Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to arrive in Israel on Wednesday to address the Knesset and head an innovation event in Jerusalem, as part of what Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar told Jewish Insider is an “upgrade” in relations between the countries “to a new, strategic level.”

The visit of the head of the world’s most populous nation, whose relations with Israel have grown stronger since Modi became prime minister in 2014, has important implications for the Jewish state’s security, geopolitics and trade, Azar said. 

Modi last visited Israel eight years ago. At the time, a photo of the Indian leader and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wading barefoot in the Mediterranean Sea during a visit to a desalination plant went viral. 

His trip this week, during which he will address Israel’s Knesset, comes amid rising tensions across the Middle East — and as Israelis prepare for a potential attack from Iran.

India has been the Israeli defense industry’s largest customer in recent years, with arms sales totaling $20.5 billion during 2020-2024. The countries have reportedly closed deals worth $8.6 billion since the beginning of 2026.

During his visit, Modi plans to sign an “updated security agreement to allow the private sector to work on more sensitive products when it comes to joining production,” Azar, who has been Israel’s envoy to India since September 2024, said. “The updated protocols will allow us to work on more sensitive technology. It will create a lot of action.”

Netanyahu and leading Israeli defense figures have spoken about moving toward greater self-sufficiency in arms manufacturing. Delhi has long had a “Make in India” campaign to increase local production, requiring Israeli arms companies to open production lines in India in order to sell to the country, and the agreement means that joint production “will get a significant upgrade, because we are expanding both the scope and range of technologies we can apply,” Azar said.

“Both Israel and India want to be more independent and self-reliant when it comes to production and less reliant on foreign supply. Producing things together means that, during times of need, we can supply things to each other, unlike what happened during the war [in Gaza] … in which we had interruptions in supply from different countries,” Azar said.

Economically, Israel and India are working on a free-trade agreement, and hope to expand their cooperation on emerging technologies, as well as large infrastructure projects. Azar said that he worked to bring Indian companies to bid on tenders relating to the ongoing Tel Aviv Metro subway project, and that 15 have already applied.

The U.S. has long expressed concern about security risks related to Chinese companies working on major infrastructure projects in Israel. Companies from India, which views China as an adversary, have been considered as a potential competitive alternative. 

Though Azar, a former deputy national security advisor for foreign policy, served as head of the Israel-U.S.-China Internal Task Force Israel’s Foreign Ministry at the beginning of the decade, he declined to comment on that aspect, preferring to focus on Israel-India bilateral relations.

With regard to the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a trade route meant to pass through Israel, among other countries in the region, and compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Azar said that “we need to wait for the right geopolitical moment to make it happen. … It needs to happen, but evidently, it won’t now.” 

“Currently, there is some movement of merchandise, but to see it become massive, we need some change in Saudi Arabia,” Azar said.

Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., both points on the IMEC route, are facing increased tensions between them. Riyadh has pointed some of its ire at Jerusalem, and has been growing closer to India’s historic foe, Pakistan.

Azar was enthusiastic about an Israeli Cabinet decision approved on Sunday in which Israel plans to allocate over $48 million to cooperation with India in a variety of spheres. Half of the funds come from individual government ministries seeking the cooperation, and the other half was specially allocated by the Finance Ministry.

“The most important is upgrading research and development with funds from the Israel Innovation Authority, and academic cooperation. Israeli universities are all over India now, getting into agreements to exchange students and transfer technology and innovation offices. They feel very welcome in India,” he said.

Asked if that means India has become an alternative to much of the West, where Israeli academics have faced hostility in recent years, Azar said that India and Israel “don’t have challenges in this realm and continue working together to discover the joint resilience so needed in times of war.”

At the same time, he added, “it’s important for any country to diversify. We feel we have so much in common with India, which is a rising force in the world. It’s natural, and it’s not only Israel. Last week, 20 heads of state and 50 foreign ministers went to an AI summit in India. … Everybody is chasing India now.” 

Though India-Israel relations were worse before Modi’s rise, Azar said they have the potential for longevity.

“We are now building the pillars of relations that are going to last,” he said. “We are trying to get bipartisan support. There is a lot of support for Israel, not just in [Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party]. The general public feels it, and we have a high appreciation of that. There are some parties, like the communists, that are more critical, but I think this relationship is going to last.”

Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, in a speech to the Knesset on Monday, warned the American right about the dangers of rising antisemitism within its ranks.

“I stand here in Jerusalem to sound an alarm,” Illouz said. “We are used to enemies from the outside … but today, I look at the West — our greatest ally — and I see a new enemy rising from within.” 

Illouz, who was born and grew up in Montreal, took the unusual step of speaking from the lectern in English.

The right-wing lawmaker called for American conservatives to reject what he called the “poison” of Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, mentioning the podcasters by name. 

“They claim to fight the ‘woke left.’ They are no different than the woke left,” Illouz argued. “The woke left tears down statues of Thomas Jefferson, the woke right tears down statues of Winston Churchill … It is the same hatred of the West dressed up in a different costume.”

He noted Carlson’s praise for World War II revisionism: “[Carlson] nods along when he’s told the Holocaust was a logistical error, a mistake by a camp that was unprepared. This is madness. He spits on the graves of American soldiers who stormed Normandy. … Why? To erase the line between good and evil.”

