Relations between President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel appear to have sunk to a new low, with both men pressed hard by domestic politics and looming elections. Mr. Biden is facing outrage from global allies and his own supporters about the toll of civilian deaths in the war against Hamas and Israel’s […]
Read MoreTag: Ben-Gvir, Itamar
Israel Rejects New Restrictions to Aqsa Mosque During Ramadan
The Israeli government has decided against putting new restrictions on access to an important mosque in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a move that may reduce tensions at a site that has long been a flashpoint for unrest. At a meeting on Tuesday night led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, security officials […]
Read MoreIsraeli Settlers Left Gaza in 2005. They Now See a Chance to Return.
A group of Israelis hoping to live in Gaza at the war’s end has already published maps imagining Jewish-majority towns dotting the territory. Far-right Israeli lawmakers have drafted plans to make such settlements legal. And Israel’s national security minister has called for Arab residents to leave Gaza so that Jews can populate the coastal strip. […]
Read MoreMany Israelis Want Netanyahu Out. But There Is No Simple Path to Do It.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is on his last legs, it is widely believed, and will be forced to relinquish his post once the war against Hamas in Gaza ends. He is historically unpopular in the opinion polls and blamed for the governmental and security failures that led to the Oct. 7 attack by […]
Read MoreNetanyahu’s Bind: Compromise in Gaza or Power at Home
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is fighting two parallel battles, one in Gaza and another at home — and neither is going according to plan. In Gaza, Mr. Netanyahu is leading a military campaign to defeat Hamas and free the remaining Israeli hostages captured during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. At home, he […]
Read MorePlans for Gaza’s ‘Day After’ Seem Ever Distant
As the war in Gaza grinds on, there is increasing talk of some “day after” formula for the broken territory. But that notion is an ephemeral one — there is not going to be a bright line between war and peace in Gaza, even if some sort of negotiated settlement is reached. Israel has made […]
Read MoreIsraeli Minister Proposes Plan for Postwar Gaza Amid Divisions
As Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken returned to the Middle East on Friday in an effort to ease escalating tensions, Israel’s defense minister floated a postwar plan for the Gaza Strip that exposed divisions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime government. The proposal by the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who is a moderate member […]
Read MoreAmerica Must Face Up to Israel’s Extremism
Two far-right members of Israel’s cabinet, the national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, caused an international uproar this week with their calls to depopulate Gaza. “If in Gaza there will be 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs and not two million the entire conversation on ‘the day after’ will look different,” said […]
Read MoreSupreme Court Ruling Adds to Questions Over Kind of State Israel Will Be
“Bibi is still their champion,” Mr. Avishai said. Mr. Netanyahu has also made clear, as recently as a news conference on Saturday, that he does not intend to resign, even after the war and even as his Likud party sinks in the opinion polls. A Channel 13 poll said that elections now would secure Likud […]
Read MorePrivate Gun Ownership in Israel Spikes After Hamas Attacks
Two weeks ago, Zvika Arran reluctantly drew a gun at an Israeli state-run shooting class for those seeking firearms licenses, part of a massive spike in applications since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7. Mr. Arran said he was repelled by the idea of owning the pistol that now sits in a safe in his […]
Read MoreSome in Netanyahu’s Government Pressure Him to Reject Longer Cease-Fire
As international pressure grows to extend a temporary cease-fire with Hamas, some right-wing members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are threatening to bring it down if he does not resume fighting in Gaza. The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on Wednesday that if Israel did not continue its war with Hamas, his […]
Read MoreBetween Israelis and Palestinians, a Lethal Psychological Chasm Grows
In the same way, Palestinian insight into the devouring specters of antisemitic persecution awakened in Jews by the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack appears negligible. Mutual empathy is very hard to find. “Each side begs for the status of five-star victim,” said Mohammad Darawshe, the director of strategy at the Givat Haviva Center for Shared […]
Read MoreViolence by West Bank Settlers Cannot Be Ignored
The Biden administration has made clear it is aware of the tensions. “I continue to be alarmed about extremist settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank; pouring gasoline on fire is what it’s like,” President Biden recently said. “It has to stop now.” The administration also took the unusual step of seeking, and getting, […]
Read MoreU.S. Officials Fear American Guns Ordered by Israel Could Fuel West Bank Violence
An Israeli government request for 24,000 assault rifles from the United States is drawing scrutiny from American lawmakers and some State Department officials who fear the weapons might end up in the hands of settlers and civilian militias trying to force Palestinians from land in the West Bank, where violence has been surging, U.S. officials […]
Read MoreIsrael Is Silencing Internal Critics
On Oct. 25, Professor Nurit Peled-Elhanan, a lecturer at a college in Jerusalem, participated in a discussion in a faculty WhatsApp group about the horrific events of Oct. 7. In response to another lecturer’s message, she wrote that “the massacre,” referring to the actions of Hamas, reminded her of something the French philosopher and playwright […]
Read MorePeace Activists in Israel Renew Their Push for a Solution
The strategy was intended to cement the notion that there was no viable Palestinian partner for peace. Certainly, a partner was hard to find, with Hamas committed in its Charter, if not always in its shifting statements, to the destruction of Israel. Many Palestinians drifted toward a one-state idea that most Israelis read as code […]
Read MorePalestinian Citizens of Israel Are Wary, Weary and Afraid
Fida Shehada is a member of the City Council of Lod, a town of some 84,000 people, perhaps 30 percent of them Arab citizens of Israel. And Ms. Shehada, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, is afraid, to put it mildly, of what may come now, after the massacre of Israeli civilians by Hamas. “Everyone is […]
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