Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Turkish House in New York, on Sept. 19, 2023.

Analysis

What’s at stake for Turkey as Israel heads to the polls?

Israel’s Oct. 27 election could offer a chance to ease tensions with Ankara, but competing ambitions in Syria and beyond threaten to push the two US allies toward a dangerous confrontation.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images

Feature

50,000 Israeli expats fly home to vote in potential boon to Netanyahu rivals

Israel prohibits voting from abroad with limited exceptions, and Israelis who spoke to Al-Monitor said they are especially motivated to fly home this year.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

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

Pedestrians cross a street in front of a banner featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Analysis

How Israel opposition infighting is boosting Netanyahu days before election

Discord within the opposition, including its reluctance to name a single candidate for prime minister ahead of the Oct. 27 election, is working in Netanyahu’s favor.

Mazal Mualem

By Mazal Mualem

In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics

In first, Israel’s Netanyahu says he held call with Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa

It is the first publicly disclosed contact between the leaders of Israel and Syria, which lack formal relations and have fought several wars. Sharaa’s government began US-mediated talks with Israel in 2025.

Latest News

Sisi says Egypt has no ‘territorial ambitions’ after Israel’s Smotrich threatens Sinai

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends a joint statements and agreements during the EU and Egypt summit in Brussels, on Oct. 22, 2025.

Former Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar sues Netanyahu for nearly $1M over Oct. 7 claims

Israel's Chief of the Mossad David Barnea (R) and Security Agency director Ronen Bar, attend a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on October 27, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Explainer

Israel-UK relations hit new low over settlements, Gaza: What to know

The British Consulate General in east Jerusalem represents the British government in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during a protest against the recently announced British sanctions, aimed at economic activity in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, on Sept. 14, 2026, in Jerusalem.

West Bank olive harvest begins amid settler attacks on Palestinians, groves

Palestinian men sitting in and by a tractor look on after another man was injured by gunfire whilst being chased away by Israeli forces, in Aqraba in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Oct. 6, 2026.

Low chances of success for Abbas’ alternative to US peace plan

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas proposed his vision for a peace process with Israel as an alternative to the United States' deal of the century.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 11: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas listens at the United Nations (UN) Security Council in New York on February 11, 2020 in New York City. Abbas used the world body to denounce the US peace plan between Israel and Palestine. Donald Trump's proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which was released on January 28, has been met with universal Palestinian opposition. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Why Palestinians failed at the Security Council

The Palestinians' push for a near-unanimous UN Security Council resolution opposing the Trump plan ran into a number of unexpected roadblocks.

Peace with the region is not a peace plan

The Trump peace plan is flawed because it has more to do with building a coalition against Iran rather than with promoting peace between Israelis and the Palestinians.

Palestinians tell Trump, Israel: We are not for sale

The Trump administration boasts of a generous economic framework offered to the Palestinians, while in truth it hopes the private sector will come up with the funds.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends a news conference following a meeting with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (not pictured) in Moscow, Russia, December 30, 2019. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina - RC2M5E9N6PCJ

Iran FM phones Abbas to discuss US peace deal

Given shaky relations between Iran and the Palestinian Authority, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif's phone call to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas came as a surprise.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds a map while speaking during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations in New York, U.S., February 11, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton - RC2FYE9OX8R2

Abbas at UN gives muted rejection to Trump ‘annexation’ plan

The White House declares victory as the UN Security Council holds off on issuing a resolution reiterating old parameters for a two-state solution.

An Israeli soldier stands near a staging area near the border with Gaza, in southern Israel November 14, 2019. REUTERS/ Ronen Zvulun - RC21BD9513VS

Hamas puts the ball in Israel's court

The leaders of Hamas have indicated that the time for waiting is over as pressure continues to build in Gaza, leaving Israel to have to choose between the risk of war and its unknown consequences and finally reaching a long-term arrangement with the movement.

U.S. President Donald Trump makes remarks during the White House Business Session with the nation's governors in the State Dining Room of the White House, Washington, DC, U.S., February 10, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Theiler - RC2TXE9F4HJ0

Trump budget holds Palestinian aid hostage to progress on peace plan

The Donald Trump administration is doubling down on its bid to cut Palestinian aid by tying it to congressional funding for the president’s Middle East peace plan.

Members of the media work as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks after holding a weekly cabinet meeting in the Jordan Valley, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank September 15, 2019. REUTERS/Amir Cohen - RC1DC97D0610

Will settlers' anger push Netanyahu into Blue and White's arms?

Yamina and settlers leaders are demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unilaterally annex West Bank territory despite the objection of the White House, but their campaign runs the risk of backfiring politically.

Can Netanyahu spin right-wing annexation war to his advantage?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t too worried about rejecting calls on the right for “Annexation now!” as those who do not like his response apparently have nowhere else to go.

What's in store for Palestinian-Jordanian ties as US rolls out peace plan?

While Jordan and Palestine are supporting each other in their rejection of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, it remains to be seen what the future holds if Washington ups the pressure on Amman.

Palestinian demonstrators burn a representation of an Israeli flag during a protest against the U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, in the southern Gaza Strip January 31, 2020. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa - RC2ZQE9RWL7X

Is West Bank, Gaza unrest a prelude of things to come?

Attacks on Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Jerusalem after the release of President Donald Trump's peace plan have led security officials to view a recent escalation on the Gaza border in a new light.