Owens, Illouz said, “spreads the sickest blood libels … claiming this state was founded by ‘pedophiles.’”

“She does not know history; she does not know the Bible,” Illouz added. “She only knows how to peddle hate.”

Illouz said that his message for Carlson, Owens and their ilk is that “we are the people of eternity. We buried the pharaohs who enslaved us. We buried the Greeks who tried to ban our Torah. We buried the Romans who burned our temple. We danced on the ruins of the Third Reich. And we will be here long after your YouTube channels are forgotten dust.”

“You think your lies can break the bond between America and Israel? You are small. This bond is giant,” Illouz stated.

The alliance between the U.S. and Israel is about shared values between “two nations who hold the torch of liberty while the rest of the world falls into darkness,” he said.

“Together we protect the values of freedom, democracy and the Bible against the barbarians at the gates,” Illouz added.

The Likud lawmaker implored American supporters of Israel not to accept defeat.

“The story of America and Israel is not over. It is just beginning. We have achieved miracles together, and we will achieve greater miracles yet,” he said. “Reject the lies. Stand with us, because when we stand together, Jerusalem and Washington, no force on earth can defeat us. Am Yisrael Chai.”

While Congress is working on a bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in the U.S., and the Islamist group is banned from Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and beyond, the group’s status in Israel is much more complicated.

The matter drew renewed attention this week after Mansour Abbas, the leader of the Ra’am party in the Knesset, an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, declined to call for the eradication of Hamas on Israeli radio.

In an interview with Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Abbas mostly lamented the high rate of crime and gun violence in Israeli-Arab society, but when he mentioned Gaza, the interviewer, Asaf Liberman, asked whether he sees Hamas as part of the enclave’s future.

“Palestinian society needs to pick its leadership and go on a new path towards peace and reconciliation,” Abbas responded. 

Liberman twice repeated his question and sharpened it: “Does Hamas need to be destroyed?”

Abbas added that an international force must enter Gaza and after an interim period a security force of the Palestinian Authority would be trained, but after being pressed to make his position on Hamas clear, he said the interview was beginning to feel like an “interrogation,” and pointed out that he had gone on air to talk about domestic issues facing Arab Israelis. “If you want to talk about crime, fine, if not, bye,” he said, before hanging up. 

Abbas has previously condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, calling them unjustifiable and inhumane, and called for the release of the hostages. The other reporter who conducted the interview, Suleiman Maswadeh, later noted that Abbas and his family had recently received death threats, and hinted that was the reason the Knesset member avoided repeating his previously articulated position — which Maswadeh said does not include a future for Hamas in the governance of Gaza.

In 2021, the Ra’am party became the first Arab party in 50 years to join an Israeli governing coalition, which was celebrated by many in Israel and abroad as a milestone for coexistence, while the Israeli right criticized the 2021-2022 government for what it characterized as working with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Monday’s interview sparked headlines and analysis in right-leaning Israeli media and comments by politicians on the right about the viability of center and left-wing parties once again forming a coalition with Ra’am to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when Ra’am’s leader would not say that he is for eradicating Hamas.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a very generic term,” said Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University. “It’s not membership in an organization; it’s a denomination. Mansour Abbas is the Muslim Brotherhood. Raed Salah, his rival, is also the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood. [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The historic and recent connections between Hamas and Ra’am, both of which were founded by adherents of the Muslim Brotherhood, shed light on the nuances of the international Sunni Islamist movement and its status in Israel.

Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, emphasized, in an interview with Jewish Insider on Wednesday, that the Muslim Brotherhood is an ideology aiming to make Muslim societies more religious, and is not one centralized organization spanning the Muslim world.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a very generic term,” Milshtein said. “It’s not membership in an organization; it’s a denomination. Mansour Abbas is the Muslim Brotherhood. Raed Salah, his rival, is also the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood. [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan is the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna’s brother, Abd al-Rahman al-Banna, founded the group’s branch in Mandatory Palestine in 1935; its leaders included Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who incited the deadly Hebron riots against Jews in 1929 and collaborated with Hitler, and Izz al-Din al-Qassam, leader of the 1935 Arab Revolt against the British and namesake of Hamas’ short-range Qassam rockets. 

Gaza-based Sheikh Ahmad Yasin formed the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Hamas in the 1980s. Sheikh Abdullah Nimar Darwish founded the Islamic Movement in Israel in 1971, which also espoused Muslim Brotherhood ideology.

In 1979, Darwish founded an underground group in Israel called The Family of Jihad with a goal of establishing an Islamic state. However, after his arrest and conviction for involvement in killing an accused collaborator and membership of a terrorist organization, he renounced violence and decided to promote Islamism within the confines of Israeli law.

Fissures began in the Islamic Movement in Israel after the Oslo Accords, with the northern branch, led by Sheikh Raed Salah, opposing it, while the southern branch supported it. The two parts of the movement officially split when the southern branch ran for the Knesset in 1996 as Ra’am, and Salah advocated boycotting national elections. 

The leaders of the northern branch were arrested in 2003 for aiding Hamas and in 2015, the branch was banned, after the police and Shin Bet demonstrated that it had close ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and received funds from groups affiliated with Hamas.

Darwish, however, continued to be the spiritual leader of the Islamic Movement’s southern branch and said he was committed to obeying the laws of Israel. He engaged in interfaith dialogue events, often with former Labor lawmaker Rabbi Michael Melchior, and spoke out against Holocaust denial. 

