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Israel

September 20, 2026

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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

OLIVER BUNIC/AFP via Getty Images

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

Serbian President Vucic said the factory will put together “state-of-the-art” Israeli-designed drones and employ around 100 workers.

Royal Air Maroc Boeing 787-9 'Dreamliner' aircraft

Israel, Morocco agree to exchange ambassadors, open embassies

The move will mark the first time Morocco and Israel have exchanged ambassadors.

Latest News

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.

Exclusive

Lacking deterrence, Israel’s security establishment opposes attacks on Houthis

Fighters loyal to the Houthi authorities, brandish their weapons during a rally to recruit more fighters, in Sanaa on September 10, 2026. The country relapsed into war in July after years of calm, drawn into the regional conflict triggered by the US-Israeli offensive against Iran that began at the end of February. (Photo by Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP via Getty Images)

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

Analysis

Europe’s West Bank trade ban fires warning shot at Israel’s economy

Jewish settlement of Kedumim, in the West Bank

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

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

Cancer patient and blind Palestinian girl Aseel al-Haj Ahmed, 9, holds her mother's hand as she receives a regular treatment in a hospital in Gaza City April 29, 2013. Al-Haj Ahmed was afflicted with cancer when she was four months old, when doctors had to remove both her eyes and replace them with ocular prostheses as a result of a malignant tumour that struck her spinal cord. The schoolgirl is looked after by her unemployed father whose impoverished family includes his wife and four other children. Al-Haj

Israeli Doctors Fight to Save Palestinian Child in Hebron

The Israeli medical staff of Tel Hashomer Hospital is fighting for the life of a 6-month-old Palestinian infant abandoned by her parents.

Ultra-Orthodox protesters pray during clashes in the town of Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem August 14, 2013. Ultra-Orthodox protesters clashed on Wednesday with police and other security forces in the town of Beit Shemesh after a group of them broke into a construction site to prevent work from taking place at the site they believe contains ancient graves. REUTERS/ Baz Ratner (ISRAEL - Tags: RELIGION CIVIL UNREST POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTX12L8W

Israeli Ultra Orthodox Parties Split From Settlers

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox parties are forming their own distinct political bloc.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announces further peace talks at a news conference with Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (L) and Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (R) at the State Department in Washington July 30, 2013. Israel and the Palestinians will seek to reach a peace agreement within nine months and negotiators will meet again within two weeks after holding a "positive" first round of talks, Kerry said on Tuesday. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX1250G

Will US 'Strategic Imperative' Guide Israeli-Palestinian Talks?

While the Egypt crisis deepens, the Obama administration continues to give priority to an Israel-Palestinian agreement.

Palestinians wait to cross into Jerusalem at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank town of Bethlehem July 7, 2013. There are two ways for Palestinian workers to cross into Israel every day. Those with work permits can pass through a military checkpoint. Those without have to find a way through the separation barrier, which is made up of mostly fences and some cement walls, snaking its way through the West Bank. Those caught entering illegally risk a fine or imprisonment. Both ways are time consuming but th

Israel’s Cynical Concern For Palestinian Workers

Israel is claiming that boycotting settlement products harms the Palestinian economy, while the Israeli administration disregards Palestinian workers' rights.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (C) holds hands with Palestinian prisoners who were released from Israeli prisons during celebrations in the West Bank city of Ramallah early August 14, 2013. Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday to keep U.S.-sponsored peacemaking on course for a second round of talks, but diplomacy was dogged by Israeli plans for more Jewish homes on occupied land the Palestinians claim for a future state. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF T

Hamas Downplays Israel's Prisoner Release

Hamas fears that Fatah's ability to secure a prisoner release via negotiations may undermine its resistance-only approach to freeing Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Jamil Nabi Annatsheh, a Palestinian prisoner freed by Israel, stands beneath a banner depicting him and hung outside his house in the West Bank city of Hebron August 14, 2013. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were due to reconvene U.S.-brokered peace talks in Jerusalem on Wednesday amid little fanfare and low expectations, dogged by plans for more Jewish settler homes on occupied land. The resumption of negotiations, after a first round in Washington last month that ended a three-year standoff over Jewis

The Twisted Symbolism Of the Palestinian Prisoner Release

While the Palestinians take pride in the release of prisoners, the Israeli government is taking pride in its decision to build houses.

Apartment blocks under construction (front) are seen in Pisgat Zeev, an urban settlement in an area Israel annexed to Jerusalem after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East war, August 12, 2013. Israel on Monday named 26 Palestinian prisoners to be freed this week under a deal enabling U.S.-backed peace talks to resume, although Palestinians said these had been undermined by newly announced plans to expand Israeli settlements. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS CONSTRUCTION) - RTX12IKF

Israeli Settlement Authorization Is Pre-Emptive Strike

Israeli is striking a blow against the peace process by authorizing further settlement expansion.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) speaks to Moshe Shahal, a member of the Israel Peace Initiative and a former Israeli cabinet minister, during a news conference after Abbas met members of the Israeli Peace Initiative in the West Bank city of Ramallah April 28, 2011. The Israel Peace Initiative, a private group that includes former politicians and security officials, wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to renew peace talks, which the Palestinians have frozen over his refusal t

Former Israeli Minister Blasts Palestinian Prisoners Release

Former Labor Minister Moshe Shahal, who chaired the Prisoner Release Committee in the Rabin government, criticizes the decision to release prisoners instead of freezing the construction in the West Bank.

Israel's armed forces chief Major-General Benny Gantz (R) speaks to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey before an honour guard ceremony at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv August 13, 2013. REUTERS/Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY) - RTX12JHT

Egypt, Iran Top Dempsey's Agenda in Israel

Visiting Israel again, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey will urge Israel not to attack Iran while his counterparts will press Washington to deepen their involvement in Egypt.

Fatah strongman and lawmaker Mohammed Dahlan (C) arrives at the Palestinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah December 16, 2006. Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan accused Fatah strongman and lawmaker Mohammed Dahlan of being behind the attack on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's convoy. REUTERS/Loay Abu Haykel (WEST BANK) - RTR1KH1X

Exclusive: Dahlan Family Visits Gaza

Despite the animosity between former Fatah official Mohammed Dahlan and the Hamas leadership, his family was granted permission to visit the Gaza Strip.

A Bedouin boy rides a donkey near a sign in the West Bank village of Wadi al-Maleh, near the border with Jordan April 29, 2013. Israeli soldiers on Monday evicted several hundred Bedouins from the village in the occupied West Bank after the army declared the area a live-fire training zone. The residents of Wadi al-Maleh, a village mostly inhabited by shepherds in the arid area, had almost all left their homes by an evening curfew and retreated to neighbouring villages, a local leader told Reuters. REUTERS/M

Israeli Army Seeks to Evict Villagers to Expand Firing Zone

The Israeli army wants to evacuate the Palestinian West Bank villages of Masafer Yatta to accomodate its live-fire training area.

AppleMark

US Rep. Keith Ellison Calls For Obama-Rouhani Summit

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Ellison says, “If the United States had direct negotiations with Iran, the first item should be stopping the bloodshed in Syria.”