Israel

13 July 2022; MEMO: Poland and Israel have begun the process of normalising their diplomatic relations after a halt for nearly a year over a Polish Holocaust-related law, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced yesterday.

The remarks came in a press conference after he met with his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, in the Polish capital city of Warsaw.

13 July 2022; MEMO: US President Joe Biden landed at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday at the start of his Middle East tour, Anadolu Agency reports.

Biden was welcomed at the airport by Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, his deputy Naftali Bennett and President Isaac Herzog, according to The Times of Israel newspaper.

Biden will visit the West Bank as part of his tour, where he will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

JERUSALEM, July 13 (Reuters) - The White House would like to see a U.S. consulate for the Palestinians open in east Jerusalem, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Wednesday as President Joe Biden made his way to the region.

"Our position is that we would like a consulate in East Jerusalem. Obviously that requires engagement with the Israeli government. It requires engagement with the Palestinian leadership as well. And we will continue that engagement on this trip," Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force 1.

JERUSALEM, July 13 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed to further enhance the two countries' energy cooperation during a phone talk Wednesday.

"The two leaders discussed the need to continue deepening cooperation between Greece and Israel, including in the field of energy," Lapid's office said in a statement, adding that they "agreed to stay in regular and close contact."

JERUSALEM (AP) — President Joe Biden’s dash through Israel and the occupied West Bank this week is expected to cut across some of the region’s most iconic places.

Both luxurious and grueling, Biden’s visit starts with a VIP arrival at Israel’s main commercial airport — an on-and-off nightmare for regular travelers this summer due to huge lines and delays — and pings through Jerusalem and the West Bank.

JERUSALEM, Jul 12 (NNN-PNA) – No political bloc in the Israeli regime could win a majority, in the 120-seat parliament, to form a new government, if elections were to be held today, according to the latest poll, published by state broadcaster, KAN.

The Likud Party, led by former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, remains the most popular party, would earn 34 seats in parliament, followed by Yesh Atid, headed by current interim Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, with 23 seats, according to the poll.

12 July 2022; MEMO: The US is planning to build a diplomatic complex on private property confiscated from Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, a rights organisation said Sunday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

In a statement, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) said they have found new evidence that the land on which the diplomatic compound is to be built under a joint US-Israeli plan is located on private property taken from Palestinians.

JERUSALEM, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday called on Arab countries to form ties with Israel, sending a message to Saudi Arabia ahead of United States President Joe Biden's visit this week.

Noting Biden's planned trip to Israel, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, Lapid told his cabinet ministers that Israel "extends its hand to all the countries of the region."

He called on Arab countries "to build ties with us, establish relations with us, and change history for our children."

07 July 2022; MEMO: Israeli Defence Minister, Benny Gantz, said Thursday, Israel has signed arms deals worth more than $3 billion with countries in the region since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020 with Arab countries, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Gantz said Israeli Defence Ministry personnel held about 150 meetings with "their counterparts in regional countries, excluding Egypt and Jordan," according to Haaretz newspaper.

07 July 2022; MEMO: An Israeli soldier was arrested by the military on Tuesday after looting property belonging to Palestinians during a nightly raid near Hebron, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced yesterday.

The army said that the arrest was made during a military investigation of looting from Palestinian homes by soldiers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.