While Islamic Movement Southern Branch leaders have met with Hamas leaders and taken part in mediation efforts between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, in 2022, then-leader of Hamas Yahya Sinwar declared Mansour Abbas a traitor for joining the governing coalition and saying Israel is a Jewish state. Abbas has said that his decision to join the governing coalition in 2021 came from the values he “absorbed from the legacy of Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish.” 

As such, the more radical of the two major offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed in Israel.

Yet, more recently, the Islamic Movement Southern Branch has come under scrutiny for its own possible ties to Hamas. 

In the decades since its establishment, the Islamic Movement has faced repeated crackdowns on its charities. The Islamic Relief Committee, founded in 1987 with the stated goal to help the needy in the West Bank and Gaza, was shut down by Israeli authorities in 1995 for aiding Hamas members’ families, the first in a series of such actions.

“Israel’s anti-terrorism law and the whole discipline has been to focus on specific organizations and declaring them as terrorist organizations because of their goals, because of the means that they use, rather than focusing on an idea, which the Muslim Brotherhood really is,” Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, the former director of the IDF Prosecution for Judea and Samaria, told JI.

In July, the Israeli Justice Ministry unit dealing with nonprofit organizations found grounds to shut down “Aid 48,” a charity affiliated with Ra’am, on suspicion of providing funding to terrorist organizations. “Aid 48” is the Islamic Movement Southern Branch’s main charity. According to an investigation by the ministry, in 2020-2021, the organization transferred NIS 2 million to a charity in Hebron that Israel had declared in 2012 to be part of a terrorist organization; in 2023, “Aid 48” worked with three such Palestinian charities; in 2020, the organization gave NIS 933,000 to a Turkish organization run by Hamas members, which funneled money to the terrorist organization.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, the former director of the IDF Prosecution for Judea and Samaria, currently the director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, explained to JI that Israeli law makes it easier to crack down on smaller subgroups than an umbrella term like the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Israel’s anti-terrorism law and the whole discipline has been to focus on specific organizations and declaring them as terrorist organizations because of their goals, because of the means that they use, rather than focusing on an idea, which the Muslim Brotherhood really is,” he said on the sidelines of a JCFA conference last week.

In order to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, “you have to break it down into intelligence,” Hirsch said, adding that the authorities would have to determine who they are seeking to arrest and what money and possibly weapons need to be seized.

Hirsch recounted taking part in the Israeli Security Cabinet meeting in 2015 when the government decided to outlaw the Islamic Movement Northern Branch.

“Some of the questions that were asked were, what is the next step? Who do we operate against now? It was a bit clearer than the entire Muslim Brotherhood, but even then there was a question,” he said.

“I would be very careful because, at its core, the Muslim Brotherhood is a movement that aims to change society. They have a lot of social organizations. It’s very different from Islamic Jihad or ISIS, who are not interested in social activism,” said Milshtein, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood ideology is up for interpretation by its adherents.

When it comes to the southern branch, Hirsch, who has worked with the “Choosing Life” organization of relatives of victims of terror whose lawsuit led to the shuttering of “Aid 48,”  argued that “there is a clear connection between Ra’am and funding Hamas … That connection was there all along. It’s partly ideological and partly the idea of the Muslim Brotherhood in its different constellations, including in Israel.”

Milshtein acknowledged that there have been cases of leaders of “Aid 48” meeting with Hamas leaders and funding going to Hamas ahead of its invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but said that Abbas “took care of” those responsible when he learned of the incidents.

“I would be very careful because, at its core, the Muslim Brotherhood is a movement that aims to change society. They have a lot of social organizations. It’s very different from Islamic Jihad or ISIS, who are not interested in social activism,” he said, adding that the Muslim Brotherhood ideology is up for interpretation by its adherents.

“If you ask Mansour Abbas, there is no problem with being part of the Muslim Brotherhood and part of the government in a state that defines itself as Jewish,” he said. “If you ask Hamas, they want jihad against Israel.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself on Thursday from the Knesset’s approval of two bills to extend Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, after President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke out against annexation.

The Knesset approved two settlement annexation bills brought by right-wing members of the opposition in preliminary votes on Wednesday, despite the coalition whipping votes against them. 

The bill to annex the entire West Bank, proposed by Avi Maoz, the sole lawmaker from the anti-LGBT Noam party that quit the coalition earlier this year, received 25 votes — most of which were from Netanyahu’s coalition — with 24 voting against it. 

The other bill, which would have the Jerusalem suburb of Maaleh Adumim be considered part of sovereign Israel, was proposed by former Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party and passed the early vote with 32 in favor — with only one from the coalition — and nine opposed. The bills still have to go through committee meetings and three plenary votes to become law.

Trump voiced opposition to annexation efforts in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday, but conducted before the Knesset vote, and said they could threaten U.S. support for Israel. 

Annexation “won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries,” Trump said, “and you can’t do that now. We’ve had great Arab support. … It will not happen. Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.”

Though the first Trump administration’s 2020 peace plan would have allowed Israel to annex parts of the West Bank, Netanyahu committed later that year to refrain from such a move in exchange for entering the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates.

