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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israel’s enemies from trying to attack the Jewish State Tuesday, hours after the IDF struck targets in Syria. “We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers," the prime minister said. "We will do what is necessary in order to defend ourselves. I suggest to all of them, including Hezbollah, to consider this. These are not vain words; they have the weight of the State of Israel and the IDF behind them and this should be taken seriously.” Netanyahu had just completed a tour of the IDF Home Front Command headquarters in Ramla...

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,” notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change” in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.” And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set off quite a storm on Monday night following a press conference when he updated the nation regarding the latest loosening measures of the Health Ministry’s regulations. That’s because during his speech, he alluded to the idea of installing distance sensors onto children that like a car, beep when they get to close to people. Regarding an anticipated second wave of the coronavirus, Netanyahu recommended “new technologies that haven’t yet been activated. Technologies that are within the confines of the law that we will activate. This means perhaps, new methods that we’re discussing.” “I’ve spoken...

Claims to interlocutors that law enforcement has damning info on Lieberman, used it to 'extort' him into leaving right-wing bloc... "There's no democracy here, but a government of bureaucrats and jurists," he said... "They want to see me sitting in jail," he said in one private conversation, where "they" meant the entire system. Even before the judges hearing his criminal cases were chosen, he was convinced that a hidden hand would arrange the most "left-wing" and least lenient bench possible. Before the elections, when several ministers asked why Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman sought to topple him, Netanyahu repeatedly blamed...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday thanked his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for rushing a five-tonne cargo of medicines, including anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, seen as a possible cure for COVID-19. "Thank you, my dear friend @narendramodi, Prime Minister of India, for sending Chloroquine to Israel. All the citizens of Israel thank you!", Netanyahu said in a tweet Thursday evening. The Israeli’s PM’s thanked India two days after a plane carrying materials used to make medicines for treating coronavirus patients arrived in Israel from India on Tuesday. The five tonne shipment included ingredients for drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, being seen...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered quarantine after one of his aides tested positive for the CCP virus. Netanyahu and some of his staffers were entering self-isolation after Rivka Paluch, a Netanyahu adviser, tested positive for the new illness, Netanyahu’s office said. “Even before the epidemiological investigation is over and to remove all doubt, the prime minister has decided that he and his close staff will remain in isolation until the epidemiological investigation is completed,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “According to the findings, the Health Ministry and the personal physician of the prime minister will set a day...

Americans, and indeed all people of goodwill, should be pleased to see that Israel finally has broken its 15-month political impasse. Amidst a global pandemic, jihadists might have misinterpreted instability in Israel as providing them with a chance to spark a conflagration without fearing effective repercussions from a stricken and distracted Western world. But now that three-time challenger Bennie Gantz has agreed to let Benjamin Netanyahu continue for 18 months as prime minister in a “unity government,” there will be no doubt that Israel itself can act against any aggression with solidarity and dispatch. Gantz and some but not all...

PM tells Channel 13 News: If there is no choice-we will impose fines on civilians or go to a total blockade. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave an interview to Channel 13 News Saturday night, in which he discussed the coronavirus crisis and said that "if there is no choice, we impose fines on civilians or go to a full closure". Netanyahu thus confirmed a report in Channel 13 News which said that he had been discussing the possible imposition of fines on people who leave their homes for purposes other than equipping themselves with essential products or receiving medical treatment,...

Israel appeared to be barreling toward a constitutional crisis Thursday as opponents took to the streets and turned to the Supreme Court to fight a series of unprecedented steps taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while confronting the coronavirus pandemic. In recent days, Netanyahu and his surrogates have shut down the court system, approved the use of sophisticated phone-surveillance technology on the general public and temporarily suspended the activities of parliament. While Netanyahu has defended the moves as extraordinary steps in extraordinary times, his opponents accuse him of undermining Israel’s democratic foundations in a desperate bid to cement his grip...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ordered most schools in the country to close as a precaution against coronavirus, and called for the formation of an emergency national unity government. Primary and secondary schools, with some exceptions such as special education programs, would be shut, he said. “We are altering our internal routine in order to handle an outside threat, the threat of the virus,” Netanyahu, 70, said in remarks broadcast live. The right-wing leader’s tenure is in doubt after three inconclusive elections in less than a year. Calling for a unity government, he said: “It will be an...

