French President Nicolas Sarkozy told President Barack Obama last week he was fed up with dealing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and considered him a liar. Sarkozy made the comment during a private conversation with Obama during a G20 summit in the French riviera town of Cannes last week and the remarks were overheard by a small number of journalists but not initially reported.

“I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar,” Sarkozy told Obama during a frank exchange where the US president took him to task for backing a Palestinian request for membership of the UN cultural heritage agency UNESCO.

A Reuters reporter was among the journalists present and can confirm the veracity of the comments, which were relayed by a French internet outlet today. (Source)

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The United States government has cut off funds to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural organisation (UNESCO), following the agency’s admission of Palestine as a full member.

Washington’s decision to withold $60m in funding, which is about one-quarter of UNESCO’s annual budget, came after 107 out of 173 countries voted in favor of the Palestinian bid for statehood.

Although UNESCO’s membership marks a small victory for Palestinian officials, it could help them protect more than 20 monumental Palestinian cultural and religious sites.

The US also condemned UNESCO’s move, saying that it “undermines” the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

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The Palestinians will not accept anything less than full UN membership and do not want an upgrade to an observer state in the world body, their foreign minister said.

Riyad al-Malki’s remarks on Thursday suggested the Palestinians would not seek such an upgrade once their bid for full state membership meets its widely expected fate; failure due to opposition from the United States and other governments.

Malki told journalists in Ramallah the Palestinians could have won observer state status long ago and were not interested in it now. They currently hold the status of observer entity.

Palestinians say they are outraged by the Israeli government’s decision to withhold millions of dollars of tax revenues from them while accelerating settlement construction. The decision follows Palestine being recognised as a state by UNESCO — the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

There are now 150,000 Palestinian Authority employees across the West Bank and Gaza who do not know whether they will receive their full salaries next week.

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A prominent university professor says that the Palestinians’ entry into UNESCO will lead to their full membership in the United Nations, in an exclusive interview with Mukhaimer Abu Sa’ada, professor of political science at al-Azhar University

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Pressure is building for a diplomatic solution between Palestinians and Israelis.

In New York, the Palestinian foreign minister voiced confidence that his delegation would muster the minimum nine votes needed to win UN Security Council support for Palestinian statehood.

Security Council resolutions need nine votes from the 15-nation body to pass, but the United States has already said it will veto the measure, which would prevent its passage.

Israeli officials who oppose the bid had said the Palestinians would have difficulty securing the minimum number needed.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said: “We’re working towards it and I think we’ll manage it.

“We hope the United States will revise its position and be on the side of the majority of nations or countries who want to support the Palestinian right to have self determination and independence,” Malki said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to give UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon an application on Friday for full UN membership for a Palestinian state, setting the stage for a showdown with Israel and the United States. [

Israel, which has called for renewed direct talks with the Palestinians, opposes the UN move and says it is aimed at de-legitimising Israel. The Palestinians say their UN bid is aimed at opening the door to renewed peace talks among two equals – both of them sovereign states.

The latest round of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed a year ago after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on new settlements in areas the Palestinians want for a future state.

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Husam Zumlot, a member of the Palestinian official delegation to the UN, talks about the Palestinian bid for UN membership. He describes the Israeli prime minister’s call for talks as a propaganda stunt.

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Israel has carried out air strikes over Gaza after a series of attacks in southern Israel killed at least eight people. The air strikes killed at least six people, including five members of the Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees and a young boy.

The air raid came in response to an attack on vehicles heading towards the Israeli resort of Eilat on Thursday.

This short film documents the Israeli side of a 2011 public opinion survey in Israel and the West Bank. For this part of the survey, 5 cities were visited: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Be’er Sheba, Herzliya, and Haifa where 250 Jewish-Israelis were interviewed in Israel today.

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In the light of a prisoners swap deal led by Hamas, the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs’ statistics bureau revealed that there are 299 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails for over 20 years.

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While Arabs call for democracy, Israelis want a country they can afford. More than 300,000 protesters fill the streets of major cities to demand a lower cost of living.

Israelis have been dealing with a seaborne invasion of sorts this summer.

Millions of giant jellyfish, called warty comb jelly, have been washing up on their beaches, causing discomfort to beach goers. The jellyfish themselves pose no danger to humans. But all those eggs in the water can leave bathers feeling a mild sting.

As Al Jazeera’s Tom Ackerman reports from Netanya, Israel, they’re causing even bigger problems for the country’s biggest power station.

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Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby has condemned Israel’s interception of a boat attempting to break the Gaza blockade, calling it an “act of piracy”.

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Thousands of Christians joined together with Jewish leaders to show their support for the nation of Israel as part of the annual Christians United for Israel Summit. Organized by pastor and televangelist John Hagee, the CUFI summit boasts plenty of big names—this year, they include TV host Glenn Beck, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren.

On the night of July 11th, the Israeli parliament passed the controversial anti-boycott law. The law was written in response to the mounting global movement of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (or BDS) against Israel and profits from its settlements and industry in the occupied West Bank. The Boycott movement began as a mass Palestinian civil society call, and has been supported from the beginning by some Israelis. The new law bans them from publicly calling for a boycott, classifying it a civil wrong.