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Israel

September 23, 2026

Tel Aviv 6:17 pm

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ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Why Netanyahu is distancing himself from Trump ahead of Israeli election

No meeting has been announced between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly summit in New York.

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

Gargash

UAE's Gargash expects 'prolonged' war, calls for Iran-Gulf security talks

"We need a new mindset that these sort of discussions ... can happen at an Iranian-American level, it should also take place at an Iranian-Arab level," Gargash told Al-Monitor.

United Arab Emirates

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron arrive to hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem, Oct. 24, 2023.

Analysis

After France's settlement ban, Israel sees no warming of ties with Macron government

Israeli diplomats say France’s decision to ban imports from West Bank settlements has brought bilateral relations to an unprecedented low point.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looks on as he attends a trade agreement signature ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris on August 24, 2026. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

How Netanyahu is leveraging Houthi threat in secret Saudi normalization push

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to capitalize on Riyadh's need for intelligence assistance to make normalization headway ahead of the October elections.

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

Latest News

Serbia opens factory to assemble Israeli-made drones: What to know

OLIVER BUNIC/AFP via Getty Images

Israel, Morocco agree to exchange ambassadors, open embassies

Royal Air Maroc Boeing 787-9 'Dreamliner' aircraft

Culture

Israeli show ‘Fauda’ tops Netflix in Lebanon, hits top 10 across Arab states

ISRAEL-ENTERTAINMENT-TELEVISION-POLITICS-GOVERNMENT-MASS-MEDIA-D (L to R) Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff, co-creators of the hit Israeli TV show "Fauda", attend a demonstration against the Israeli government's plans to shut-down public broadcaster KAN, in Israel's Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on January 25, 2023. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Explainer

Why France is pushing to keep UNIFIL in Lebanon beyond 2026

UN peacekeepers stand next to an armored vehicle during a patrol in southern Lebanon, Feb. 22, 2026.

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

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque - RTSOTEX

Obama and Israel: It ain’t over till it’s over

Those close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fear that if Donald Trump wins the elections, President Barack Obama will use the time left before the end of his term to launch a diplomatic initiative on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Culture minister steals show by blasting Israeli Oscars

When Arab-Israeli actors read a poem and held hands in a show of unity at Israel’s Academy Awards, a protesting Culture Minister Miri Regev walked out and returned to criticize the film industry’s “elitism” and threaten to cut funding.

Israel's Culture Minister Miri Regev arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem June 21, 2015. REUTERS/Dan Balilty/Pool - RTX1HFQD

Can Israel's culture minister provoke her way to the top?

Culture Minister Miri Regev has perfected a strategy of deliberately outraging Israeli audiences to boost her standing within her party.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson - RTSOZTX

Abbas disappoints, again, with UN speech

President Mahmoud Abbas' speech to the UN General Assembly showed that he has no credible strategy for obtaining Palestinian statehood.

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid (C) walks with supporters as he campaigns in the southern city of Ashdod March 15, 2015. The era of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is ending, with Israeli voters clearly more concerned about economic and social issues than about security or fears over Iran, Lapid said on Monday. Lapid, a telegenic former news anchor and TV host, leads the centrist, secular Yesh Atid party ("There's a Future"), which emerged out of the cost-of-living protests that swept Israel in 2011. Picture

Could a centrist politician be Israel's next PM?

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid is working to attract the support of the Israeli political center, but it seems that he is not the only one aiming at this constituency.

Fuad Maadi (R), a 60-year-old Palestinian man, speaks with Gilad Grossman of Israeli rights group Yesh Din, on September 11, 2016, as he stands on a hill in the West Bank Christian village of Taybeh overlooking land he says his family owns and on which houses from the nearby wildcat Jewish settlement of Amona might be relocated.
An Israeli court has ruled that the wildcat Jewish settlement of Amona, where live around 40 families in mainly caravan homes, is on Palestinian property and must be evacuated by De

Palestinians fight to prove West Bank land ownership

Palestinians living in villages near the illegal outpost of Amona are fighting to prove their ownership of the land where a pro-settler campaign is planning to establish its new location.

A Palestinian woman hangs a torch inside her house during power cuts at Shatti (beach) refugee camp in Gaza City September 15, 2015. Power has been provided to different areas in the impoverished coastal territory in six-hour shifts as Gaza's lone power plant shut its generators on Saturday due to a fuel shortage, energy officials said. Electricity is also supplied to the Gaza grid through power lines from Israel and Egypt. Gaza's plant provides electricity to two-thirds of its population. REUTERS/Mohammed

Why some Palestinians don't trust new electricity deal with Israel

The Palestinian Authority and Israel signed an agreement to partially solve the electricity problem Palestinians have been suffering from for years.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi addresses the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S. September 20, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz - RTSOOE8

Will 1967 Palestinian refugees ever return?

The Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty may have been good for the two parties, but it has also been used to prevent Palestinians displaced in 1967 from returning to their homes.

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York September 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque - RTSOTGJ

Israeli right no longer bothered by Obama

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's last meeting with US President Barack Obama marked his success at stalling American efforts at peace.

Israeli border policemen perform a body search on a Palestinian following a stabbing attack on two Israeli police officers near Jerusalem's Old City September 19, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Awad TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTSODQN

Liberman’s punishment strategy brings an end to West Bank calm

The plan by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman to punish West Bank villages from which Palestinian assailants originate provokes anger and frustration amid the local population.

Israel's new Defence Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, head of far-right Yisrael Beitenu party, reviews an honour guard during a welcoming ceremony at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTX2EXRI

The strange case of the Israeli defense minister

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman is a rare bird in the sense that he has no significant military experience, never commanded a military unit and speaks a different language from that of the military world.

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 20: Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) (L) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) hold a news conference about military assistance to Israel at the U.S. Capitol September 20, 2016 in Washington, DC. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is threatening to stall approval of an agreement on military assistance between the U.S. and Israel by introducing legislation that would boost the aid above what the countries agreed on. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

US aid to Israel takes a partisan turn

Senate Republicans push for $1.5 billion boost days after signing off on a record $38 billion package.