Vice President JD Vance was asked about the vote on his way onto Air Force Two departing Israel on Thursday, and said that he was “confused” and found the vote “weird.” He said he asked about the vote and was told it was symbolic.

“If it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it,” he said. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel; that will continue to be our policy and if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about it.”

Rubio, who landed in Israel on Thursday, said the night before that the Knesset vote was “counterproductive,” while acknowledging that  Israel is “a democracy, they’re going to have their votes. People are going to take these positions.”

Netanyahu attempted to repair the damage of the votes on Thursday morning, with a statement from his office calling them “a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel. The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset.”

According to the statement, “the Likud party and the religious parties (the principal coalition members) did not vote for these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from the chairmanship of a Knesset committee. Without Likud support these bills are unlikely to go anywhere.”

Maoz’s bill got support from six coalition lawmakers from Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party and seven from National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party. One Religious Zionist Party MK voted for Liberman’s legislation.

The one Likud lawmaker who supported Maoz’s bill was Yuli Edelstein, who was removed from the prestigious post of chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee earlier this year due to his refusal to usher in legislation that would continue the broad exemption from IDF service for Haredim. Edelstein argued in a post on X: “If my only sin was standing with the Land of Israel and voting for applying sovereignty in Judea and Samaria” — the Biblical name for the West Bank — “then I am proud of it.” 

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter assisted in Netanyahu’s damage control efforts, calling Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to clarify the situation. 

Leiter assured Graham “that this vote was not intended to be a slight to the U.S. and the position of the Prime Minister is that the U.S. is Israel’s most important and valuable ally and partner, and there will be no major changes without consulting and cooperating with the U.S.,” the South Carolina senator wrote on X.

“As with all legislative bodies and democracies, there are things you can control and things you cannot,” Graham added. “[Leiter] vigorously stressed no offense was meant and reinforced that no major decisions will be made by Israel without cooperation and coordination with the U.S.”

Separately, coalition chairman Ophir Katz, the Likud lawmaker responsible for whipping votes, said on Thursday that Netanyahu “clearly instructed me last night that the coalition must not vote for the bills on the matter of sovereignty. There was coalition discipline on the matter. Since there were MKs who acted against the prime minister’s instructions, the bills passed. Following that, the prime minister instructed me not to advance these bills until further notice.”

Katz punished Edelstein by removing him from the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee entirely, but consequences for the coalition members from other parties have yet to be announced.

Edelstein said that “every such removal is a medal of honor for me. Anyone who thinks this deters me is making a big mistake.”

In 2010, during a visit by then-Vice President Joe Biden to Israel, Israel’s Interior Ministry announced, without first consulting Netanyahu, that it had approved 1,600 housing units in a northern Jerusalem neighborhood that the Obama administration and most of the international community considered to be a settlement. The incident sparked a diplomatic row between the countries.

Ireland is set to elect a new president tomorrow. Like in Israel, the role of president is largely ceremonial, but unlike in Israel, where the Knesset elects the president and the choice is mostly the result of backroom political deals, the Irish president is directly elected by the people.

That means the choice reflects the mood of the Irish public — and after the news coming out of the Emerald Isle over the past two years, it may come as no surprise that the country appears to be on the verge of choosing a candidate with anti-Israel, antisemitic and even anti-Western views.

The current president, Michael D. Higgins, is no friend of Israel or the Jews, having called antisemitism accusations an Israeli “PR exercise.” When the Jewish community asked him not to attend a Holocaust remembrance ceremony out of a concern that he would politicize it, he went anyway and gave a speech comparing Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza to the Holocaust.

The country’s former justice minister, Alan Shatter, told Jewish Insider that the leading candidate for the presidency, Catherine Connolly, “if elected, will present as Michael D. Higgins on steroids.”

Connolly, a legislator representing Galway West since 2016, is a hard-left candidate running as an independent, and led a recent Irish Times poll by 18 points. 

The front-runner’s anti-Israel history goes back to before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, and includes remarks that crossed the line into antisemitism. In 2021, Connolly wrote in a parliamentary question that Israel is “attempt[ing] to accomplish Jewish supremacy,” using language associated with centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Since then, she has brought up Israel, which she calls a “terrorist state” or “an apartheid state,” in parliament over 200 times. One of those times was questioning the Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv joining an EU member embassies’ statement marking Holocaust Remembrance Day last year. 

Last month, she criticized calls to keep Hamas out of a future government for Gaza, saying that the terrorist organization is “part of the fabric of the Palestinian people.”

Her views have earned her the endorsement of the notorious Hezbollah-supporting Irish rapper duo Kneecap. 

Connolly has also said that the U.S. and EU cannot be trusted, and called President Donald Trump a bully. She has parroted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s line on his invasion of Ukraine, claiming that “NATO has played a despicable role in moving forward to the border and engaging in warmongering.” She also said that Russia’s attempt to assassinate Sergei and Yulia Skripal, a former Russian military intelligence officer and double agent for the British intelligence agencies and his daughter, should be viewed in the “context” of an EU and NATO missile buildup. 

Shatter said that Connolly “personifies the Irish left’s and Sinn Fein’s anti-Israel hostility … counting amongst her political supporters those who advocate Israel’s replacement by a Palestinian state. On social media she is supported by the entirety of the obsessive Israel-hating Irish social media community. … She regards the Irish government’s hostility towards Israel and anti-Israel action to date as insufficient.”

