Israel’s bilateral relations with Russia have been on a downward spiral since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Amid this somber development, Russia has upgraded its relationship with Iran, Israel’s greatest enemy. Annoyed by Israel’s condemnation of its aggression and Israel’s shipment of humanitarian and non-lethal military supplies to Ukraine, Russia has exerted pressure […]
American- sponsored talks aimed at finally resolving Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon have been progressing relatively well since the resumption of mediation efforts by U.S. diplomat Amos Hochstein last month. By his estimation, Lebanon has dropped its demand for part of the Karish natural gas field, which is fully claimed by Israel and is recognized […]
U.S. President Joe Biden’s whirlwind visit to Israel, his tenth in nearly 50 years, was a striking reaffirmation of Israel’s deep bonds with the United States and a stark demonstration of their differences over two major issues. The Jerusalem Declaration, a joint statement issued by Israel and the United States, hailed their strategic partnership and […]
U.S. President Joe Biden will confront a daunting array of issues during his whirlwind visit to the Middle East from July 13-16. Biden will spend the first leg of his trip in Israel. There he will meet the caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, and his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, who met Biden at the White House […]
Diplomatic efforts to reboot the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement appear to be at an impasse once again following unsuccessful indirect talks between the United States and Iran in Qatar late last month. European Union mediators conducted the negotiations, which ended in a deadlock after two days and left the agreement, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of […]
Israel’s new prime minister, Yair Lapid, faces a multitude of uncertainties as the country heads toward its fifth election since 2019. Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid Party, took over as caretaker prime minister after he and his political partner, Naftali Bennett, dissolved the 24th Knesset after several crises. Lapid will also continue […]
Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, was internationally ostracized following the murder of Saudi journalist/dissident Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed the order to kill and dismember Khashoggi had come from the “highest levels” of the Saudi government, but he […]
Egypt, in 1979, was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but until about two years ago, bilateral relations were invariably chilly, if not downright frigid. In virtually every aspect, Israel’s relationship with Egypt was unremittingly cold, the direct result of Egypt’s wholehearted embrace of the Palestinian cause and grassroots Egyptian […]
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has confirmed that Israel has joined a new Middle Eastern military partnership composed of, among other nations, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and the United States. Known as the Middle East Air Defence Alliance, it is designed to fend off missile, rocket, and unmanned drone attacks from Iran, whose nuclear […]
There is a disconsolate strain of illiberalism in Israeli society that runs disturbingly deep. Recently, Matan Kahana, the deputy religious affairs minister, told high school students in the West Bank settlement of Efrat that, if possible, he would transfer Israeli Arabs to Europe with the press of a “button.” Kahana, a member of Prime Minister […]