US President Donald Trump invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House for consultations during a phone call between the two on Friday. According to a White House readout of the call, Trump told Abbas that “Peace is possible and that the time has come to make a deal.” The readout also included a statement that “The US will work closely with Palestinian and Israeli leadership to make progress toward that goal.”

Senior Iranian officials reacted angrily over the weekend to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invocation of the Purim story to warn against the current danger to Israel from Iran during his visit to Moscow last Thursday. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif Tweeted in response on Sunday “To sell bigoted lies against a nation which has saved Jews three times, Netanyahu resorting to fake history & falsifying Torah. Force of habit.”

Bulgarian-Israeli lawyer Moshe Aloni, who leads the Committee for Friendship between the Israeli and Bulgarian Advocates, wants to nominates the Bulgarian Independent Orthodox Church for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the role of the Church in rescuing large numbers of Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust. The campaign has gained considerable support in Europe and the US and is beginning to gain traction in Israel.

Israel’s national baseball team continued to amaze and delight fans on Sunday, beating perennial powerhouse Cuba, currently ranked 5th in the world, 4-1. However, following the squad’s defeat to the Netherlands on Monday, it now needs to defeat the mighty Japanese team on Wednesday to advance to the next round in the World Baseball Classic tournament.

Israelis were outraged on Sunday at reports that Ahmad Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who murdered seven Israeli schoolgirls in a shooting attack on their field trip in the northern Galilee in 1997, had been released from prison. The outrage deepened as videos of his release and homecoming to the village where he grew up emerged showing widespread adoration and respect for him by large crowds of ordinary Jordanians, as well as messages of support on social media from around the world for his actions and the decision by the Jordanian government to release him.

The possibility that Russia may be able to do the seemingly impossible and strike a peace deal between the warring parties in Syria in the foreseeable future has Israel wary of the regional gains this may spell for Iran. The immediate issue Israel must deal with is the Iranian and Hizbullah presence in southern Syria, while the long-term issue is the question of Iran’s status in Syria.