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3 days ago | 
jns.org | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
(May 13, 2025 / JNS)Israeli-Saudi normalization will only happen through the “peace for peace” formula and not by establishing a Palestinian “terror state,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated on Monday. “We think normalization is a good thing and in our mutual interest, both for us and for the Saudis—mainly the Saudis,” Smotrich told JNS during the weekly faction meeting of his Religious Zionism Party in Jerusalem.
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4 days ago | 
jns.org | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
(May 12, 2025 / JNS)National Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday urged the Israeli government to “unleash the gates of hell” in the ongoing war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. “We really need to implement what Trump told us to do,” Ben-Gvir told JNS during the faction meeting of his Otzma Yehudit Party, responding to reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to meet with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas during his current Mideast trip.
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4 days ago | 
jns.org | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
(May 12, 2025 / JNS) Avigdor Liberman, leader of Israel’s opposition Yisrael Beiteinu Party, on Monday denounced the Trump administration’s plan to let aid supplies into the Gaza Strip as a “very, very negative development.” “In my opinion, humanitarian aid—of any kind—should not have been allowed to enter since the start of the war, as long as our hostages are rotting in Hamas’s tunnels,” Liberman stated in response to a question from JNS at his party’s faction meeting at the Knesset in...
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1 week ago | 
jns.org | Akiva Van Koningsveld |Amelie Botbol
(May 6, 2025 / JNS)Israel will prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining nuclear weapons “at any cost,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told JNS on Monday. “Leaving Iran as a nuclear threshold state—this will not happen. At any cost,” the right-wing Cabinet member said in response to a question by JNS at a meeting of his Religious Zionism Party at the Knesset in Jerusalem. “We are committed to this.
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2 weeks ago | 
jns.org | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
(April 28, 2025 / JNS)U.S. President Donald Trump is not expected to announce a decision on recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria in the coming weeks, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told JNS on Monday night.
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2 weeks ago | 
jns.org | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
(April 28, 2025 / JNS)If the Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to give up its ambitions to build nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump “won’t be dragged into a war, he’ll lead it,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said at the JNS International Policy Summit on Monday night. “The president has been very clear that there will never be a possibility for nuclear weapons; he’s been explicit about that,” Huckabee told JNS ahead of his keynote address at Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria hotel.
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2 weeks ago | 
clevelandjewishnews.com | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
If the Islamic Republic of Iran refuses to give up its ambitions to build nuclear weapons, President Donald Trump “won’t be dragged into a war; he’ll lead it,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said at the JNS International Policy Summit on Monday night. “The president has been very clear that there will never be a possibility for nuclear weapons; he’s been explicit about that,” Huckabee told JNS ahead of his keynote address at Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria hotel.
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1 month ago | 
jns.org | Andrew Bernard |Akiva Van Koningsveld
(March 31, 2025 / JNS)Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new pick to lead Israel’s internal security service on Monday, saying that Israeli Vice Adm. (ret.) Eli Sharvit’s past comments about U.S. President Donald Trump were disqualifying. “While it is undeniably true that America has no better friend than Israel, the appointment of Eli Sharvit to be the new leader of the Shin Bet is beyond problematic,” Graham stated.
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1 month ago | 
clevelandjewishnews.com | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee is set to convene on April 8 to choose a lawmaker to serve on the public panel that will advise on the dismissal of Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. The election of Knesset and government delegates to the committee for appointing and dismissing the attorney general marks the next step toward a final Cabinet vote on Baharav-Miara’s removal.
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1 month ago | 
clevelandjewishnews.com | Amelie Botbol |Akiva Van Koningsveld
Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi told JNS on Sunday that left-wing leaders Yair Lapid and Yair Golan are competing “to see who will be the greater anarchist” by calling for an anti-government revolt. “The greater the political distress, the deeper their moral decline,” said Karhi, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, in an apparent reference to Lapid’s recent decline in the polls.
