Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM - Israeli authorities arrested an Arab Israeli on Thursday on accusations that he planted a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv that wounded 27 people and threatened to sabotage efforts to broker a cease-fire to end the fighting in Gaza, police said. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that the man, from the village of Taybeh, in Israel, was connected to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups. A Palestinian militant cell based in the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya sent the man on Wednesday to place a bomb connected to a mobile phone on the bus, Rosenfeld said.

Olga and Kate Gelonkin, mother and daughter, strolled together under a parasol on a beautiful Saturday watching the sun glint off the Mediterranean and dreaming of being anyplace else but here. "Canada, maybe," said Olga, 42, a computer programmer who now sells shoes. "Somewhere in America. But not New York. Somewhere quiet," said her 20-year-old daughter, a biology student. Olga Gelonkin, a divorcee, immigrated to Israel three years ago from Moscow, hoping to escape crime and anti-Semitism.

Yesterday afternoon, on the seventh day of a war with the heaviest bombing raids in history, we saw the first blood of battle. And finally, television had a chance to use its unique technology to move beyond the radio-like coverage of talking heads and maps. Did the top three networks use this opportunity to inform the American public? They did not. ABC, CBS and NBC provided non-stop coverage of the first Scud missiles which fell on Tel Aviv and Haifa last Thursday. But while yesterday's attack did real damage, with missiles razing buildings and injuring at least 60, the Big Three quickly returned to regularly scheduled programming.

TEL AVIV - Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Sunday killed at least 10 members of one family, including a mother and her four children, and struck two buildings used by journalists, inflicting the heaviest toll on civilians since fighting began Wednesday. Militants in Gaza continued to lob dozens of artillery rounds toward Israel, including two powerful long-range rockets that burst over Tel Aviv on Sunday after Israel's antimissile system intercepted them in midair. With little apparent progress in cease-fire negotiations in Cairo, British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that Israel would lose support from the international community if it followed through on threats to deploy troops in Gaza.

It was the sound of Matanya's stonecutter that first attracted my attention the day I began exploring the artists' quarter of Old Jaffa. And it led me to still other artistic sounds and sights - among them the tap-tapping of a jeweler's hammer, the illuminated shimmering of handblown glass and the playful piano music from a nightclub performer's keyboard - that today fill the alleyways of one of Israel's most alluring old towns. I was staying in nearby Tel Aviv, but I had heard about the local government's efforts to rebuild a historic section of Old Jaffa and turn the ancient Mediterranean seaport into a colony for painters, sculptors, potters and jewelers.

TEL AVIV - After coughing regularly for half an hour, Rennie Harris, artistic director/choreographer of Philadelphia-based hip-hop company Rennie Harris Puremovement, paused a hotel-lobby interview last month to order a cup of tea. "It's sandstorm season in Cairo, or something," he apologized. Harris had just finished the first leg of his company's frenetic March 9-to-April 6 DanceMotion USA tour of Egypt, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, during which he and his dynamic dancers taught, performed, loved the food, loved the people, and spread the hip-hop gospel: Be young, be free.

Gregory J. W. Urwin is a professor of history and associate director of the center for the study of force and diplomacy at Temple University Ever since the Twin Towers disintegrated into rubble Sept. 11, 2001, the cries of "Death to America!" coming from Arab streets have sounded more ominous than simple posturing. The recently squelched plot to blow up JFK Airport and the prospect of Iran becoming a nuclear power fill Americans with unspoken dread that catastrophe lurks. That's just how terrorists want us to think.

"Crazy Eddie" Antar, known for the antic TV commercials that offered "insane" prices at his chain of popular electronics stores, was arrested in Israel yesterday after ducking federal authorities for more than two years. The arrest, which came without incident in a small town outside Tel Aviv, was a result of a massive stock fraud and insider trading investigation. Antar faces extradition to the United States to answer a 17-count criminal conspiracy and securities-fraud indictment accusing him of pocketing $74 million.

For the 20 years of the Equality Forum in Philadelphia, lawyer Malcolm Lazin has been its guiding light. It's a legacy of tense times and sometimes slow ones, but he sees this year's as a turning point. "Let me give you an example," Lazin said. "We have a military panel. In past years, we would be lamenting 'Don't ask, don't tell.' Now, people are out and serving in the armed forces. Things are really different. " In addition, Lazin said, Equality Forum will be welcoming a big star in the LGBT political community, Houston Mayor Annise Parker, only the second female mayor of Texas' largest city - and the largest city in the country with a gay mayor.

Sleep? Forget it. Tonight - on the eve of his big trip - Max Wolf, 90, expects he'll be too excited to get much shut-eye. "I hope I'm going to sleep on the plane," he said, laughing. It's a dream, this trip. To visit Israel, finally. And to be there at such a momentous time: the 50th anniversary of the country's founding. "I'm sure I'm going to be overwhelmed, just touching my feet on that sacred ground," said Wolf, who lives in Brith Shalom House off City Avenue in Wynnefield Heights.