Isaac Herzog this week returned to Israel after a two-day visit to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The Israeli President’s visit underlined the changed relationship between the two Gulf states and the Jewish state following the Abraham Accords, while also highlighting some potential difficulties on the horizon. What happened Read more…
The Jerusalem Post has this week reported that Iranian authorities have been working with Qatar to suppress expressions of anti-regime sentiment at the ongoing FIFA World Cup. In a leaked recording, IRGC Basij commander General Ghasem Ghoreyshi told a Fars news reporter that Qatar had provided a list of Iranians Read more…
Israel’s outgoing transportation minister and leader of the Israeli Labor party, Merav Michaeli, on Monday set out her view that recent violence in Israel was directly linked to violence in the West Bank and the political rise of the far right. “A straight line connects the violence against Arabs and Read more…
An Israeli woman was seriously wounded on Tuesday following a car ramming attack in the West Bank. Surveillance footage of the attack near the West Bank settlement of Migron, north of Jerusalem, showed a black SUV turning to drive into a female soldier. The vehicle rammed into the woman on Read more…
The Iranian authorities are engaged in an increasingly brutal crackdown as protests against the regime enter their 11th week and the death toll exceeds 450. While the protests are taking placing nationwide, reports last week suggested the government was deploying heavy weapons and helicopters to quell unrest in mainly Kurdish Read more…
The US government has expressed “deep concern” this week over progress Iran is making on its nuclear programme and ballistic missile capacity, while a number of European governments, including the UK, accused Tehran of ramping up uranium enrichment with “no credible civilian justification”. The reaction came hours after Iran confirmed it Read more…
Religious Zionism, the alliance of far-right parties widely expected to partner with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form Israel’s next government, have declared that negotiations were “back at square one” after talks collapsed on Tuesday. The bone of contention has reportedly been the allocation of ministerial roles to party leaders, Read more…
Labour Friends of Israel welcomed shadow chancellor and LFI vice-chair Rachel Reeves as keynote speaker at its Annual Lunch this week, the largest since Labour was last in government. Following on from last year’s success, at which Labour leader Keir Starmer made clear his rejection of antisemitic anti-Zionism and BDS, the 2022 Read more…
** Check against delivery ** נאום לידידי.ות ישראל בלייבור הבריטי Labour Friends of Israel 22 נובמבר 2022 Thank you, Steve, for that kind introduction. I am delighted to be with you this afternoon at LFI’s annual lunch. Can I begin by thanking LFI for your valued work: making the Read more…
Iran on Sunday issued its first deaths sentence linked to the anti-regime protests that have followed the death of Mahsa Amini in September. The accused was sentenced in a Tehran court to death for the crime of “setting fire to a government building, disturbing public order, assembly and conspiracy to commit Read more…
The Allenby Bridge border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan opened to passenger traffic for 24-hours a day last week for the first time. The extended hours pilot, which ran for almost a week, was part of an agreement the Israeli government made with US President Joe Biden during Read more…
Three Israelis were killed and a further three injured in a terrorist attack near the West Bank settlement of Ariel on Tuesday morning. According to the Israeli Defence Forces, a Palestinian terrorist stabbed a security guard near the entrance to the Ariel Industrial Park. The terrorist then stabbed three people Read more…