Macron backs down on Palestinian state at upcoming conference

French officials visiting Israel assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the conference would not recognize "Palestine."

JNS Staff

French President Emmanuel Macron looks on before the inauguration of the Saint-Denis Pleyel metro station north of Paris on June 24, 2024. Photo by Yves Herman/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.

(June 8, 2025 / JNS)  An international conference, the brainchild of France, to recognize a Palestinian state, has lowered its sights.

Scheduled for June 16-18 at United Nations headquarters in New York, it will now focus on determining steps toward recognition rather than recognition itself.

Por qué el cántico «desde el río hasta el mar» es antisemita

Probablemente, durante la guerra de Israel-Gaza has escuchado cantar la frase "desde el río hasta el mar". Descubre por qué no es una expresión de liberación, sino claramente antisemitismo.

Desde el comienzo de la guerra entre Israel y Gaza, que empezó cuando Hamás masacró a 1400 israelíes el 7 de octubre (además de secuestrar a 220 personas), hubo varias protestas pro-palestinas en el mundo. Muchos de los manifestantes

‘The History Matters Here:’ Return to Jenin

Jenin was the location, in April 2002, of one of the most treacherous myths about Israel’s military conduct that spilled over into open antisemitism. Sadly, the lessons of that sordid episode more than 20 years ago do not appear to have been learned.

BEN COHEN

An Israeli soldier in Jenin in April 2002. Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit.

(January 26, 2023 / JNS) “The history matters here,” noted the BBC’s Jerusalem correspondent, Tom Bateman, in a report on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation in the West Bank city of Jenin last Thursday that resulted in the deaths of nine Palestinians—eight of them men affiliated with terror groups, one of them a woman civilian.

In the annals of anti-Zionist demonization of the State of Israel, Jenin occupies a special place. The city was the location, in April 2002, of one of the most treacherous myths about Israel’s military conduct that spilled over into open antisemitism.

How airstrikes by Israel, Turkey and Russia denote a new era in Syrian war

Regional interests remain very much at stake in conflict neither isolated, nor solely Syrian – though often forgotten.

The remains of a vehicle after airstrikes Turkey said were carried out in Derik, Syria, on Sunday.   Photograph: North Press Agency/Reuters

Over the plains of northern Syria, an approaching warplane usually makes a distinctive roar, allowing those on the ground to determine who it belongs to and whether there’s a need to hide.

But the past few days have been more onerous than ever for plane-spotters as the air forces of three countries have crisscrossed Syrian skies, bombing targets from the Mediterranean coast to the deserts of the east in the most comprehensive airstrikes in the past three years.

Iran and Russia find common ground through Syrian and Ukraine wars

Tehran’s supply of drones to Moscow deepens a collaboration between two unlikely allies.

Martin Chulov - Middle East correspondent

Vladimir Putin with the commander-in-chief of the Russian navy, Nikolai Yevmenov, and Gen Aleksandr Dvornikov. Photograph: Sputnik/Reuters

When a Russian plane arrived in Iran with €140m in cash and a booty of captured western weapons, an exchange for Iranian drones, it marked a new phase in a seven-year alliance between two unlikely bedfellows.

The delivery of cash and weapons was reportedly made in August, after Russia received its first deliveries of drones to support its war in Ukraine. It was Iran’s first known contribution to the Russian offensive in Europe. But the bond between the two countries had been forged on another continent ravaged by war, the Middle East.

‘Whoever says Syria’s safe is a liar’: country’s tourist drive at odds with human rights record

Vloggers visit the country to create audience-boosting content, but critics say they’re being cynically used by the Assad regime.

The Al-Hamidiyah Souq in Damascus. The Syrian government is trying to revive the country’s once thriving tourism industry. Photograph: Yamam Al Shaar/Reuters

Affordable, friendly and ready for tourists – this is the message behind a new drive to promote Syria as a holiday destination, despite a recent human rights report determining the Assad government was responsible for “crimes against humanity” and the Foreign Office warning against all travel to the country.

Greece rolls out red carpet for crown prince, as Khashoggi killing falls off agenda

With Europe grappling with an energy crisis, Mohammed bin Salman finds he is once again welcome.

Helena Smith in Athens

Mohammed bin Salman (left) and Kyriakos Mitsotakis visiting the Acropolis Museum in Athens on 26 July. In two days Greece signed 17 bilateral agreements with Saudi Arabia. Photograph: Dimtiris Papamitsos/AP

Smiles, handshakes, backslaps and the Acropolis all to himself. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has landed in Europe – his first trip west since the brutal killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi – and on a continent jittering with energy worries, the Saudi royal has received red-carpet treatment.