Connolly “is a product of the Irish government pandering to and adopting the narrative of Israel’s most extreme critics, and the government parties failing to nominate credible, articulate candidates,” Shatter argued. 

Shatter also pointed out that, while there are other issues on the national agenda, Connolly’s “hostility to Israel has [put her in] center stage.” In addition, he said that at many of her events, supporters have been “waving Palestinian flags as if the Irish flag has gone out of fashion.”

Perhaps the front-runner’s obsession with a conflict thousands of miles from Dublin and disconnected from key issues in Irish society is a reason why turnout is expected to hit a record low on Friday. “Of the big-ticket items in Irish society – for instance housing, race, climate change, unification – [the candidates] have had very little interesting things to say,” and the campaign “hasn’t inspired voters,” professor Kevin Rafter, a political scientist and the co-author of The Irish Presidency: Power, Ceremony and Politics, told The Guardian. 

President Donald Trump gave a victory speech in the Knesset as the final 20 living hostages returned to Israel from Gaza on Monday, in accordance with the first phase of his plan to end the war.

Israeli television stations showed a live screen, with Air Force One landing at Ben Gurion Airport on one side, and IDF vehicles carrying freed hostages Eitan Mor, Gali and Ziv Berman, Matan Angrest, Omri Miran, Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel to their families on the other.

As Trump arrived at the Knesset, the Red Cross collected the other 13 living hostages: Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, Ariel Cunio, David Cunio, Evyatar David, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kupershtein, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

Trump was given a hero’s welcome in the Knesset, where he was met with an honor guard and current and former lawmakers gave him a lengthy standing ovation. 

“The hostages are back – it feels so good to say it!” Trump said.

In a speech that was over an hour long, the president declared that “today, the guns are calm, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally in peace, that will hopefully live  — God-willing —  in peace for all eternity.”

Trump said this marks “the historic dawn of a new Middle East,” and “an age of harmony for Israel and all the nations in the region.”

The president touted his success as a peacemaker, but added: “We’re not going to go into war, but if we do, we will win that war … I think Bibi [Netanyahu], as you mentioned, before, peace through strength, that’s what it’s all about.”

“Hamas will be disarmed and Israel’s security will no longer be threatened in any way, shape or form,” he vowed. “Israel, with our help, has won all they can, has won by force of arms. Now it’s time to transform that win … into peace and prosperity for the whole region. Time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.”

Trump said that “as we celebrate today, let us remember how this nightmare of depravity all began,” describing the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. “Nobody could believe what they were witnessing. The USA grieved alongside you. … The people of America join you in those two everlasting vows: Never forget and never again.”

Trump expressed his appreciation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called “a man of exceptional courage and patriotism.” 

“He is not the easiest guy to deal with, but that’s what makes him great,” Trump added.

Trump said that Netanyahu had “the courage to say, ‘That’s it, we won, and we’re going to rebuild and make Israel stronger and greater than it has ever been before.’”

The Palestinians, Trump added, need to “concentrate on building their people up instead of trying to tear Israel down.” 

“Israel, America and all the nations of the Middle East will soon be safer, greater and more prosperous than ever before,” Trump said, concluding his speech. “I love Israel. I’m with you all the way. You will be bigger, stronger and more loving than ever before. God bless you, God bless the United States of America, and God bless the Middle East.”

“You, President Donald J. Trump,” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said, “are a colossus who will be enshrined in the pantheon of history. The people of Israel will remember you. We are a nation that remembers … The world needs more Trumps.”

Netanyahu said that “this a momentous day, a day of great joy as the remaining hostages come home … At the beginning of the war, I promised to bring all the hostages home. Today, with the indispensable help … of President Trump and his team and with the incredible sacrifice and courage of the soldiers of Israel, we are fulfilling that promise.”

Trump and Netanyahu met with former hostages, the families of hostages, IDF soldiers wounded in action and victims of the Oct. 7 attacks at the Knesset.

Trump is expected to head to the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh later Monday, for a ceremony marking the end of the war in Gaza. Trump secured Netanyahu’s invitation while at the Knesset, calling Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi before his speech, but Netanyahu declined, citing the Simchat Torah holiday.

Other expected attendees at the ceremony include Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and the leaders of nearly three dozen countries.

Despite the celebrations on Monday and suggestions that the war was over, Hamas has been attempting to reestablish itself in the parts of Gaza from which the IDF withdrew, executing and battling its Palestinian opponents.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that the IDF will continue to work to disarm Hamas and destroy its tunnels along with an international team overseen by the U.S. 

Trump’s plan to end the war also includes replacing Hamas with a transitional government made up of Palestinians under the supervision of a “Peace Board” that he will lead and is expected to include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as deradicalization of the population of Gaza.

Hamas is expected to transfer four of the 28 bodies of hostages that remain in Gaza later Monday, according to the Hostages Families Forum, which described the low number as a “blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas.” Hamas has said it has been unable to locate all of them.

Close to 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were expected to be released later Monday, including 250 terrorists, many of whom were serving life sentences, and 1,700 arrested after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

Among those being released are Hilmi Abdul Karim, who bombed a bus in Jerusalem, killing 11, Mouad Badr Abdallah Da’is, who murdered mother of six Dafna Meir, and others.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and a group of House Republicans are visiting Israel this week, in Johnson’s first visit to Israel since becoming speaker.

