The Independent and The Times report that the UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum have invited both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Herzog to November’s UN climate conference, known as COP28. “The invitation falls short of the high-profile bilateral visit Netanyahu has sought,” The Independent writes “But a trip to the Gulf Arab country would nonetheless give an important boost to the Israeli leader who has established official ties with the UAE as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, normalising relations between the two countries.” Other invitees include Syrian dictator Basher Assad.

The Financial Times details UK Communities Secretary Michael Gove’s plan to accelerate legislation preventing local councils from boycotting Israel. The policy is now in its final consultative stage, writes the paper, “where Gove’s cabinet colleagues can express a view on the policy. But one senior government official said: ‘We’re expecting the green light very soon.’ Another said: ‘It’s full steam ahead.’”

The Independent covers yesterday’s demolition by the IDF of the house belonging to Moataz Khawaja, the terrorist who killed one person and injured two others in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv in March. Locals burned tires, threw stones and shot fireworks at Israeli forces who were razing the site in Naalin, northwest of Ramallah.

Along with the budget, there is wide Israeli media coverage of both potential breakthroughs in normalisation with Saudi Arabia and the latest assessments of the Iranian threat.

Channel 12 reports that discussions between Jerusalem and Riyadh on formalising improved relations have lately become “intensive”. The channel speculates that the Saudis are demanding, as a condition of normalisation, that Israel start a political process with the Palestinians that culminates in separation. From the US, Saudi requests for normalisation with Israel include the unfreezing of all arms deals suspended by the Biden administration, a formal defence pact with the US, and agreement to a full Saudi nuclear programme. The US has its own demands from Israel for compliance with and facilitation of the normalisation process, Channel 12 suggests, chiefly the abandoning of the Israeli judicial reform agenda.

As Israel Hayom reports Israeli fears that Iran may be on the verge of increasing its uranium enrichment from 63 percent to 84 percent, Yediot Ahronot covers Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s remarks on a visit to the IDF’s Gaza Division yesterday. “The missions in Operation Shield and Arrow were executed with great success,” he said. “But the central objective that we are preparing for is far more complex, difficult and significant. We need to be ready at any moment.” The latter comment referred to Iran, and came in the context of IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi’s speech to the Herzliya Conference on Monday. “Iran has advanced further than ever in uranium enrichment,” Halevi said. “We are closely examining the other areas on the path to nuclear capability as well… there are possible negative developments on the horizon that could prompt action. We have capabilities and others have capabilities.” On Monday IDF Intelligence Director Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva also commented on Iranian nuclear acceleration, saying “Iran is at a point in time in which it is gradually progressing in the sphere of uranium enrichment and in the sphere of weapons. In our assessment, no decision has been made by Iran to break out to a nuclear weapon, but there are [Israeli] preparations for the [possibility of either the current] Iranian leader or his successor deciding to [break out] to a nuclear] weapon. Our eyes are open to spot Iranian readiness in that context.”

With satellite photos having emerged earlier this week appearing to show Israel’s “nightmare scenario”: of Iran constructing a nuclear facility so far underground that it may be beyond the reach even of American “bunker-buster” bombs, the only military hardware traditionally capable of striking underground targets of this kind. National Security Council Director Tzahi Hanegbi referred to this yesterday, saying “We are familiar with the Iranian approach of trying to move facilities underground in order to maintain their immunity. In practice, that began many years ago, back with the tunnels in Isfahan and Fordo; now, the issue is a facility that has also been exposed near Natanz. Obviously, that restricts the capability to attack facilities that are above-ground, but there isn’t any place that can’t be reached in an attack.”

Yediot Ahronot also quotes Halevi’s comments on Israel’s northern front. “Hezbollah is very deterred against a full-scale war with Israel,” he said. “It thinks that it understands how we think. I see that as a good track for generating surprises if need be. We have very good readiness in the northern theatre.” Halevi also warned that the Israeli public that any future war on the Northern front would “be very hard for the home front. We will be able to cope with that, but it is going to be hard. It will be far harder for Lebanon, and even more so for Hezbollah.” Of Israel and Lebanon’s Syrian neighbour, he said “Iran is using Syria as a potential combat zone with Israel. We aren’t indifferent to that.” As per Israel Hayom, Israel’s Security Cabinet will likely convene next week to discuss the northern front and Israel’s readiness to act in a multi-theatre context.

Channel 13 suggests that Netanyahu is set to appoint David Amsalem to a cabinet role overseeing the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, one of Israel’s most sensitive security jobs. Under Israeli law, the commission is directly subordinate to the prime minister unless a specific minister is designated.

Haaretz reports Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) claiming to have arrested eleven members of what it alleges is a Mossad spy-ring, the second such episode in less than a year. MIT further tries to link the supposed ring to US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, blamed for a failed 2016 coup attempt. Israeli and Turkish intelligence have worked more closely in recent years, a joint operation last year thwarting a planned series of Iranian attacks on Israeli visitors to Istanbul. At the time, Benny Gantz made a first visit by an Israeli Defence Minister in ten years and praised the “close, covert contact” between the two countries’ intelligence services.