Israel’s defence minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday to discuss security coordination ahead of US president Joe Biden’s visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories this week. Israel’s security establishment has expressed concerns about the possibility of escalation in the West Bank Read more…
Israel will advance a long-delayed plan to approve the construction of some 1,000 new Palestinian homes and make a number of other confidence-building measures towards the Palestinian Authority. The moves come ahead of President Biden’s visit to the region this week, according to reports. The move to authorise the housing units Read more…
Israel’s November general election may be over 100 days away, but already the contours of the contest – the fifth time in just over three years the country’s voters have been required to go to the polls – are coming into view. As ever, the figure of former prime minister Read more…
Steps to a two state solution: For Israel, for Palestine, for peace Step Twenty Six: End incitement in the Palestinian school curriculum In 2017, the Palestinian Authority introduced a new school curriculum which teaches the virtues of martyrdom, describes terrorists as “heroes” and repeats antisemitic tropes. The Institute for Monitoring Read more…
A man was seriously hurt in a suspected stabbing attack near the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak on Tuesday morning. The incident is thought to be a terror attack, as police said officers launched a manhunt for the stabber, who fled after attacking the man on a pedestrian bridge between Bnei Read more…
Israel’s transport minister and leader of the Israeli Labor party, Merav Michaeli, said on Monday that she would not rule out sitting in a government with the ultra-Orthodox parties following elections later this year. She also ruled out running with Meretz, Israel’s other left-wing party. Michaeli, a strong supporter of Read more…
Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist liberal Yesh Atid party, became Israel’s fourteenth prime minister last week, following the dissolution of the Knesset. What happened Lapid became prime minister following the collapse of the coalition government headed by Naftali Bennett, in which Lapid served as foreign minister. Lapid will remain Read more…
Senior diplomats from Israel, the US and regional Arab allies agreed to increase efforts to improve security, stability and prosperity in the Middle East during a follow up meeting to the Negev Summit in Bahrain on Monday. The first meeting of the Negev Summit Steering Committee – consisting of Israel, Read more…
Israel’s defence ministry announced on Tuesday that it had begun reinforcement work on dozens of homes in Israeli communities close to the Lebanese border. The homes are those that are most likely to be hit by rocket fire in a future conflict with the Hezbollah terror group. The effort, dubbed Read more…
A Knesset member in opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party pushed back against the former prime minister on Monday following a rebuke for saying that the Arab-majority Ra’am party could join a Likud-led government following elections later this year. In an interview on Sunday, lawmaker David Amsalem said he was Read more…
Steps to a two state solution: For Israel, for Palestine, for peace Step Twenty Five: Support Palestinian economic independence As previous international initiatives have recognised, efforts to strengthen and grow the Palestinian economy are closely tied to both the peace process and the future viability, prosperity and stability of a Read more…
Israel, Egypt and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding last week in Cairo that will see the Jewish state export its natural gas to the EU for the first time. The landmark agreement will increase the sale of liquified natural gas to EU countries, which are working to Read more…