Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced to his party, the Likud, that he would not renege on passing the ultra-Orthodox draft bill and that without the bill, the government would not remain in place, KAN Reshet B reported on Monday morning. Netanyahu’s announcement came in the wake of minister-without-portfolio and National Unity chair Benny Gantz’s … Read more
Former longtime Likud MK, education minister, and justice minister Gideon Sa’ar dropped a political bombshell on Tuesday evening. In a speech at a conference of his New Hope Party’s supporters, which was convened in order to commend the party’s success in the recent statewide municipal elections, Sa’ar made two announcements: New Hope will officially … Read more
Minister-without-portfolio MK Benny Gantz is the government’s “weak link,” and the US administration’s decision to host Gantz for meetings is an attempt to ‘drive a wedge’ within the government and the people of Israel, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a press conference on Monday after his party, the Religious Zionist Party (RZP), held … Read more
Former prime minister Ehud Barak wrote to the Foreign Affairs magazine on Sunday, calling for early elections in Israel to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak began his argument by stating that the past four months of war have highlighted two different portrayals of Israel: “On the one hand, the war has showcased the … Read more
Israeli ministers and Knesset members gave statements to the press as they cast their votes in municipal elections on Tuesday.Opposition leader and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid in Tel Aviv expressed his support for former Yesh Atid minister Orna Barbivay, who is running against incumbent mayor Ron Huldai.He called her “the greatest manager I … Read more
Amidst a public debate about the justification for the decades-long blanket exemption from IDF service for haredi men, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) debated on Monday a bill to lengthen the age of exemption for reservists by one year. The bill’s intent is to preserve the current array of reservists at … Read more
Following the attempt to oust MK Ofer Cassif from the Knesset, Maariv learned on Tuesday that the New Hope center-right political faction was “severely disappointed” by the absence of the four members of the Blue and White faction during the vote. Both factions are part of the National Unity Party. MK Sharren Haskel wrote … Read more
When historians look back someday on the 2024 Hamas war, January 22 – the 108th day of the war – will merit a brief mention. Why? Nothing overly dramatic happened on the battlefront, neither in Gaza – although there was intensive action in Khan Yunis – nor in Lebanon. Rather, this day will be … Read more
Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, marked its 75th birthday in a somber ceremony on the plenum floor on Wednesday morning, with President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid, interim Supreme Court Chief Justice Uzi Fogelman, and dozens of foreign ambassadors and other dignitaries. Every year on the spring holiday of … Read more
Some nations believe they have been blessed with great leaders. Other nations have leaders who believe they have been blessed with a great nation. President Isaac Herzog, in perhaps the most stirring speech he has given since the beginning of the war on October 7, made it clear that Israel falls into the latter … Read more
