Israel News

The Biden administration stressed its commitment to preventing a nuclear-armed Iran during a strategic meeting with Israeli officials on Tuesday, as Middle East tensions rose and Iran announced it was stepping up uranium enrichment to unprecedented levels.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hosted Yamina party chief Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem for the second day in a row, after the former interim Defense Minister said his faction would throw its support in forming a right-wing government with Likud.

Iran’s foreign minister on Monday blamed Israel for a power failure that reportedly caused massive damage to the Natanz nuclear facility, vowing to “take revenge on the Zionists” and to replace damaged centrifuges at the site with even better ones.

Hosting US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at his office in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel and the US agree on never allowing Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that “The struggle against Iran and its proxies and the Iranian armament efforts is a huge mission.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin completely omitted the Iranian issue during his press conference with Defense Minister Benny Gantz in Israel on Sunday.

The Palestinians are optimistic regarding the prospects of reviving the peace process with Israel in light of the US administration’s renewed commitment to the two-state solution, a senior Palestinian official, said on Saturday.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Israel, Germany, Britain and the NATO headquarters in Belgium in the coming week for talks with government and military leaders, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday promised to press for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as he restored aid to the Palestinians.

Following the Trump administration’s almost total freeze on aid to the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (which supports Palestinians living in refugee camps), the US government announced Wednesday that it is officially resuming $150 million in economic aid to UNRWA.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday said Israel would take military action anywhere there was a threat against it, after an American official attributed a mine attack on an Iranian ship in the Red Sea the previous day to Israeli naval commandos.

Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria after midnight Wednesday attacking targets near Damascus and wounding four soldiers, Syrian state media reported, in the latest in a series of raids attributed to the Jewish state.

Israel notified the US that it is responsible for Tuesday’s attack on an Iranian cargo ship affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, an American official told The New York Times.

Israel and Russia on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on internal security matters.

The border between Israel and Lebanon is deceptively quiet. But on the other side of the fence lies Hezbollah with more than one hundred thousand rockets that can hit almost anywhere inside Israel.

After receiving the mandate to form the next government from President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on fellow lawmakers Tuesday to end their boycotts of him and join his coalition In an effort to avoid unprecedented fifth elections in two years.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at prosecutors on Monday, accusing them of waging a “witch hunt” against him aimed at unseating a democratically elected leader.

American-Saudi ties have been growing increasingly strained in recent months—a development that will likely see the Sunni power draw even closer to Jerusalem, Israeli observers have told JNS.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received more endorsements to form the next government than Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid on Monday, making it likely that he will receive the first mandate from President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday.

Top Israeli officials are concerned that the United States is preparing to restart the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran without strengthening it, according to a new report.