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

Israel cover image

Israel

July 17, 2026

Tel Aviv 6:25 am

22°C

US Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Wisconsin Air National Guard facility at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport on July 8, 2026, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Vance says Israeli intelligence had ties to Epstein: What to know

Vice President JD Vance has grown more critical of Israel, possibly in an effort to capitalize on changing views among voters with an eye on the 2028 presidential election.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a cornerstone laying ceremony for the Atarot Heritage Center at an abandon airport in East Jerusalem near the separation wall with the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on July 5, 2026.

Israeli PM Netanyahu 'will not travel' to US next week, his office says

On Wednesday, an Israeli official had told Al-Monitor that Netanyahu was planning to travel on Saturday and meet with President Donald Trump next week and attend the memorial service for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

BEIRUT, LEBANON - OCTOBER 13: Lebanese people wave flags and hold portraits of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (not pictured) as he arrives in southern suberb of Beirut on October 13, 2010 in Lebanon. The controversial visit is seen as a boost for key ally Hezbollah. According to reports Mr Ahmadinejad may visit the border with Israel - the site of recent deadly clashes between Israeli and Lebanese forces. (Photo by Salah Malkawi/Getty Images)

Ahmadinejad denies alleged Mossad plot to install him as Iran leader: What to know

The former president, who was a virulent critic of Israel while in office, was reportedly part of a Mossad plan to replace the current Iranian leadership.

Latest News

Analysis

As Trump prioritizes Hormuz, Israel fears Iran rebuilding nuclear program while preserving ballistic missile threat

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

Explainer

Israel's next election: Who's leading in polls and what's at stake?

Israelis turn out to cast their ballots on election day for the 20th Knesset on March 17, 2015 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

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 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) is seen during the launch of his Likud Beiteinu party campaign ahead of the upcoming January 22 national elections, in Jerusalem December 25, 2012. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

Israel's Center-Left Bloc Surrenders Without a Fight

Israel's center-left parties have failed to unite, paving the way for Netanyahu to win a third tenure in the Prime Minister's office, argues Mazal Mualem.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men take part in a yoga class at a studio in Ramat Beit Shemesh, some 20 km (12 miles) from Jerusalem January 1, 2013. Almost a dozen devout Jewish men meet weekly at the studio, the only one of its kind in a neighbourhood where tensions have flared in the past between religious and secular Jews. The studio offers gender separated classes in accordance with the religious beliefs against mixing of the sexes in public. Picture taken January 1, 2013. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (ISRAEL - Tags: S

Demography Favors Rise of Israel's Right

Demographic changes are strengthening Israel's right wing, writes Akiva Eldar.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adjusts his skull cap (yarmulke) as he lights candles for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah after an address to the foreign media in Jerusalem December 10, 2012. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION)

Netanyahu’s Democracy Excludes Israel’s Arab Citizens

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu excludes Israel’s Arab citizens from the benefits of democracy, writes Antoine Shulhut.

Yuval Diskin, Israel's domestic security chief, makes a public speech at a homeland security conference in Tel Aviv November 1, 2010. Diskin identified cyber technologies as an ascendant international security threat. REUTERS/Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS SCI TECH)

'The Gatekeepers' Unmasks Israeli Security Apparatus

In the documentary "The Gatekeepers," six former heads of the Shin Bet reveal who is in charge of keeping Israel's security gates, giving viewers a rude awakening, writes Shlomi Eldar.

United States Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, leading an American observer group at the U.N. conference on global warming, confers on the phone with Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-West Virginia) from a working lounge at the Kyoto International Conference Hall December 10. It is hoped that an agreement can be reached among the 160 nations participating in the talks, on this final day on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the next century.

ENVIRONMENT KYOTO

No Reason for Attacks on Hagel

Ben Caspit writes that the attacks on Chuck Hagel are not serving Israel or US-Israel relations.

Israeli Shekel notes are pictured at a bank branch in Tel Aviv in this August 29, 2011 photo illustration. Picture taken August 29, 2011. REUTERS/Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: BUSINESS)

The Fiscal Cliff, Israel-Style

Israel is facing its own fiscal cliff, which will mean higher taxes, writes Idan Grinbaum.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the launch of his Likud Beiteinu party campaign ahead of the upcoming January 22 national elections, in Jerusalem December 25, 2012. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

Israeli Politicians Compete for 'Right-Wing' Etiquette

The upcoming Israeli elections are dominated by a strong ''turning to the right'' phenomenon, which sweeps not only the center-right wing, but even the Left Israeli Labor party, writes Mazal Mualem.

Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak (R) meets U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) (L) in Tel Aviv February 19, 2009, in this picture released by the Israeli Defence Ministry. The highest-ranking U.S. delegation to visit the Gaza Strip in years toured bomb-damaged buildings on Thursday and blamed the enclave's Hamas rulers for provoking Israel's wrath with cross-border rocket attacks.Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Kerry and two members of the House of Representatives, Brian Baird and Keith Ellison,

Five Tips for John Kerry In Dealing With Israel

Nadav Eyal offers ideas for Senator John Kerry, nominee for US Secretary of State, on how best to manage US-Israel relations.

A Palestinian flag flutters as a Palestinian boy stands atop the rubble of a house, which witnesses said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike during an eight-day conflict, in the northern Gaza Strip December 20, 2012. Eight days of Israeli air strikes on Gaza and cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks ended in an Egyptian-brokered truce agreement last month calling on Israel to ease restrictions on the territory. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA - Tags: CONFLICT)

Israelis or Palestinians? Where's the Missing Partner?

Akiva Eldar writes about perceptions that the Government of Israel may prefer delaing with Hamas rather than Fatah.

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon speaks during an interview with Reuters in Jerusalem August 12, 2009. Israel under right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not resume Turkish-mediated peace talks with Syria, insisting that any new negotiations be direct, Ayalon said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun (JERUSALEM POLITICS)

Avigdor Liberman and the Revenge of Danny Ayalon

Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman's failure to foresee the bitterness of his ousted Deputy Danny Ayalon, might cost him his political future.

Palestinian women enjoy themselves at a beach in Tel Aviv during Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan August 20, 2012. A spokesperson for The Israeli Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories' (COGAT) said that improved security had allowed for the entry of over 1 million Palestinians from the occupied West Bank since the beginning of Ramadan. REUTERS/Nir Elias (ISRAEL - Tags: RELIGION SOCIETY)

Tens of Thousands of Palestinians Celebrate Christmas in Israel

For the second time in four months, the IDF opened the crossing points, allowing thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank to visit Israel, a rare opportunity to cross the physical and psychological fence separating both people, writes Shlomi Eldar.

Residents pray near the bodies of people whom activists said were killed during fighting with forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad at Marat AL-Numan, during their funeral in Kafranbel, near Idlib December 26, 2012. REUTERS/Raed Al-Fares/Shaam News Network/Handout (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST CONFLICT)

Syria’s Future Is Vengeance

Shlomi Eldar writes that post-Assad Syria will be a vast campaign of retaliation.