The security guard downstairs noticed she hadn't come down to pick up the newspapers Thursday morning, but didn't want to violate her privacy by going up.

A grandson who stopped by to visit later learned why. Sonia Peres, 87, had died in her sleep, as privately as she had lived her life despite decades of sharing it with one of the nation's most public figures, President Shimon Peres.

That morning, Peres was meeting with French Foreign Minister Michel Alliot-Marie to discuss strategic bilateral relations and the peace process, the usual big things on the elder statesman's mind.

An Israeli citizen was arrested Tuesday in connection with a 1995 massacre in Bosnia,  and Israel’s Justice Ministry launched extradition proceedings against him.

A Sarajevo court issued a warrant for Alexandar Cvetkovic's arrest in April, stating that he was wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity. In August, Bosnia-Herzegovina filed a formal request to Israel for his  extradition to stand trial at a war-crimes tribunal.

The extradition request was supported by extensive documentation of Cvetkovic's alleged involvement in the Srebrenica massacres, including a deposition of the chief prosecutor of the war-crimes tribunal in Sarajevo, a photo of Cvetkovic's military ID, survivors' testimony  and affidavits of soldiers of the  unit he served in, and the suspect's own testimony at the  International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or ICTY.

According to the documents, Cvetkovic was a soldier in the 10th Sabotage Unit belonging to the Vojska Republike Srpske, the Bosnian Serb Army that seized control of the Srebrenica enclave in 1995. The unit of trained commandos and snipers participated in the "systematic, wide and planned campaign against the Bosnian-Muslim population with the intent of exterminating them," the Israeli Justice Ministry says in a petition to declare the man extraditable. 

The material provided by authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina to the ministry's reveal the "chilling facts" of the massacre of Muslim civilians at the Branjevo Farm on July 16, 1995, the petition says. 

For 10 hours that day, busloads of civilians -- many blindfolded and bound -- were driven to the farm. The people were removed from the bus, lined up around 10 at a time, and shot from behind by a firing squad of eight. Some witnesses testified that approximately 700 people had been killed that day. But Bosnian authorities, relying on United Nations experts and mass graves discovered around the farm, believe the number of victims was 1,000 to 1,200. 

Cvetkovic allegedly was a member of that firing squad and actively participated in the Branjevo massacre, one of several in which about 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered in the bloodiest atrocities on European soil since World War II.

Like the rest of the region, Israel is keeping a keen eye on developments in Tunisia even as it  waits to see what tomorrow (or the next day) brings in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to convene an intelligence assessment meeting to study the situation, Israel Radio reported, but has already drawn one conclusion.

"The region in which we live is unstable ... we see this at several points throughout the Middle East," Netanyahu said at Sunday's weekly Cabinet meeting. And the one clear lesson arising from the surrounding situation is that "we need to lay the foundations of security in any agreement we make," he said. Peace can unravel, regime and other changes can occur; therefore, the government's policy is to "bind peace and security together," Netanyahu said.

The peace and security chicken-and-egg conundrum presents a stumbling block that is more than just a procedural dispute of what gets discussed first. Security is the key to keeping the peace, Netanyahu said last week in his annual meeting with the foreign media.

"This may not be obvious to some of you, because you hear all the time a contrary statement that says 'well, what will keep the peace is the peace,'" said Netanyahu. The formal conclusion of peace doesn't guarantee the continuation of peace, but the security arrangements will "buttress" it and "protect us in case peace unravels ... or Iran tries to walk in," the prime minister said. 

A group of five Israelis aboard a private plane to Los Angeles could have been a high-flying business delegation. The group, which left Israel on Wednesday, is indeed alleged to have been involved in business -- but not exactly the kind that goes through the Southern California-Israel Chamber of Commerce.

Brothers Meir and Itzhak Abergil (sometimes spelled Abargil) -- along with three associates -- were extradited to the U.S., where they are wanted for a list of crimes in the Los Angeles area, including the murder of an Israeli drug dealer in town. They are also suspected of drug trafficking, organized crime activity and money laundering linked to a huge embezzlement case that collapsed the Israeli Trade Bank almost a decade ago.

The Abergil brothers headed what is believed to be one of Israel's most powerful and dangerous crime families -- "the lords of organized crime" by Israeli standards, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Wednesday. In a recent phone conversation broadcast on Israel's Channel 10 television Wednesday evening, Meir Abergil is alleged to say they were "peanuts compared to the mafias they have in America."

Israel's foreign relations are suffering these days from an outbreak of poor diplomacy. Not necessarily bad; just poor.

Foreign Ministry employees say they are just that, poor. Their basic salaries have been devalued by about 40% since last being updated in the early 1990s, and many of them rely on help from welfare services, say activists from the ministry workers' union.

The diplomats have years of experience, a stack of academic degrees and high motivation to serve. They also have families to feed and pensions to fund, and say neither is doable on their paychecks, which some revealed on a popular news site. Only an idealist or a fool would join the foreign service under these conditions, they said. Finance Ministry officials said the paychecks didn't reflect considerable extras.

One of Israel's favorite winners, soccer legend Avi Cohen, lost the battle for his life last week, after 
  a critical injury in a motorcycle spill.

The 54-year-old athlete was a childhood hero of many, after making local history in 1979 as the first Israeli soccer player to sign with a big international team as defender for Liverpool and later with the Glasgow Rangers.

His son Tamir -- himself a promising footballer now playing in England -- had rushed home to be at his father's bedside.

