US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a dramatic announcement at a press briefing Monday afternoon, saying that the Trump Administration has reviewed the legal arguments regarding Israeli settlement communities in the West Bank and does not view them as illegal under international law. Reactions to the announcement were swift, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying “This policy reflects an historical truth – that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in Judea and Samaria. In fact, we are called Jews because we are the people of Judea.”

IDF units in the northern part of the country were on high alert Tuesday following the interception by the Iron Dome air defense system of four missiles which had been fired from inside Syria over the Golan Heights towards the Galilee region in the early morning hours. The incident occurred while IDF units in the south remained on alert following rocket attacks directed at Beer Sheva from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Monday. Meanwhile, units deployed along the border with Lebanon were also closely monitoring the possibility of spillover from the escalating street demonstrations rocking that country.

The US State Department announced on Monday that it is cancelling one of four sanctions waivers that allowed foreign firms to cooperate with Iran’s civilian nuclear program without penalties, specifically the waivers related to the nuclear facility at Fordow, which Iranian officials recently said would be re-activated for the purpose of enriching uranium. Also on Monday, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that the Islamic Republic’s supply of heavy water has surpassed what it’s authorized to have under the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. The announcements came as Iranian cities remained under a harsh security lockdown following recent riots to protest unpopular new tax increases on gasoline and other grievances.

As the clock ticks down to a midnight Wednesday deadline for Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a governing coalition, MKs from the 55-member bloc of Rightist and Orthodox parties have put heavy pressure on Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman to drop his objections to joining a coalition led by Likud leader and incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lieberman has met with leaders of both parties in recent days in an apparent effort to bridge the gaps between them and bring about the formation of a unity government, but at press time no breakthroughs had been reported with both large parties blaming the other for the impasse.

The movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel suffered another defeat on Monday when the national football (soccer) teams from Argentina and Uruguay played a friendly match at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium. The stadium was filled to its capacity with 25,000 cheering fans, who expressed their excitement as the two legendary teams ended the game tied 2-2.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement that the US no longer considers Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria to be illegal was a dramatic one and it was made at a dramatic time, after an unprecedented two elections in one year, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failing to put together a coalition twice and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz having two days left until his deadline for the third attempt at forming a government. But, as dramatic as the announcement was, it’s not clear that it will do much in terms of untangling our current political knot.

On November 15, Iran’s government decided to reduce the subsidies on gasoline and raise its price by 50%. Immediately after the government published the new gasoline prices, demonstrations broke out in main cities and spread across the country. The demonstrators called upon the leaders of the “dictatorship” – led by Khamenei and Rouhani – to resign and leave the country. Many demonstrators demanded that the regime will stop funneling money to proxies outside of Iran – in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza.

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