Iron Dome missile-interception system, which is supposed to be deployed next year to protect communities in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip from attacks by missiles and rockets launched from a range of 4-70 kilometers.

Iron Dome is the short-range component of the defense establishment's multilayered antimissile protection program, which also includes the David's Slingshot system, with a range of up to 250 kilometers, and the Arrow 2 and 3 systems intended to destroy long-range missiles such as the Scud and Iran's Shahab.

Indeed, according to Military Intelligence, in the lull since Operation Cast Lead ended in January, Hamas has continued to improve the range and precision of its rockets.

Fifty-two percent of students graduating from the Israel Arts and Science Academy in Jerusalem received an "outstanding" grade on their matriculation exams - the highest percentage among all high schools in the country.

About 40 percent of the best performers were national religious schools, and 33 percent were Arab schools. Only 26 percent were ordinary secular schools.

To get an outstanding score, a student must have a weighted average of 90 or above if he took exams in a total of 30 or more study units, and 95 or above if he took 25 to 30 units. Only a few thousand students every year meet this standard.

Mekorot, the national water company

132 million cubic meters of water from Lake Kinneret this year - about one quarter of the annual average

the National Water Carrier went into service in 1964

The result of this deliberation was Hamas’s message that it would adhere to the internationally accepted wisdom — a Palestinian state within the borders of 1967, the year Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas also coupled its concession with caveats aplenty, demanding full Israeli withdrawal, full Palestinian sovereignty and respect for the refugees’ rights. In this, there was little to distinguish its position from conventional Palestinian attitudes.

Baruch Marzel