Pray for him, he and the family asked supporters waiting for good news at the hospital and at home. They sought higher help too, meeting with rabbis who came to the hospital to give their blessings.

A week later, Cohen was pronounced brain dead. His heart stopped the following morning.

Fans observed a minute of applause on soccer fields on both sides of the ocean. Liverpoolers wished him a final farewell with their trademark 'YWNA' -- "you'll never walk alone."

Cohen's death united fans but also divided people in a debate about a sensitive issue: organ donation.

Brain death is the point at which relatives are approached for their consent to organ donation. The medical window of opportunity isn't always wide, around 12 hours in this case. Cohen had an organ donor card but his family couldn't bring themselves to act on it. 

Initially, they agreed. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar reportedly called the family, personally urging them to approve; other rabbis discouraged them. Finally,the family decided against it.

Huge gas fields discovered recently under the Mediterranean seabed have raised high hopes in Israel, a small, high-consumption country seeking alternative energy resources and a greater degree of
  independence from imports.

In a different geopolitical reality, the discovery could benefit the whole region — if it was on speaking terms. Everyone wants to tap natural resources — but this one taps into standing regional squabbles.

Israel and Lebanon, for example. The deposits extend into areas controlled by Lebanon, and it has accused Israel of moving in on its natural resources. Not so, says  Israel, which maintains that the fields lie between its territory and Cyprus.  Israel's minister of national infrastructures, Uzi Landau, even said Israel would "not hesitate to use force" to protect the fields and uphold international maritime law.

Israeli officials frequently say Israel is the only First World economy that can be reached on foot from the Third World: You can walk from Africa straight to Tel Aviv. Tens of thousands have done just that -- and if the country doesn't do something about it, many more will, officials warn. 

The large pockets of foreign communities grow in different ways. Foreign workers, like Filipino nursing professionals, come in the front door but stay through the window, overstaying their work permits and settling down.

Most Africans do it the other way around. They climb in through the window of the long, sprawling and largely open border with Egypt and then knock on the door for asylum. About 15,000 African hopefuls have entered the country this year, roughly double the amount of last year. 

The government is determined to stop the influx. For starters, it is fencing off its 150-mile border with Egypt. Work began last month. 

The border fence will cost about $370 million, but government indecision on immigration matters is costing dearly. Fear of the impact on politics, religion, demography, diplomacy and the economy has paralyzed decision-makers, negating a cohesive immigration policy. Years of Band-Aid solutions have produced a situation that is rapidly approaching a crisis.

The Gaza-Israel border has been heating up in recent weeks, with an increasing number of incidents on the fence, and rocket and mortar fire from the strip into Israel sharply on the rise.

Alongside calculated retaliation including airstrikes on tunnels, militants and -- for the first time since the military operation known as Cast Lead nearly two years ago -- hitting Hamas targets, Israel is keeping a close eye on things and assessing the rationale for the recent escalation.

Most rocket fire is carried out not by Hamas but by smaller, more radical organizations in Gaza, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said this week, estimating that the smaller, more radical organizations opposing Hamas are trying to drag it into renewed conflict with Israel.

After raising the issue in private back-channels as well as personally with U.S. presidents, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to publicly and officially appeal to President Obama to release Jonathan Pollard. 

Netanyahu's decision follows a personal letter from Pollard, hand-delivered to the prime minister by Esther Pollard, wife of the convicted spy. "I hereby request that you submit an official request for my release to the President of the United States now, without further delay, and that concurrently you announce this request publicly," wrote Pollard, who stated his willingness to "bear the risk of any consequences " that may result from the prime minister's action.

Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. naval intelligence analyst, was convicted of passing classified information to Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987. Israel did not acknowledge Pollard for many years but granted him Israeli citizenship in 1995, during Netanyahu's first term in office. A few years later, Israel publicly conceded Pollard had been an Israeli spy.

American intelligence officials have been staunchly opposed to any compromise on the issue and are believed to have foiled previously reported deals on his release. Others maintain that Pollard's sentence was disproportionate at best, and based on circumstances that are no longer relevant.

Israeli authorities are investigating a strange and violent incident that left one woman dead and another injured this weekend. Many people are convinced this was a terrorist attack; other people say things don't add up. Police are investigating all options.

Normally, the Beit Shemesh countryside is a good choice for weekend picnics and hiking, offering visitors its woods, nature trails and other attractions. But this Saturday, something was wrong in the scenic landscape.

Picnicking weekenders were surprised Saturday afternoon when a woman staggered up to them suffering from multiple stab wounds, her hands tied behind her back, and pleaded for help. She and a friend had been stabbed, she said. She managed to escape but her friend was missing.

 When Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat invited people to participate in the Jerusalem Marathon, he called it a "challenging sporting event." Still 100 days away, the city's first full marathon is already giving the mayor -- a five-time marathoner himself -- a run for his money.

After someone pointed out to three city council members that the course ran through parts of East Jerusalem,  they sent a letter of protest to Adidas, one of the international event's main sponsors.

The officials, Meretz members Pepe Alalu, Laura Wharton and Meir Margalit, said they felt it was their duty to inform Adidas that the marathon was "to run through parts of East Jerusalem that are considered occupied territories by the international community and by us."

"The overwhelming majority of the general population abroad will doubtless express their opposition once details of the marathon are made public," the letter said.

That's all it took. Adidas asked for "clarifications" about the course, and, according to the Hebrew daily Maariv, was considering removing its sponsorship for fear of a consumer boycott.