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

Israel cover image

Israel

July 5, 2026

Tel Aviv 3:34 am

25°C

Joint List Party leader Ayman Odeh attends a meeting on April 5, 2021 in Jerusalem, Israel.

Interview

Ayman Odeh says Arab parties could back Bennett or Eisenkot to block Netanyahu

In an interview with Al-Monitor, head of the Arab-Israeli Hadash-Ta'al Knesset faction, Ayman Odeh, said his party is prepared to make difficult decisions to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

Ayman Odeh

Head of the Knesset's Hadash-Ta'al faction

Motorists drive past a billboard bearing a picture of Iran's slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei, ahead of his funeral in Tehran on July 3, 2026. Iranian leaders began paying their respects on July 3 before the coffin of the country's late supreme leader Ali Khamenei, killed in the US-Israeli strikes that triggered the Middle East war, as Tehran prepared for a vast funeral. Khamenei's body arrived at Tehran's Grand Mosalla on July 3 ahead of ceremonies which are expected to draw millions. (Photo by AFP via Ge

Analysis

As US-Iran talks falter, Israel views war outcome as 'total strategic failure’

Israeli officials believe the US failure to attain the kind of agreement with Iran that it originally sought stems from the strategic mistakes made during and after the recent war.

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

Latest News

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

Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

Analysis

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

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)

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

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

KAREN MINASYAN / AFP via Getty Images

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

Israeli-Arabs hold Palestinian flags during 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 brethren in Jerusalem,

Is Israel headed to a civil war?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has destroyed one of Israel's major achievements: the basic allegiance of Israeli Arabs with Israel, including their participation in the electoral process and their at least partial integration in the economy and in academic life.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd R) attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem October 18, 2015. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun - RTS4XKV

Netanyahu's short-term thinking

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feels threatened by Yisrael Beitenu head Avigdor Liberman's rising popularity over his management of the current wave of violence, which is why he keeps coming up with short-lived security ideas.

Israeli paramilitary police walk on the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City October 26, 2015. Monday's visit to the compound was low-key by most standards - no fighting broke out, no one was ejected by the police, everyone left calmly and life returned to normal. But in critical ways it cut to the heart of an issue fuelling the worst violence between Palestinians and Israel in years: whether the status quo at the site, also known as the Al-Aqs

My visit to Temple Mount

With hundreds of tourists, I visited the Temple Mount, and contrary to Palestinian accusations, Israel is not trying to change the status quo but cooperates with the Waqf guards during visits at the site.

How to bring peace to Israel

Palestinian Knesset member Ahmad Tibi talked with Al-Monitor about the latest uprising in the Palestinian territories, saying though he advocates nonviolent resistance, peace will remain elusive until Israel ends the longest occupation the world has known.

Lightning strikes over a power station during a storm in the city of Ashkelon October 28, 2015. REUTERS/ Amir Cohen TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX1TPK2

Israeli politicians wary of being shocked by electricity union

Even with the mass power breaks following the flash floods this week, Israeli politicians didn't dare confront the mighty electricity labor union.

Children sit on bales of hay at the annual harvest festival in Kibbutz Degania Alef on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, northern Israel May 23, 2015. Twenty-five years ago kibbutzim, collective communities traditionally based on agriculture, seemed all but doomed. But the last few years have seen a surprising turnaround, with young families seeking to escape the high cost of living and alienation they find in cities for a cheaper, rural lifestyle in a closely knit community. Picture taken May 23, 2015. REU

Is kibbutz lifestyle sustainable?

Israeli students who grew up in a kibbutz intend to leave their communities in favor of city life and a profitable career.

Will Big Brother be able to bring peace to Temple Mount?

Instead of installing cameras at the Temple Mount compound to discourage security violations, religious leaders should advocate turning the place into a global center of peace and human solidarity.

Israel goes back to business as usual in post-Iran deal era

The visit of Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon this week to Washington and the upcoming visit there of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will both focus on Israeli demands for US military support.

A rose lies on the grave of former Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was killed by an ultranationalist Jew in 1995, during the annual memorial ceremony at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem November 10, 2008. REUTERS/Brian Hendler/Pool (JERUSALEM) - RTXAGKB

Remembering Rabin's road

On this year's anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, Israelis should rethink their national priorities going forward.

A girl rides her bike on an empty street during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in the northern Israeli city of Acre October 8, 2011. Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, is the holiest of Jewish holidays, when observant Jews atone for the sins of the past year. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (ISRAEL - Tags: RELIGION SOCIETY) - RTR2SEJU

Israeli settlers win tax battle

In the battle over municipal funding and tax breaks, Likud ministers side with the powerful settler lobby.

Israeli border policemen detain a wounded Palestinian protester who witnesses said was shot by the troops during clashes following a rally ahead of the Nakba day in the West Bank city of Bethlehem May 14, 2015. Palestinians mark "Nakba" (Catastrophe) on May 15 to commemorate the expulsion or fleeing of some 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948. REUTERS/Ammar Awad TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX1CYIX

What it means when Israel threatens to revoke citizenship

Many Arabs fear that Israel's increasing right-wing tendency will open the way for more laws targeting Arab citizens of Israel.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech to international Jewish leaders meeting in Jerusalem October 20, 2015. REUTERS/Amir Cohen - RTS57RF

Never mind rewriting history, Netanyahu is focused on revising reality

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is making efforts to denounce the Holocaust while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to tarnish Palestinians with falsehoods about the Palestinian leadership during WWII.