Human rights concerns aside, the de facto leader of the world’s greatest oil producer has luxuriated in a welcome that only recently may have seemed impossible.

Biden rebuffed as US relations with Saudi Arabia and UAE hit new low

Analysis: As oil prices – and diplomatic tensions – rise, two of the biggest US allies are questioning the basis of their relationship

Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent

Joe Biden with Salman, now the Saudi king, in 2011. ‘The Saudi-US relationship is in the throes of a crisis,’ one critic wrote. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

As Joe Biden moved to open US strategic oil reserves, his two biggest oil-producing allies have kept their tanks firmly shut. The UAE and Saudi Arabia continue to rebuff the US president as he attempts to counter soaring oil prices prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And both countries have been unusually frank about their refusal to step in.

The five-week-old war is bringing tensions to a head in several parts of the world, but perhaps nowhere is a regional order more under strain than the Middle East, where two of America’s biggest allies are now seriously questioning the foundations

Iran nuclear talks rocked by Russian demand for sanctions exemption

Moscow seeks guarantees regarding trade with Iran that would undermine west’s response to Ukraine invasion.

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

The revived deal would lift US sanctions in return for Tehran complying with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Photograph: Majid Asgaripour/AP

Russia has been accused of trying to take the Iran nuclear deal hostage as part of its wider battle with the west over Ukraine, after it threw a last-minute spanner into plans for an agreement to lift a swathe of US economic sanctions on Tehran.

After months of negotiations in Vienna, a revised deal was expected to be reached within days under which US sanctions would be lifted in return for Tehran returning to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear nonproliferation deal.

Sledgehammer review: David Friedman comes out swinging on Trump and Israel

The former US ambassador has written a predictably unsubtle memoir, aimed squarely at the 2024 Republican primary.

Lloyd Green

David Friedman, Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump leave bankruptcy court in Camden, New Jersey, in February 2010. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

David Friedman was Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel. But that job title alone fails to adequately convey his proximity to the 45th president and his impact on US policy. Their time together marked a repudiation of Barack Obama’s vision for the Middle East. Sledgehammer, Friedman’s memoir, reminds the reader of all of this as insistently as its title suggests.

With Friedman’s assistance, the US helped forge the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and four Arab countries. The US also moved its embassy to Jerusalem and left the Iran nuclear deal. As for the Palestinians, put it this way: they no longer occupy rent-free space in the Republican conscience.

Emma Watson pro-Palestinian post sparks antisemitism row

Israeli officials attack actor’s message, and are accused of ‘cynical weaponisation’ of term.

Emma Watson has used her platform to support a number of high-profile causes. Photograph: Mark Cuthbert/Getty Images

Emma Watson has been accused of antisemitism by Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations after she posted a message of support for the Palestinian cause.

Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, posted an image on Instagram showing a photograph of a pro-Palestinian protest with the banner “Solidarity is a Verb” written across it. It was accompanied with a quote about the meaning of solidarity from the intersectional feminist scholar Sara Ahmed.

BDS groups, activists likely behind campaign targeting Google, Amazon to cancel contract with Israel

It “appears to be another attempt by terror-backed anti-Semitic groups operating under the BDS banner to undermine the only free and inclusive country in the Middle East,” Marc Greendorfer, founder of the Zachor Legal Institute, told JNS.

The Google logo on one of the buildings of Googleplex, the company's main campus in Silicon Valley. Credit: Sundry Photography/Shutterstock.

(October 15, 2021 / JNS) Anti-Israel BDS groups and activists appear to be behind a purportedly grassroots anonymous letter of hundreds of Google and Amazon employees demanding that the tech giants cancel Project Nimbus, a billion-dollar contract to provide public cloud computing services to Israel.

In the letter, published by The Guardian on Tuesday, the authors state that they were “morally obliged” to speak out against the project, calling on Amazon and

Israel preparing to resume settlement building in West Bank

Minister says there are plans for 2,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in Palestinian territories.

Benny Gantz, left, said there were also plans for about 1,000 units for Palestinians living in the West Bank’s Area C. Photograph: Abir Sultan/AFP/Getty Images

Israel is preparing to resume settlement building in the occupied West Bank after a hiatus of almost a year, the country’s defence minister has said.

A planning council committee is expected to meet next week to approve 2,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories, Benny Gantz said on

‘This is the end of times’: Lebanon struggles to find political path through its crisis

As the country suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of fuel and medical supplies, pressure is growing at home and abroad to address its governance quagmire.

by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent

Vehicles queue for fuel at a petrol station in Lebanon's capital, Beirut. Photograph: Anwar Amro/AFP/GettyImages

The lights dimmed further in Lebanon last month when two giant barges that had boosted its electricity grid were switched off. The result was six hours less power a day for most homes, or more need for generator fuel for those who could afford it.

