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August 25, 2026

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Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani (C) watches as US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack prepares to sign an agreement in Damascus on September 16, 2025. Shaibani announced on September 16 a plan backed by Jordan and the United States to restore calm to Druze-majority Sweida province, which witnessed deadly violence in July. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Exclusive

Israel recalibrates Syria policy, explores path to security deal

Israel is rethinking its hard-line Syria policy and seeking to repair ties with US envoy and Donald Trump's confidant Tom Barrack amid a push for a security agreement with Damascus.

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

Palestinian militant group Hamas police officers stand guard as people attend the opening of the Fatah party's eighth general conference at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City on May 14, 2026.

Ex-defense minister: Israel in ‘worst possible’ Gaza situation as Hamas gains strength

Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant criticized the Israeli government for allowing Hamas to retain control over half of the Gaza Strip.

A merchant ship "Jabotinsky" (former "Altalena"), chartered by Jewish military group Irgun Zvaei Leumi to carry weapons for Israeli fighters, burns near Tel Aviv beach, after being shelled by the Haganah, Israel, June 27, 1948.

Wreck of ship sunk by Israeli military in Irgun clash found after 78 years

The wreck of the Irgun underground's Altalena ship, bombed by the Israeli military in 1948 and deliberately sunk in 1949, was located off Israel's coast at a depth of 1,650 feet.

Latest News

Israel tightens election safeguards as public distrust surges: What to know

ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Why Turkey sees Israeli strikes in Syria as warning over its military role, Mecca Pact

A Turkish soldier from the 1st Border Regiment Command looks out over the border wall to Syria during alert drills at a military outpost on the Turkey/Syria border on March 2, 2017 in Kilis, Turkey.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Analysis

Turkey bets on US deconfliction as Israel widens Syria red lines

Turkey/Syria border

Ezgi Akin

Rina Bassist

By Ezgi Akin , Rina Bassist

Analysis

Israel fears Turkey’s Syria ambitions and doubts Trump will stop them

ANKARA, TURKEY - JULY 7: U.S. President Donald Trump (L)shakes hands with with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) during a formal arrival at the Bestepe Presidential Palace during the NATO summit on July 7, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. Leaders from NATO's 32 countries, plus NATO allies like Ukraine, gathered in the Turkish capital to discuss a range of issues involving spending targets, defense industrial production, and support for Ukraine, among other topics. (Photo by Emrah Gurel - Pool/Getty Images)

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

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 US Chinook military helicopter flies above the US embassy in Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021.

Israel hopes Biden will take harder line on Iran after Afghan withdrawal

Israel seems determined to focus on the opportunities that could stem from the Afghan crisis, such as a wake-up call to its American allies.

Head of Israel's right-wing Yamina party Naftali Bennett (L) chats with Mansour Abbas, head of the conservative Islamic Raam party, during a special session to vote on a new government at the Knesset, Jerusalem, June 13, 2021.

Bennett launches national campaign against crime in Israeli-Arab villages

Saher Ismail, adviser of the education minister, was killed this week outside his house in the Israeli-Arab town of Rameh; he was the 74th Israeli-Arab murdered since the beginning of the year.

A firefighting plane works on extinguishing a forest fire at the Jerusalem mountains near Shoresh, on Aug. 16, 2021.

Firefighting efforts continue through night near Jerusalem

MORTEZA NIKOUBAZL/AFP via Getty Images

Israel presses case against new Iranian government

The government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is busily conducting a public relations campaign against the cabinet of new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

Visitors look at the Hall of Names, a repository for the names of millions of Holocaust victims at the Yad Vashem memorial center, Jerusalem, Jan. 20, 2020.

Israel-Poland row escalates over law limiting WWII restitution

The approval by Polish President Andrzej Duda of legislation limiting the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazis in Poland during World War II deeply angered Jerusalem and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

AFP via Getty Images

Israel's coalition government holds to center

Two months in, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid remain both partners and rivals as the new government passes a budget, grapples with COVID-19 and Iran and seeks to strengthen already warm ties with the Biden administration.

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Aug. 1, 2021.

Israel's Bennett works to boost ties with Biden administration

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett learned from the mistakes of his predecessor, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is investing tremendous efforts into developing an intimate relationship with President Joe Biden.

An Israeli medic anministers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus to a man, at a Clalit Health Services station set up inside Cinema City complex in Jerusalem, on Aug. 11, 2021.

Israel approves COVID-19 booster for ages 50+

Health care workers, prisoners and people with weak immune system are also eligible to receive a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Yair Lapid in Casablanca

Israel’s Lapid reopens liaison office in Morocco, is moved by synagogue visit

After reopening a liaison office in Rabat, Morocco, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is sung to at the refurbished Beth El synagogue in Casablanca.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (R) speaks to Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Aug. 8, 2021.

Israel’s Bennett and Lapid partners, but still rivals

Behind the seemingly idyllic partnership between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid, tensions are seething and competition is already on its way.

FERENC ISZA/AFP via Getty Images

UN panel calls for cybersurveillance sale freeze amid Pegasus scandal

The independent panel said it was concerned by reports that highly sophisticated surveillance tools are being used to monitor journalists, activists and political opponents.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (L) and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita (R) sign three framework cooperation agreements, Rabat, Morocco, Aug. 11, 2021.

Israel’s Lapid in Morocco to cement diplomatic, economic ties

The two-day visit in Rabat of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is not only historic diplomatically, it also cements growing trade relations between the two countries.