He disappeared more than a decade ago, just 18-years-old and teaching abroad, separated from his family for the first time in life. His mother and father, sick with worry, heard nothing. For all they knew he was dead. Then, one day they opened a newspaper and learned their son was being held in a military prison run by the US of A, accused of -- but never charged with -- being an enemy of the state.

The general overseeing the Guantánamo military prison is reportedly downplaying the scope and significance of an ongoing hunger strike undertaken by detainees at the infamous detention center in an effort to highlight the "desperation and hopelessness of indefinite detention" and draw attention to the "normalization of Guantánamo."

Israeli and Palestinian officials have been in Washington laying the ground for President Barack Obama's visit to Israel and the West Bank, scheduled for next month and the first since he took office four years ago.

Topping the agenda, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, will be efforts to restart the long-stalled peace process. Last week Palestinian officials said they had urged the White House to arrive with a diplomatic plan.

 The U.S. president began his first term on a different footing, ignoring Israel and heading instead to Cairo where he made a speech committing the U.S. to a new era in relations with the Arab world. Little came of the promise.