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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett met on Thursday evening as part of the coalition negotiations. A source involved in the meeting told Arutz Sheva, however, that there has been no progress in the negotiations between the parties and that, unlike Netanyahu's meetings with leaders of other parties, he did not speak with Bennett regarding the details of the make-up of the next government. The meeting comes amid ongoing tensions between the Likud and the Jewish Home over the coalition talks. On Wednesday, a source told Arutz Sheva that Netanyahu is planning to form a unity...

Incoming Jewish Home MK says that Netanyahu keeps raising the bar for the coalition - in hopes of forming a unity government instead. Incoming MK Yinon Magal (Jewish Home) heavily criticized the Likud on Friday, saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu prefers to form a government with Labor-Hatnua, despite multiple promises both before and after elections. "I think that there has been a spin here from the first day of [coalition] negotiations," Magal stated in an interview Friday morning to Army Radio. ''The Prime Minister did call [Jewish Home chairman] Naftali Bennett first [after the elections - ed.], but since...

Arabs Actually Benefit from Reverse Racism in Israel -- Rather Than Suffering from Perverse Racism The ironies have never been greater, as will be the representation of the Arabs in the new Israeli parliament now in formation. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been accused of racism upon trying to get out his base to vote by pointing out that the press was observing that Arabs were coming out in droves on Election Day. But what does this tell us? Even the most anti-Semitic Israel basher and Netanyahu basher has to concede that the fact that Arabs were coming out in droves...

Moshe Kahlon, chairman of Kulanu, on Thursday ordered his team not to attend the meeting with Likud’s team in protest against media reports that the Knesset Finance Committee and the Planning Administration – two bodies that Kahlon is seeking for Kulanu to promote a series of reforms – are to be given to United Torah Judaism and Shas. Sources in Kulanu accused Likud of “handing out positions at the expense of the tools needed to bring down housing prices and the cost of living, even before the negotiating teams have met.” Likud, seemingly unfazed by Kahlon’s muscle-flexing said: “How did...

Democratic assemblyman slams Obama who is 'desperate' for a foreign policy accomplishment at Israel's expense. Arutz Sheva got the chance to speak with Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-NY) about the fallout between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, which historians have assessed as being "unprecedented." Hinting at the Senate probe investigating whether Obama funded the V15 campaign against Netanyahu, Hikind remarked that Obama "worked very very hard" to try and prevent Netanyahu from succeeding - which in the end he did, outpacing Labor by 30 seats to 24. The Democratic assemblyman admitted "I don't understand Obama, you know...

Binyamin Netanyahu is once again Finance Minister - thanks to none other than Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef. But according to the Kikar Shabbat web site, the re-appointment of Netanyahu to the post was prompted by phone calls to cabinet members by none other than Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef – who was concerned that, without a Finance Minister, the sale of leaven (chametz) before the upcoming Passover holiday would be nullified. While many Jews consider the personal or commercial sale of chametz, the leavened products from bread to beer that are forbidden on Passover, to be a mere “technicality,”...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — March 25, 2015 … Part of the following was communicated by the President’s Office of Israel to the Israel News Agency. President of Israel Reuven Rivlin this evening, appointed outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu MK, with the task of forming the 34th Government of Israel, at a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. The President signed the official letter of appointment in his office with Prime Minister Netanyahu, before going on to make public statements. “In democracy, majority rules, and the majority has made its voice heard clearly in this election,”...

Instead of congratulating the Israeli people for being one of the few countries in the Middle East to hold real free and democratic elections, Obama has decided to inflict collective punishment not on Netanyahu, but on all Israelis, even its Muslim and Christian citizens, for having an election that came out not the way he wanted it to. The terrorists have also been following with great enthusiasm reports that the Obama Administration is considering reassessing its policy -- that the U.S. no longer considers Israel a strategic ally in the Middle East. In short, Obama's anti-Israel stance is the best...

Appeasing those who call for “death to America": Israel, Netanyahu remain a punching bag of convenience for a desperate president, a clueless administration The Obama administration’s determination to reach an accord with Iran at any cost continues unabated. As the March 31st deadline approaches, the administration has taken to recklessly downplaying Iran’s increasing belligerence, as well as continuing a coordinated attack on Iran’s chief critic, newly re-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This weekend, the White House dismissed a speech by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei that included more chants of “Death to America” by both the crowd and Khamenei...

President meets with Likud leader after receiving official election results, but not before apparent criticism of Netanyahu's comments against Arab voters. President Reuven Rivlin tasked incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the next government on Wednesday night, after receiving the official election results from Central Election Committee chairman Judge Salim Joubran. Still, in an apparent criticism of Netanyahu's comments on Election Day against Arab voters who are going to the polls "in droves," Rivlin said a high voter turnout was a blessing, not a curse. The surprise victor of a March 17 election, Netanyahu looks well set to assemble...

