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

Israel cover image

Israel

July 30, 2026

Tel Aviv 1:20 pm

33°C

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Analysis

Katz riles Iran, US as Netanyahu-Trump meeting raises questions

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to settle for a brief meeting with President Donald Trump, while his defense minister, Israel Katz, appeared intent on provoking Iran by publicly disclosing sensitive intelligence.

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

Israel PM office

Netanyahu lauds 'excellent' Trump meeting as Israel pushes harder Iran line

Hours before the meeting, President Donald Trump signaled impatience with the Israeli leader.

Latest News

On eighth visit, Israel’s Netanyahu seeks to repair ties with Trump

Trump Netanyahu

Analysis

Why US carriers unlikely to rush back to Beirut as Trump lifts Lebanon flight ban

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Analysis

Ahead of Trump meeting, Netanyahu lays groundwork for Israel to rejoin Iran war

GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP via Getty Images

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

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini speak to media following their meeting in Jerusalem, on May 20, 2015. AFP PHOTO / POOL / DAN BALILTY (Photo credit should read DAN BALILTY/AFP/Getty Images)

Why EU fears for Israeli democracy

EU officials are preparing a list of demands designed to stop the flow of Israeli anti-democratic legislation and statements.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) gives a joint statement with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry prior to their meeting at his Jerusalem office on July 10, 2016.
Shoukry met Netanyahu in Jerusalem for talks on reviving peace efforts with the Palestinians, in the first such visit in nearly a decade and the latest sign of warming ties.

/ AFP / GALI TIBBON (Photo credit should read GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images)

Why Egypt is suddenly so interested in Israel-Palestine conflict

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry's recent visit to Israel has sparked controversy and raised questions as to why Egypt is trying to resolve the Palestinian cause while drawing closer to Israel.

Yona Musa, 76, from a Yemeni descent, poses with a portrait of her and her husband on June 29, 2016 at her home in the Israeli city of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.
Musa is one of the thousands of Israelis, mainly from Jewish Yemenite families, who claim their babies were abducted more than 60 years ago and handed to adoption. Such stories of babies from immigrant families disappearing have been told in Israel for decades, but growing calls to unseal official documents on the allegations mean new light could so

Will mystery of Israel's missing Yemenite children soon be solved?

The families of Israel's Yemenite children who disappeared in the early 1950s might be disappointed when the archives on this issue open up, as it is not certain that they will find any answers there.

Palestinian poet and journalist Mahmoud Darwish gestures during the Carthage Theatre Days in Tunis theatre, 06 December 2007. AFP PHOTO/ FETHI BELAID (Photo credit should read FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images)

War of the Words: Palestinian poetry broadcast terrifies Israeli right

Israeli Ministers Miri Regev and Avigdor Liberman have attacked Army Radio over a broadcast featuring Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, even though his poetry is taught in Israeli schools.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks during a ceremony at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa, Israel, July 21, 2016. REUTERS/POOL/Dan Balilty - RTSJ1NL

What Bibi got wrong about comparison of Tel Aviv, Nice attacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to ignore the reality of Israeli occupation by equating attacks by Palestinians and the terror attacks in Paris, Orlando and Nice.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen on a monitor before the evening news bulletin at Channel 10 in Jerusalem November 18, 2015. Critics say Netanyahu, known as "Bibi," is hitting the wrong note when it comes to the media, weakening press freedom and holding sway over TV broadcasters in a country that bills itself as the Middle East's only true democracy. Picture taken November 18, 2015. To match Insight ISRAEL-NETANYAHU/MEDIA REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTX1VG4V

Netanyahu's battle against public broadcasting

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, worried that a new independent broadcasting corporation would veer left right under his nose, has postponed its launch by two years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and his wife Sara (R) attend the the the 2016 Genesis Prize in Jerusalem, June 23, 2016. REUTERS/Amir Cohen - RTX2HV1J

Is Bibi's massive fundraising network about to collapse?

Police are looking into alleged donations of money and gifts by foreign businesspeople to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family members.

A general view of the UNESCO headquarters before a ceremony for the "UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences" in Paris July 17, 2012. Rights groups said on Monday UNESCO's decision to award a science prize sponsored by the president of Equatorial Guinea was "shameful and utterly irresponsible". Despite calls to abandon it, the governing council of Paris-based UNESCO voted by 33 to 18 with six abstentions to approve awarding what was originally called the "UNESCO-Obiang

What really delayed UNESCO vote on Jerusalem?

Although Israel claimed success in delaying the vote to be held in Istanbul on a UNESCO resolution submitted by Palestine and Jordan on Jerusalem, Palestinian and Arab officials say the postponement was due to security instability in Turkey following the coup attempt.

Hanin Zoabi, a legislator from the Joint Arab List, participates in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin October 13, 2015. Israel's leading Arab politician was in the middle of a television interview on a street in its biggest Arab city when the mayor, also an Arab, pulled up in his car and started shouting at him to leave. With Palestinian knife attacks on the rise, the live TV encounter illustrated a conflict within Israel's Arab minority between sympathy for Palestinian

Is Arab Knesset member Zoabi on her way out?

The Israeli Knesset is expected to approve a bill enabling a three-fourths majority of 90 members to expel another member on the grounds of incitement against the state or relations with a terror organization.

Screen_Shot_2016-07-19_at_10.28.12_AM.png

Was Arabic ad on Israeli TV a clever publicity stunt?

An Israeli department store probably anticipated the controversy its prime-time Arabic-language commercial would kick off and is now reaping the benefits of notoriety among large swaths of Israelis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (L) in Jerusalem July 10, 2016 REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTSH5PM

Some Egyptians wary of normalizing relations with Israel

Egyptian leaders say they are playing an important role in reviving the Palestinian issue by mediating with Israel, but some sources say Egyptians might actually be losing their sympathy for Palestinians and don't want to normalize relations with Israel.

An Israeli army rabbi blesses a soldier who just returned from Lebanon to north of Israel near the Israeli-Lebanon border August 11, 2006. REUTERS/Petr Josek (ISRAEL) - RTR1GAH4

The cultural war brewing inside the IDF

Statements by leading Zionist-Orthodox rabbis against gays and in support of the exclusion of women from the army reflect the growing war of culture waged in Israel, between liberals and those who aspire for a more Jewish-religious state.