Past Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, 96, died Saturday at a nursing home in Tel Aviv. [The New York Times] Yad Vashem tones down its account of Pope Pius XII’s conduct toward the massacre of Jews during World War II. [Boston.com] An archeological dig in the lower Galilee finds a 1,600-year-old mosaic floor describing the story of biblical Samson and a Hebrew inscription from a synagogue. [The Jerusalem Post] Mario Balotelli, Italian soccer star and foster son of a Jewish mother, leads Italy to the …More

Rob Lattin is Jspace News' Foreign Affairs Correspondent. In addition to covering foreign affairs for Jspace, Rob is a blogger on Israeli and Middle Eastern foreign policy for the Foreign Policy Association, as well as a freelance writer. He can be reached by email at rob@jspacecorp.com. With all of the turmoil and uncertainty going on in the Middle East right now, the state of Israeli-Turkish relations has largely been underreported and under analyzed. While the last six years have seen significant erosion in …More