Coalition deal with United Torah Judaism to include some NIS 1 billion to Haredi education institutes and increased child benefits that will cost NIS 2.5 billion a year; Kahlon initiative to raise wages for soldiers will cost some NIS 1 billion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the demand of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas to remove the sales tax on basic food staples as a condition for resuming coalition negotiations.

Future Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon fears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will block the reforms he is planning, which is why he insisted on a much-detailed coalition agreement with unprecedented responsibilities in finance, housing and banking.

“[The US-Israel] relationship is at an unprecedented low,” former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer, tells i24news in an exclusive interview. According to Kurtzer the tension has only escalated following Netanyahu’s controversial anti-Iran Congress address in March, which upset many Americans who felt that Netanyahu “insulted the president and the presidency by working with the Republicans behind the back of the White House.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to reset Israel’s relations with the White House. Six years of feuding over Iran and peace efforts with the Palestinians turned unprecedentedly acrimonious with Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to Congress criticizing the U.S.-led nuclear deal with Iran. His decision to release hundreds of millions of dollars his government withheld from the Palestinians was a bid to lower the flames, a confidant said.

When Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman told a gathering of Reform Jews in Washington this week that the administration will find it more difficult to defend Israel in international forums if the new government in Jerusalem “is seen as stepping back from its commitment to a two-state solution”, many interpreted the statement as a veiled threat. But it could also be seen something completely different: as an open plea.

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has said she is weighing opening war crimes investigations into Palestinians as well as Israelis after Palestine joined the tribunal’s jurisdiction last month.

The UN’s new Middle East peace envoy on Thursday urged Palestinian factions to unite and Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip on his first visit to the territory. “I strongly believe that it will hurt the cause of the Palestinian people if division, if the lack of unity, is not addressed as soon as possible,” Nickolay Mladenov, who was appointed in February, told reporters in Gaza City.

Far from the public’s eye, negotiations are happening that could, under certain conditions, effect an important change on the Palestinian front. The indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a long-term cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which have been reported primarily in the Arab media, are ultimately likely to produce an agreement.

Israel understands that Hamas is in Gaza to stay and is now searching for balance between easing the blockade for Gaza residents and limiting Hamas’ military activity.

During a Friday sermon at a mosque in the Gaza Strip that was built with Saudi money, top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh called on Saudi Arabia to “work towards reconciliation between the Palestinian factions,” in a reference to the ongoing dispute between Fatah (led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and Hamas over the leadership of the Palestinian national movement. He went on to attack Fatah, saying: “We have offered concessions for the sake of reconciliation on the issues of the elections, the constitution of the government, our entry into the PLO, and other matters, and we confirm that the PA and Fatah are not serious about reconciliation.” In a different Friday morning sermon, PA official Mahmoud al-Hibash slammed Hamas for “collaborating with the Israeli occupation by negotiating with Israel outside of the framework of the PLO.”

“Ten years after the Sasson’s report on illegal outposts sparked public outcry, Israel is on a course to legalize them,” writes Silvia Boarini.