Everyone arriving in Israel will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days to combat coronavirus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced. "All those coming to Israel from abroad will be placed in isolation for 14 days," he said on his Twitter account. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said the measure would be effective immediately for all Israelis returning to the country. It will apply to foreign citizens from Thursday, he added. They will have to prove they have adequate accommodation to be quarantined during their stay in the country.

Vice President Mike Pence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and hundreds of members of Congress attended a conference last month along with at least two people who have tested positive for a novel strain of coronavirus that has killed more than 3,000 people across the globe. “We have confirmed that at least two Policy Conference attendees from New York have tested positive for the Coronavirus,” the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, said in a statement on Twitter. This year’s AIPAC conference featured a who’s who of high-profile politicians, both from the U.S. and Israel. In addition to...

The State of Israel on March 2, 2020 had its third parliamentary election for the Knesset in under a year. Like the two previous occasions, it failed to end with a party or party group gaining an overall majority and thus able to form a government, either on its own or in a coalition. The existing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at first claimed victory, but his coalition won only a plurality, 58 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, four short of an overall majority. Consultations have now begun to determine how a new government can be formed and who...

Jerusalem — Israel looked set to slide back into political deadlock on Wednesday as the final votes were being tallied from the third election in less than a year. CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party was holding on to a solid lead, but appeared to be falling short of the 61 seats needed to form a government. With nearly all the votes counted, Likud led the way with 36 seats followed by Benny Gantz's centrist Blue and White party, with 33 seats. The Joint List, an umbrella group of Arab-led parties, finished third with...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surged ahead of his chief political rival but looked set to fall two seats short of a governing majority in the country’s third election in under 12 months Monday, according to exit polling. Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party was predicted to win 36 seats, while its rival, the centrist Blue and White party, would capture 32. With roughly 90 percent of the votes already counted, both Netanyahu's right-wing bloc and Blue and White's centrist and left-wing bloc were set to fall short of the 61 seats needed to form a governing coalition in the 120-seat parliament,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Monday's election "the biggest win of my life" in his victory speech at Expo Tel Aviv that started at 2:20am Tuesday. He added "we plowed the country from north to south. There is nothing like the citizens of Israel. Israeli citizens trust us because they know that we have brought the best decade in Israeli history." Netanyahu was greeted by cheers calling him "Bibi, king of Israel." "The victory is even sweeter, because it was against all odds and we were eulogized," he told the crowd. "We turned the lemons into lemonade."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in winning 60 seats for his bloc of right-wing and religious parties in Monday’s election, one less than he needed for a majority in the Knesset, according to exit polls on the three television networks. The first polls indicated that Netanyahu’s Likud won 36-37 seats. Its allies in Shas, UTJ and Yamina won 9, 7-8 and 6-7 respectively. The polls showed Blue and White with 33 seats, its ally Labor-Gesher-Meretz 6-7, the Joint List 14-15 and Yisrael Beytenu 6-8. When Channel 13 updated its numbers at around 1 a.m. Israel time, Gantz gained one seat...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party is set to become Israel’s largest party, according to exit polls published shortly after voting ended in the country’s third election in a year. However, neither Netanyahu nor his chief rival Benny Gantz are projected a clear Knesset majority. Voting ended at 10 P.M., and official results are expected as early as Monday overnight.

Some Israeli celebrities took to social media on Monday to post about the unprecedented third round of elections in Israel, but many chose not to rock the vote so much as ignore it. Among those who did acknowledge the day were actress/model Yuval Scharf, who posted a picture of herself on Instagram canoodling with her husband, musician Shlomi Shaban, next to the message, "Choose right ♥️ #govote #forabettertomorrow#today"

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “reactionary racist” while defending his support for Israel at Tuesday night’s Democratic debate. "I'm very proud of being Jewish. I actually lived in Israel for some months. But what I happen to believe is that right now, sadly, tragically, in Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country," Sanders said at the debate in Charleston, S.C., just days ahead of the state's Democratic primary. Sanders's comments came the same week that he said he wouldn't be attending the annual American Israel Public...