Johnson was set to visit Israel in June to address the Knesset, but postponed his visit after the war between Israel and Iran began. He will not be addressing the Knesset on this visit, a source familiar with his plans told Jewish Insider.

Johnson and those in his delegation — Reps. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Michael Cloud (R-TX) — have prayed at the Western Wall and met with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

“We’re so grateful to be in Israel, particularly on this day, recognizing the destruction of the two Temples … it is such a moving time for us to be here at the Wailing Wall. We’ve offered our prayers, we’ve put our notes into the wall,” Johnson said in brief video remarks from the Kotel, which he visited on Tisha B’Av. “We’re so moved by the hospitality of the people and the great love of Israel.”

“Our prayer is that America will always stand with the people of Israel and we pray for the preservation and the peace of Jerusalem,” Johnson continued. “That’s what scripture tells us to do, it’s a matter of faith for us, and commitment that we have.”

Katz said in a statement that he thanked the lawmakers “for their unwavering support and moral clarity in standing with Israel against its enemies, and for their vital voices in the efforts to bring all the hostages home and defeat the murderous terrorist organization Hamas.”

Sa’ar said the group discussed global antisemitism, anti-Israel efforts by countries like Ireland and the attacks on the Druze in Syria, which Sa’ar said were “same kind of barbarism perpetrated by Hamas.”

The trip was organized by the U.S.-Israel Education Association.

In comments on CNN last week, Johnson raised concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying that “it is quite sad and quite alarming to see” and that he’d like to see the war in Gaza end soon.

Johnson’s office did not share any further details of his itinerary while he’s visiting the Jewish state.

New Israeli elections are unlikely to happen this year, despite the departure on Wednesday of two parties from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over disagreements over Haredi military exemption legislation.

After months of disagreements, Ashkenazi Haredi faction United Torah Judaism left Netanyahu’s coalition in protest, leaving it with 61 out of the Knesset’s 120 seats. On Wednesday, Sephardic Haredi party Shas’ five Cabinet ministers quit the government, though party leader Aryeh Deri will remain an observer in the Security Cabinet.

Shas only quit the government — meaning their Cabinet posts — and did not pull its 11 lawmakers out of the parliamentary coalition. Shas, whose voter base is right-wing and even more supportive of Netanyahu than the prime minister’s own Likud party, said it will not vote with the opposition. This means that Netanyahu retains a majority in the Knesset, albeit a razor-thin one. 

Opposition leader Yair Lapid still argued soon after Shas’ announcement that “starting today, Israel has a minority government. A minority government cannot send soldiers into battle … It has no authority, no right. It is an illegitimate government.”

“Israel does not have full-time welfare, health, interior, housing or labor ministers,” Lapid added. “The Netanyahu government is a minority government that endangers the care of Israel’s citizens.”

Both Haredi parties have been boycotting Knesset votes since April in protest over the Haredi conscription debate, in effect leaving the coalition with a minority and obstructing its ability to pass laws.

Israeli law only allows an early election to be called proactively, meaning that a Knesset member would have to propose a bill to disperse the legislature, followed by three separate votes on the issue. Opposition leaders held a vote last month on dispersing the Knesset, and under Israeli law are prevented from calling another such vote for six months unless 61 lawmakers sign a petition to the Knesset speaker. 

Netanyahu’s government has time on its side, with the Knesset’s summer recess beginning on July 27 and the legislature’s voting schedule recommencing on October 19.

By law, the next election is set for Oct. 27, 2026, but the last time a Knesset election was held on its originally scheduled date was in 1988.

Shas and UTJ left the government over the ongoing political debate over legislation that would impose penalties on Haredi yeshiva students who do not enlist in the IDF. The parties’ Councils of Torah Sages have argued that religious study must be prioritized over serving in the military.

Israel has a mandatory military draft, but has historically exempted Arab citizens and Haredi yeshiva students from conscription. Governments on the left and right maintained the exemption for Haredim over decades, but Israel’s High Court of Justice struck it down in a series of rulings over more than 10 years, with no minor adjustments made by consecutive governments satisfying the justices’ standard of equality under the law. Last summer, the court ordered the Defense Ministry to send draft notices to young Haredi men.

Meanwhile, the 21 months of war in Gaza — with hundreds of thousands of Israelis serving in reserves, many of whom have served hundreds of days in active duty, leaving behind families and businesses — have increased the IDF’s manpower needs and the urgency to resolve the  issue of Haredi conscription. Shas and UTJ’s allies on the Israeli right have moved away, in varying degrees, from tolerating the exemption for political expedience even as their own constituents serve in the IDF.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, a Likud lawmaker, has been at the forefront of the dispute with the Haredi parties, refusing to advance legislation that does not satisfy the military’s needs, while Shas and UTJ demand that the bill institute little to no consequences for yeshiva students who do not serve in the IDF.

When announcing his resignation from the cabinet on Wednesday, Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli said that penalizing yeshiva students for not serving is “no less than cruel and criminal persecution.”

Among the proposed sanctions are cutting daycare and housing subsidies afforded to the Haredi sector, prohibiting those who ignore conscription notices from receiving driver’s licenses or leaving the country, and, in some cases, arrest.

