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The new prime minister of Pakistan Abbasi consults with former prime minister Sharif in Murree, Pakistan, after the Supreme Court disqualifies Sharif from the position. Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, the chief minister of Punjab province will contest a by-election for parliament to replace Abbasi.

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The last time there was a war with Hamas was in 2006 under prime minister Olmert of the Kadima party. It happened when Olmert was negotiating a peace settlement with Mr. Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and the two sides had come very close differing on refugee resettlement and how much of West Bank in percentage each side would give up.  Olmert was being investigated for financial dealings by prosecutors which led to derailing further negotiations ,and the Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza shutting down peace efforts. A former mayor of Jerusalem from Likud for ten years and prime minister of Israel from Kadima party reflects on his efforts to bring a settlement with the Palestinians which would create the conditions for the two communities peaceful coexistence. NPR's Dana Estrin talked to Ehud Olmert in 2022 in this interview which you can listen to on NPR audio by clicking on article.

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Melanie Garson, professor at University College, London, says attention was diverted to expansionist settler programs in the West Bank leading to lax efforts for security on the border with Gaza. Parties on the right controlled the key ministry of Defense and their priorities were the West bank diverting resources,  say experts in this France24 report. Warnings were ignored from the Army, and from Egypt, according to this report. Garson says it will be very hard for Netanyahu to avoid responsibility for not having the mechanisms in place to protect people on the border with Gaza. On this page a former prime minister of Israel who had reached an agreement with Abbas of the Palestinian Authority for peaceful coexistence of the Jewish and Palestinian reflects on that progress and its disruption by rocket attacks from Gaza by Hamas leading to the Gaza war in 2006, 17 years earlier. The patterns are similar with the Israelis and  Palestinians close to an agreement but not going the last mile and external forces disrupting the process at the last moment. ...

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Friedman calls Netanyahu the Mubarak of Israel for the way he has not moved forward on a treaty and settlement with the Palestinians, especially he says after Al Jazeera revealed significant concessions by the Palestinians under Mahmoud Abbas. He says Israel should move quickly to reach a settlement with the Palestinians, and as he puts it disentangle itself from the larger Arab story as it unfolds.

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GlaxoSmithKline will have a new CEO in May 2008, Andrew Witty. In an internal webcast to employees he described some of the changes he will make in Glaxo's organization. Instead of lumping all countries outside of the US, Europe and Japan under International with their own heads, he will split International up into emerging markets which include India, Russia, China, Brazil and the Middle East. He has hired Abbas Hussain from Eli Lilly to head this division. The rest of Asia and Pacific region will be another division.

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Friedman quotes the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on the intransigence of both the Palestinians under Abbas and Israelis under Likud leader Netanyahu. The Haaretz account of the currrent state of Israeli-Palestinian relations said the situation was close to where it was at the turn of the century, when it was considered a goal just to have Palestinians and Israelis sit down and talk to each other. Friedman suggests Netanyahu offer a 6 month freeze on new settlements as a way to get the Palestinians to negotiate a new peace; saying it costs Israel little as there are already 300,000 new settlers, and the prospects for a settlement make this worthwhile. He also recounts the fears of both sides. The Palestinian side sees the new settlements as sending the message that Israel wants two states, one in the pre-1967 borders and the other in the post-1967 borders, both belonging to Israel. The Israelis fear the Palestinian's covet some of the land that is now inside Israel, but was once part of the old Palestine; and have never reconciled to the co-existence of a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian state, or a Jewish people's co-existence alongside a Palestinian people....

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Following the Gaza conflict in mid 2014, the situation in Nov. 2014 is one of continued unrest among young people in the West Bank. Here Rudoren and Kershner give a exceptional account of the feelings of Palestinians at the Askar refugee camp in the West Bank. With no prospect for a way out or the way ahead, and lack of confidence in the leadership, no peace talks, Palestinian young people engage in random acts of protest or violence. A decade of protest has put Palestine further behind in development, jobs, and economic progress. A decade of conflict has not reduced Israel's sense of insecurity, even as it has evolved into an advanced technological society. The situation of Jerusalem divides the two peoples, just as it did a decade ago under Palestinian leader Arafat. No novel or out of the ordinary solutions for Jerusalem that would preserve Jerusalem as a city open to Muslims, Christians and Jews, without a preeminent status for any one community, have been tried.

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A Pakistani court finds former prime minister Nawaz Sharif guilty of corruption. Sharif is sentenced for 10 years in prison and his daughter Maryam Sharif to 7 years. The corruption case is based on 4 apartments in central London which prosecution claims were bought with money from kickbacks during Sharif's period as prime minister in the 1990's, and later passed on to his sons and daughter. Mr. Sharif's party is the frontrunner in the upcoming election.

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Nawaz Sharif's wife Kulsoom is expected to win the parliamentary seat from which the former prime minister was ousted by a decision of the Supreme Court.

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Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif faces a trial on corruption charges in Pakistan in 2018, just prior to new elections. The military and the judiciary both support the trial which involves payments for 4 upscale neighborhood London apartments owned by Sharif. 

Mr. Sharif's party leads in polls with about 36% support, higher than the next leading party Tehreek which has 24% support and is led by Imran Khan a former cricketer. The Pakistan People's Party of the Bhutto family comes in third. The result of this could be a weaker coalition government. The Supreme Court has banned Sharif for life from holding political office. Pakistan has seen governments toppled and military rule for half of its 70 years since independence. The rivalry with India and the role of the military has affected political institutions and democracy in Pakistan making peace with India difficult to achieve for any elected government.

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A look at Israel at 70 by the Economist magazine shows a country that has combined early achievements of socialist governments such as free health care system and good education system with the addition of 1 million immigrants from the collapsing Soviet Union, to build a highly trained technically skilled workforce and international companies.  It says the Israeli Arabs are still poor and unable to integrate. With ultra Orthodox Jews they make up 30% of the population, and many of them who do not work. Infrastructure has suffered from lack of investment and public transport is in poor condition. About 4.5 million Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza remain a continuous source of tension with no settlement in sight. The shift of the capital to Jerusalem is recognized by the U.S. Trump administration, a win for Israel, but leaving the divisive politics of Mr. Netanyahu in place. So that with the growing economy, there are social problems and political division which need to be addressed as much as the economy. A problem left for another administration, another leader from possibly a revived Labor party and another day. ...