Thanks for your comments.

I must learn to be more clear I'm looking to travel next April so I've got a year prior to departure - just trying to nail down options well in advance.

My brother suggested we use Rome as our stopover. This was suggested not for the routing, but because we've not been there before and he though it would be a nice place. Any thoughts on a SFO - ROME - TLV route?

Thanks,
Bruce