When French Prime Minister Manuel Valls arrived in Israel in May he came to promote bilateral ties, which were at the time tense in light of Israel’s objection to Paris’s initiative to hold a conference on the Middle East peace process.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a long-dormant Arab peace initiative with the Palestinians that he has spoken of reviving must be changed before Israel can support it.
TEL AVIV – Hamas and the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad announced that they will collaborate to halt the French-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiation plan.
TEL AVIV – Despite its own lingering problem of domestic Islamic extremism, France has turned its sights on attempting to solve the so-called Israeli-Palestinian conflict, holding a “peace” summit on Friday without the participation of either Israel or the Palestinian Authority.
Forget unrelenting terrorism, the Hamas-Fatah split, and the consistent Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as the national home of the Jews, a French pre-summit paper on Thursday said settlement activity is the main threat to a two state solution.
Benjamin Netanyahu has turned to a 14-year-old Arab peace plan in trying to project a softer image internationally for a new governing coalition in Israel widely seen as more hardline toward Palestinian statehood.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on Monday of reviving a 2002 Arab peace initiative that offers Israel diplomatic recognition from Arab countries in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians.
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi (pictured) blasted Israel as a bastion of “fascism and racial discrimination” on Saturday at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers that backed France’s Middle East peace initiative. The Arab ministers at the end of the
The Jerusalem Post reports: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday called for NATO forces to replace the IDF in the West Bank as part of as part of any peace deal that leads to the creation of a two-state solution.
The Washington Post reports: BEIRUT — In an unusual announcement Wednesday, Russia said it would halt air raids against Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, to give other rebel factions a chance to distance themselves from the extremist group.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — France’s prime minister said Tuesday that peace between Israelis and the Palestinians is also important for security in Europe.
RAMALLAH (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES) (AFP) – Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday dismissed an Israeli proposal for direct negotiations instead of a French multilateral peace initiative, calling it an attempt to “buy time”.
The Times of Israel reports: Despite a pairing up of two Islamic State-linked militant groups on Israel’s northern border and a show of boldness by the new alliance, their threat to the Jewish state remains minimal, experts on jihadi groups in Syria told the Times of Israel.
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a multilateral French peace initiative as he met his French counterpart on Monday, offering instead to hold direct talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Paris.
The Jerusalem Post reports: The United States plans to attend a June 3 Paris meeting that will launch a French-led peace initiative that would set a framework for renewed talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Jerusalem Post reports: Egyptians view President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s speech this week calling for a new effort to reach an Israeli-Palestinian agreement as not such a big deal, a Cairo-based columnist for the Al-Arabiya News website told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held brief talks with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Wednesday, a day after the Egyptian leader proposed new efforts to try to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Times of Israel reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel is ready to engage with Arab states to advance a peace deal with the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told France’s foreign minister on Sunday that Israel remained opposed to a French initiative for an international conference to try to revive peace talks.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Palestinian statehood is the most important issue now facing the world and that it fuels extremism gripping the Mideast, Jordan’s foreign minister said Tuesday.
Berlin (AFP) – US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Syria’s Bashar al-Assad of “repercussions” if his regime flouts a new truce being negotiated, as talks to halt the violence shifted to Berlin Wednesday.
The Jerusalem Post reports: According to Danny Danon the current Israel Ambassador to the UN, the upcoming weeks will be especially critical.
The Jerusalem Post reports: Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday officially rejected a French initiative aimed at relaunching peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, saying the plan undermines the process by “distancing” the prospect of direct talks between the two sides.
TEL AVIV – Peace will come when the world and the Palestinians realize that direct negotiations is the only way forward, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations contended in an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times.
TEL AVIV – Hillary Clinton said in a recent interview that Israel was not solely to blame for the failure of the peace process and that Palestinian inaction played a large part. In a radical departure from the attitude of
The Jerusalem Post reports: Prime Minister Bejmain Netanyahu once again invited Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Jerusalem for talks, four days after Abbas said in a Channel 2 interview that he was waiting for such an invitation. “A few
The Jerusalem Post reports: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he was working to stop Palestinian knife attacks and other street violence against Israel and had offered to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rekindle peace efforts. The
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the Israeli army Sunday as controversy gripped the country over a soldier caught on video shooting a Palestinian assailant in the head as he lay on the ground. The incident on Thursday led
The Jerusalem Post reports: The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that it was unaware of any new US effort to resume the stalled peace process with Israel. Ahmed Majdalani, member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that the PA leadership
Israel, Cyprus and Greece have agreed to deepen their energy, security and tourism ties in the Eastern Mediterranean, a deal that may have implications for Israel’s testy relationship with the European Union, too. The agreement, signed in Nicosia last week
France’s prime minister has criticised boycotts of Israeli products, saying they fuel anti-Semitic sentiment. But critics say using France’s strict laws against “inciting discrimination” to criminalise the boycotts violates free speech. Addressing a meeting of the Crif, the umbrella group
