By James Montague, CNN

Al Ram, West Bank (CNN) - The Faisal al Husseini football stadium was packed, two hours before kick off, with a noisy sea of Palestinian flags and white hijabs.

Jordan's captain charges down the wing as they take control of the match. Both teams have Christian and Muslim player, some of whom cover when they play. Photo: James Montague/CNN.

Football matches are always a big deal in the West Bank, but this game was more significant than most. 10,000 women had flocked to the stadium, on the outskirts of East Jerusalem and a mere few meters from the separation barrier that snakes around the West Bank, to watch a historic football match few would have believed possible just a few years ago: the Palestinian women's national team were to play Jordan in their first ever home international.

Both teams gave laps of honor before the start of the game to mark an occasion that is rare in the Middle East. Football is hugely popular amongst women in the region but the development of the game has largely been held back by a social conservatism that disapproves of women playing what are deemed 'men's' sports.

In Kuwait, attempts to set up a women's national team was met with outrage in the country's parliament. The move was halted after Waleed al Tabtabae, a hard line Islamist MP who chairs a committee charged with weeding out 'phenomena strange to society' decided that a women's football team was 'un-Islamic'.

"Committee members expressed their indignation...and total rejection of the idea of the women's football team on the grounds that football is not suitable for women," Tabtabae told the Kuwait Times.

The UAE has only this year launched its own national team. A handful of teams exist in Saudi Arabia, although they are confined to the more liberal university campuses and have to be played in front of small, women-only crowds. In Iran women are banned from attending football matches and have to wear the hijab when they play, even in tournaments abroad.

The Palestinian team has had its own, unique problems to deal with. Set up in 2003 at Bethlehem University, Israeli movement restrictions meant it was impossible to practice on the West Bank's sole grass pitch in Jericho. Instead, they had to train on a concrete handball court and play against local boy's teams. Read full article

By Dan Senor and Paul Singer, Special to CNN

Editor's note: Dan Senor is an author, adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and an investor in Israeli companies. Saul Singer is an author and a columnist for the Jerusalem Post. They are co-authors of the new book, "Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle" (Twelve Books).

New York (CNN) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns to Washington, D.C., Monday to address a conference of the American Jewish Federations at a time of concern in Israel that the U.S.-Israel relationship is adrift.

Dan Senor, left, and Saul Singer

Although Netanyahu has used each of his recent U.S. visits to make the case for confronting Iran and its nuclear ambitions, he might consider broadening the subject.

Israel's leader should speak to Americans not just about what threatens Israel, or what Israel's critics say, but also on what is unique about his nation's economy at a time of great economic uncertainty for Americans, when the unemployment rate here has just crossed the 10 percent threshold.

Israel has stood out among advanced economies as a place where the crisis hit softer, and may have passed quicker, than almost anywhere else. Israel's economic growth has not been based on easy credit or a real estate boom, but on the technology-driven productivity gains that economists believe is the key to sustained economic growth.

So what are the lessons for the U.S. economy? Read full article

CNN's Ben Wedeman explores the complexities of adoption in Egypt.

Iraq's first DNA lab is helping Iraqis find missing loved ones. CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom reports.

CNN's Ben Wedeman looks at an Egyptian project to provide inexpensive housing for those in need.

Ben Wedeman discusses politics and lineage in Egypt.

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Densely populated Gaza has no H1N1 cases but it also has no vaccines. CNN's Paula Hancocks reports.

All of us at CNN are counting down the days to the launch of our newest bureau and production facility. After Atlanta, London and Hong Kong – Abu Dhabi is set to be our fourth broadcast hub when it launches on November 3rd. We will have a nightly newscast from there called Prism hosted by Stan Grant so be sure to tune in!

We'll bring you a behind-the-scenes look at how the bureau came together on the next IME airing November 4. Meanwhile, here's a sneak preview!