The FT, the BBC, Sky News,  are all reporting on Australia’s plans to recognise Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel, moving away from West Jerusalem and reversing a decision made four years ago. Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the 2018 move had undermined peace and “put Australia out of step with the majority of the international community”. She stressed that Australia remained a “steadfast friend” to Israel. Its embassy will stay in Tel Aviv. Israel’s government called the U-turn short-sighted and deeply disappointing, and summoned the Australian ambassador.

Reuters reports on Hezbollah’s involvement in the Israel-Lebanon maritime border deal, saying that before Lebanon’s government approved a US-brokered deal settling a decades-long maritime boundary dispute with Israel, the powerful Hezbollah had scrutinized the final draft line by line and given a crucial nod of acceptance.

The Telegraph publishes that by using Iranian drones to attack Ukrainian cities, Vladimir Putin has imported a weapon that has defined the Middle East’s conflicts into the heart of Europe. One possible consequence of its use could be to drag Israel into the war as a fearsome ally of Ukraine, using its unrivalled expertise in countering Tehran’s drones. There is also speculation over what Iran is getting in return for deliveries of its inexpensive but deadly weapons, and particularly about whether Russia could help Tehran’s rapidly accelerating nuclear programme.

The Guardian reports that a former senior CIA official who was recently appointed by Joe Biden to an intelligence advisory board previously served as a key adviser to NSO Group, where he vetted deals for the Israeli spyware company and voted on whether sales of the controversial hacking tools could proceed.

The Guardian also reports that a pro-Israel PAC are, indeed, supporting pro-Israel candidates. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has justified endorsing Republicans with extremist views, including members of Congress with ties to white supremacist groups and representatives who attempted to block Joe Biden’s election victory, on the grounds that the singular issue of support for Israel trumps other considerations.

The BBC publishes a piece on living in a kibbutz in the Negev desert, recommending travellers visit, and explaining what life is like on a kibbutz, recommendations of where to visit and how communal living has thrived in Israel.

POLITICO reports that Vladimir Putin’s ally Dmitry Medvedev warned Israel on Monday that supplying weapons to Kyiv would destroy relations between the two countries. Medvedev, a former president and now deputy head of the Russian Security Council, wrote in a post on Telegram that arming Ukraine “would be a very reckless step.” He appeared to be responding to a tweet by Israeli Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai on Sunday, in which he called on the Israeli government to provide military aid to Kyiv.

The Israeli media is focused on election news with two new polls published. Channel 12 reports that the size of the two blocs – the pro and anti-Netanyahu blocs remain unchanged. The pro-Netanyahu bloc is projected to have 59 seats and the current coalition parties are projected to have 57 seats. However, the balance of power within the pro-Netanyahu bloc has continued to shift in the Religious Zionist Party’s favour at the expense of the Likud. Another poll by Kan Television News has the Pro-Netanyahu bloc at 60, the current coalition parties at 56 and Hadash-Ta’al at 4. In both polls the right-wing Religious Zionist party increases its strength and is now polling at 14 seats.

Maariv reports that Religious Zionist Party Chairman Bezalel Smotrich and his party colleague, Simcha Rothman, unveiled the party’s “law and justice” plan to reform the justice system. The two men presented a litany of grievances about the current state of the judiciary, including what they described as the excessive power it wields. Their plan includes a range of measures that would shift the balance of power into the hands of the legislative and executive branches of government instead.

Discussing the plan, Nahum Barnea in Yediot Ahronot writes that “When one takes all those ideas as a whole, they produce a single outcome: the judicial branch is to be stripped of its role as a branch of government that provides checks and balances. To borrow from Menachem Begin, one could also say that there are judges in Khamenei’s Tehran and in Erdogan’s Ankara. The question is whether those are the kind of judges that we want here.” Also commenting on Smotrich’s plan, , Yossi Verter in Haaretz writes that Netanyahu’s far-right allies fire up the Israeli Election Campaign by revealing their cards. Smotrich makes clear the warped plan to rescue the accused from his corruption trial, putting the election campaign back on the right track: the battle over Israel’s democracy.

In an interview with Kan Radio, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said that Bezalel Smotrich does not have the skillset needed to serve as defence minister. When asked about Smotrich’s stated desire to be appointed the next defence minister and Gantz responded with a laugh.

Arab Israeli online news site Panet publishes an interview with Prime Minister Yair Lapid who said that he would not rule out the option of relying on Hadash-Ta’al after the election. He added that all Israeli governments – including Netanyahu’s governments – had worked with Arab parties. Lapid stressed that Hadash-Ta’al would not be part of his government. They don’t want that and I don’t want that, said Lapid. When asked whether he intends to renew negotiations with the Palestinians, Lapid said: I have no problem speaking with them. We already speak with them. Our goal is to separate from the Palestinians, and to do that we need to speak with them. I won’t budge even a millimetre on things that in my opinion are critical for the State of Israel.

Kan Radio reports that a subcommittee of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will be briefed today on the maritime border agreement with Lebanon. Opposition Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, who is opposed to the agreement, was invited to attend the meeting. He has not yet said whether he intends to accept the invitation.

Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Yossi Yehoshua writes that more than a month has passed since the last report of an IDF attack in Syria, with the last attack taking place on September 17. This is a very long break, in terms of the war-between-the-wars that began nearly 10 years ago. Officially, political and security officials say there has been no change in Israel’s behavior in Syria, and that the Russians have not pressed Israel to stop the attacks. They say coordination with the Russians in Syria continues unabated. Unofficially, however, we can point to several reasons to explain the relative quiet: Perhaps there was a sharp drop in the number of smuggling attempts from Iran via Syria following the string of Israeli attacks on Syrian airports; tensions with Hezbollah over the Karish gas field may also have led to a decision to take a foot off the gas; or maybe the decision is linked to the upcoming general election in Israel. This is despite the fact that Israeli elections have not disrupted offensive operations in the past.