Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman called on fellow opposition lawmakers to join forces and challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox allies in the upcoming elections.
Oman and Indonesia could be next in line to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in the coming weeks, a diplomatic source said Sunday.
Israel and Morocco agreed Thursday to normalize relations in a U.S. brokered accord that Israel’s prime minister described as “another great light of peace.”
A day after he announced his departure from Likud and the formation of a new political party to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the country’s leadership, Gideon Sa’ar was off to an extraordinarily strong start Wednesday. Polls on Israel’s three major news networks forecast his nascent New Hope party getting between 15 and 18 seats if the country goes to elections — shaking up the political landscape and introducing several potential paths to coalitions that do not include Netanyahu, while seriously narrowing the premier’s path to leading the next government.
Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar, long seen as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival within Likud, on Tuesday announced he was quitting Likud and will form his own right-wing party, to be called “New Hope,” and run for the premiership in the next election.
The Knesset on Wednesday passed a bill to dissolve, setting the stage for the fourth round of national elections in two years as Defense Minister Benny Gantz and his Blue and White party broke from the coalition and voted in favor of the measure.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Tuesday cheered Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s decision to throw his Blue and White party’s support behind a preliminary reading of a bill to dissolve the Knesset and call early elections.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party is expected to give initial backing to a bill to dissolve the Knesset and call early elections when it comes up for a vote Wednesday, TV reports said Monday evening, amid widespread speculation that Israelis will soon find themselves at the ballot box for the fourth time in under two years.
White House adviser Jared Kushner will travel to Saudi Arabia this week, in an apparent last-ditch effort to broker a normalization deal between the kingdom and Israel, according to a report on Sunday.
An Iranian nuclear scientist, who Israel alleges was in charge of Iran’s military nuclear program until the early 2000s, has been assassinated, the Associated Press reports. Iranian state media have reported that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed on Friday. Israel has not immediately commented on the death.
Israel is on a high-speed train to new elections — the fourth in two years — as rumblings during the past few weeks over a possible government collapse manifested in a verbal threat by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed have been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, the Jerusalem Post reports. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lord David Trimble of Northern Ireland has nominated the two leaders for their pioneering agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the UAE.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that he is planning to make his first official visit to Bahrain in the near future, the Jerusalem Post reports. Like Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain has recently signed a US-brokered normalization agreement with Israel.
In a move aimed at pressuring the centrist Blue and White party to break ranks with the coalition amid an ongoing deterioration of relations within the government, opposition leader Yair Lapid said Monday that he’ll lead a proposal next week to disperse the Knesset and call new elections.
Israel’s Channel 12 has reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen flew to Saudi Arabia Sunday for a secret meeting with officials there, All Israel News (AIN) reports. Although the meeting has not been confirmed by the Prime Minister’s office, the news has caused speculation that, following Bahrain, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia may become the next Arab state to normalize relations with Israel.
Israel is in the final stages of talks with British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to purchase “millions” of doses of its vaccine, which is currently under trial, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday met said during a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s foreign minister that regional normalization deals leave Iran “ever more isolated”.
The speculation has a number of catalysts. First was the firing of Mark Esper as secretary of defense this past week and the replacement of him and other top Pentagon officials with Trump ideologues. Some media outlets in the US have raised the possibility that Trump wanted to get Esper out of the way, so he could more easily carry out controversial military moves.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Friday an agreement to purchase 4 million vaccines from Pfizer as early as January, an agreement that will cost well over $200 million and remains subject to the vaccine receiving approval in the United States.
Former National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster for the Trump administration said in an interview with Fox News Thursday that President-elect Joe Biden should not rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal upon taking office in on January 20.