If Nitzan Horowitz wins Tel Aviv’s municipal election in October, the city will be able to mark a double first.

Sixty five years ago today, on May 14 1948 at 4pm, a day before the British Mandate in Palestine was due to expire, a Jewish state was established in Israel.

David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the state of Israel at the Tel Aviv Museum and, the next day, the Israeli War of Independence began.

The head of the PLO Executive Committee, Yasser Abed Rabbo, has revealed that secret discussions about peace talks took place between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the PLO two years ago.

According to the Times of Israel, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abed Rabbo met several times in 2010 and 2011 at the house of Israel chief negotiator Yitzhak Molcho.

Thousands of strictly Orthodox teenagers have attempted to stop the Women of the Wall from holding a service at the Western Wall.

Early on Friday morning, a police barricade stopped protesters from attacking the women who were given the legal right to pray at the wall in April. According to sources, the men were throwing rocks, water bottles and other items.

When a window of opportunity presented itself last weekend to prevent Hizbollah and jihadist fighters in Syria from acquiring strategic and chemical weapons, Israel acted.

The destruction of a missile depot and chemical weapons sites came after intelligence reports indicated that rapid action was imperative.