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Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had such expensive tastes that he demanded gifts in the form of cigars to dip into Cointreau liqueur, a Jerusalem court heard today. Netanyahu is undergoing a blockbuster corruption trial on charges of fraud and breach of trust for allegedly accepting luxury gifts from billionaires Arnon Milchan and James Packer worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, advancing the former's various interests in return. An aide to the two billionaires testified that she had been ordered to buy cigars and Cointreau - among other items - to satiate the former prime minister and his wife...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is working to officially dissolve his own government. In a move seen by many as the climax of one of the most bizarre sagas in Israeli political history, the political coalition that has held a very slim majority in the K’nesset (Israeli parliament) for the past year is seeking to abruptly end its own rule and bring the Jewish state to yet another round of elections in three months. But why on earth would the Israeli parliamentary coalition do that? The answer is simple: because Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and his political allies are poised to...

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....

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said the United States had forfeited its moral right to stop Israel taking action against Iran's nuclear program because it had refused to be firm with Tehran itself. In comments which appeared to bring the possibility of an Israeli attack on Iran closer, Netanyahu took the Obama administration to task after Washington rebuffed his own call to set a red line for Tehran's nuclear drive. "The world tells Israel 'wait, there's still time'. And I say, 'Wait for what? Wait until when?'" said Netanyahu, speaking in English.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper implied in a new book former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressured then-President Donald Trump to launch a military strike against Iran. Quotes in his book, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times, were redacted after the Department of Defense prohibited their publication.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday visited the Tomb of Jethro in honor of the Druze festival of Ziyarat al-Nabi Shu'ayb. At the start of the event, President Herzog was welcomed by Shaykh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel. Also attending were Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar (New Hope), Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White), opposition leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud), Internal Security Minister Omer Barlev (Labor), Welfare Minister Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid), Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej (Meretz), Minister in the Finance Ministry Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beytenu), Deputy Minister in the PMO Abir Kara...

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...

Like the New York Times with its roster of anti-Israel contributors, such as the anti-Israel post-Zionist Peter Beinart, the Washington Post favors op-ed contributors on Israel-Palestine who are very much on the side of the Palestinians. A recent example, featuring the Palestinian Mariam Barghouti, is reported on here: “Washington Post Publishes Op-Ed by Mariam Barghouti, Who Compared Israel to Nazi Germany,” by Rachel O’Donoghue, Algemeiner, April 1, 2022: It would appear that having a documented history that has included comparing Israel to Nazi Germany does not preclude one from offering their opinions on the editorial webpages of The Washington Post,...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suddenly the favorite to mount a comeback after current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett lost the majority he needs to hold his coalition together with a key defection on Wednesday. Israel’s government looked set to crumble Wednesday after coalition whip Idit Silman announced she is quitting to form a new government, causing the ruling coalition headed by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to lose its majority. … Silman, who is a member of Knesset in Bennett’s Yamina party, chose to defect after she clashed with Israel’s Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz over his order to hospitals...

JERUSALEM - A key member of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Yamina party said Wednesday she was quitting his coalition government, in a surprise move that leaves him without a parliamentary majority. Idit Silman's announcement left Bennett's coalition, an alliance of parties ranging from the Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim party, with 60 seats -- the same as the opposition. Although Silman's defection does not mean the fall of the coalition, it raises the spectre of a potential return to office by veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu, less than a year after he lost the premiership to...

From the words of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with reference to the political drama in the Knesset: On Passover we celebrate the Exodus of Israel from Egypt to the Land of Israel, the Promised Land. Today we are happy for a similar reason, and congratulate MK Idit Silman for making the right decision. We all receive her with a warm embrace and open arms. Idit returned home - to the right, to the national camp. There is a weak and limping government in Israel today. Its days are few. I hereby call on other members of the coalition whose...

Former President Donald Trump was full of praise for terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a recent interview — while claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to reach a peace deal. Axios’ Barak Ravid, who conducted the interview with Trump for a new book about Trump’s peace efforts, reported Monday:

Netanyahu has ended his tenure in a less than respectable way on many levels. I've written about that a lot as one who voted Likud/Netanyahu every election the past 20 years except for two, most notably the last one. He's got so many truly great achievements for which he deservingly can take credit. But he made it way too clear that his politics was about him, not the country. The last number of days leading up to the vote this week, he tried every trick in the book, and then made up some more, to do anything to stay in...

In Israel today a new government voted in by the Knesset the country's parliament. The vote ends 12 years of leadership by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The vote 60-59 with one abstention.... Naftali Bennett has been sworn in as the new Prime Minister... Congratulations for the new government fro other nations including US President Joe Biden. Mr. Bennett spoke with Biden by phone... A large protest drew tens of thousands onto the streets of Madrid today. Many Spaniards opposed to pardons for Catalan political leaders... The Mayor of Moscow declaring non-working days from June 15th to 19th due to increased...

Welcome to Your Weekend the sentiments of my week expressed in the music set that reflects my opening up the boxes of my past to sort things out and throw away some things and keep others. The cards and letters from people in my past like the guy that lived in an "Animal House" fraternity setting and ended up joining the Salvation Army. The man who was the Best Man at my wedding who told me the truth about myself just years after I got married and was working in the mainstream media serving as the officer of the church...

723 new deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control following COVID-19 vaccination... The CDC holding an emergency meeting of advisers next Thursday regarding 226 cases of heart inflammation... Vaxx makers Moderna and Pfizer expect to make coronavirus vaccines available to children 5 to 11 by September... Police in Calgary, Alberta Canada continuing to move against churches trying to operate in spite of coronavirus restrictions... The Sun newspaper in the UK reporting that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is delaying easing of coronavirus restrictions... Two 'fully vaccinated' guests on a Royal Carribean cruise ship testing positive for COVID-19... In Oregon...

Day 446 Of The Dictatorship Of COVID-19, Day 446 Of America And The World Held Hostage The Australian Police State-Chicommunism Down Under The scene Today in Melbourne Australia's second largest city as small business owners protested the fourth lockdown of the state of Victoria... Don't even get started with a protest you will not be allowed to do so its Communist China Down Under. US Travel Bans For All Cops In Victoria Australia not to mention the government of that state. That's on my platform for next POTUS which should be Trump IMHO. He's the only Wild Card in the...

Unlike many Israelis, I am not spiking the ball or dancing in the endzone today (forgive the exclusive American cultural reference for those who don’t follow US football). Prime Minister Netanyahu, Bibi, is not public enemy No. 1. But his time to step down has passed, and that’s why this week Israel announced a new “unity” government, after four elections in two years. It gives me no sense of pride that we’ve come to this point, particularly how this has transpired. As Prime Minister, there’s no question that Bibi deserves enormous credit for many achievements, which many of his detractors...

As Yesh Atid party leader MK Yair Lapid was reportedly set to formally announce Tuesday that he had managed to put together a coalition after marathon overnight talks, the legal adviser to the president pushed back against a claim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party that the nascent government could not have Yamina’s Naftali Bennett serve as its first premier. The legal adviser to the office of President Reuven Rivlin, Udit Corinaldi-Sirkis, said in a statement that there was no legal reason why the MK entrusted with forming the coalition should not serve as alternate prime minister during the...