Free Republic

18 May Golan, Minister for the Advancement of the Status of Women of Israel, said Saturday that she had approached former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama to condemn attacks on Israeli women by Hamas on October 7 — and been met with complete silence. Golan, a member of the ruling Likud party, spoke to host Erel Segal on Israel’s Channel 14, in the course of an interview about the broader failure of women’s rights organizations to condemn allegations of sexual violence against women during the terror attack.

Arutz Sheva-Israel National News spoke to MK Dan Illouz (Likud) and asked about the world demanding a complete ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in exchange for the release of all hostages. “After what we've seen on October 7, we've been very clear to the whole world that Israel cannot continue living with Hamas on its border. Hamas needs to be completely eradicated. On October 7, we saw the face of evil. We saw Hamas not only murder a large number of our citizens, 1,200, but also we saw the tactics that they used. We saw them behead people, burn babies...

The Heritage Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Sunday that one of the newest entries on the organization's list of global heritage sites is Tel a-Sultan in Jericho. The UNESCO member states decided that the tel will be considered a "Palestinian world heritage site." The decision was made in a vote that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The UN clarified that there are Jewish and Christian sites near the site that are not included in the list - but there is a value to protect them. Tel a-Sultan, also known as Tel Jericho,...

Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly pledged in a conversation yesterday (Monday) with the President of the United States Joe Biden that he will freeze construction in Judea and Samaria until the end of the year. According to Yaron Avraham's report on Channel 12 News, no more new towns will be approved and no new housing units will be planned or built throughout Judea and Samaria. In a conversation yesterday, Netanyahu told Biden that he would complete the final approval of the reduction of the reasonability clause. "Netanyahu informed the US president about the law that will be passed next week in...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, exactly a day after Gallant called for a stop to radical [sic] reforms to the judiciary that have divided the country and that the defense minister said posed security risks to Israel.The dramatic move could accelerate a crisis that Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, who has also called for a stop to the legislation, has said could culminate in a bloody civil war. It could also further fray ties with the United States, where Gallant has been steering coordination on defense cooperation with his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin...In a surprise...

If we are honest — which most of the world is not when it comes to Israel and Jews — we need to recognize that Jewish rioting in Huwara is against the law. But if we continue being honest, we need also to recognize that the blame for those riots must fall primarily on the past 50 years of Israeli governments who have failed to provide adequate security to the Jewish residents of Samaria and Judea. And, because there is little value in blaming the dead prime ministers and defense ministers who have been at fault, the focus of blame...

A leading Israeli rabbi, Meir Mazuz, said that openly gay Likud Party member Amir Ohana, the Speaker of the Knesset, is “infected with that disease,” according to Haaretz, a news outlet founded in Jerusalem in 1919. Mazuz also denounced Jerusalem’s Gay Pride parade, describing it as a “parade of beasts.” Rabbi Mazuz is a Sephardic Haredi rabbi in Jerusalem and dean of the Kisse Rahamin yeshiva, a traditional school of Jewish learning. […] The minister in charge of policing during the annual pilgrimage to Mount Meron in May 2021 was Amir Ohana, then the Minister of Public Security. During that...

US Secretary of State congratulates Eli Cohen of the Likud on his new role, underscores commitment to Israel's security. .....

Hebrew-language media reported Thursday that Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has walked back a recent promise he had made not to alter the Law of Return, as part of a coalition agreement with the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties. The proposition to change the law has roiled Israeli politicians, including those within Netanyahu’s Likud party. Prominent Netanyahu ally Yuli Edelstein spoke out against any proposed changes, saying that adjusting the law was a slippery slope that could lead to the policy’s demise. On the other hand, former Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana of the National Unity party, who clashed...

Al Arabiya English Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office. In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward...

Likud-led bloc fast-tracks legislation crucial to incoming coalition, seeking to reshape ministerial authorities, prevent MK rebellions Hours after electing a new Knesset speaker from their camp, incoming coalition members won premliminary votes on four bills, some of them highly contentious, set down as political preconditions for finalizing the hardline government coalescing under Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu... Clearing its first of several legislative hurdles eight days out from the December 21 expiration on Netanyahu's mandate to form the new government, the incoming coalition is sprinting to wrap up voting early next week... In addition to Likud, the three far-right and two...

Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has signed a deal to give an Israeli government post to an openly homophobic ultra-nationalist party leader. It is the latest development set to give far-right parties unprecedented power within Israel's ruling coalition. Avi Maoz will be a deputy minister and run a "Jewish identity" authority. He heads Noam, a religious-nationalist, anti-Arab and anti-LGBTQ party that argues for a strict interpretation of Jewish religious laws in Israel. The agreement has added to a growing sense of alarm over the composition of Mr Netanyahu's likely government. Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid has described it as "full-on crazy",...

Polticians from outgoing coalition say Likud chief's agreement to put Avi Maoz in charge of Israel's Jewish identity is a 'slap in the face,' could 'plunge Israel into the abyss' The prospect of a hardline, ultra-conservative, anti-pluralistic, homophobic nationalist being appointed as the next government's head of "Jewish identity" was met with staunch rebuke from politicians from the outgoing coalition on Sunday, with lawmakers slamming the move by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu as "insanity," "racist" and "unreal". Avi Moaz, the single lawmaker of the fringe Noam party, is one of the Knesset's most far-right politicians, holding non-pluralist Jewish views and...

Israeli elections 2022: The tired R word and the elephant Arab Islamist racism, supremacy, fascism in the area Take a look at Zehava Galon Mererz, total defeat. Her/Meretz's constant R ("racism") word throwing around isn't just making people tired, but draws more attention to the real dangerous bigotry in the area: Arab Islamist leadership, not just Hamas and Palestinian Authority media, Mosque sermons but inside Israel, with its Arab MKs and preachers, especially before (like the Lod grand mosque leader), during, after 2021 anti-Jewish racial riots and the sick glorification of Islamic butchers as supposed heroes. Or in its Islamist...

Former prime minister and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become Israel's next prime minister, according to Tuesday night's exit polls. According to the polls, Netanyahu's bloc, which includes Likud, Religious Zionist Party (RZP), United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Shas, crossed the 61-seat threshold and will be able to form the next coalition. In some of the polls his bloc reached 62 seats. What do the exit polls say? Netanyahu's Likud party is expected to receive 30 seats according to Channel 12 and 31 seats according to Channel 13, while Lapid's Yesh Atid party is expected to get 24...

The State of Israel will be going to vote on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. This will be the fifth election in less than four years. The near parity is between the competing political blocs: the Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-of-center on one hand, and the anti-Netanyahu left-of-center bloc led by Yair Lapid. Netanyahu’s Likud bloc has nevertheless a noticeable advantage; it has a reliable bloc of 60 mandates in the polls, and it may have an even higher number in the real poll – on Election Day. Netanyahu has only to find a single defector to form a narrow coalition government of...

Politics in the state of Israel has never been more complex. One coalition is held together by the slimmest of reeds: opposition to one man — Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s a collection of liberal, conservative, and Arab parties that was formed primarily to defeat Netanyahu last year with Yair Lapid as its leader. Some oppose the two-time former prime minister for his alleged corruption. Others blanch at his policies in the Palestinian territories. But because the only real unifying factor for the opposition is hatred of Netanyahu, the governing coalition lasted only a few months. Netanyahu’s Likud coalition is a mish-mash...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has not ruled out sitting with MKs Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud), Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism), and Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), but opposes the formation for a "fully" right-wing government. In an interview with Channel 13 News, Bennett said, "A fully right-wing government, in the current sense, is, in my eyes, a disaster, because it does not have the balances." He added, "Netanyahu, Bezalel, and Ben Gvir...in a different constellation, can be fine, but a government trapped in the hands of the extreme is horrible and awful, even if it is the other side." .....

Israel’s weakened coalition government announced Monday that it would dissolve parliament and call new elections, setting the stage for the possible return to power of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or another period of prolonged political gridlock. The election will be Israel's fifth in three years, and it will put the polarizing Netanyahu, who has been the opposition leader for the past year, back at the center of the political universe. “I think the winds have changed. I feel it,” Netanyahu declared. The previous four elections, focused on Netanyahu’s fitness to rule while facing a corruption investigation, ended in deadlock....

Since the outbreak of the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, Pat Buchanan and other paleoconservatives have made themselves true exponents of populism: the Jew-baiting, conspiracy-driven demagoguery of 1890s agrarians. In two columns, posted at WorldNetDaily this week, Buchanan accused President Bush of being a puppet of nefarious Jewish warmongers. Outlets of the Hate America Right – especially Paul Craig Roberts and LewRockwell.com – have joined him, and then some. Nothing sets Buchanan’s imagination racing like a Bush-backed Israeli war. On Tuesday, Pat asked, “Who is whispering in his ear?” His answer: bloodthirsty Hebrews. That Tel Aviv is maneuvering us to fight its wars...