However, fuel is also in short supply in the crisis-hit nation. Giant queues clog roads near filling stations and top-ups are limited to 20 litres, making most journeys precarious.

Iran nuclear program: UN watchdog unable to access data since February

International Atomic Energy Agency says it can provide only an estimate of Iran’s stockpile.

Staff and agencies

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said in a report it has not been able to access data on Iran’s nuclear program. Photograph: Michael Gruber/Getty Images

The United Nations’ atomic watchdog hasn’t been able to access data important to monitoring Iran’s nuclear program since late February when the Islamic Republic started restricting international inspections of its facilities, the agency has said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported on Monday in a confidential document distributed to member countries and seen by the Associated

The last, overlooked but still active front of World War II

There’s a profound need in the West for the Jews to be proved bad people. Among the Israel-haters is a breathless eagerness for the moment when they can shout “gotcha” and then put the Jews into the public pillory.

MELANIE PHILLIPS

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini salute the Bosnian Waffen SS in November 1943. Credit: Bundesarchiv via Wikimedia Commons.

(May 20, 2021 / JNS) Our current convulsions, with the Jewish people under murderous and venomous attack both in Israel and the Diaspora, are far more momentous than many may realize.

Israel, where a ceasefire to the conflict in Gaza has been announced, remained under fire from the rocket barrages aimed at killing Israeli civilians in the final hours before it was due to take effect. Tensions over attacks by Israeli Arabs on Israeli

Shadow warrior: Benjamin Netanyahu takes a dangerous gamble with Iran

Israel’s prime minister is creating a climate of fear and crisis as his best hope for holding on to power.

Simon Tisdall

Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing Israel’s ‘shadow war’ with Iran into the open. Photograph: Debbie Hill/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock

In a region famous for warmongers and tyrants, who is the most dangerous man in the Middle East right now? Not Bashar al-Assad, the isolated gauleiter of Damascus. Not disgraced Mohammed bin Salman, the princely Saudi executioner. Not even Turkey’s misogynist-in-chief, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the local neighbourhood bully.

Step forward Benjamin Netanyahu, easily the most convincing contender for the “danger man” title. Israel’s prime minister has outdone himself of late, threatening war with Iran, ordering one-off attacks, assassinating a top scientist, sabotaging

Kylie Moore-Gilbert says Australian government should have gone public with her case earlier

British-Australian academic also talks about impact of solitary confinement, saying it was like a ‘prolonged anxiety attack’.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert speaks to Sky News on Tuesday. She says she is ‘not convinced the quiet diplomacy case stacks up’. Photograph: Sky News Australia

Kylie Moore-Gilbert believes she never would have been sentenced to 10 years jail on spying charges in Iran if the Australian government had gone public with her case earlier to pressure Tehran.

The British-Australian academic – who was released after a little more than two years in a complex prisoner swap involving four countries – said the Australian government’s strategy of “quiet diplomacy”, deliberately shielding her case from the

Is Saudi Arabia about to go nuclear with China’s help?

“Israel is right to be concerned,” said Saeed Ghasseminejad, a senior Iran and financial economics adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noting that the Saudis have reason to seek out Chinese companies. “The Middle East is full of unstable governments, radicalized societies, apocalyptic militants and messianic politicians.”

BY ISRAEL KASNETT

President Xi Jinping of China and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2016. Credit: Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

(September 21, 2020 / JNS) The recent normalization deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have fundamentally shifted the region’s alliances. Both Gulf countries maintain close ties with Saudi Arabia, and speculation abounds as to whether or not the Saudis will be the next country to formalize ties with the Jewish state.

While Israel may be on the verge of cementing a close alliance with major Sunni Arab states in the face of a common enemy with Iran, at the same time, concern is also growing about a possible nuclear race in the region with China’s help.

50 European Political Has-Beens Oppose Trump’s Peace Plan

Mary Robinson, photo via Wikimedia Commons

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,498, March 23, 2020

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Fifty former senior European politicians have published a letter against the Trump peace plan in the Guardian. Many signatories can be characterized as veteran anti-Israeli inciters. Some can even be labeled antisemites. All have held positions in countries where antisemitism is endemic. In 2019, even before the Trump plan was published, a similar letter was published by former EU officials.

On February 27th, 2020, the Guardian published a letter under the headline “Grave concern about the US plan to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.” It was signed by 50 former senior European politicians, including many previous prime and foreign ministers. The signatories called themselves “Europeans dedicated to promoting international law, peace and security worldwide.” In their letter they warn that if the Trump peace plan goes ahead, Israel will be an apartheid state.