Military situation in Gaza This week saw the heaviest single day losses for the IDF in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the ground operation, with 24 soldiers killed on 22 January. Some 21 were killed after being hit with RPGs while preparing explosives to demolish buildings in eastern Khan Younis, Read more…
LFI had a major presence at today’s Jewish Labour Movement one-day conference in north London, including a stall and several sessions on issues relating to Israel and the wider Middle East. The day began with an event on the future of the Israeli left, chaired by former LFI chair Louise Read more…
LFI director Michael Rubin has written the below article for the Jewish News. Click here to read the original. The catastrophic Israel-Hamas war is an irreversible turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The diplomatic priority for the international community in the short term is the massive humanitarian needs of Gazans and Read more…
Latest developments A month on from Hamas’s October 7 mass terror attack, Israeli ground forces are advancing deeper into Gaza city, and closing in on Hamas’s main command centre, located underneath the Al Shifa Hospital. The IDF continues to target Hamas’s underground tunnel network and military infrastructure, and have released Read more…
Hamas launched a massive assault on southern Israel on Saturday morning, murdering over 1,000 men, women and children and kidnapping an estimated 130 hostages. Thousands of people were injured in the well-planned and highly organised sneak attack which took place on Shabbat, while many Israelis were journeying to synagogues to Read more…
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted some of Israel’s most senior security officials for a meeting at his office on Sunday which excluded national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir. This was not the first time that the hard right nationalist Ben Gvir, whose brief includes authority over the police, has not been Read more…
As the UN General Assembly convened last week, longstanding speculation around the potential for a normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia has reached a fever pitch. What happened On Wednesday, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman claimed in an interview with Fox News that “every day we get closer” to his Read more…
A rift is beginning to open within the coalition government. The non-haredi parties, Likud, Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit, are facing serious threats from the Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), that would end the coalition government and lead to an election being called. The disagreement is over Read more…
Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Dover, Mike Tapp, has written the below article about our recent LFI delegation to Israel and Palestine for the Jewish News. Click here to read the original. I recently had the privilege of joining a Labour Friends of Israel delegation on a visit to Israel and Palestine. Read more…
LFI director Michael Rubin has today joined more than 100 UK Jewish community figures in signing an open letter to the Israeli government pledging their support to pro-democracy protesters opposing ministers’ power grab at the expense of Israel’s judiciary. The letter, addressed to ministers in the Israeli government, expresses “deep Read more…
One million Israelis have visited the United Arab Emirates since the signing of the 2020 Abraham Accords. Speaking to the Jewish News, Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat said: “almost one-in-ten Israelis has visited the UAE since the end of 2020”. There are currently more than 200 weekly flights between the Read more…
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, has flown to Washington today in an effort to bridge the growing gap between the Netanyahu government and Biden administration. The trip, Herzog’s second since Biden became president, comes before prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had even received his first invitation to meet with Biden since he Read more…