Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a conference of his Likud party in Ramat Gan, March 4, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
(JTA) — Israel held a national election seven weeks ago. It will hold another one in September. If that sounds weird to you, you’re right: Israel has a famously raucous political system, but it’s never held national elections twice in one year. Until now. Just to be clear, no… Read more »
(JTA) — For the first time in its history, Israel will hold a second national election in one year, five months after the last election in April. The Israeli Knesset voted at midnight Thursday to dissolve itself, triggering elections on Sept. 17. The unprecedented vote happened after Prime Minister… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — President Reuven Rivlin has officially tasked Benjamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister, with forming Israel’s next government. Rivlin met Wednesday evening with Netanyahu at the president’s residence in Jerusalem hours after receiving the official results of last week’s national elections. Party leaders representing 65 of the 120… Read more »
A Palestinian woman walks past a concrete barricade on the road that seperates an Israeli settlement and a Palestinian neighborhood inside the city of Hebron in the West Bank, Jan. 18, 2017. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
(JTA) — A coalition of more than a dozen conservative groups, most of them Jewish, sent a letter to President Donald Trump tacitly asking him to respect a potential Israeli annexation of West Bank settlements. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is almost certainly headed to a fifth term after… Read more »
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smiles as he delivers a speech during the launch of his Likud party election campaign in Ramat Gan, Israel, March 4, 2019. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
(JTA) — One week after winning election to a fifth term as Israel’s head of state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people. Other Jewish people on the list include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg; Jennifer Hyman, whose $1 billion company… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu greets supporters at his victory speech in Tel Aviv, April 10, 2019. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel’s election on Tuesday was contentious, historic, crazy — and somewhat predictable. With most of the vote counted — some 300,000 votes from soldiers, diplomats and other Israeli officials working abroad have yet to be tallied — Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised to become the longest-serving prime… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party finished one seat behind main challenger Blue and White in the first exit poll results released at the close of voting Tuesday. Blue and White, whose head is former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Benny Gantz, took 37 seats… Read more »
The West Bank is a maze-like tapestry of Israeli settlements and Palestinian towns and cities. (Wikimedia Commons)
(JTA) — Just days before Israel was to hold national elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to annex parts of the West Bank as Israeli territory. “I’m going to extend sovereignty,” he said in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 on Saturday night, adding that “I don’t differentiate between the… Read more »
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip leveled a house near Tel Aviv and injured seven, March 25, 2019. (Faiz Abu Rmeleh/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu’s week had been carefully scripted: Less than one month away from Israeli elections, the prime minister was traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump. A friendly photo op would become even friendlier when Trump announced that he wanted to recognize Israeli… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli army began attacking Hamas terror targets in Gaza in the wake of a rocket attack by the terrorist group that leveled a house in central Israel and injured 7. The Israel Defense Forces also sent two additional brigades to the Gaza border area –… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A long-range rocket fired from Gaza scored a direct hit on a home in central Israel, injuring seven, including two infants. Following the early Monday morning attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as defense minister, announced that he would cut short his visit… Read more »
Benny Gantz, left, is challenging Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming Israeli elections. (Wikimedia Commons/Getty Images)
(JTA) — It wasn’t so long ago that most major Israeli politicians supported establishing a Palestinian state. Now it’s not clear that any of them do, including the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu began his political career in the 1970s opposing a Palestinian state, an idea that once… Read more »
(JTA) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit Israel this month with the country in the throes of an election campaign. Pompeo will be in Israel on March 20 for a summit involving Israel, Greece and Cyprus, Axios reported. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told reporters that Pompeo’s… Read more »
(JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday that Israel will continue to act against Iran’s attempts to entrench militarily in Syria. Netanyahu shortened his trip and planned to return Wednesday night, the day of his meeting with Putin, reportedly… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Four lawmakers who have clashed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the top spots in the Likud party primary. Netanyahu was given a pass in Tuesday’s voting by party members and will still lead the Likud ticket in national elections scheduled for April 9. The top… Read more »
Israeli parliament members meet at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Dec. 30, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli politics looks like a big mess right now. In the past few weeks, three new parties have been launched and one party has kicked out a former partner. More changes are likely, too. It probably will get messier still if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted… Read more »
(JTA) — The United States’ withdrawal of some 2,000 ground troops from Syria does not signal the end of the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. Pompeo made the statement Tuesday at the start of a meeting in Brazil with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel will hold new elections in April after the heads of all six coalition parties announced Monday that they were dissolving the government. The current government’s term was set to end in November. “Out of national and budgetary responsibility, the leaders of the coalition parties decided,… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — James Mattis is quitting as defense secretary and his extraordinary resignation letter has brought into the open an argument among conservatives on whether to cut and run in the Middle East or whether to stay with no clear outcome. The argument also touches on two subjects… Read more »
Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, left, with Israel's Ambassador to Brazil, Yossi Shelley. ((Courtesy of Israel's honorary consul in Rio)
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Following years of diplomatic tensions, Israel and Brazil appear set to place their relationship on a new footing with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit, the first for a sitting prime minister. Netanyahu was invited to attend incoming President Jair Bolsonaro’s inauguration on Jan. 1.… Read more »
