Hezbollah and its allies lost their parliamentary majority in Lebanon’s May 15 election, but Hezbollah remains a potent and potentially destabilizing force in Lebanese politics as well as a major threat to Israel. Four years after the last election, Hezbollah, backed by Iran and largely supported by the Lebanese Shi’a population, managed to regain its […]
On May 13, in what may have been a significant shift in Russia’s policy, Russian forces manning an S-300 air defence system opened fire on Israeli aircraft striking targets in northwestern Syria. The Israeli jets had just bombed an Iranian base in the Masyaf area when the Russians let loose with a barrage of missiles, […]
A few days ago, Israel took yet another step to consolidate its problematic occupation of the West Bank. On May 12, the Ministry of Defence advanced plans to build 4,427 new homes in Jewish settlements there. In addition, the ministry retroactively legalized two unauthorized outposts, Mitzpeh Dani and Oz V’gaon. It also approved a plan to […]
Hamas, the governing authority in the Gaza Strip for the past 16 years, has escalated its bitter conflict with Israel beyond Gaza’s borders. This is a provocative and potentially dangerous development that bodes well neither for Israel nor Hamas. Since last May’s cross-border war in and around Gaza, the fourth in 13 years, Hamas has […]
The Islamic Republic of Iran continually differentiates between “Jews” and “Zionists” in its insidious campaign to defame and delegitimize the Jewish state of Israel. In Islamic tradition, Jews are designated as the People of the Book and are therefore theoretically the objects of tolerance and respect. In practice, however, this is not necessarily true, judging by a […]
Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List, a coalition of three Arab political parties with six seats in Israel’s parliament, ignited outrage recently when he posted a video on his Facebook page urging Israeli Arabs in the security forces not to serve in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Standing near the Damascus […]
Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a free trade agreement earlier this month, Israel’s first with an Arab nation. The landmark accord, signed in Jerusalem on April 1, was hailed as a “significant and historic milestone” by the co-signer, Israeli Economy Minister Orna Barbivai. It emerged after five months of negotiations and nearly two […]
Ten months after being appointed to the highest office in the land, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s eight-party coalition government is wobbling and living on borrowed time, having lost its wafer-thin majority in parliament at a fraught moment when Israel is coping with an upsurge of terrorism. Since March 22, 12 Israelis and two foreign workers, […]
General Aviv Kohavi, the chief of staff of Israel’s armed forces, disclosed on April 4 that Israeli forces have foiled 10 terrorist plots in the last two weeks. During the course of Israel’s operations, five Islamic Jihad gunmen in the West Bank town of Jenin were killed and dozens of Palestinians planning attacks were captured. […]
Paul O’Brien, the director of Amnesty International’s branch in the United States, has belatedly come clean, though some will sharply question his sincerity. In a letter a few days ago, he issued an apology to 25 Jewish Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who had rightfully condemned his patronizing and willfully malicious comment suggesting […]