Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), an emerging leader in the Republican Party who is considered one of the likely candidates for the 2016 US presidential race, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The itinerary and agenda for President Obama's trip to Israel next month is still being hammered out by teams on both sides. But the visit already has an official name, and by the end of the week, it will have a logo too. Past presidential or dignitary visits to Israel have been named, but mostly by the police, who code-named their operation to secure President George W. Bush's visit "Clear Skies" and Pope Benedict XVI's tour as "White Robe."

Israel’s greatest strategic challenge, its gravest strategic failure, its grimmest strategic danger is the (mis)conduct of its public diplomacy...It is difficult to overstate the gravity of Israel’s public diplomacy debacle, and to grasp the ongoing official disregard of the strategic dangers that its continued neglect is creating.

Suddenly Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is speaking about renewing negotiations with the Palestinians. Yair Lapid said that he will not join a coalition that does not renew negotiations, Tzipi Livni and Shaul Mofaz as well gave the push and Netanyahu has succumbed to the “will of the people.” Outgoing Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor of Likud says 80 percent of the people want the government to advance peace with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday, in his first public comment about US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit, said the trip was very important to underline the strong US-Israeli ties at a time of a raging regional storm.

A delegation of senior representatives of Korea's tourism industry visited Israel this week in a bid to increase public awareness of the country as an enticing tourist destination. Their trip coincided with the annual International Mediterranean Tourism Market represented by 30 different countries at the Israel Trade Fairs and Convention Center in Tel Aviv.

Phone calls to the political leaders of Israel and Palestine were among John Kerry's first diplomatic duties as he bedded in to his new job as secretary of state this weekend. Kerry told Mahmoud Abbas that he was "very interested in the peace process and aware of the economic hardships of the Palestinian people", according to Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabel Abu Rdeneh.

A study due to be released on Monday is expected to take both Israel and the Palestinians - but especially the latter - to task for how they portray the other side in school textbooks. The project, conducted by researchers in the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, was funded by the U.S. State Department.