Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted to having difficulty in his negotiations with potential partners in forming a new governing coalition during Tuesday’s meeting of the Likud faction in the Knesset. “We’re in the middle of forming [the government],” Netanyahu said. “It’s not a simple job and there are different aspects – giving out portfolios, control over the state budget and many other challenges.” In recent days, reports have emerged that demands being made by the Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) parties and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman are virtually irreconcilable.

In a dramatic development, Israel’s Tourism Ministry announced on Tuesday that it was budgeting monies to give grants for the construction of hotels in Area C of the West Bank, removing the previous procedures which requited special government permission for such grants. Applauding the move and it’s likely result of increased tourism to the area, Efrat Council head Oded Revivi said visitors “will see how there are good neighborly relations between Jews and Arabs. Unlike what has been told to them, they will see that there is not war here every day and that there is no apartheid.” Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman added that, “it’s the right step at the right time. It’s one more step toward the application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

In a sign of the escalating rhetorical conflict between Iran and the US, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signed a bill into law on Tuesday designating US military forces in the Middle East to be “terrorists”in retaliation for the US designation in April of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. In related news, the government of Kuwait issued a statement on Tuesday expressing grace concern over Iranian threats to close the strategic Straight of Hormuz to oil shipments.

On Monday, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned France’s ambassador to Israel, Helene Le Gal, to hear an official protest over a recent statement by outgoing French Ambassador to the US Gerard Araud in which he referred to Israel is an “apartheid state.” “Israel adamantly protested those remarks,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Araud later Tweeted that he was referring only to the West Bank, not to Israel itself.

Israel traditionally collects tax revenues for the PA on Palestinian purchases, but when Israel began deducting monthly the sum of 41.8 million shekalim, equivalent to the amount the PA pays in terrorists’ salaries and grants, the Palestinians declared they would refuse to accept any of their monthly payment. However, as of today, there is no safety net to replace the Israeli payments, and the whole “economic struggle” is a large question mark.

Watch Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon’s speech before the Security Council on “the four pillars that prove the case for Jewish ownership of the Land of Israel”

Approximately one third of Israel’s Holocaust Survivors are impoverished, struggling with illness, or living alone. In 2009, ICEJ began a partnership with the local charity to provide a Home especially for lonely survivors. It offers attractive assisted-living facilities and a warm family environment. The Haifa Home continues to be a significant and vital project. It is a partnership in the true sense of the word, with a warm and trusting relationship existing between the Israeli staff, residents, volunteers, and the ICEJ.