Nearly half of Israelis want Joe Biden to restart the stalled Middle East peace process and launch negotiations with the Palestinians when he takes office in January, a poll published this week found. The survey – carried out by the dovish Geneva Initiative – shows that 49 percent of Israelis Read more…
LFI vice-chair Catherine McKinnell has written to Middle East minister James Cleverely following last week’s parliamentary debate calling for the UK to back an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Ms McKinnell’s debate is part of a long-running LFI campaign to secure greater support from the British government for peace-building work Read more…
Rifts within Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party appear to be deepening as the crisis over Israel’s budget deepens and new elections loom. If no budget is passed by late December the government will automatically dissolve. Benjamin Netanyahu is widely suspected to be stalling on the budget in order to call Read more…
Reuven Rivlin led the congratulations on Joe Biden’s victory, and invited the president-elect to visit Jerusalem. In an English-language video, the Israeli president wrote: “Mr President-elect, I was pleased to welcome you to Jerusalem as vice president and I look forward to welcoming you to Jerusalem as president of the Read more…
Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party are reportedly considering leaving Israel’s coalition government, a move that would trigger new elections. The centrist party came to an agreement with Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year after three inconclusive general elections in which it fought Likud to a virtual draw. Under the terms Read more…
Israel this week began lifting its nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Widely praised for its swift and tough action against the pandemic in the spring, the country last month became the first in the world to order a second shutdown after a sharp rise in cases. But the Jewish state is in Read more…
Sixty-five percent of Israelis believe Benjamin Netanyahu is responding poorly to the coronavirus crisis, a poll released this week shows. The Channel 12 News survey found only 31 percent of Israelis approve of the prime minister’s handling of the crisis, which has seen the country forced into a second lockdown. Read more…
The Knesset’s coronavirus cabinet has agreed to a three-week national lockdown in Israel as cases continue to spike. The decision came ahead of the Jewish high holy days while Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya is said to be overwhelmed and turning away new covid-19 patients. On Sunday, Haredi Minister Yaakov Read more…
In the third announcement of its kind in as many weeks, the Israeli and Bahraini Governments announced the normalising of relations. This follows a similar agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and two Balkan states. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu traveled to Washington DC for a four day trip Read more…
Last Saturday, about 20,000 protesters gathered outside Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem. With parallel gatherings held outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea and at over 300 bridges and major intersections nationwide, the demonstrations are in their eleventh consecutive week. Activists are calling on the prime minister to resign Read more…
Having originally refused to recognise the independence of Kosovo, Israel has struck another deal of diplomatic firsts. The Jewish state is to recognise Kosovo, which will open an embassy in Jerusalem – the first Muslim country to do so. Its neighbour Serbia will move its embassy to Jerusalem by July Read more…
Having hailed victory over coronavirus back in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now embarrassed and appearing indecisive over his response to the second wave hitting the Jewish state. Israel operates a four part traffic light system based on the number of new patients per 10,000 residents, ‘red’ being Read more…