Free Republic

MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin of Labor – or, as it is formally known, the Zionist Union – reacted vociferously Wednesday to the decision to appoint Jewish Home's Ayelet Shaked as Justice Minister. “I was not concerned by the appointment of Ayelet Shaked as Culture Minister,” Verbin said, “but a person who expressed radical opinions against the Supreme Court and tried to pass a law that would circumvent the High Court cannot head the justice system.” "Shaked will be an anti-law and justice minister, a minister who will fight the legal system instead of strengthening it, a minister who might push the...

Bayit Yehudi MK says that the PM agreed to Indyk's appointment as special envoy to the talks only because Kerry asked. Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked had harsh words for US special envoy to the Middle East Martin Indyk on Sunday for putting blame on Israel for the breakdown in the negotiations. In an interview with Army Radio, Shaked also said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not support Indyk having a role in the talks that came to a halt on April 24. The MK said that Netanyahu's opinion of Indyk was based on the prime minister's previous experience...

Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Perry (Yesh Atid) is trying to shelve the law that was approved Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation and that would enforce life sentences for terrorist prisoners. On Monday evening, Perry filed an appeal against the law, essentially burying it before it can be brought to the Cabinet for approval. The law would amend one of the Basic Laws of Israel, which allows the President to pardon criminals, by stating certain conditions that would prevent the pardon of any convicted terrorist. The amendment seeks to allow the judges of the court, at the time...

MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) sent a letter Monday to the office of Ami Ayalon, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Haifa University, and Minister of Education Shai Piron (Yesh Atid), appealing the controversial decision not to grant an honorary doctorate to Professor Yisrael Aumann. Professor Aumann is a Nobel Laureate in Economics and a noted academic scholar, yet Haifa University chose to reject him - not based on his scholarship, but ostensibly for his political views. Ayalon and other board members decided Sunday to decline the grant of an honorary doctorate to the laureate, on the grounds that his...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni appealed a bill declaring donations to anti-Israel non-governmental organizations from foreign governments no longer exempt from tax, after it was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday. Eight ministers from Likud, Yisrael Beytenu and Bayit Yehudi approved the bill in the ministerial committee, while Hatnua and Yesh Atid ministers voted against it. The legislation proposed by Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked and MK Robert Ilatov (Likud Beytenu) amends the Income Tax Law so that NGOs will have to pay 45 percent tax on donations from foreign governments if the organization or members of...

Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked has released a scathing open letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry, for pushing the Israeli government to release convicted terrorist murderers. In the letter, Shaked—who recently called for the death penalty to be implemented for terrorists—wrote that: “In light of the current situation that you have brought about, I feel that I cannot be bound by the restraints of ‘politically correct’ wording, and I therefore will allow myself to convey my following message to you in the most straightforward fashion.” … “Mr. Secretary: the price of releasing over a hundred convicted murderers will...