Partner Links: Learn Hebrew • Travel to Israel • Live Kotel Camera • Israel Pharmacy • Cellphone Rentals in Israel • Shalem College Open House

Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Sivan 27, 5773
5:02 pm IDT
Site updated 4 minutes ago

The Times of Israel

The one-stop news site
covering Israel, the region and
the Jewish people worldwide

Founding editor:
David Horovitz

Fair, fresh and fast

The Jewish world's
fastest-growing
news site

Topic: diplomacy

May 23, 2013
7:29 pm

Linas Linkevicius, the foreign minister of Lithuania, puts on a yarmulke as he enters the Hall of Remembrances in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on May 19, 2013. (photo credit: Isaac Harari/Flash90)

In ‘highly unusual’ move, Lithuanian FM visits Western Wall

Foreign dignitaries usually avoid meeting Israelis beyond the Green Line, but Linas Linkevicius posed with IDF officers

By Raphael Ahren

December 18, 2012
6:34 am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman meets with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, in July (photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Farewell, for now, to the foreign minister who ‘burned many more bridges than he built’

Avigdor Liberman’s supporters hail the overseas visits he made and consulates he opened; his detractors say the ‘no more Mr. Nice Guy’ top diplomat was a disaster, and hope he won’t be back

By Raphael Ahren

December 4, 2012
1:59 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

With elections around the corner, is Netanyahu bluffing on E1 housing plan?

In announcing dramatic settlement expansion, the PM may have brought Israel-Europe relations to a new nadir. But that does not necessarily spell a protracted crisis

By Raphael Ahren

November 19, 2012
1:34 pm

Soldiers take part in exercises simulating fighting in Gaza, at a military base in the Negev on November 17 (photo credit: Edi Israel/Flash90)

Troops, but no scoops

Soldiers on the border are ready to bust into Gaza like the Kool-Aid man, while diplomatic efforts are still being made. Sound familiar? That’s because it is

By Joshua Davidovich

October 28, 2012
6:49 am

A mural outside the former US Embassy in Tehran. (photo credit: CC-BY-SA davehighbury, Flickr)

Obama offered to reestablish full ties with Iran, Israeli paper reports

Israel was told about and opposed president’s diplomatic incentives package, initiated soon after he took office, and Iran rebuffed it, according to Maariv

By Joshua Davidovich

October 17, 2012
2:31 pm

New Egyptian Ambassador Salem, left, with President Peres in his Jerusalem residence (photo credit: Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)

New Egyptian ambassador brings Israel ‘message of peace’

‘We are really working for mutual trust and transparency,’ Atef Salem tells Peres in Jerusalem, bring letter from Morsi to his ‘great and good friend’; Jordanian envoy also presents credentials

By Raphael Ahren

September 24, 2012
11:07 am

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad answers questions in an open session in parliament in Tehran on Wednesday. (photo credit: AP/Vahid Salemi)

Arresting Ahmadinejad in New York for inciting genocide? It’s just not going to happen, says Israeli official

Ahead of Iranian president’s UN speech on Wednesday, Jerusalem dismisses talk of legal action, but reiterates call for walkout

By Raphael Ahren

September 15, 2012
2:18 am

US President Barack Obama (photo credit: Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90)

‘There may come a time’ when US uses military force against Iran, Obama tells rabbis

In pre-Rosh Hashanah conference call, president again rules out ‘red lines,’ says ‘no leader ties his own hands’

September 9, 2012
3:15 pm

IDF Chief Benny Gantz meets with Admiral James Winnefeld on September 6. Did Winnefeld convince Israel not to attack Iran? (photo credit: Shay Wagner/IDF Spokesperson/FLASH90)

Bring on the maple syrup

Israel wins gold at the Paralympics; Canada makes Israel Hayom very happy and Israels plays diplomatic games

By Yossi Nachemi

June 14, 2012
6:09 am

Demonstrators marching through central Tel Aviv last week to protest 45 years of Israeli rule in the West Bank. (photo credit: Sam Newman)

Israeli diplomat suggests shaming anti-Israel activists

From the web Deputy ambassador to Ireland proposes campaign to humiliate Israeli pro-Palestinian activists, Irish Times reports, based on Channel 10 story

March 27, 2012
4:49 am

Barukh Binah greeting Hillary Clinton in 2009 (photo credit: Matty Stern/US Embassy Tel Aviv/ US State Department)

Israeli envoy pushes back against J Street over pressure

Barukh Binah chastises dovish lobby while becoming first Israeli official to address group

By Ron Kampeas

February 23, 2012
9:33 am

An Israeli cruise ship (Illustrative photo; credit: CC BY kansasphoto, Flickr)

British diplomats told not to travel with Israelis

Foreign Office fears collateral damage from possible terror attacks; Israel asks for more protection for cruise ships abroad

By Ilan Ben Zion

February 18, 2012
7:26 pm

Syrian flag (photo credit: Hamad Almakt/Flash90)

Chinese turn-around on Syria

After meeting between Chinese envoy and President Assad, China reinforces support for diplomatic solution, not military intervention

February 14, 2012
8:32 am

Foreign Minister Lieberman greeted his Maldivian counterpart, Ahmed Naseem, last May in Jerusalem (photo credit: Yossi Zamir/Flash 90)

As regime changes in Maldives, Israel loses a rare Muslim ally

The strictly Muslim nation just started to warm up to the Jewish state, but its new president is expected to cut ties

By Raphael Ahren

February 8, 2012
9:57 am

Matan Vilnai, a Cabinet minister and former general, will be Israel's next envoy to China. (Photo: Flash90)

Report: Ex-general to become new China envoy

Cabinet minister Matan Vilnai will leave parliament to assume key diplomatic post

By Matti Friedman