near Gaza on Friday evening. The plant normally operates 24 hours a day, but fortunately it was empty at the time. It was damaged on its southern side, including broken windows and destroyed equipment, but there were no casualties.

Syria's current conduct prevents Israel from engaging in negotiations with it, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declared Thursday in a meeting with European Union ambassadors in Tel Aviv.

According to Livni, Syria's role in the Mideast was "unconstructive," as it continued to supply weapons to Hizbullah, meddle in Lebanese politics and support terror organizations, including Hamas. However, Livni urged the envoys to help push Syria away from the "Axis of Evil" and bring it closer to moderate Arab countries.

According to the official, Olmert and Abbas have met eight or nine times and told their respective teams to write a paper that would form the basis for negotiations. But when the teams sat down, the official said, the Palestinian side did not do what Abbas had told Olmert would be done.

About 200,000 Gazans rallied in a show of force from Hamas on the 20th anniversary of its founding. Hamas took over Gaza six months ago in a rapid rout of Fatah forces. The rally was intended to display steadfastness in the face of the diplomatic and economic isolation of Gaza, which Israel has declared a "hostile entity." It was reportedly as large as a rally one month ago for rival Fatah, on the anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat.

Just over 24 hours after he announced during a live radio interview that he was quitting in protest of the government's failure to stop rocket attacks on his southern border town, Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said last Thursday he was staying on.

The decision was prompted by a special meeting between Moyal and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv. "At a time like this, responsibility and commitment to Sderot's residents take precedence over any other consideration," Barak's office quoted him telling Moyal. "You don't turn down the defense minister," Moyal told reporters.

Russia announced Monday that it has delivered an initial shipment of nuclear fuel to the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, a step that officials in Moscow and Washington said removes any need for Tehran to pursue a widely opposed uranium enrichment program. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had received written assurances from the government in Tehran that the 82 tons of fuel would be used only at the Bushehr plant, where construction has been dogged by delays amid suspicions that Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons program. The oil-rich country insists that the plant, which will generate electricity, is part of an effort to diversify its energy sources.

In an appearance in Virginia, President Bush expressed support for the Russian delivery, saying it obviates the need for Iran to proceed with a program to enrich uranium. Bush also said he still believes that "Iran is a danger to peace," despite a recent U.S. intelligence finding that Tehran ended a covert nuclear weapons program four years ago.

"While Israel and the White House adopt a confused stance regarding the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the Iranian government must also take advantage of the opportunity that was created to prepare the groundwork for strengthening peace," they wrote.

President George Bush signed a bill Wednesday that includes a provision for Israeli-U.S. energy cooperation. The Energy Independence and Security Act, which was strongly supported by JCRC, passed the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday by a 314-100 vote. In addition to important measures enhancing our nation's energy independence, the bill also establishes a U.S. grant program in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.

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The European view on Iran: Fallout from the New U.S. Intelligence Estimate, featuring Neil Crompton, Hans-Peter Hinrichsen, and Nicholas Roche
Rocket threat from the Gaza Strip, 2000-2007, by Reuven Erlich (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
Don't trust nuke sneaks: U.S. report says Iran isn't building a bomb, but don't put stock in that assessment, by Victor Davis Hanson
The next war with Hizbollah, by Amir Kulick
Key players in Mideast talks may remain unseen, by Joshua Mitnick
Russia, Iran and nuclear fuel:Dangerous liaisons, The Economist
Bush and Bushehr, The Wall Street Journal
The clock ticks: Sanction Iran now, by Matthew Levitt
What 'International Pressure'?: The fantasy world of the Iran NIE, by Matthias Kuntzel