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Israel

August 4, 2026

Tel Aviv 11:39 am

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US President Donald Trump (C) is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport on Oct. 13, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Analysis

Lacking leverage over Trump, Israel stays quiet on US-Iran talks

Realizing it has little to no influence over President Donald Trump’s decision-making, the Israeli government has remained silent on the possibility of the United States and Iran resuming negotiations.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

An Egyptian man looks at the Qatari Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carrier "Duhail" as its passes through the Suez Canal near the Egyptian port city of Ismailia on April 1, 2008. The vessel has a capacity of 210,100 cu.m making it one of the largest LNG carriers constructed to date. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit should read -/AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

How strike on Damietta port exposes Egypt's energy infrastructure risks

The unclaimed attack on the port of Damietta could draw Egypt further into the US-Iran conflict as experts point to growing threats to critical infrastructure in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

US President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, DC, on July 31, 2026. President Trump is traveling to Camp David in Maryland to hold a cabinet meeting and later to Bedminster, New Jersey to spend the weekend at his golf club. (Photo by Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

No Iran commitment, no Trump endorsement: Netanyahu leaves US empty-handed

The Israeli prime minister described Tuesday's meeting with US President Donald Trump was the "best ever," but diplomatic sources say he left the Washington with little tangibles.

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

Latest News

Analysis

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

Win McNamee/Getty Images

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

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

Israel PM office

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

Likud legislator Miri Regev, a former brigadier general and political hardliner of Moroccan origin, looks out a car window during a campaign stop in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv February 25, 2015. Israel's Sephardic community, Jews of Middle Eastern descent, have traditionally been the Likud party's backbone. But political analysts say Sephardim, disproportionately poorer than Israel's Ashkenazi Jews with roots in Europe, may throw their support elsewhere in the March 17 election, angry over the high cost of

Israeli culture minister decries Western culture

Culture Minister Miri Regev belittled Western education to appeal to her constituency, but these populist declarations contradict the social mobility achieved by Mizrahi women through university studies, including her own.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen delivering his speech to the U.S. Congress on television screens in an electronics store in a Jerusalem shopping mall March 3, 2015. Netanyahu warned U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday against accepting a nuclear deal with Iran that would be a "countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare" by a country that "will always be an enemy of America". REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4RWX2

What Israel should do about Iran

Israel, if it fully takes into account the Mideast's yawning Sunni-Shiite divide, could benefit from reconsidering its point of view on Iran.

A Palestinian woman argues with Israeli soldiers after Palestinian farmers said they were stopped by Israeli army and settlers from working in their farm land in Halhul town near Karme Tzur settlement, north of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron September 11, 2015. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma - RTSL6J

Hebron activists challenge IDF narrative on shooting

Hebron residents who documented the incident in which a young Palestinian woman was shot by an IDF soldier in Hebron contradict the IDF's story.

What will it take for US to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks?

Any negotiations over an Israeli unity government must include a demand by the Zionist Camp for a clear path leading to negotiations, based on the 1967 lines, with stringent security measures and at least a qualified acceptance of the Saudi initiative.

Israel looks to respond to stones with bullets

Rather than offering new diplomatic horizons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has extended the West Bank’s open-fire orders against Palestinian youth throwing stones also to East Jerusalem, thereby separating Jerusalem's two intertwined zones.

Israeli policemen stand guard as a group of Jewish youths leave after visiting the compound which houses al-Aqsa mosque, known by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and by Jews as the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City September 22, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Awad - RTX1RV04

Ultra-Orthodox war against Jews ascending Temple Mount

Ultra-Orthodox leaders generally agree that Jews should not ascend the Temple Mount, but a growing number of Orthodox-Zionist rabbis support Temple Mount activists in their campaign to ascend, for nationalist reasons.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia, September 22, 2015. REUTERS/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool - RTX1RWNF

A weakened Abbas cannot save Hamas

The Hamas movement should have realized long ago — not now that it is too late — that it cannot survive without the rule of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

What 'bombshell' will Abbas drop at upcoming UN speech?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has promised a dramatic declaration at the coming UN General Assembly that some believe will include an ultimatum to Israel: Freeze settlement building or assume responsibility for security throughout the West Bank.

West Bank wall threatens Palestine’s flora, fauna

The wall Israel is building in the West Bank is taking a toll on nature and animals.

A Palestinian man uses a bucket of water as he reconstructs his house, on June 28, 2015, which was destroyed during the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the summer of 2014, in the Eastern Gaza City Shujaiya neighbourhood. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED ABED (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

Gazans consider the Strip 'unhabitable' now

A UN report has warned that Gaza may become uninhabitable by 2020, yet according to some Gazans the precarious security and living conditions make the coastal strip already unlivable.

Palestinians search for better life in Israel

The Gaza blockade has been in place for about eight years now and it does not seem like the living conditions are going to improve soon, so some Palestinians try to infiltrate Israel to find better opportunities.

Ice industry in Gaza crystalizes as power cuts increase

The worsening power crisis in the Gaza Strip has pushed people and traders to use ice blocks to preserve their food, which explains why demand for ice has risen 600%.