Israel-Palestinian Conflict

The Arab league supported on Saturday France’s Middle East peace initiative and all international efforts to create lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, AFP reported.

The Senate Appropriations Committee easily approved $600 million in funding for Israeli missile defense programs Thursday, moving the legislation to the floor for a full chamber vote.

While France has pushing for an international peace summit in Paris in an effort to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Egypt has been working behind the scenes on its own diplomatic initiative.

Representatives of the Likud, Yisrael Beytenu and the Finance Ministry reached an agreement overnight that will enable a signing ceremony on a new coalition deal that was expected to take place on Wednesday morning.

With a media blitz, the Islamic State has set its sights on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as the next shot at expanding its empire and establishing a base from which to attack neighboring Israel.

As part of the Obama administration’s strategy to sell the Iran nuclear deal, the White House launched a smear campaign against one of the deal’s biggest critics, Israel’s prime minister, a former policy official told Congress on Tuesday.

In what will likely ease tensions in Jerusalem, a senior Obama administration official told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the upcoming report on the status of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the Quartet is still months away and that few points had actually been drafted on paper.

Israel has successfully tested a maritime missile interception system that can shoot down short-range missiles, dubbing it the “Iron Dome of the Sea,” the navy announced on Wednesday.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck a weapons convoy headed into the hands of Hezbollah fighters in Syria, Channel 2 citing Arab media sources reported Tuesday.

A general agreement has been reached between the warring sides after tremendous mediation effort by international parties in recent days and a great number of messages exchanged via intermediaries.

An Israeli company authorized to drill an oil reservoir near the Dead Sea, recently evaluated to contain NIS 1.2 billion worth of fuel, stressed Sunday that the area is located entirely inside Israel, which it said was a response to Arab media reports that the site stretched into Palestinian territory.

Israelis across the country paused for two minutes Thursday morning in memory of the six million Jews who perished in Europe under Nazi rule as an air raid siren pierced the clear blue sky in an annual marking of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Negotiations meant to enshrine U.S. defense aid for Israel over the next decade have snagged on disputes about the size, scope and fine print of a new multibillion-dollar package, officials say.

Jerusalem on Thursday responded to the looming French peace initiative, which is to involve an international effort forcing peace talks on Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

An IDF battalion commander stationed on Israel’s border with Lebanon on Wednesday said the Hezbollah terror group’s recent activity was “reminiscent of what they did before the Second Lebanon War.”

A White House official indicated on Monday that the Obama administration was ready to offer Israel the largest military aid package offered to any country over the course of US history.

The Russian press reported at the end of last week that Russia was seeking to enter the Israeli natural gas industry, following a meeting in Russia last Thursday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday labeled his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day as “very successful,” adding that the two countries reached understandings over issues that had previously not been sufficiently clarified.

Russian forces fired on Israeli Air Force planes at least twice in recent weeks, according to a Friday morning report in the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.