Hourly Roundup 13:00 Israel · 18 May 2026

Stories in this hour

As personnel crisis looms, IDF needs Knesset legislationWelcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Military correspondent Emanuel Fabian joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode.…
US weighs secure AI base in Israel’s Negev to counter China - reportProject Spire would be the first node in a network of hardened AI bases, allowing American companies and allied researchers to collaborate inside secure perimeters governed by strict US standards.
Fourth day of police hunt for man who threatened to behead ‘dirty Jews’Defence group Shomrim said it was stepping up patrols until the man who made the remarks on Whitechapel Road was caught
Netanyahu's coalition 'massively pressuring' MKs to vote for haredi draft bill, Haskel tells 'Post'Haskel told The Jerusalem Post that over the weekend, “phone calls were made to almost all coalition members in order to check their positions and pressure them to vote on the conscription law.”
Banner for London Oct. 7 memorial removed, reinstalledA banner advertising an art show in London about Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacres was taken down at the request of police but installed anew on Monday, an organizer of the show said. Linda Sason,…
Netanyahu: IDF control of Gaza Strip expanded by 10% since OctoberThe Israel Defense Forces is strengthening its hold of the Gaza Strip and currently controls some 60% of the enclave, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday. "We are no longer holding 50%, but already…
Infant killed in crash laid to rest - without his parentsOne-month-old Avinoam Meir Davidson of Bnei Brak laid to rest without his parents, who are still hospitalized.
The Voices Behind the Red Flag: "A Lost Generation Has Been Created"While Netanyahu zigzags and fights to pass the exemption from conscription law for the Haredim, reservists who are already in their 5th rotation are worn out and describe feelings of an entire generation simply collapsing.…
Under What Circumstances Is a Blackout Possible in Israel – OpinionA possible scenario of a large-scale crisis in the electricity supply, which has been actively discussed since the very beginning of the military operations, has once again become the focus of public attention. Against the…
Opposition calls for MKs Call for Revolt: 'We Are Not Pot Plants'MK Yulia Malinovsky demands a freeze on Knesset votes until the budget for the law prosecuting Nukhba terrorists is finalized: "We passed the law with 93 supporters, but the Finance and Defense ministries are dragging…
The Republican Rebel Trump Is Trying to Oust — And Attacks Israel: 'It's a Bully, It Turned Us Into a Proxy'Trump succeeded in ousting the 'disloyal' Republican Senator Bill Cassidy in the Louisiana primaries, and tomorrow it will be the turn of Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie — who came out against the war with Iran…
Suspect Arrested for Shooting at Head of Jadeidi-Makr Council and His DeputyPolice announced the arrest of a man in his 20s suspected 20s of shooting at Suhil Malham and his deputy Abid Abid as they left a wedding.

Torah perspective

The man on Whitechapel Road who shouted about beheading dirty Jews is not a lone madman; he is a mouthpiece for an ancient hatred that has worn many masks over millennia. Haman's decree was also about one day, one stroke, one end. Yet the Jewish people are still here, standing at the same street corner where our ancestors once traded and prayed, because the One who promised 'I will be with them in their distress' has never abandoned us. The threats change; the Book of Life does not. Every patrol Shomrim walks, every child of Israel who steps out the door the next morning, is a trembling act of faith that says: 'The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.' That faith, not police lines, has kept us alive.