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Israel

August 4, 2026

Tel Aviv 1:48 pm

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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

'Ghost apartments' haunt Jerusalem

Foreigners from around the globe are buying luxury apartments in Jerusalem to spend the holidays there, and the effect on the local housing market is hard to deny.

What's behind PA's call to welcome Syrian refugees?

The Palestinian Authority says it is ready to welcome Palestinian and Syrian refugees displaced from Syria, despite the current unlikeliness of such a measure amid restrictions imposed by Israel.

Who are Temple Mount's Mourabitoun?

In an Al-Monitor interview, a female Muslim activist discusses her organization's perspective on defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound against what it views as encroaching Jewish pilgrims and activists.

How one of the smallest religious communities in the world is struggling to sustain its community

The Samaritans are desperately trying to sustain their lineage in their West Bank enclave on Mount Gerizim.

Will the Palestinians abolish the Oslo Accord?

Growing despair might drive Palestinian leadership to announce the abolition of the Oslo Accord, which would lead to chaos and consequently breakouts of violence.

Tightened security backfires at Al-Aqsa

Israel has taken measures to limit the number of Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque so that Jewish visitors can pray there, but the steps seem to be increasing rather than soothing tensions.

BARKAN, WEST BANK - JULY 30: The Israeli settlements of Barkan (left) and Kiryat Netafim (center) separate the Palestinian village of khirbet Bani Hassan (top left) July 30, 2004 from the of the West Bank settlement industrial area of Barkan (below). According to the left-wing Israeli movement Peace Now, some 230,000 Israelis live in 145 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, not including the scores of illegal outposts which Israel had promised the United States it would dismantle. (Photo by David Si

Netanyahu's double standards on settlement product labels

Israel reached agreement in 2005 with the European Union to identify settlement products on export certificates, yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hints at the Holocaust in objecting to the Europeans' decision to require labeling these products to inform consumers of their origin.

How Erdogan exploits Syrian refugees

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan had hoped a wave of Syrian refugees, created with assistance to the Islamic State, would force NATO to act against Syria's Bashar al-Assad, and when that failed, he allowed the refugees to move westward to pressure Europe.

Hundreds of secular Israelis and reform Jews demonstrate in Jerusalem on March 13, 2010 against waht they call ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious oppression and the gender-segregated buses in certain conservative areas in Jerusalem where women are forced to sit in the back of the bus. The protestors are carrying signs reading "Israel is not Tehran," in reference to the Iranian capital where strict Islamic rules force women to wear the veil in public. AFP PHOTO/GALI TIBBON (Photo credit should read GALI TIBBON

Reform Judaism grows in Israel

Though the pushback from some ultra-Orthodox politicians and others is still harsh, the leaders of the Israel movement for Reform and progressive Judaism feel that more Israelis are opening up to them and supporting their vision of Judaism and solidarity.

A Palestinian protester uses a sling to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during clashes near Israel's Ofer Prison, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, April 10, 2015. Israeli troops killed a Palestinian stone-thrower and wounded several others in the occupied West Bank on Friday after a militant's funeral turned violent, hospital officials and witnesses said. An army spokeswoman confirmed soldiers opened fire during the incident at Beit Omar, near the Palestinian city of Hebron, saying th

Why Israeli politicians choose not to call for 'peace'

The murder of Alexander Levlovich by stones thrown at his car provoked Israeli politicians into superficial statements on security, instead of prompting a public debate over ways to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Right-wing cyber 'soldiers' take on Israeli human rights organization

The Israeli conservative organization My Israel has rallied its members to vote for human rights activists from around the world in a campaign to sabotage the candidacy of B'Tselem, currently a finalist for the Human Rights Tulip award.

Temple Mount violence escalates

Riots are spreading from the Temple Mount to East Jerusalem, causing more deaths and injuries, but neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offer any new solutions.