More than 200,000 people are expected to travel to Tel Aviv this weekend to participate in the annual Pride celebrations – the largest such event in the Middle East and Asia. The event symbolises Israel’s strong record on LGBT rights. The new Jewish state inherited Mandate-era laws banning same-sex relationships. While Read more…
There are few better examples of the yawning gap between Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric and governing reality than his approach towards Israel. After eight years of Barack Obama’s alleged cool indifference, the Israeli right were led to believe they would have a “true friend” in the White House once again: one who would Read more…
Donald Trump’s quixotic attempt to broker what he once he termed the “ultimate deal” – a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians – bore its first tentative signs of success this week when President Mahmoud Abbas indicated he was prepared to begin talks with Benjamin Netanyahu. The Palestinian president’s announcement came Read more…
ISIS fired a rocket into southern Israel from northern Sinai this week, striking a greenhouse but causing no major injuries. The terrorist group, which controls a small region of the peninsula near the Gaza strip, immediately claimed responsibility for the low-grade attack. Under the title Wilayet Sinai, ISIS in Egypt Read more…
After weeks of negotiations, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week a new framework on settlement construction in the West Bank. Citing the wishes of the new American administration to see settlement building curtailed, Netanyahu announced that any new construction will be limited to within existing settlement boundaries. Where Read more…
Iain McNicol, general secretary of the Labour party, travelled to Israel this week with Labour Friends of Israel. The three-day trip included laying a wreath at Yad Vashem; meeting with Israeli Labor MKs Hilik Bar and Michal Biran and the party’s new general secretary, Eran Hermoni; visiting a Jerusalem coexistence Read more…
Israel struck a number of targets in Syria last week, in what was the country’s strongest intervention into the Syrian civil war yet. Whilst previous attacks have mostly been concentrated in southern Lebanon and Damascus, this series of raids also included a hit on a military base near Palmyra. In Read more…
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Whatever its merits, the nuclear deal concluded two years ago this summer has done nothing to satisfy Iran’s appetite to establish regional hegemony in the Middle East. This is unsurprising: one of the great flaws of European and US efforts was a willingness to overlook Iran’s Read more…
Likud transport minister Yisrael Katz voiced his support again last week for a new sea port on the Gaza coast, indicating continuing Israeli concern about the future of the Palestinian enclave. The idea has been proposed in various forms over the past five years, though Katz’ vision is particularly ambitious: Read more…
The Israeli Labor party’s leadership primary election will be held on 3 July, it was announced this week. Isaac Herzog, the current party chairman who is standing for re-election, is expected to be joined by up to seven candidates in the contest. The Labor party – the senior partner Read more…
This week sees the return of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) to campuses in the UK. The week long anti-Israel campaign originated in Toronto in 2005 and has since spread to dozens of cities around the world. Campus groups host a series of discussions, exhibitions, film viewings and publicity stunts, aiming Read more…
LFI chair Joan Ryan has welcomed the introduction of a new bill in the US Congress which raises the prospect of a significant boost to the international campaign to fund coexistence projects in Israel and Palestine. Congressmen Jeff Fortenberry and Joe Crowley introduced the bill in the US House of Representatives to Read more…