Third bulldozer attack

A bulldozer driver overturned a police car and rammed a bus in Jerusalem in an apparent terrorist attack before being shot. Two police officers were slightly injured in the attack last Thursday, Israel Police said. Police and a cab driver shot the bulldozer driver, who was identified by Israeli media as a 26-year-old Palestinian resident of eastern Jerusalem. He died of his wounds. The driver also reportedly tried to flip over cars near the Malha Mall. Last July, a Palestinian from eastern Jerusalem used a bulldozer in downtown Jerusalem to kill three and injure dozens. Two weeks later, 24 people were injured in a similar attack.

Examining Pope Pius’ record

Yad Vashem will co-operate with a Catholic study institute to evaluate research on Pope Pius XII’s role during the Holocaust. Scholars from Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research were to have met this week with scholars from the Jerusalem-based Studium Theologicum Salesianum to evaluate the controversial pope’s wartime record. The meeting was being held “to understand the present state of research on the man and the topic, and is an opportunity for an exchange of updated knowledge and a sharing of scholarly opinions,”  a statement from Yad Vashem said. Many historians have accused Pius of turning a blind eye to Jewish suffering during the Holocaust, while the Vatican and other historians assert that Pius worked behind the scenes to save Jews. Yad Vashem in particular has come under criticism for an exhibit caption that ascribes “silence and the absence of guidelines” during the Holocaust to Pius. The meeting comes amid preparations for a visit to Israel in May by Pope Benedict XVI that will include a stop at Yad Vashem. It also comes amid an ongoing process promoting the beatification of Pius and after a report last week that the Vatican produced a 1943 document to bolster its assertion that Pope Pius XII worked behind the scenes to save Jews during World War II.

U.K. cancels embassy move

The British Embassy in Israel called off a move to new offices in Tel Aviv because the building’s owner is involved in West Bank construction. The building is partly owned by the Africa-Israel Investments Ltd. real estate company; a subsidiary of the firm owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev that has built homes in three West Bank communities. Leviev recently settled in Britain. The British Embassy received documents from Africa-Israel Investments a week ago detailing its activities in the West Bank. Based on that information, the embassy decided not to rent the property. A lease had not been signed. The planned move was announced a year ago. After media coverage of the move, as well as the activities of the company, pro-Palestinian groups began protesting the British foreign office.

Britain’s new Hezbollah policy

The British government said it will re-establish contact with Hezbollah. Britain had halted all contact with the Lebanese Shiite militia four years ago.  Canada, the United States and Israel consider it a terrorist group. The British government announced it would resume contacts with Hezbollah’s political wing. The announcement came on the heels of a visit by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Washington, D.C., and British officials said the move was discussed in advance with the Obama administration. A statement from the British Foreign Ministry said the government had “reconsidered our position on no contact with Hezbollah in light of more positive recent political developments in Lebanon” – notably, the participation of Hezbollah in the formation of a national unity government in Lebanon.

Mauritania expels envoy

The Foreign Ministry said it had closed its embassy in Mauritania after the government of this overwhelmingly Muslim West African nation asked the Israeli ambassador and his staff to leave. The move came after Mauritania’s military junta recalled its own ambassador from Israel last month due to the campaign against Hamas in Gaza.