Edelstein reached a compromise over the sanctions with the Haredi parties in June, less than a day before the 12-day war with Iran began. However, the Haredim continued to boycott coalition votes in recent weeks, leading Edelstein to withdraw some of his concessions.

Speaking at a conference on Wednesday, Edelstein said that “this is not the time to bring down a right-wing government.”

He called on the Haredim to “bring a concrete proposal. For once, the Haredim should say what they agree to. My door is open; I promise to examine it quickly and hold negotiations.”

“For an entire year, they did not bring any concrete proposal for a conscription law,” Edelstein added. “In the moment of truth, they … made all kinds of excuses every time … It’s apparently not a question of the extent of the sanctions or the target [enlistment] numbers, but a total refusal to take part in the holy privilege … that is called the Israeli Defense Forces.”

It might be hard to remember now, with all that has happened in recent weeks, but the Knesset seemed very close to calling an early election a day and a half before Israel commenced its airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs last month.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a post-Iran victory bump, and is once again leading in the polls – but not by much. A poll published on Tuesday showed his Likud party leading a potential party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett by only two seats, and tied with Bennett for leading candidate for prime minister. Another pollster showed a similar margin during the Iran operation, but had the two parties tied after the ceasefire. Parties in the current coalition made up less than half of the Knesset in every poll. In a poll from the Israel Democracy Institute published on Wednesday, only 46% of Jewish Israelis said they trust Netanyahu. 

A common accusation heard by Netanyahu’s political opponents at home and abroad is that he is prolonging the war in Gaza to stay in office, because ending the war before his far-right coalition partners deem Hamas fully defeated would likely see the collapse of his government. But the victories under his leadership are seemingly not staunching the Israeli right’s continued collapse in the polls as the war grinds on in its 635th day. 

Though Israelis are impressed by their intelligence agencies’ feats and pilots’ daring and skill that significantly degraded Hezbollah and then Iran, they clearly remember who was in charge during the Hamas massacres on Oct. 7, 2023. Fifty hostages remain in Gaza; 13 soldiers have been killed there in the past three weeks. Inside Israel, thousands have been displaced due to Iranian strikes — joining the thousands more who were left without homes after the Oct. 7 attacks. 

An Israeli comedian’s video last week asking why there isn’t a victory parade after “winning” in Iran went viral; she answered that Israel is in a Babushka doll of a war within a war within a war. “We need to end something,” she said.

Netanyahu may consider the political advantages of “ending something” as he heads to Washington next week while President Donald Trump is pushing for a broad deal that would encompass a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages, the administration of Gaza by moderate Sunni states, normalization between Israel and Syria and perhaps other countries, plus working to ensure Iran doesn’t rebuild its nuclear program. 

Hamas tends to spoil the best-laid plans of American negotiators, but Trump has been hinting that things are moving in a positive direction in the past few days.

If Netanyahu returns to Israel with a Gaza ceasefire and the hostages returned, an expanded Abraham Accords and a way to keep Israel’s achievement in Iran intact, then he may get a more significant electoral bump. In that scenario, one option for him could be to ride that wave and call a snap election, rather than wait until the official October 2026 date for the vote.

Or, Netanyahu could see this as his legacy-clinching move, a sign that his work is done. In 2021, the prime minister said that he wants his legacy to be that he was the “protector of Israel, because I devoted much of my adult life to preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon.”

That doesn’t seem likely in light of Netanyahu’s behavior over the years. After he lost the 1999 election, Netanyahu returned to publicly commenting on politics as a “concerned citizen” the following year and by 2002 was foreign minister. When he lost the election in 2021, he remained as opposition leader and successfully peeled off members of the Bennett coalition, contributing to its demise.  

But Trump’s recent Truth Social posts tying together a deal and Netanyahu’s corruption trial are instructive here. Trump seemed to be lamenting that the trials are time-consuming when Netanyahu’s focus should be elsewhere. But there are constant rumors of a plea deal or a pardon of some sort, which could also pave the way for a dignified exit from the political stage, saying he fulfilled the promise of most of his political life, to stop Iran from going nuclear. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced on Monday that he’s postponing plans to visit Israel and speak to the Knesset on Sunday in light of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, which has thus far frozen all civilian air traffic in and out of Israel and prohibited public gatherings in the country.

“Due to the complex situation currently unfolding in Iran and Israel, Speaker [of the Knesset Amir] Ohana and I have made the decision to postpone the special session of the Knesset,” Johnson said in a statement. “We look forward to rescheduling the address in the near future and send our prayers to the people of Israel and the Middle East.”

The trip would have been Johnson’s first visit to the Middle East since he was elected speaker, shortly following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel.

A separate congressional delegation is set to visit the Middle East this week and stop in Israel, although it’s not clear whether that will be feasible. Members could still attempt to transit into Israel via land crossings from Jordan or Egypt, as some did immediately following Oct. 7.

The war is likely to disrupt upcoming travel to Israel for various members — the House is currently set for a weeklong recess, and the Senate will be out of town for the latter half of the week. Members of both chambers are also in recess during the first week of July, for Independence Day.

The Knesset on Thursday struck down a bill that would have called an election later this year, with Haredi parties agreeing to another week of negotiations on penalties for yeshiva students who avoid the IDF draft.

