Netanyahu won Likud poll, but is more shackled now

This is not the way Benjamin Netanyahu planned his Likud leadership primary. It was all supposed to be over very quickly - a month or so of low-profile campaigning, voting day by the end of January, polling stations closed at 10pm. Then a swift tallying of his overwhelming majority, with everything wrapped up before midnight.

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Netanyahu wins primary after concessions

Benjamin Netanyahu has overwhelmingly beaten his right-wing rival in the Likud Party primaries.

As expected, Moshe Feiglin, leader of the "Jewish Leadership" faction of Likud, picked up just a quarter of the votes. The Israeli Prime Minister now has a strong mandate from his party to go forward to the national elections, due by next year.

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Bibi agrees new settlement deal

A last-minute agreement between the settlers and the government over the future of the largest outpost in the West Bank may avert a violent confrontation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored the settlers on Sunday to accept the government's previous offer to rebuild the homes of 50 families of the Migron outpost at a site nearby, enabling it to comply with the court order to dismantle th

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Netanyahu: Palestinians are delaying talks

Israeli Prime Minister has said that he is prepared to engage in peace negotiations at any time.

But Benjamin Netanyahu told Knesset members that Palestinian intransigence was preventing progress in the talks in Jordan.

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Netanyahu puts NGO funding law on hold

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has temporarily halted the passage of the NGO funding law following the opposition of Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.

In a rare intervention, Mr Weinstein wrote to the Prime Minister last week saying that the new law was "unconstitutional" and therefore would be "indefensible in the Supreme Court".

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Netanyahu moves Likud primary to January

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netany a hu has rescheduled the elections to the Likud party's leadership to take place next month, two years before the general election.

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Sarkozy 'explains' Bibi insult

The French president has attempted to smooth the waters after his comments criticising Israel's Prime Minister were overheard by reporters.

Earlier this month, Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama were left red-faced when it emerged that the former had complained that Benjamin Netanyahu was a liar.

During the private conversation at a G20 summit in Cannes, Mr Sarkozy said he could n

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Bibi the misunderstood PM

In a sense, it is only fitting that the Prime Minister of the world's most misunderstood country should himself be a much misunderstood man. Benjamin Netanyahu is routinely described as the hardest of hardliners, a man utterly opposed to conciliation, and a warmonger. The trouble is, none of these anti-Netanyahu cliches are supported by the facts.

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Pressure on Netanyahu to hand cash to PA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was facing down demands this week from international leaders to release £63 million in tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority.

American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly urged Mr Netanyahu in a telephone call on Monday to transfer the money, withheld last month after UNESCO recognition of Palestinian membership.

Tony Blair, the Q

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Obama doesn't hate Bibi - it's Sarko, say Israeli officials

The Israeli government has refused to respond officially to the disparaging remarks made by the American and French presidents about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, but Israeli diplomats believe that they mainly reflect the tensions between Mr Netanyahu and senior European leaders.

"I can't bear him, he's a liar," President Nicolas Sarkozy was overheard saying to President Barack O

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