Israel News for 11-19-2025
News Update
President Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) at the White House yesterday where he said that the Saudis would get F-35 jets and that Israel would be very happy about it, implying that the Saudis would normalize relations with Israel. MBS was open to the idea, but insisted on tying it to Palestinian statehood, or at least a path to it. I think Israel is fine with a “path”, which would require many things to go right before becoming a reality. Israel commentators are saying that it is unlikely that MBS would normalize relations ahead of Israeli elections (in a year) because that would help Netanyahu and Likud. Netanyahu would most likely not accept any “path” to Palestinian statehood ahead of elections either, because it would hurt him with his electorate.
An IDF drone strike targeted a Hamas training camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon yesterday. 13 terrorists were reportedly killed. On Sunday a drone strike targeted a car carrying 2 Hezbollah commanders, killing at least one of them. The IDF is currently striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, IDF Chief of staff and the Shin Bet Director toured southern Syria today, amid reports of talks toward an agreement with Syria.
The man murdered in the terror attack yesterday was Aharon Cohen, 71, from Kiryat Arba. The father of one of the 2 Palestinian terrorists who murdered Cohen and wounded 3 others and who were killed, praised his son for dying as a martyr and said that he had looked forward to such an event his whole life.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the state must act as quickly as possible to formulate an effective enforcement policy toward draft evaders from the ultra-Orthodox (haredi) community, including criminal enforcement and economic and social measures.
