Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated his belief that Iran intends to destroy Israel using nuclear weapons.

The Israeli Prime Minister, speaking the day before an international meeting , focused on Tehran's nuclear ambitions, takes place in Baghdad, called for steps to be taken to ensure Iran does not get an atomic bomb.

The political earthquake that shook Israel in the middle of the night this week has sent shockwaves well beyond the confines of the Knesset.

Benjamin Netanyahu is now one of the most powerful prime ministers ever to lead Israel, and many commentators are wondering if he is now sufficiently empowered to alter the course of Middle East history.

Plans for early elections to Israel's Knesset have been cancelled after the Prime Minister announced that his Likud Party had formed a coalition with its main opposition party.

It was revealed early on Tuesday morning that Likud would bring the Kadima Party into government.

Benzion Netanyahu, the pre-eminent historian of Jewish medieval Spain, who died on Monday at his home in Jerusalem, aged 102, was the man who most influenced the political outlook and ideology of his son, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Born in Warsaw in 1910, Benzion Mileikowski was the son of a Zionist rabbi and writer who moved his family in 1920 to Jerusalem, where Benzion went on to stu

Early elections could be on the way for Israel with some forecasts predicting elections as early as the end of the summer.

Elections were originally scheduled for October 2013, but talk of early elections began last week when sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began leaking to the press the possibility of an imminent poll.

Early elections would favour Mr Netanyahu, who remain

Israeli is to go the polls for a national election in September, more than a year before a vote was due to take place.

Following speculation earlier this week that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to announce an earlier date, the election has now been scheduled for September 4.

Israeli politicians have paid tribute to the father of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his death early this morning.

Benzion Netanyahu, who was 102, was a personal aide of the r evisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jab o tinsky. A passionate Zionist and a professor of Jewish history, he was known for his academic research into the Spanish Inquisition.

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, boycotted a planned meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

The meeting, which was the first high-level contact between Israeli and Palestinian representatives since talks in Amman broke down nearly three months ago, was convened so that the Palestinian Authority could deliver its conditions for a renewal of negotiations.

Inste

The different views of the outcome of last weekend's talks between the international powers and Iran have already caused a public spat between Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama.

Iran's delegation to last Saturday's talks in Istanbul with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) refused to discuss the specifics of the demand that they curtail their uranium enric

Israel has begun marking its annual Holocaust Memorial Day.

As is customary, sirens went off at 10am local time across the Jewish state and pedestrians and drivers came to a standstill, in memory of the six million Jews who perished during the Shoah.

Nobel Prize-winning writer Gunter Grass has criticised Israel for "endangering the already fragile world peace".

Mr Grass, 84, is known for his left-wing political views.

Reading through the seemingly endless list of resolutions adopted against Israel on March 22 at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the first impression was the same as it always is.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, what is it? That's right: it's a lame duck political party. It's Kadima.

This is the sorry state of Kadima now: on paper, it is the largest political party in the Knesset, but in reality has lost much of its electoral support to a resurgent Labour Party and newcomer Yair Lapid.

The irresistible pull of his mother’s home cooking landed a young IDF soldier a courtmartial, when he skipped home to the Prime Minister’s residence for a meal with his family.