Free Republic

MK Avi Maoz, head of the Noam party, has expressed his staunch opposition to any plan to halt the judicial reform program. In a Knesset speech on Monday morning, he described how backing down would hand victory to the elites and turn voting into an utterly futile exercise. "What we are about to see here is the completion of the coup d'etat whose aim is to turn democratic rule in the State Of Israel, based on government by elected officials into a dictatorship of the elites, which in a cynical use of words designed to mislead and conceal calls what...

Noam party chairman MK Avi Maoz resigned Monday from his position as deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office in protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's failure to implement parts of the coalition agreements. Maoz wrote to Netanyahu in his resignation letter: "With G-d's help, as a partner in the coalition, I will continue to support all the moves we agreed on together, including the all-important legislation to restore the balance between the legislative and judicial branches and more." "Throughout the generations, the people of Israel knew how to protect what is dearest to them," he wrote. "With the establishment...

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",...