The Financial Times examines Israeli firms’ role in India’s communications surveillance network. “The speed of the growth of India’s communications market,” writes the paper, “has fuelled a thriving industry of companies vying to sell powerful surveillance tools. These include homegrown providers such as Vehere, as well as less well known Israeli groups like Cognyte or Septier… One person who works in the industry said surveillance products made by Israeli companies have proved more popular than their international rivals. ‘Israelis are more open [to doing business] compared to Europeans and Americans,’ the person said.”

The Independent reports on an aspect of our main story, writing that “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order Tuesday mandating that his office approve all secret diplomatic meetings in advance, his spokesperson said, as officials scrambled to contain the growing diplomatic firestorm over Israel’s disclosure that its top diplomat had met with his Libyan counterpart.”

The Independent also uses the warm welcome afforded Israeli passengers in Saudi Arabia following Monday’s emergency landing of an Air Seychelles plane to assess ongoing efforts to achieve normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia. “A normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia, the most powerful and wealthy Arab state,” it writes, “has the potential to reshape the region and boost Israel’s standing in historic ways. But brokering such a deal is a heavy lift as the kingdom has said it won’t officially recognise Israel before a resolution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Saudis are also apparently seeking defence guarantees and access to American nuclear technology. Extracting any major concessions to the Palestinians from Israel will be difficult under Israel’s current government, which is made up of ultranationalists who support expanding Jewish settlements on land the Palestinians seek for a state and oppose Palestinian independence.”

As part of a series of profiles of Middle Eastern states and areas, The BBC profiles the Golan Heights.

Maariv covers Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s visit to New York, where he met yesterday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. In a discussion on the forthcoming UN vote to renew the UNIFIL mandate in Lebanon, Gallant warned Guterres of the potential for further escalation and possible war between Israel and Lebanon. Gallant cited Iran’s incitement and financing of Hezbollah as a pivotal factor. “The Israeli message,” writes the paper, “is that the repercussions of the unwritten nuclear agreements between the US administration and Iran—which have led to the release of tens of billions of dollars previously frozen in various accounts—together with Iran’s improved ties with Russia and China, have directly led to increased Iranian funding of terrorist organisations. This, in turn, has ramped up regional tensions further.” Gallant urged the UN to strengthen UNIFIL’s freedom of movement in Southern Lebanon and warned that Israel would take action against any violation of its sovereignty or threats to its citizens on the Lebanese border.

With Army Radio reporting Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan saying that war with Lebanon was the closest it has been since 2006, Israel Hayom’s Yoav Limor writes that “the situation this year is different from the past.” He cites three contributing factors: “First is Iran’s mounting self-confidence as a result of its publicly-improved relationship with Iran and China, its informal agreement with the United States and its renewed relations with leading Sunni countries in the Persian Gulf. Second is the improved relations among the various terror organisations, thanks to Iranian leadership and encouragement. That has facilitated inter-theatre operational coordination that poses a challenge to Israel. And third, the rift within Israeli society as a result of the legislation that has been undertaken by the government, and the subsequent mounting threat to the IDF and its ability to function.”

On other aspects of Gallant’s US trip, Yediot Ahronot attributes the fact that he will not meet with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin to a “ban” by Prime Minister Netanyahu who has, it says, “prohibited his cabinet ministers from meeting with senior administration officials in the United States, including the ministers’ counterparts… until he meets with President Biden.” As per Maariv, however, the ban was “relaxed” yesterday, allowing Gallant to meet with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, and National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk in New York.

Yediot Ahronot also notes that while Netanyahu awaits an invitation to the Biden White House, Opposition Chairman Yair Lapid is scheduled to visit Washington next week, where he is likely to meet with several members of Congress and with senior US administration officials. While a senior Israeli government officials suggested that an invitation to Netanyahu is likely to come in September, the Foreign Policy Forum, comprised of former Israeli ambassadors and other retired diplomats, yesterday called on Biden not to invite Netanyahu to the White House unless he first promises only to pass judicial legislation by consensus.

Ynet covers Netanyahu thanking Saudi Arabia for the hospitality extended to 128 Israelis on board an Air Seychelles flight to Tel Aviv, that was forced to make an emergency landing in Jeddah on Monday, following a technical malfunction. In a post in both Hebrew and Arabic, the prime minister praised the Saudis’ “good neighbourly relations.” The site also details the latest speculation on the possibility of a normalisation deal between the two countries, reporting that the Saudis are proposing to renew financial support of the Palestinian authority in a bid to win its approval for a deal. The Palestinians are set to send a delegation to Riyadh next week, tasked with maximising the Palestinian advantage from any Saudi agreement with Israel.

Israel Hayom reveals that the IDF and US armed forces are to hold a number of preplanned joint military exercises in the coming months, including anti-missile defence manoeuvres and simulated attacks. “The current series of joint exercises,” it writes, “is of great importance in view of the apparent tension between the Israeli government and Netanyahu’s non-invitation to the White House. Security officials remarked that despite the tensions in the upper echelons of government, security cooperation between the two countries is stronger than ever, and increasingly so.”

Kan Radio reports that a team headed by Prime Minister’s Office Director General Yossi Shelly has selected State Attorney’s Office official Roi Kahlon as the project manager to combat crime in Arab society. Kahlon will lead on coordinating the government’s efforts and with drafting action plans that will be submitted to the cabinet for approval. The announcement coincides with the latest incident in which a 39-year-old man was shot in Lod last night – the 12^th murder in Lod in 2023 and the 163^rd killing of an Arab Israeli. Haaretz reports that in a separate incident, unidentified persons shot at the home of Sohil Diab, the mayor of the northern Arab town of Tamra, on early Wednesday morning. No casualties were reported. On Tuesday evening, meanwhile, 31-year-old Abd al-Latif Zaytun, a resident of the Arab Israeli town of Nahf, was shot dead in his car near the Megiddo junction in northern Israel.

In the latest incident of violence against elected local officials, Kan Radio reports that police extricated Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch from the city’s Vizhnitz Yeshiva after it was surrounded by dozens of local ultra-Orthodox, who set dumpsters on fire and vandalised the mayor’s car.