The inclusion of an Arab party in Israel’s coalition government already has had a significant material impact on the Israeli Arab community. When Prime Minister Naftali Bennett unveils the budget next month, an unprecedented $10 billion in state funds will be allocated to the generally neglected Arab sector, comprising 21 percent of Israel’s population. The […]
Raging gun battles in the center of Beirut on August 14 claimed the lives of seven people and raised the grim specter that Lebanon may be returning to the era of sectarian violence that climaxed with the outbreak of the civil war from 1975 to 1990. Fighting erupted after two influential Shi’a Muslim militias, Hezbollah […]
The incidence of Jewish settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has increased exponentially in the past few years, and is aimed primarily at Palestinians but also at Israeli security forces. There were 363 violent incidents in 2019, 507 in 2020 and 416 in the first half of this year, according to the latest statistics […]
In what was widely seen as a “farewell” trip, the outgoing chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, paid a two-day visit to Israel late last week and this week. It was her seventh and last official visit during 16 years in office. Merkel, 67, currently leads a transitional caretaker government. She will remain in office until […]
Israel and its chief ally, the United States, appear to be on a collision course over Washington’s plan to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem. U.S. Secretary State Antony Blinken announced the decision on May 25 following a meeting with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah. Blinken described it as a measure […]
Israel has contravened international law by building settlements in the occupied West Bank and populating them with Jewish settlers, says prominent Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard. Through such methods since the 1967 Six Day War, Israel has “reengineered” the demography of the West Bank, which many Israelis regard as their ancestral homeland and which […]
It was a bolt out of the blue and it fizzled spectacularly. On September 24, 300 Sunni and Shi’a Muslim Iraqis attended an unprecedented conference in northern Iraq during which they called for peace and reconciliation with Israel, Iraq’s longtime enemy. It took place in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, which has […]
Progressives in the Democratic Party in the United States are turning out to be a real thorn in Israel’s side. In the past few years, this pro-Palestinian group has lambasted Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and denounced Israel as an apartheid state. Of late, they have escalated their campaign by trying to deny military aid […]
With a little more than 100 days having elapsed since he succeeded Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett has hewed to the status quo with respect to two major interrelated issues — the Palestinians and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Bennett leads an extremely diverse coalition consisting of eight of the 13 […]
A few days ago, at a Zoom event marking the first anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords at the White House in Washington, D.C., Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid invited yet more Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel. “The Abraham Accords club is open for new members as well,” said Lapid in […]