When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visited the White House two months ago, President Trump sold him a brazen dream: The United States would take control of the Gaza Strip, move out the Palestinian population of about two million souls and turn the devastated seaside enclave into a glittering “riviera.” This week, as the…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past listed the three main threats facing Israel as “Iran, Iran and Iran.” He has largely staked his career on being Israel’s protector against Iranian nuclear ambitions, has openly confronted the country in recent months and is at war with Iran-backed militias around the region. Many Israelis were…
Talks between the United States and Iran, which President Trump said on Monday would begin on Saturday in Oman, face considerable problems of substance and well-earned mistrust. But time is short for what is likely to be a complicated negotiation. “We’re at a fork in the road, heading toward a crisis,” said Sanam Vakil, the…
There aren’t a lot of countries Israel’s prime minister can visit without risking arrest. Which makes the red-carpet treatment Benjamin Netanyahu received in Hungary — Europe’s only proud “illiberal democracy” — all the more noteworthy. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, invited Mr. Netanyahu right after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant last November…
Before President Barack Obama was sworn into office in 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu called the Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas out of the blue and asked for a lesson in what was essentially a foreign tongue: the language of Democrats. “I speak Republican and you speak Democratic, and I need the intermediary,” said Mr. Netanyahu, who was…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is set to meet with President Trump at the White House on Monday, according to a White House official, in the second such visit by the Israeli leader since the new administration began in January. Mr. Netanyahu will arrive in Washington after renewing Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in…
Israel’s leaders have articulated various goals for their expanding ground and air assault in Gaza, spreading confusion over how the objectives might be achieved and on what terms the renewed campaign might end. They agree on the primary objective — to squeeze Hamas into releasing the dozens of hostages still being held in the enclave,…
For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been standing trial for corruption, even as he oversees conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Now, he is locked in a separate standoff with Israel’s law enforcement authorities, a police investigation that has renewed opposition calls for his resignation. Known as “Qatargate,” the case hinges on…
Hungary said on Thursday that it would pull out of the International Criminal Court, announcing its decision just hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrived there for a visit despite facing an international arrest warrant. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban had made clear that it would ignore its obligations to act…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Thursday began a visit to Hungary, confident that Europe’s self-declared bastion of “illiberal democracy” would ignore an arrest warrant issued against him in November by the International Criminal Court. The visit is Mr. Netanyahu’s first to a country that has recognized the jurisdiction of the court, raising the…