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Right-wing factions convened at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, deciding to establish a "right-wing bloc" headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, that will work for the establishment of the next government. It was decided to form a joint coalition negotiations team for all factions in the bloc. In addition to Netanyahu, the meeting saw the participation of Minister Yariv Levin and faction heads: Yaakov Litzman, Moshe Gafni, Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Bezalel Smotrich. Minister Aryeh Deri met with Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this morning, as he was unable to attend the meeting due to the memorial ceremony...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan are tied but neither can secure a ruling majority, with 92 percent of the votes in Israel's Tuesday election counted, according to a source in Israel's Central Elections Committee. (Who is Benny Gantz? Read the full profile) >> The election is here. Subscribe now - save 30% According to the partial results, Likud and Kahol Lavan won each 32 out of 120 Knesset seats. Netanyahu's bloc, comprised of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties, currently stands at 56 seats. The center-left bloc, excluding Arab parties, has 43 seats. Avigdor Lieberman, whose...

The Central Elections Committee issued an injunction tonight (Sunday) against the left-wing NGO Zazim‘s initiative to bus 15,000 Arab voters to voting booths on election day, ruling that the initiative is in violation of the election laws. Zazim (movement) is an NGO that is backed by the New Israel Fund (NIF) which is backed by billionaire currency manipulator George Soros. The injunction came following a petition submitted by the Likud arguing that Zazim, which is heavily funded by the US-based New Israel Fund, is violating the election the laws. In 2017, the Knesset passed the “V15” law aimed at preventing...

The prime minister says media giant folds to Left pressure, and repeated his previous statements that the media is falsely reporting that large numbers of right-wing voters are casting their votes. BY JERUSALEM POST STAFF SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 19:53   Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed social media giant Facebook for closing his chat bot on Tuesday, as he was using it to ask users whom are they voting for. Netanyahu repeated his previous statements that the media is falsely reporting that large numbers of Right-wing voters are casting their votes.  "This is a spin of a spin," he shouted on social media,...

The last one, held in April, looked like a victory for Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party. But when Netanyahu failed to get enough support from smaller parties to form a government, he was forced to call new elections. So here we are. The polling for the new election is too close to call. Likud is locked in a tight race with the centrist Blue and White party, which is leading the opposition. The ultimate outcome depends on a lot of things that are really hard to predict, ranging from minor party vote share to post-election parliamentary haggling.

The District Court of the Hague will hold a hearing on Tuesday about whether a war crimes case against Benny Gantz is admissible relating to his command decisions during the 2014 Gaza War. Israeli soldiers and commanders may also be on the hot seat at The Hague before the International Criminal Court, but Tuesday’s hearing, which also happens to be Election Day, is a local Dutch court proceeding that is unrelated to that. In fact, the ICC preliminary probe of Israel’s conduct of the 2014 war is moving slowly and is not expected to come to any conclusion earlier than...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce later Tuesday his intention to promote annexation steps in the occupied West Bank if he wins the next week's elections, an Israeli official tells me. Why it matters: Netanyahu has already spoken about annexation before Israel's elections in April, but he didn’t commit or promise anything. Netanyahu’s statement is directed at his right-wing base and the settler lobby in order to boost support for his Likud party over other right-wing parties, ensuring that Likud wins most seats in the elections to gain an upper hand in building a coalition. The international...

One of our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests has just uncovered more anti-Israel rhetoric from the Obama Administration, specifically Clinton’s inner circle. This time it’s coming from one of then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top aides – one with questionable ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Through our FOIA lawsuit, originally filed against the Obama State Department, the ACLJ has just obtained an email from Huma Abedin, the former Deputy Chief of Staff under Hillary Clinton at the State Department, in which she was told that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was very interested in having former...

An editorial in the official Iranian Fars News today tacitly admits the goal of the Saudi attack this past weekend was to bring down Donald Trump’s 2020 Presidency. The title of the piece: The Iranian who Overthrew Carter Also Overthrows Trump Here is a translated version of the editorial from Fars News: Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, immediately accused Iran of seizing an attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil field, claiming that there was no evidence that the drones were fired from Yemen, Iranian soil had been fired. However, he did not provide any evidence for his allegations,...

Putin offers to sell Saudi Arabia its missile defense systems in the wake of the attack on its oil facilities. “We are ready to help Saudi Arabia so that she can protect her territory,” he says. “She can do so in the same way that Iran has already done in buying the S-300 Russian missile system and the same way that Turkey has already done in buying the S-400 Russian missile system,” Putin adds at a press conference in Ankara, alongside the Turkish and Iranian leaders. The US has blamed Iran for the attack on the Saudi oil facilities.

