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New polls taken Wednesday in the wake of former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz’s first speech in politics and his bond with former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon found that he poses a threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The polls indicated that the address and the deal with Ya’alon elevated Gantz into a serious alternative to Netanyahu and his Likud Party. When asked who is most fit to be prime minister, a survey taken by pollster Camil Fuchs for Channel 13 found that an equal number of Israelis, 42%, consider Netanyahu and Gantz fit to be prime minister. A...

"The new right-wing party is on the right, period, for the land of Israel, without compromises, against a Palestinian state" Education Minister Naftali Bennett Announces A New "Right" Party In Israel 12/29/2018 Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Saturday night the formation of "The New Right" party to contest the April 9th elections. They are leaving the "Jewish Home" party where Bennett served as its leader. Bennett and Shaked will be co-leaders of the new party. The party will 'represent secular and religious Israelis'. Bennett said religious Israelis have been used for too long by politicians...

JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will easily win a snap election set for April 9, according to an opinion poll on Dec. 25, the first to be published since the ballot was announced. Netanyahu announced the early election on Dec. 24, appealing directly to voters for a fresh political mandate that could help him weather possible charges in corruption investigations. An election had not been due until November 2019. The survey, published in Israel’s Maariv newspaper, showed Netanyahu’s Likud party winning 30 of parliament’s 120 seats, the same number it took in the last election in 2015, and a governing...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition announced Monday plans to dissolve the country’s parliament and hold a snap general election in April, after his government was significantly weakened more than a month ago when a key coalition partner resigned. The departure of Avigdor Liberman as defense minister on Nov. 14 left Netanyahu’s government teetering on the edge with a single-seat majority in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. As the government struggled to pass legislation important to each of Netanyahu’s five coalition partners, questions were also raised over the chances of a formal indictment against the longtime Israeli leader in at...

My words: "OOOH! LET'S SWORDFIGHT!" A senior Likud source on Saturday responded to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting took place in France. "Olmert, who offered Abbas the Western Wall, has now turned into his faithful mouthpiece," the source said. "In the US and many Arab countries, they already understand that Abbas is the true obstacle to peace, and that the reason for his extreme demands is not peace but rather the elimination of the State of Israel." MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) also responded to the meeting. "Olmert met with...

Four former senior US officials claimed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered the Obama administration a two-state solution in which Israel annexed the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria in exchange for land in northern Sinai, next to Gaza, Haaretz reported. According to the officials, Netanyahu told then-US President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State John Kerry that he was sure Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi would agree to to the plan. However, when the US looked into the idea, they received a negative response. Netanyahu's office has denied this report, claiming it "is not accurate." In November 2017, Social...

Opposition MK Micky Rosenthal (Zionist Union) participated on Saturday in a Shabbatarbut event in Modi'in and attacked various Likud members. "The last ten people on Likud's list have the same IQ," Rosenthal said. "These are people who are not worthy of being in the Knesset." Coalition Chairman David Bitan (Likud) attacked Rosenthal for his statement, saying it "stinks of racism." "The ones who grade MKs are the voters," Bitan said. "The nation chose the Likud, even though it knows who Likud's leader is and who the last ten members of its list are. I think our third set of ten...

MainAll NewsInside Israel'I brought down the government, no one should be lecturing me' Exclusive interview: 'I brought down the government, no one should be lecturing me' Likud MK attacks Jewish Home party, justifies voting against Regulation Law. Contact Editor Hezki Baruch, 08/02/17 12:40 Share MK Benny BeginMK Benny BeginYonatan Sindel, Flash 90 In an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva, MK Ze'ev Binyamin "Benny" Begin (Likud) slammed the Jewish Home party for the Regulation law and and justified his vote against it, saying he'd "already brought down the government after it gave away Israeli land." "This coalition is all about threats...

Despite a host of investigations and allegations against the Prime Minister and his wife, Sara, a majority of Israelis believe Binyamin Netanyahu should not resign. A police investigation probing gifts allegedly given by media mogul Nuni Mozes to the Prime Minister, as well as claims of a conflict of interest in a purchase by Netanyahu’s government of ballistic missile submarines and allegations that public funds were diverted to Netanyahu family’s private residence have all fueled speculation Netanyahu could be forced to resign, making new elections all but inevitable. Earlier this week a veteran Shas MK warned that Netanyahu’s resignation was...

Obama’s Israel Support Means Standing with Boycotters and Terror SupportersPosted By Ronn Torossian On April 17, 2015 @ 12:15 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments The media crows about Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealing to Americans across all political lines about the danger of the Iran deal – a deal which Israelis across the political spectrum maintain is a mistake.  Apparently, democracy matters – except when it comes to Israel.Along these lines, just released data from White House visitor logs [1] unveils the fact that Israel’s Ambassador, Ron Dermer is persona non grata at the White House.   That...

