The IDF released its new five-year plan of operations on Thursday, with its chief of staff warning, ‘The situation is fragile in the north and south — and may deteriorate into a confrontation.’
President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday tasked Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz with trying to form a coalition government, two days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was unable to do so when his allotted 28 days came to an end.
Blue and White’s Benny Gantz and Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in the coming days to discuss the possibility of forming a unity government, the parties said on Wednesday night, hours after the centrist leader was tasked with forming a government where the incumbent premier failed.
The Blue and White party and other political opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejoiced over the Likud leader’s inability to form a government, and President Reuven Rivlin’s announcement he would give Benny Gantz the next crack at assembling a coalition.
Hosting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday as President Donald Trump’s policy changes on Syria spark concern among Israelis, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Pompeo and Trump for their ‘consistent support for Israel’ and hailed the strength of US-Israel ties. Commenting on the US-arranged ceasefire in Turkey’s offensive in Syria against Kurdish fighters, the prime minister said mildly that he hoped it would ‘turn out for the best.’
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz is reportedly planning to invite representatives of Yisrael Beytenu and Likud to talks on forming a unity government if he is tasked with forming a coalition next week.
US President Donald Trump’s newly announced withdrawal of nearly all US troops from northern Syria has cemented Russia’s status as the predominant global military power actively engaged in the Middle East.
The US administration’s much-anticipated peace plan will not call for the uprooting of even a single settler, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said Wednesday, drawing sharp criticism from Ramallah.
Despite the current impasse in the Israeli coalition talks, signs emerged on Wednesday that a path to a unity government might be opening, with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz reportedly expressing a positive attitude toward such an arrangement.
US President Donald Trump swore allegiance to Israel as he decried endless Middle East wars and defended his decision to withdraw US troops from the Kurdish area of northern Syria, when he spoke at the annual Values Voters Conference in Washington.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mandate to form a government will not be extended beyond the Thursday, October 24, deadline, sources close to President Reuven Rivlin said on Saturday night, confirming a report on Channel 12.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denounced Turkey’s invasion of Kurdish-controlled areas of northeastern Syria and said Israel was prepared to offer humanitarian aid to the Kurds in Syria facing an onslaught from Ankara.
The Security Cabinet will convene Sunday for the first time in two months, amid cryptic warnings by Israeli leadership in recent days of a growing security threat.
Israel is reportedly negotiating with several Gulf states on a ‘non-aggression pact’ between them as they face off against an increasingly emboldened Iran. The deal, which Channel 12 news described as potentially ‘historic,’ aims to put an end to the state of conflict between the Gulf states and Israel, and reportedly provides for friendly relations, cooperation in a variety of fields, and no war or incitement against each other.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is weighing a suggestion by Likud minister Haim Katz to hold the Likud leadership vote in a year, signaling the premier is retreating from the prospect of flash primaries, an idea floated earlier on Thursday and met with a challenge by rival Gideon Sa’ar.
The first day of the pre-indictment hearing in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal cases stretched into the late hours Wednesday night, with discussions ending around 9:30 p.m., over 11 hours after they began.
After a planned meeting between Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was canceled, sources in Blue and White informed Israel Hayom that the cancellation had been strategic and designed to weaken Netanyahu.
A top commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a designated terrorist organization, declared over the weekend that Israel doesn’t pose any threat to the Islamic Republic and has been surrounded to ‘the east, west, north, and south.’
The leader of the Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, claimed over the weekend that his organization was in possession of a large amount of military intelligence on Israel and warned that his forces were prepared to enter ‘occupied Palestine’ at any time.
Coalition negotiating teams from Likud and Blue and White will officially begin talks on forming a new government on Friday morning, amid low expectations on both sides.