Saudi Arabia displayed remnants of what it described as Iranian drones and cruise missiles used in an attack on Saudi oil facilities as “undeniable” evidence of Iranian aggression. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said a total of 25 drones and missiles were launched at two oil plants in last weekend’s strikes, including what he identified as Iranian Delta Wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and “Ya Ali” cruise missiles.

RIYADH — The Joint Forces Command of the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said that preliminary investigations indicated that the weapons used in the attacks on two Saudi Aramco oil facilities are Iranian. The Coalition spokesperson Col. Turki Al-Maliki said that an investigation into Saturday's strikes, which had been claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, was still going on to determine the launch location. The drones used in the attack were of the Ababil make, a low-technology drone, the spokesperson added.“The investigation is continuing and all indications are that weapons used in both attacks came from Iran,” Al-Maliki told...

Palestinians' Blood Libels Against Israel, Jews by Bassam Tawil September 16, 2019 at 5:00 am https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14888/palestinians-drugs-blood-libels Instead of acknowledging their responsibility for failing to combat the drug trafficking, the leaders of Hamas have been trying to blame everyone but themselves.... These leaders are trying hard to convince Palestinians that Israel and Hamas's rivals in the Palestinian Fatah faction, headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, are responsible for flooding the Gaza Strip with illegal drugs. The Palestinians' attempt to establish a connection between Israel and illegal drugs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is no less dangerous than their...

Ilhan Omar appeared on Face the Nation yesterday. The host asked about her “Some people did something” description of the 9/11 attacks, which was denounced by the son of one of the victims at a commemorative service in New York last week. Specifically, the host asked Omar whether she understands why people find her “some people did something” comment offensive. ... Yesterday, Omar repeated her view of 9/11, consistent with what she said to the CAIR group in California where the original comment was made, and with what I wrote in April. Yes, she said, the 9/11 attacks were terrible,...

Controversial congresswoman says "existence" of PM is "contradictory" to peace, reiterates support for BDS.Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's "existence" a problem in an interview with CBS' Face the Nation program. "I certainly hope that the people of Israel make a different decision. And my hope is that they recognize that his existence, his policies, his rhetoric really is contradictory to the peace that we are all hoping that that region receives and receives soon," Omar told host Margaret Brennan. The congresswoman then reiterated her support for the anti-Israel BDS movement. "Just right now if you...

McDonald’s said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire a company that is trying to automate the drive-thru. It’s the fast-food giant’s third tech-focused deal this year. Apprente, a Silicon Valley company founded in 2017, uses artificial intelligence to understand drive-thru orders, which could cut down on service times. McDonald’s said the technology also could be used someday in its self-order kiosks and mobile app. The Chicago-based company said it evaluated Apprente’s technology in McDonald’s test restaurants.

Apprente staff, which includes employees with PhDs in machine learning and computational linguistics, will become part of McDonald's Global Technology team following the acquisition. American fast food giant McDonald’s Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire Apprente, a Silicon Valley start-up founded by Israelis that specializes in conversational voice-based technology. The acquisition of the company, McDonald’s said, will “allow for faster, simpler and more accurate ordering at the Drive-Thru,” and could be incorporated into mobile ordering and kiosks in the future. No financial details were disclosed regarding the acquisition of the company, which has raised $4.8 million in two...

Apprente, based in Silicon Valley, has developed a tech to automate voice orders supporting many languages and accents McDonald’s Corporation has entered an agreement to buy Israeli-founded, Silicon Valley based startup Apprente, “a leader in the field of conversational voice-based technology,” the fast food giant said in a statement Tuesday. The technology will allow for “faster and simpler and more accurate ordering” through speech at McDonald’s drive-thru stations, the statement said. According to the deal, Apprente’s employees will become part of the US firm’s global technology team. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Apprente team – made up of workers...

The results of the Knesset election are very important to Moscow, and it hopes politicians will be elected who will maintain close ties with Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Sochi on Thursday. Netanyahu traveled to the Black Sea resort to meet the Russian leader – just five days before the election – in a move widely seen as an effort to woo elder Russian-speaking immigrants who form an important base of support for Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party.

Facebook says it has sanctioned the page of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because of a violation of the company’s hate speech policy. Facebook said on Thursday that the social network had suspended for 24 hours the page’s bot, or automated chat function. The page had called on voters to prevent the establishment of a government composed of “Arabs who want to destroy us all — women, children and men.” The post sparked uproar by opposition politicians.