The bill to disperse the Knesset was voted down 53-61 at about 3 a.m., and as a consequence, opposition parties will not be able to propose similar legislation for six months. The Haredi parties, however, could still submit a bill to call an early election should negotiations not go their way.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein was optimistic that the sides would come to an agreement, announcing shortly before the vote that “agreements about the principles on which the conscription bill will be based,” had been reached. 

“Only a real, effective bill that will expand the IDF’s basis of enlistment will come out of a committee that I lead,” Edelstein added. “We are on the way to a real repair of Israeli society and the security of the State of Israel.” 

Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism had threatened to bring down the government over legislation regarding the draft of yeshiva students into the IDF. 

The High Court of Justice ordered the government last year to actively conscript Haredi yeshiva students after they were exempted for decades. Leading Haredi rabbis have said they oppose any young men from their communities enlisting in the IDF, even if they are not learning Torah full time.

The bill in question sets rising target numbers for Haredi conscription, reaching 50% in five years. The dispute between Edelstein and Haredi parties centered around the penalties for Haredi men aged 18-26 who do not report to the IDF after receiving draft notices. 

Edelstein reportedly agreed to delay some of the sanctions on yeshiva students who do not enlist. The new version of the bill will include immediate bans on receiving drivers licenses and leaving the country and canceling affirmative action for government jobs and subsidies for college degrees for those who do not report for IDF service. However, the discount on daycare tuition will remain in place for six months after a missed draft date, and welfare payments will continue for a year. Housing subsidies would not be canceled for two years after avoiding the draft. 

Yeshivas with students that avoid conscription will lose government subsidies; if 75% of the annual draft target is not met, the government will stop subsidizing all Haredi yeshivas.

Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “spitting in the faces of IDF fighters. Once again you sold out our combat soldiers  — for what? For two more weeks? Three more? … The government allowed [the Haredim] to ignore the reservists and help them [ensure] draft avoidance for tens of thousands of healthy young people.”

The Knesset is set to hold a preliminary vote on Wednesday to trigger an early election — and crucial partners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition are threatening to support it.

For the past week, Haredi parties have said they would vote in favor of legislation that would dissolve the Knesset and schedule an election for this fall. The parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, are threatening to jump ship because the coalition has not passed a law to continue the long-standing exemption for full-time yeshiva students from IDF conscription.

Without Shas and UTJ, Netanyahu’s coalition would be left with 50 members, far short of the 61-seat majority he needs to keep his government afloat.

As such, Netanyahu and his allies have been frantically trying to negotiate a compromise that will keep the Haredi parties in the fold. 

Past laws exempting young Haredi men from military service have expired and a new one has not been passed, leading the High Court of Justice to order the government last year to actively conscript them.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein, who is responsible for ushering a bill to a vote that would codify the status of young Haredi men and set rising enlistment targets for the coming years, has said he will not move it forward unless it includes significant penalties for yeshiva students who refuse to serve. These reportedly include canceling daycare and housing subsidies and bans on leaving the country and receiving a driver’s license before age 29. 

Likud and other parties leading Israel over the past half-century allowed the Haredi exemption to continue out of political expedience. But that position has become politically and militarily untenable in the more than 600 days since the war in Gaza began and hundreds of thousands of Israelis have been called for reserve duty, with some serving for hundreds of days. 

In addition to Edelstein, several other coalition lawmakers and Cabinet ministers have similarly said they will not support a bill that would continue to allow the vast majority of Haredi men between the ages of 18-24 to decline IDF service without sanctions.

Those sanctions are a red line for the Haredi parties, for whom maintaining their communities’  practice of yearslong full-time yeshiva study has become a key political issue. As such, the parties’ spiritual leaders instructed their politicians to force new elections if penalties for avoiding IDF service are put in place. 

While the gaps between the sides are significant and the disputes are serious, Netanyahu has managed to keep coalitions afloat in seemingly hopeless political situations before.

Several factors are working to his advantage. Most significantly,the Haredim are not likely to find themselves in a better situation after a new election. Opposition parties are even more opposed to yeshiva students’ exemption from the draft than those currently in power, and they favor more liberal policies on other religion and state issues that are important to Haredim. 

As such, the best an election can do for the Haredim is to buy time, hope the war will end and bet that public pressure to draft their young voters will abate. One senior Shas rabbi predicted that the current coalition parties will “come crawling” back to the Haredi parties after an election. 

The leading rabbi of one of the Hasidic sects within United Torah Judaism, Belz, opposes holding an election during wartime, and his representative, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush, has also been working to try to stop the dissolution of the Knesset.

In addition, the vote on Wednesday is a preliminary one, which means that in order for the Knesset to call an election, three more votes on the matter would be necessary. While it would be possible to go through the whole process in a day, Netanyahu and his coalition would likely drag out those votes for as long as possible, at least past July 23, when the Knesset’s long summer recess begins. 

If the bill is voted down, it cannot be brought to a vote again for six months, though a different party could put forward a similar bill days later.

If the law passes, an election would have to be held after a minimum of 90 days and no more than five months after the Knesset is dissolved.

During that time, a caretaker government would comprise the current Cabinet members, who would still be led by Netanyahu. There are few limits in Israeli law to what a caretaker government can do, and the High Court has been inconsistent about the kinds of decisions a government can make after the Knesset is dispersed.