Before watching Australia’s first World Cup game against Germany, 240 Australian students gathered Sunday for a three-day conference to prepare them for conversations about Israel back home. StandWithUs International, a nonprofit Israeli organization, has joined with a series of Australian Jewish groups to give students facts that will better equip them to defend Israel on their campuses.

...there has also been a fresh awakening to the areas where Australia and Israel's interests overlap - and, just as importantly, where they diverge. The two countries, though friendly and democratic, are not automatically in sync. Recognising that actually bodes well for more mature ties in the future.

The Hamas government said Thursday it will not let newly approved food items into the Gaza Strip as long as Israel maintains its blockade of the territory...The order was symbolic at best, leaving a ban in place on desperately needed construction and industrial materials.

Israel is easing its Gaza embargo to allow snack food and drinks into the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian officials said Wednesday, following an international outcry over Israel's raid on an aid flotilla.

BBC Monitoring is reporting that Israel is considering establishing its own 24-hour news channel...The plan would, say its supporters, help disseminate Israel’s news to the wider world.

In Turkey, diplomacy and commerce go hand in hand: when ministers travel abroad, they take a train of businessmen...A new pipeline running from Russia to Turkey might carry gas onwards to Syria or Lebanon – but not Israel.

What we are witnessing is another step — perhaps crucial — in the shifting strategic balance of power in the Middle East: The cause of the Palestinians is gradually passing out of the hands of Mubarak and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Last week’s events off the coast of Israel continue to resonate. Turkish-Israeli relations have not quite collapsed since then but are at their lowest level since Israel’s founding. U.S.-Israeli tensions have emerged, and European hostility toward Israel continues to intensify.