JNS.org – President Barack Obama said at a news conference on Tuesday that the US is considering the possibility of supporting the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state through the United Nations as part of his administration’s ongoing re-evaluation of relations with Israel. Late last year, the US voted against a Palestinian-initiated resolution in the UN Security Council that called for a Palestinian state with borders based on the pre-1967 lines. The measure garnered eight affirmative votes among the 15-member Security Council, falling just one short of the nine votes it needed to pass. Obama on Tuesday continued his recent...

It would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago for the White House to consider furling up the diplomatic umbrella it had used for decades to shield Israel at the UN. But even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted to do damage control for a series of recent controversial pronouncements, reiterating his support for a two-state solution and apologizing for his election day anti-Arab rhetoric, Washington seemingly remains determined to “reassess” its policy vis-à-vis Israel and the Palestinians. This could mean that Washington will hold back from vetoing a French or Jordanian resolution calling for the creation...

Leaked report outlines 40 suggestions to sway Israeli policy; EU source: more chance of implementation in wake of Netanyahu rejection of Palestinian state. A European Union report obtained by Ynet on Wednesday outlines suggestions on how to pressure Israel into returning to negotiations, in a list of 40 possible decisions. An EU diplomatic source told Ynet that there was a definite chance that the recommendations in the report, which the member states have yet to approve, were more likely to be implemented following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement during his election campaign that a Palestinian state would not be created...

EXCLUSIVE: Some 1,500 new housing units Har Homa on hold due to political sensitivity, Netanyahu's office presses pause on discussions. Israel is freezing construction of 1,500 new housing units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, beyond the Green Line, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's election eve declaration that building in Jerusalem would continue regardless of international pressure. The massive construction plan in Har Homa has been suspended "for neither planning nor professional reasons," Ynet has learned. The Ministry for Construction and Housing and Jerusalem municipality confirmed that two critical planning discussions set for the coming week on advancing...

White House occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron With the mega ironies of our tumultuous times in competition for top spot, it must be The Irony of Ironies that Obama and his minions are down to a ‘Tee’ exactly what they accuse America of being: despicable bullies of the world. First seizing then standing on sanctimony and Projection 101 are Commandments 1 and 2 in Marxist ideology. History shows that whenever Marxists make it into high office, they seize the moral high ground from which they lecture the masses from bully pulpits provided by the media of...

TV pollster says surveys showed Likud trailing by 3-4 seats at noon on election day; then PM issued controversial Facebook post. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Election Day high noon appeal to his supporters to go out and vote to offset the “droves of Arabs” flowing to the polling stations may have played a decisive role in his victory, the country’s best-known political pollster indicated Wednesday. Pollster Dr. Mina Tzemach told the Knesset Channel that, at noon on election day, March 17, her surveys showed Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Camp to be leading Netanyahu’s Likud by three to four seats. Then, at...

WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to relations with President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been — elevated is not quite the right word — placed in rare company."I have a very businesslike relationship with the prime minister," Obama declared Tuesday.

“He thinks he is going to do a Nixon to China. He is the man who is going to develop the entente, the understanding, the condominium with Iran to run the Middle East. We will join with them. We are going to recognize their presence, their dominance in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, and now in Yemen as that will be the reward for having cut a deal with us on nuclear weapons.” “That’s impossible, O’Reilly said, “because if that ever were to come true, we would alienate all of the Sunni nations. Saudi Arabia, the Emirates…” “But that’s exactly...

Barack Hussein Obama has acknowledged the 'reality' that there won't be a 'peace agreement' during his term in office, and has decided instead to attempt to force the creation of a 'Palestinian state' through the United Nations. For all of this he blames Binyamin Netanyahu. In a stark assessment of U.S.-Israel relations, Mr. Obama, speaking at a news conference, put a firm end to one of the top foreign-policy goals of his second term: a Middle East peace deal that includes the creation a Palestinian state.“What we can’t do is pretend that there’s a possibility for something that’s not...

Sources in the Israeli government claim the White House tried to influence the recent election because it wanted “revenge” against Benjamin Netanyahu. “The White House is driven by three main motives,” an unnamed senior official told the Times of Israel. “The first is revenge. The second is frustration: It’s no secret that they were involved in an attempt to bring down the Netanyahu government – something that we have clear knowledge of – and failed. The third is the administration’s attempt to divert attention from the negotiations with Iran to the Palestinian issue.” The source was likely referring to the...