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

Israel cover image

Israel

July 2, 2026

Tel Aviv 11:11 am

32°C

Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Who is Melat Kiros, the pro-Palestinian who unseated a longtime Democrat?

Kiros has taken a hard stance against Israel and opposes all aid to the country as pro-Palestinian candidates make further inroads in the party.

Shia Muslim devotees gather for a mourning ritual near the shrine of Hassan Nasrallah, the slain leader of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah who was killed in a 2024 Israeli-airstrike, in Beirut's southern suburbs on June 26, 2026 at the peak of Ashura, a 10-day period commemorating the seventh century killing of Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein. (Photo by JOSEPH EID / AFP via Getty Images)

Analysis

For Israel, Lebanon deal 'historic' despite fears Hezbollah will rebuild

While the deal with Lebanon allows the Israeli military to maintain a presence there, security experts warn that it also gives the weakened Hezbollah the time it needs to recover.

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

Latest News

Turkey, Azerbaijan slam Israel’s Armenian genocide recognition as Yerevan mum

KAREN MINASYAN / AFP via Getty Images

Traffic plummets through Strait of Hormuz after Iran, US trade fire

AFP via Getty Images

Syria slams Israeli 'violations' in south as ground clashes intensify: What to know

A car drives past an United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) outpost in the village of Khan Arnabah, Quneitra, southern Syria, April 29, 2026.

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

Yona Musa, 76, from a Yemeni descent, poses with a portrait of her and her husband on June 29, 2016 at her home in the Israeli city of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.
Musa is one of the thousands of Israelis, mainly from Jewish Yemenite families, who claim their babies were abducted more than 60 years ago and handed to adoption. Such stories of babies from immigrant families disappearing have been told in Israel for decades, but growing calls to unseal official documents on the allegations mean new light could so

Will mystery of Israel's missing Yemenite children soon be solved?

The families of Israel's Yemenite children who disappeared in the early 1950s might be disappointed when the archives on this issue open up, as it is not certain that they will find any answers there.

Palestinian poet and journalist Mahmoud Darwish gestures during the Carthage Theatre Days in Tunis theatre, 06 December 2007. AFP PHOTO/ FETHI BELAID (Photo credit should read FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images)

War of the Words: Palestinian poetry broadcast terrifies Israeli right

Israeli Ministers Miri Regev and Avigdor Liberman have attacked Army Radio over a broadcast featuring Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, even though his poetry is taught in Israeli schools.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures as he speaks during a ceremony at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa, Israel, July 21, 2016. REUTERS/POOL/Dan Balilty - RTSJ1NL

What Bibi got wrong about comparison of Tel Aviv, Nice attacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to ignore the reality of Israeli occupation by equating attacks by Palestinians and the terror attacks in Paris, Orlando and Nice.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen on a monitor before the evening news bulletin at Channel 10 in Jerusalem November 18, 2015. Critics say Netanyahu, known as "Bibi," is hitting the wrong note when it comes to the media, weakening press freedom and holding sway over TV broadcasters in a country that bills itself as the Middle East's only true democracy. Picture taken November 18, 2015. To match Insight ISRAEL-NETANYAHU/MEDIA REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTX1VG4V

Netanyahu's battle against public broadcasting

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, worried that a new independent broadcasting corporation would veer left right under his nose, has postponed its launch by two years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and his wife Sara (R) attend the the the 2016 Genesis Prize in Jerusalem, June 23, 2016. REUTERS/Amir Cohen - RTX2HV1J

Is Bibi's massive fundraising network about to collapse?

Police are looking into alleged donations of money and gifts by foreign businesspeople to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family members.

A general view of the UNESCO headquarters before a ceremony for the "UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences" in Paris July 17, 2012. Rights groups said on Monday UNESCO's decision to award a science prize sponsored by the president of Equatorial Guinea was "shameful and utterly irresponsible". Despite calls to abandon it, the governing council of Paris-based UNESCO voted by 33 to 18 with six abstentions to approve awarding what was originally called the "UNESCO-Obiang

What really delayed UNESCO vote on Jerusalem?

Although Israel claimed success in delaying the vote to be held in Istanbul on a UNESCO resolution submitted by Palestine and Jordan on Jerusalem, Palestinian and Arab officials say the postponement was due to security instability in Turkey following the coup attempt.

Hanin Zoabi, a legislator from the Joint Arab List, participates in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the northern Israeli town of Sakhnin October 13, 2015. Israel's leading Arab politician was in the middle of a television interview on a street in its biggest Arab city when the mayor, also an Arab, pulled up in his car and started shouting at him to leave. With Palestinian knife attacks on the rise, the live TV encounter illustrated a conflict within Israel's Arab minority between sympathy for Palestinian

Is Arab Knesset member Zoabi on her way out?

The Israeli Knesset is expected to approve a bill enabling a three-fourths majority of 90 members to expel another member on the grounds of incitement against the state or relations with a terror organization.

Screen_Shot_2016-07-19_at_10.28.12_AM.png

Was Arabic ad on Israeli TV a clever publicity stunt?

An Israeli department store probably anticipated the controversy its prime-time Arabic-language commercial would kick off and is now reaping the benefits of notoriety among large swaths of Israelis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (L) in Jerusalem July 10, 2016 REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTSH5PM

Some Egyptians wary of normalizing relations with Israel

Egyptian leaders say they are playing an important role in reviving the Palestinian issue by mediating with Israel, but some sources say Egyptians might actually be losing their sympathy for Palestinians and don't want to normalize relations with Israel.

An Israeli army rabbi blesses a soldier who just returned from Lebanon to north of Israel near the Israeli-Lebanon border August 11, 2006. REUTERS/Petr Josek (ISRAEL) - RTR1GAH4

The cultural war brewing inside the IDF

Statements by leading Zionist-Orthodox rabbis against gays and in support of the exclusion of women from the army reflect the growing war of culture waged in Israel, between liberals and those who aspire for a more Jewish-religious state.

'No military solution' say Israeli, Palestinian ex-fighters

The Israeli and Palestinian former fighters of Combatants for Peace are using their personal stories to advocate a nonviolent, humanitarian approach to ending the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - FEBRUARY 24: Ayelet Shaked poses for a portrait on February 24, 2015 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ayelet Shaked of the Bayit Yehudi party is the newly appointed Justice Minister. (Photo by Ilia Yefimovich/Getty Images)

Why nude portrait of an Israeli minister was censored

The president of the Israeli Design College has censored a portrait by a student that depicts Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked nude.