Is Joint List MK Hanin Zoabi on her way out of the Knesset? Coalition Chairman David Bitan (Likud) revealed this afternoon (Monday) that a Prime Minister backed initiative is being promoted to pass legislation that will facilitate the expulsion of Zoabi from the Knesset. The Chairman explained that Likud leaders wish to enlist as broad a base of support as possible for the initiative, rather than push it through the Knesset against strong opposition. Bitan said that most of the Jewish parties have already pledged support, including opposition party Yesh Atid. He expressed hope that the support of the Zionist...

Coalition chairman MK David Biton (Likud) on Sunday addressed the proposed death penalty law for terrorists initiated by Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman during coalition negotiations. "I think there needs to be a death penalty, not just for those who want to commit suicide, but those who want to carry out a deadly attack only to be released after a few years in some exchange deal," said Biton during an interview with Radio Lelo Hafsaka. According to Biton, the law will provide a solution to terrorists who sit comfortably in Israeli prisons, study for an academic degree and are then...

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) announced on Friday morning that he is quitting politics, following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to hand his portfolio over to Yisrael Beytenu head MK Avigdor Liberman so as to bring his party into the coalition. "This morning I let the Prime Minister know that due to his conduct and recent developments, and due to a lack of confidence in him, I am resigning from the government and from the Knesset and taking a timeout from political life," said Ya'alon. Ya'alon's resignation is particularly dramatic as Liberman has not yet formally been given his portfolio...

Negotiators from the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu parties have agreed to accept the latter’s demands for the death penalty for terrorist murderers, as a condition for entering the coalition government. According to the agreement, the IDF military court — which is technically able to level the death penalty, but maintains an unofficial moratorium on it — will be issued new instructions, by which a simple majority of two judges can hand down a death sentence to terrorists convicted of murder. Currently, the law requires all three judges to unanimously agree. …

Former Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has roundly condemned the reported agreement between the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu parties, to include provisions for implementing the death penalty for terrorists as part of a coalition deal. Under the agreement, a new directive will be issued to military courts, by which only a simply majority of two judges will be needed to sentence a terrorist murderer to death, as opposed to the unanimous requirement currently in place. Imposing a death penalty for terrorist killers was one of the key conditions set by Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman for entering the governing coalition. While...

Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has accepted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s offer to join the coalition in return for the Defense and Immigration ministries, senior Yisrael Beytenu officials said on Wendesday. According to senior officials, the Prime Minister’s meeting Wednesday afternoon with Liberman has already laid the groundwork for Yisrael Beytenu’s entry into the government. Shortly after the meeting, Netanyahu reportedly called Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, informing him that Liberman had requested the Defense Ministry in exchange for his support of the Likud government. Senior officials have leaked details of the meeting, including Netanyahu’s offer to Liberman, which includes two...

Opposition leader and Zionist Union party chief Yitzhak Herzog has announced he is suspending unity government talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after the premier issued an invitation to begin talks with Yisrael Beytenu party head Avigdor Liberman. n a markedly abrupt, pithy press conference, Herzog said Netanyahu faced a choice between "going to war and funerals, and the victory of (Avigdor) Liberman and (Naftali) Bennett, or the track of hope" - namely, inviting the Zionist Union party to join the coalition instead. "These are the choices - there are no other options," he added. "We won't continue negotiations at...

Israel’s largest opposition party is negotiating the terms for a possible unity government, a senior Zionist Camp official said on Tuesday. Speaking with Army Radio, Tzipi Livni (Zionist Camp) confirmed that her party was in talks with the Netanyahu government over a possible unity coalition. “I was shown things [brought up] in the talks, [but] were not finalized,” Livni said. A senior Likud official confirmed the negotiations to expand the governing coalition, telling party chiefs already in the government that they would have to make concessions if the Zionist Camp does join. “Every party will have to do its part...

Naama Adler Bello, a real estate broker and Likud activist from Caesarea, has been pushing over the past few months a political initiative that has been gaining the support of fellow party activists — if not by the official leadership — looking to establish an international fund to facilitate voluntary Arab immigration from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Gaza, Ha’aretz reported. Adler Bello is not a fan of the term “transfer,” and prefers a more marketable name: a “Listening and Fulfillment” program. Nevertheless, her approach clearly aims to offer the Arabs between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea the...

An Israeli parliamentarian has drawn ire and ridicule after suggesting "Palestine" is a borrowed term that Palestinians themselves cannot pronounce. "The letter P doesn't exist in Arabic, so the borrowed term Palestine is worth debating," MK Anat Berko (Likud) said during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday night. [...] In Arabic, the word is written with an F and is pronounced "Falesteen." Palestinian Arabs not fluent in English often use the letter B as a substitute for P when speaking the language. [...] "Don't you have a brain?" MK Tamar Zandberg, from the left-wing Meretz party, shouted during the session. ...