Israel

27 Dec 2022; MEMO: Israel's military intelligence does not consider Iran the number one threat to the country anymore, media reports said Monday.

Global challenges are the most important threats the country will face in 2023, according to the Hayom newspaper that said Iran is regarded as the second most serious threat.

Iran is not the focal point but a part of an inter-connected puzzle, said the intelligence report cited by the newspaper.

27 Dec 2022; MEMO: Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has said that the new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the weakest ever in Israel's history, Maan news agency reported on Monday.

"This is not a right-wing government," he said. "This is crazy. We will not stand silent."

28 Dec 2022; MEMO: The Israeli Supreme Court issued a conditional rejection to give a ministerial post to Shas Party leader, Aryeh Deri, local media reported yesterday, noting that a court hearing will be held to issue a final decision, Quds Press reported.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s largest medical center and health care workers from hospitals around the country have spoken out against remarks by allies of Benjamin Netanyahu calling for a law to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people in hospitals and businesses.

It was part of a broader blowback against remarks made this week by Religious Zionism politicians calling for legal discrimination against LGBTQ people.

25 Dec 2022; MEMO: An Israeli ban on the entry of medical equipment into the Gaza Strip is putting the lives of hundreds of patients at risk, Palestinian authorities warned on Saturday, Anadolu reports.

Health Ministry official Ibrahim Abbas said Israeli authorities refuse to allow medical equipment, including diagnostic devices, into Gaza.

"Lack of medical service puts the lives of hundreds of patients at risk," he warned.

24 Dec 2022; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right ally in the coalition government, Itamar Ben-Gvir, have agreed to sack and refuse hiring teachers who criticise the Israeli occupation, Arab48 reported on Friday.

The agreement between Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir referred to the teachers who criticise the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories or take part in anti-Israeli occupation protest, claiming "this is terrorism."

24 Dec 2022; MEMO: The new Israeli occupation government led by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu have earmarked more than $2.3 billion for settler roads in the occupied West Bank.

On Friday the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom said, "this is an unprecedented budget" for settlement projects in the occupied West Bank.

KFAR QASSEM, Israel (AP) — Israeli police on Friday shot dead an Arab assailant who they said lured officers into an ambush in which he rammed them with his car after trying to shoot them, an attack that left three policemen wounded in central Israel.

The incident took place in the Arab Israeli town of Kfar Qassem, an unusual site for what police suspected was a “nationalistic” militant attack. The Arab community in Israel is also struggling with surging violent crime that residents blame on decades of government neglect.

JERUSALEM, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday night that he has succeeded in forming a new coalition government.

"I have managed (to form a government)," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter, minutes before a midnight deadline.

In a separate statement, Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party said that the veteran leader called President Isaac Herzog and informed the president that he has successfully formed a new government.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Designated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Wednesday that he has successfully formed a new coalition, setting the stage for him to return to power as head of the most right-wing Israeli government ever to hold office.

Netanyahu made the announcement in a phone call to President Isaac Herzog moments before a midnight deadline. His Likud Party released a brief video clip of the smiling Netanyahu and a recording of the conversation.