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

Israel cover image

Israel

June 26, 2026

Tel Aviv 2:50 pm

30°C

Responders arrive to a demolished building at San Bernardino after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Venezuela and other regions in the Caribbean on June 24, 2026 in Caracas, Venezuela.

Israel, Turkey, Iran offer aid as Venezuela’s 2 quakes kill at least 188

Iran, Turkey and Israel were among the first countries to offer assistance to earthquake-hit Venezuela despite their varying diplomatic relationships with Caracas.

Congressional candidate Claire Valdez, Congressional candidate Brad Lander, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and Congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier raise their hands during a Get Out the Vote (GOTV) rally at King's Theater on June 18, 2026 in New York City.

Explainer

Pro-Palestine Democrats win in NYC elections: What it means

According to a recent survey, 80% of Democrats expressed an unfavorable view of Israel, yet party leadership in the House and Senate has remained largely aligned with longstanding US support for Israel.

Lebanese army forces deploy in the village of Bir al-Salasel in southern Lebanon on June 15, 2026. Iran's foreign ministry on June 15 said the US must ensure that Israel commits to stopping the war in Lebanon under a deal agreed upon with the US to end the Middle East war. Lebanon was pulled into the conflict in early March when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rocket attacks on Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader, prompting Israeli strikes and a ground invasion. (Pho

Analysis

Pilot zones at center of Israel-Lebanon talks as Trump pressures Netanyahu

With the fifth round of talks set to begin Tuesday, Israel is prepared to withdraw from at least one “pilot zone,” allowing the Lebanese army to take control of the area.

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

Latest News

Analysis

As US reshapes Lebanon strategy, Israel finds itself sidelined

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, on June 9, 2026.

Rina Bassist

By Rina Bassist

In Paris, reporting on Israeli politics and European affairs

Can political novice Eisenkot defeat Netanyahu in upcoming elections?

Former Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot gives a press conference in Tel Aviv, on December 4, 2018.

Analysis

How Netanyahu used Lebanon strikes to push back on Trump’s Iran deal

US President Donald Trump holds a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Palm Beach, Florida, Dec. 29, 2025.

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

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

Israel's Christian schools demand equality with Jewish schools

Christian schools in Israel do not receive the same financial support as their Jewish counterparts, burdening parents with higher tuition costs.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem May 26, 2015. Netanyahu has proposed resuming peace negotiations with the Palestinians but with the initial focus on identifying those Jewish settlements that Israel would keep and be allowed to expand, an Israeli official said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTX1EKJI

Netanyahu increasingly exposed to political extortion

The precedents of Ministers Gilad Erdan and Zeev Elkin receiving the portfolios they were after encourage Likud central committee members, who seek to weaken Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hold on the party.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a statement to the press before a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem January 2, 2014. Kerry arrived in Israel on Thursday in his latest bid to resume peace negotiations and find scarce common ground between pessimistic Israeli and Palestinian officials. REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX1702V

Is US disengaging from Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

With a weak Palestinian leader and a peace-rejectionist Israeli prime minister, the Obama administration is reluctant to impose itself on the two parties and might prefer a disengagement doctrine.

Moshe Kahlon, Israel's new Finance Minister, attends a meeting at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem May 18, 2015. Boosting competition in Israel's banking system and the economy as a whole as well as bringing down property prices will be priorities for the country's new finance minister, he said on Monday. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTX1DH88

Kahlon's election promise blunder

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon won 10 Knesset seats after promising to dismantle monopolies and share more equally natural resources, but this promise is now questioned in view of his friendship with a leading Israeli businessman.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) poses with his new government and the Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat (L) as he holds a meeting of his new cabinet, in honour of Jerusalem Day, at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem May 19, 2015. REUTERS/Atef Safadi/Pool - RTX1DLKY

Two Israeli mayors consider leadership run

Two mayors, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, are contemplating challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog.

Palestinian protesters hold placards depicting their relatives during a demonstration to show their solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, outside the Red Cross building in Jerusalem June 12, 2014. Some 70 protesters took part in the demonstration on Thursday. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have joined a hunger strike since late April, in protest over an Israeli policy allowing indefinite detention without trial. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITI

Palestinian prisoners resort to hunger strikes

Hunger strikes by Palestinian detainees are sweeping Israeli prisons in protest of what looks like a pattern of abusive administrative detention rulings.

Jordanian protesters take part in a march against a government agreement to import natural gas from Israel, in Amman March 6, 2015. The red placards read "The enemy's gas is occupation". REUTERS/Majd Jaber (JORDAN - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY CIVIL UNREST BUSINESS) - RTR4SBDC

Jordanians protest Israeli gas deal

Jordanians continue to oppose the natural gas deal struck with Israel, arguing that it threatens the country’s economic and political independence.

A woman spins a hula hoop around her waist on a beach in Tel Aviv December 4, 2014.Unusually hot weather has hit Israel in the last few days with temperatures reaching 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) at mid-day.
REUTERS/Baz Ratner (ISRAEL - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY) - RTR4GPUT

Existential threats don't diminish Israeli happiness

Although confronted with security threats, unemployment, high cost of living, discrimination against minorities and increased crime, Israelis' warm family and social ties make them feel happy.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) listens to Foreign Affairs and Defence committee chair Zeev Elkin during a committee meeting at parliament in Jerusalem June 2, 2014. Netanyahu warned on Sunday against any international rush to recognise a Palestinian government due to be announced under a unity pact between the Fatah and Hamas Islamist groups.REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3RRU6

Netanyahu caves, hands Elkin Jerusalem portfolio

After assigning the Strategic Affairs portfolio to Gilad Erdan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compensated Immigration and Absorption Minister Zeev Elkin by handing him the delicate Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs.

Protesters, mainly who are Israeli Jews of Ethiopian origin, run at a main road in Tel Aviv as they block it during a demonstration against what they say is police racism and brutality, after the emergence last week of a video clip that showed policemen shoving and punching a black soldier May 3, 2015. Israeli mounted police charged hundreds of ethnic Ethiopian citizens and fired stun grenades on Saturday to try to clear one of the most violent protests in memory in the heart of Tel Aviv. Picture taken May

Center trains Ethiopian-Israelis for high-tech careers

A technology training center for Ethiopian-Israelis trains dozens of students every year for high-tech professions, but many graduates feel disappointed in a state that still sees them as manual laborers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shows the way to European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini during their meeting in Jerusalem May 20, 2015. Netanyahu renewed his commitment on Wednesday to a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after backtracking on that pledge during a heated campaign for a March election. REUTERS/Dan Balilty/Pool - RTX1DU9V

Netanyahu zigzags on two-state solution

Throughout his political career, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has battled the 1993 Oslo Accord, backed it, objected to the two-state solution and then supported it again.

An Israeli border policeman fires a tear gas canister towards Palestinian stone-throwers as an Israeli settlement is seen in the background during clashes at a protest against Jewish settlements, in Jalazoun refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah March 27, 2015.
REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman - RTR4V6AH

No promises in Netanyahu's offer to negotiate settlement annexation

The Israeli prime minister’s overtures to discuss settlements to be annexed to Israel under a peace agreement is an effort to legitimize the settlements in the guise of a concession without making any commitments to the Palestinians.