Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli fighter jets buzzed the palace of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli television reported Aug. 15.

The flyover followed last week's shelling of northern Israel by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and was intended to warn Assad to rein in Hezbollah, the report said.

Syrian troops occupy Lebanon and effectively control the country.

Assad reportedly saw and heard the warplanes as they swooped low over his summer palace. Since then, Hezbollah's cannons have been quiet, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Netanyahu promises year free of new taxes

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's finance minister is promising no new taxes.

Benjamin Netanyahu promised Sunday that the government would not levy new taxes next year, denying press reports that Israel's treasury would introduce new taxes to cut the state's deficit.

Israel's marginal income tax reaches 55 percent. The rate of value added tax is 18 percent.

Ancient farm found beneath roadwork

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli archaeologists unearthed the remains of a Jewish farmhouse from the first century.

The find, which also included remains of an 8,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement, occurred underneath an area slated to be part of the new Trans-Israel Highway.

Negev Bedouins stage silent protest

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Negev Bedouins are adopting a silent protest against house demolitions.

On Saturday, Bedouins set up a tent in Beersheva to protest silently the government's intention to demolish scores of illegal buildings in Bedouin settlements.

Salman a-Rinawi, chairman of the association of those settlements, invited government officials to come to the tent and "talk rather than threaten."

Jews, Christians tour the Temple Mount

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Jerusalem's Temple Mount was opened to non-Muslim visitors.

Several hundred Christian and Jewish visitors toured Judaism's holiest site Wednesday amid renewed violence.

The move to open the site, which has been closed to non-Muslims since the Palestinian intifada began in September 2000, was apparently made without the approval of the Wakf, the Islamic trust responsible for the site.