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

Israel cover image

Israel

October 2, 2026

Tel Aviv 8:57 am

26°C

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Exclusive

Rights, faith groups urge Congress to block $2.8B bomb sale to Israel

If the Trump administration moves forward with the transfer, dozens of groups are urging lawmakers to seek a joint resolution of disapproval.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Erik Marmor/Getty Images

West Bank settlers attack Israeli activists as Netanyahu claims 'hoax'

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attention surrounding settler violence was a “tremendous hoax.”

Jack GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images

Israel-UAE flights disrupted as airlines plan rescue flights: What to know

Israeli carriers are preparing repatriation flights from Dubai starting on Friday, subject to security approval.

United Arab Emirates

MOHAMMED ATTAR/AFP via Getty Images

Explainer

FlyDubai incident recalls decades of Middle East airline hijackings: What to know

In 1968, the PFLP hijacked an El Al flight from Rome to Tel Aviv, marking the first political hijacking of an aircraft tied to the Middle East.

United Arab Emirates

Latest News

Explainer

FlyDubai incident spotlights key global link for Israeli travelers

Israelis pick up their luggage upon arrival from Tel Aviv to the Dubai airport in the United Arab Emirates, on Nov. 26, 2020, on the first scheduled commercial flight operated by budget airline flydubai.

Live Updates

FlyDubai flight lands in Tel Aviv after distress alert, Saudi diversion

Flydubai

Exclusive

Inside Netanyahu’s relentless push for meeting with UAE’s MBZ

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after speaking during the 81st United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on Sept. 24, 2026.

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

Ex-Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar to sue Netanyahu over Oct. 7 accusations: What to know

Ronen Bar, former chief of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security agency

Samuel Wendel

Senior Analyst, Middle East Business & Tech

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

A protester stands near a line of fire during a demonstration in Cairo October 9, 2011. Nineteen people were killed in Cairo on Sunday when Christians, some carrying crosses and pictures of Jesus, clashed with military police, medical and security sources said, in the latest sectarian flare-up in a country in political turmoil. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS RELIGION TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR2SGGO

Levant Christians consider threats to their communities

During a gathering of Christian representatives from various Near East countries in Beirut, participants were divided when it came to determining their main enemy and strategies for the future.

City_of_Acre,_Israel_(aerial_view,_2005).jpg

The tragedy of Palestinian revisionism

The author responds to Linah Alsaafin, who called Acre a “city in northern Palestine.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (C) is joined by Israeli President Shimon Peres (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre, at the Dead Sea, Jordan, May 26, 2013. REUTERS/Jim Young (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTX101SH

Kerry's Palestinian economic plan another dead end?

The details and process for US Secretary of State John Kerry's $4 billion economic plan to date are discouraging.

Members of Turkey's Jewish community gather at Etz Ahayim Synagogue to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Istanbul January 27, 2013. The International Day of Commemoration, which was designated by the United Nations General Assembly to honour Holocaust victims, occurs annually on January 27. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION ANNIVERSARY) - RTR3D1V0

Turkey's Jewish community in decline

More and more Jewish families are leaving Turkey.

Playing Umm Kulthoum for Israelis

Sami Khsheibun, creator of the “Queen of the Nile” — a tribute concert to Egyptian singer Umm Kulthoum — is building musical bridges between the worlds of oriental classical music and Western classical.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a conference in Tel Aviv University October 29, 2013. A planned release of 26 Palestinian prisoners has provoked feuding within Israel's governing coalition, already under strain from U.S.-brokered peace talks. Jewish Home, led by Naftali Bennett, then tried to get a proposal to freeze further prisoner releases past a ministerial committee, where members Netanyahu's Likud party voted it down on Sunday. REUTERS/ Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX

Prisoner-settlement exchange means no free lunch

Negotiations are slated to last nine months, but if by the end of the year no progress is made, the Obama administration will present an American final status agreement draft.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat gestures during his interview with Reuters in the West Bank city of Ramallah August 11, 2013. Erekat said on Sunday Israel's plans for new homes in Jewish settlements on occupied land were aimed to scupper peace talks that resume on Wednesday. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX12H3R

How Netanyahu pushed Erekat into a corner

The resignation of Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat reflects the disappointment within Palestinian public opinion following Israel's decision to continue settlement construction.

Former Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman is seen in Jerusalem's magistrate court at the continuation of his trial, April 25, 2013. Lieberman was indicted on charges relating to the promotion of an Israeli diplomat who had illegally given him information about a police investigation against him. The allegations led Lieberman, a key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to resign from cabinet last December. REUTERS/Uriel Sinai/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS CRIME LAW) - RTXYZEJ

Netanyahu's coalition stable — with or without Liberman

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feels confident about the stability of his coalition, whatever the outcome in Avigdor Liberman's trial or Labor Party primaries.

Palestinians wait for the release of prisoners from Israeli jails, near Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2013. Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday, the second stage of a limited amnesty designed to help U.S.-sponsored peace talks that have been dogged by divisions on both sides. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX14T9I

Israel traps Palestinians in negotiations with prisoner card

Israel is using the release of Palestinian prisoners as a means to keep the Palestinians in peace talks that are going nowhere.

A Palestinian relative of Hamas militant Rabee Baraka mourns as he takes a farewell look at Baraka's body, at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 1, 2013. On Thursday, Baraka was killed and five Israeli soldiers wounded in a clash that broke out after Israeli forces detonated part of a different Gaza tunnel. Hamas said it had dug the tunnel, which Israel said ran into its territory and was intended for carrying out attacks on its soldiers and civilians. Separately, an Israeli air s

Gaza-Israel Clashes Unlikely to Escalate

Israel and Hamas are both preoccupied with other more pressing regional concerns, and have no interest in flaring a crisis of their own.

A general view of Dubai's cityscape September 25, 2013. A stampede by competing apartment buyers in Dubai this week may have obscured signs that Dubai's latest real estate boom is more restrained than the last one, which pushed the government close to default. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Tags: REAL ESTATE BUSINESS CITYSCAPE) - RTX145A9

The Al-Monitor Debate on Gulf Cities

The Wall Street Journal reports on the Al-Monitor debate on Gulf cities; former Israeli, Palestinian negotiators differ on whether Palestinians should recognize Israel as a Jewish state; hope for Syrian bishops' release; a new Al-Monitor design.

Israeli soldiers (R) and a Jewish settler (L) stand at the entrance to the West Bank Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin, near Hebron April 2, 2009, after an attack. A Palestinian with an axe and a knife killed a 13-year-old Israeli boy and wounded a seven-year-old boy in Bat Ayin on Thursday, two days after a right-wing government took power.
REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (WEST BANK POLITICS CONFLICT IMAGE OF THE DAY TOP PICTURE) - RTXDJ9O

Israeli Army Avoids Confronting Settler Violence

West Bank settlers have once again attacked Palestinian residents and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, and once again the army and police showed no attempt to apprehend the lawbreakers.