Transparency records reveal senior trade officials held dinners and strategy meetings with the notorious lobbying firm even as controversy over its Epstein links deepened, says SOLOMON HUGHES
ISRAEL’S next general election isn’t due until November 2019, but an early poll is virtually certain given the outbreak of now traditional mutually antagonistic willy-waving engaged in by would-be prime ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s rancid right-wing coalition.
No election is complete without party leaders accusing each other of supposed “weakness” in dealings with the Palestinians and stressing their own uniquely tough qualities for the task.
Yisrael Beitenu (Israel is our Home) leader Avigdor Lieberman led the charge, resigning as Netanyahu’s defence minister in the wake of the ceasefire in Gaza facilitated by Egypt.
Bezalel Smotrich’s measures to extend Israeli property law into the West Bank are a continuation of a decades-long project to dispossess Palestinians and preclude statehood, argues HUGH LANNING
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports on the Israeli national strike as thousands call for an end to the war
Israeli media awash with leaks and rumours of Netanyahu’s plans to seize Gaza. Meanwhile, the unrelenting siege of Gaza continues unabated



