New Delhi, Oct. 24 -- Israel's preliminary annexation votes collide with a fragile Gaza truce, red lines from Washington, and hard choices inside a fraying coalition.

Jerusalem -The Israeli parliament's decision to advance two measures that would apply Israeli law in the occupied territory has turned a long running argument into a concrete test of governance, diplomacy, and political arithmetic. One proposal cleared its first hurdle by a single vote, a 25 to 24 preliminary reading that now sends the text into the Knesset's committee maze for line by line edits and coalition horse trading. A second, narrower measure that singles out the Ma'ale Adumim bloc also moved forward, a signal to domestic allies that the idea of legal absorption is...