Kevin Peraino

The United States has a long tradition of helping distant strangers. But many Americans now question our ability to do good in faraway lands. Few places are more remote—and troubled—than this one.

At first glance, the images of overturned tables and blood-soaked walls seemed to tell a familiar story. The setting—Kampala, the laid-back capital of Uganda, during the World Cup championship last week—was new, but the lesson of the latest global terrorist bombings was by now routine: jihadi groups are ruthless, unpredictable, and prone to metastasize. Chaotic backwaters in the Horn of Africa can spawn threats just as dangerous as those in the Middle East and South Asia.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is a loose cannon once dubbed Little Saddam—and a pivotal ally in our war on terror.

Yemen, where the underpants bomber trained for his attack, fights on America's side in the war on terror. But how effective can it really be?

Correction (published Sept. 24, 2009): This story originally reported that Nir Barkat was a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. Barkat has never belonged. NEWSWEEK regrets the error. Washington and Jerusalem look closer today to a deal on freezing Israel's West Bank settlement construction than they've been in years. Last week, George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy, suggested that an agreement was imminent, and most observers expect at least a nine-month hiatus to...

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's unorthodox approach is winning plaudits from the West. That could be his undoing.

Israel's president, the old hand Shimon Peres, has transformed the office from a ceremonial backwater to a new center of gravity.

The number of Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories has more than doubled since 1993, but the numbers are misleading. The fastest-growing cohort—nearly one third—are the ultra-Orthodox, who tend to be far less hawkish than the ultranationalists removed from Gaza in 2005. Another third are "economic settlers," who moved to the West Bank for the cheap rents and short commutes to Jerusalem. Many could probably be persuaded to leave with the right financial incentives. And for all the...

This week marks intense U.S.-Israel negotiations. So where is Israel's foreign minister?

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is proof of the perils of reining in settlements. He's also proof of why Washington should try.

Can jihadists really be reformed? Closing Guantanamo may depend on it.

Israel's hawkish new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in office for only a little more than a month, yet some Israeli doves say they're already seeing signs of new hardline security measures. Israeli police fanned out in a crackdown on draft dodgers—a problem for the military. Ceramic artist Annelien Kisch, a member of a peace group called New Profile, says four police showed up at her house at 7 a.m., flashed a search warrant and then confiscated two of her computers. Although no...

Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has long governed a tinderbox. His party survived armed clashes with separatist rebels in the country's south and Houthi tribesmen in the north. Al Qaeda is also a growing threat. Last month a suicide bomber detonated himself at a crowded archeological site in Yemen, killing four South Korean tourists, and earlier this month CentCom chief Gen. David Petraeus warned that Yemen was becoming a safe haven for Qaeda militants. Saleh spoke with NEWSWEEK's Kevin...

Acre was a rare oasis of calm. Now hate and fear have taken charge.

Some Israelis find humor in their chaotic, too-close-to-call election.

Never mind Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni. Israelis are chattering about the candidacy of Orly Levy, a 35-year-old former fashion model running for Parliament from the state's hard-right Israel Beitenu party. Local wags have made quick work of her thin résumé, and even Levy herself admits, "I have no political experience at all." Some Israelis are amused. "This would be like Paris Hilton going to the Senate," says filmmaker Etgar Keret. "You could make a reality show about this."A scary...

Never mind the two front runners for prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni. Israelis are chattering about Orly Levy, 35, a former fashion model running for Parliament from the state's hard-right Israel Beitenu Party. Wags have made quick work of her campaign; Israel's version of "Saturday Night Live" mocked her as a dilettante, and even Levy admits her résumé is thin. "I have no political experience at all," she told NEWSWEEK. "This would be like Paris Hilton going to the...

The war has revived Israel's leftists, but it's killing their chances of a deal with Palestinian moderates.

Tony Blair, now international envoy to the Middle East, on how to stop the fighting in Gaza.

With Hamas under siege, secular Fatah mulls its next move.

Three recent books chart the winding path from Kermit Roosevelt with his suitcases stuffed with cash to George W. Bush's gloomy Nobel Prize prospects.

Can Israel restore its aura of invincibility?

Israel has long been allergic to foreign troops meddling in its affairs. That's now changing.

Outrage over India's handling of the Nariman House siege has given way to a colder calculation.

Israelis and Palestinians seem to realize that a strong international presence will be critical to any deal.

Natan Sharansky fights to save democracy promotion from the wreck of the Bush administration.

One morning this past summer, Barack Obama sat down around a conference table in Jerusalem's King David Hotel with Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel's Likud Party. Neither man ran a country but both had high hopes. The talk was "like a hypothetical business discussion" among "two people who knew they might be working together," says a Netanyahu associate who was present but requested anonymity to speak freely. But that's where the similarities stop. Netanyahu, 59, is an unreconstructed...

The country's central banker on Ben Bernanke and the global economic crisis.

Will the global credit crunch finally put an end to the emirate's building boom?

The one thing Mideast talks are producing is more settlements.