Israel News

The Obama administration says it “will carefully consider” what are expected to be a series of United Nations Security Council Resolutions aimed at Israel in the coming months, generating accusations in Congress that Washington is preparing to abandon Israel at the U.N., according to State Department officials and congressional sources apprised of the measure.

Unlike last time Israel faced a hostile resolution at the United Nations Security Council, in December 2014, this time there is virtually no chance that it will fail to garner the required majority.

Israeli intelligence has confirmed to the German newspaper Bild, that Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist army that has vowed to destroy the Jewish state, has acquired advanced Russian anti-aircraft weapons systems that were given by the Russian military to the Syrian armed forces, reports The Times of Israel. The SA-17 Buk missile battery is a game changer and will directly threaten Israeli aircraft operating in northern Israel and the region.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks in “two languages” when articulating his policies on Israel, a Jerusalem-based research institute reported on Wednesday.

Development of the advanced F-35 fighter jet is moving along as expected and Israel “has our commitment” that the first F-35s it ordered will arrive this December, Lockheed Martin Vice President Gen. (ret.) Gary North said Sunday at a Tel Aviv national security conference organized by the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies and Israel Defense.

Once again, there are reports of rivals Hamas and Fatah drawing together ahead of an agreement on Palestinian unity.

The Israel Air Force is “highly disturbed” by the drastic rise in the threat of ballistic missiles to Israel, and the ongoing Middle Eastern arms race, a senior air force official said on Sunday.

Envoys from the Middle East Quartet, made up of the US, Russia, EU and UN, met in Jerusalem earlier this week to work on a report it is expected to release in a number of months on the steps needed to create a political environment conducive to a relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

The director of the US National Security Agency, Admiral Michael Rogers, reportedly paid a secret visit to Israel last week to discuss cooperation in cyber-defense, in particular to counter attacks by Iran and its Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah.

Speaking via satellite from Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the American Public Affairs Committee’s closing plenary session that the terrorist attacks Tuesday morning in Belgium highlighted Israel’s own struggle against the murderous and extremist imperative of its enemies.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on world powers to punish Iran after the country test-fired two ballistic missiles emblazoned with the phrase “Israel must be wiped out” in Hebrew.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected a peace initiative presented by US Vice President Joe Biden during their meeting in Ramallah on Wednesday, according to Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds.

US President Barack Obama is weighing up options to make progress on the Middle East peace process before he leaves office, the Wall Street Journal reports, including the possibility of backing a UN Security Council resolution to further talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an offer to meet U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House later this month and canceled his trip to Washington, the White House said on Monday.

Hezbollah is convinced it can invade Israeli territory should another war break out between the two sides, a source close to the Lebanese Shiite group told Foreign Policy magazine recently.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon met with US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford on Thursday in Tel Aviv, discussing “strengthening defense and military ties” between the two allies and the situation in the Middle East, according to a Defense Ministry statement.

The Israeli Air Force on Wednesday was set to receive its first David’s Sling batteries, the cutting-edge midrange missile defense system that has been in development since 2006 in a joint Israeli-American venture.

The United States and Israel announced that delivery of the David’s Sling missile defense system to the Israel Air Force (IAF) has begun, the Hebrew news site Walla reported on Tuesday.

Two Israeli soldiers were injured in a stabbing attack near Nablus in the northern West Bank on Wednesday evening.

Two days into a shaky ceasefire in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that while Israel was glad about the prospect of an end to hostilities there, any long-term solution had to provide security for the Jewish state as well.