Israel - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Israel cover image

Israel

May 26, 2026

Tel Aviv 2:47 pm

25°C

AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

As Pakistan military chief holds Iran talks, Israel's Netanyahu fears being left out

US President Donald Trump's comment that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would do "whatever I want” is troubling the premier's inner circle ahead of the elections in October.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Burak Kara/Getty Images

Ireland joins EU push to ban trade with Israeli settlements amid flotilla backlash

European frustration with Israel intensified this week after a far-right Israeli minister posted a video of the mistreatment of international activists detained in the country.

Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP via Getty Images

Israel targets Turkey charity amid Gaza flotilla tensions

The request, published in Israeli media, marks a further escalation in tensions with Turkey amid disputes over Gaza aid operations.

Latest News

Interview

Ahmad Tibi says Arab parties in Israel can block Netanyahu without joining next government

Arab-Israeli Knesset member Ahmed Tibi takes part in a demonstration against rising crime rates against Arab-Israelis in Tel Aviv, Israel, Jan. 31, 2026.

Ahmad Tibi

Ahmad Tibi

Israeli Arab lawmaker

Syria's Sharaa renews ban on Israeli imports in customs law: What to know

NICOSIA, CYPRUS - APRIL 24: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrives for an informal meeting of European Union leaders on April 24, 2026 in Nicosia, Cyprus. The EU heads of state and government are meeting over two days to discuss the conflict in Iran and the Middle East, including freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, the effects of high fuel prices, and how Europe may contribute to de-escalation and a peace agreement. (Photo by Byron Smith/Getty Images)

Somaliland's first ambassador to Israel announces embassy in Jerusalem: What to know

Somaliland’s first ambassador to a foreign country formally, Mohamed Hagi, presented his diplomatic credentials in Jerusalem to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, on May 18, 2026.

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Rina Bassist

Associate Editor (Israel)

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Palestinians walk on a road during a power cut in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip January 11, 2017. Picture taken January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem - RTX2YNDC

Can senior Hamas figure resolve Gaza's electricity crisis?

Palestinians and Israelis are both pinning their hopes on the new Gaza Energy Authority chief, Ghazi Hamad, to resolve the escalating electricity crisis in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) gestures as he speaks to incoming minister Aryeh Deri, party leader of the Ultra-Orthodox Shas party, in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem May 13, 2015. Netanyahu's emerging government scraped by its first parliamentary test on Wednesday, paving the way for the new cabinet to be sworn in after two months of difficult coalition building. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX1CSJH

Israel's chronic impunity disorder

With so many politicians suspected or convicted of corruption, Israelis have given up on expecting public figures to have morals.

A Palestinian flag and a Hamas flag (R) flutter atop the wreckage of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed during the seven-week Israeli offensive, in the east of Gaza City September 3, 2014. Fifty days of war in one of the most densely populated parts of the world have left swathes of Gaza in ruins. With the economy reeling under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, the enclave now faces an almost impossible task of rebuilding. Picture taken September 3, 2014. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem (GAZA - Tags: CIVIL UNRES

Has Israel recognized link between Gaza blockade, security threat?

The report of Israel’s state comptroller about the management of the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip evokes officially for the first time the linkage between the distress of Gaza residents and the Hamas campaign against Israel.

Palestinians survey a house which police said was destroyed in an Israeli air strikes in Gaza City July 8, 2014. Israel launched an aerial offensive in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, bombing more than 30 targets including homes and calling it part of a campaign named "Operation Protective Edge" targeting Hamas Islamist militants firing rockets at the Jewish state. The military urged Israelis within a 40-km (24-mile) radius of the southern coastal territory to stay within reach of protected areas and ordered su

Israel has no Gaza policy

A recently published report on the 2014 Gaza war reveals that Israel failed to develop its own goals before launching the war and still has not developed a real strategy concerning the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) sits next to Education Minister Naftali Bennett during the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, 30 August 2016. REUTERS/Abir Sultan/Pool - RTX2NKGO

How Israel’s Gaza War report became a political battlefield

Missing the purpose of the state comptroller's report to debate the Gaza War, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon are busy defending themselves while Education Minister Naftali Bennett marks a political victory.

An Israeli Arab couple watches the view, which includes Israel's controversial separation barrier (top R), during the photo shooting before their wedding in Jerusalem on November 26, 2009. Israel's offer to freeze settlement building in the occupied West Bank for 10 months does not go far enough, Russia's foreign ministry said, urging a full stop to construction. AFP PHOTO/JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)

What's behind Israeli Cabinet's anti-polygamy plan?

The Israeli Cabinet has created a plan to strictly enforce an anti-polygamy law from 1977, but why now?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (not pictured) at Kirribilli House in Sydney, Australia, February 22, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed - RTSZQ7G

Netanyahu and the 'apartheid state'

Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the term “apartheid state” has gone from being a label to becoming substance.

Ayelet Shaked, Israel's new Justice Minister of the far-right Jewish Home party, speaks during a ceremony at the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem May 17, 2015. Shaked said on Sunday she would seek a new balance that would rein in the powers of the Supreme Court over parliament and the government, a policy critics fear would restrict judicial oversight. REUTERS/Gali Tibbon/Pool - RTX1DBE4

Will 'conservative' justices deliver for the Israeli right?

Right-wing Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked's declarations of victory in getting conservatives appointed to the Supreme Court might be premature.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Education Minister Naftali Bennett visit the "Tamra HaEmek" elementary school on the first day of the school year, in the Arab Israeli town of Tamra, Israel September 1, 2016. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - RTX2NR9G

How state report on Israel’s Gaza war will impact Netanyahu

The Israeli state comptroller's report on the 2014 Gaza War criticizes the decision-making process overseen by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Israeli soldiers stand guard near the entrance to Allenby Bridge, a crossing point between Jordan and the occupied West Bank, near the West Bank town of Jericho March 10, 2014. Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian on Monday at the crossing point, Israeli and Palestinian security officials said. The Israeli military said the man had tried to seize a soldier's gun at the Allenby bridge, which spans the Jordan River, and that troops had then shot him. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS

Are Israel's border police blocking entry of human rights activists?

Human rights organizations claim that Israel’s border police prevent the entry of activists who are critical of the government's occupation policy.

Former Palestinian prisoners work hard to conquer ghosts of their torture

Palestinian filmmaker Raed Andoni talks about his and other former political prisoners’ hunt for the ghosts that remind them of Israeli torture.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump (L) during a news conference at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria - RTSYU8Q

What a Palestine-Jordan confederation might look like

US President Donald Trump’s inclination toward a regional peace process has driven the Palestinians to create a new formula for a confederation with Jordan.