Israel News for 4-8-2025
News Update
Prime Minister Netanyahu met with President Trump in the White House yesterday. He wasn’t successful, at least for now, to get the 17% tariff on Israeli exports to the U.S. removed. Netanyahu pledged to remove all tariffs and other trade barriers on US exports to Israel. According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2024, Israeli exports of goods to the US (including diamonds) were worth $17.2 billion, while imports from the US were worth $9.2 billion. Israel’s trade surplus with the US is the largest it has with any country. With China, Israel had a trade deficit in goods in 2024 of $10.8 billion. Israel already had removed all tariffs on U.S. imports prior to Netanyahu’s visit, but that didn’t help remove the 17% tariff on Israeli goods. In its interest rate announcement yesterday, the Bank of Israel stated: “Exports of goods to the US, which constitute about 13% of total exports of goods and services, will be significantly affected by the tariffs imposed by the US government, and in addition, the other export components will be adversely affected by the damage to world trade.”
Early today, a female terrorist threw stones and attempted to stab IDF soldiers at a junction near Ariel. The terrorist was neutralized and no soldiers were injured.
Iran is reportedly using the Port of Beirut to smuggle weapons in to resupply Hezbollah, which controls the port.
Israel and Turkey have reportedly been holding direct discussions on Syria to avoid the risk of a military confrontation. According to the report, Israel attacked military sites in Syria last week, including the air bases at Aleppo and the T4 base, at the exact time that Ankara intended to dispatch a technical team to examine the bases and present a preliminary review before they would be rebuilt. The sources said that Netanyahu informed his government that there was a small window of opportunity to target the bases before Turkey moves assets into them and once those assets were there, Israel would not attack the bases.
An envoy of Sudan’s military leader secretly visited Israel to ask for military assistance and diplomatic support in exchange for Sudan signing the Abraham Accords. For more, click here.
An Israeli court handed down life sentences on two terrorists, cousins, who carried out a fatal attack in Ra’anana in January 2024 in which they murdered Edna Bluestein, 79, a social worker from Raanana, and injured over a dozen others. The court also ordered them to pay 2.3 million shekels in compensation.
