With the government’s popularity plummeting, a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless garnered only 18 votes in the Knesset on Monday evening, falling far short of the necessary majority to pass in the 120-strong Knesset plenum.
The vote was boycotted by the coalition, whose heads stated earlier in the day that they would “not take part in political theater during wartime.”
Argentina‘s ruling Peronist coalition smashed expectations to lead the country‘s general election on Sunday, setting the stage for a polarized run-off vote next month between Economy Minister Sergio Massa and far-right libertarian radical Javier Milei.
Economy Minister Sergio Massa received 35.9% of the vote, followed by La Libertad Avanza (LLA) Congressman Javier Milei (30.51%), who had emerged as the winner of the Aug. 13th Mandatory, Open and Simultaneous Preliminary Elections (PASO).
Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) of former President Mauricio Macri saw its candidate Patricia Bullrich with 23.61% of the vote.
After New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that a „reassessment“ of U.S.-Israel relations is inevitable and „a necessity before [Israel] truly does go off the rails,“ in light of the judicial overhaul on Wednesday, Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu joined the chorus of detractors on Wednesday.
Eliyahu told the Ynet news site that he believed Biden was being „fed by the radical left in the United States.”
(Jun 27, 2023)
The Biden administration took its most decisive action against Israel’s settlement enterprise this month, telling Jerusalem it will not be transferring any funds to research institutes or scientific and technological projects taking place in the West Bank.
Yet despite its change of policy regarding academic institutions across the Green Line (it told Israelis officials of the decision a few weeks ago, but the news only broke on Sunday), the White House has not overturned the Trump administration’s policy that the United States no longer views Israel’s settlements as illegal.
(Jul 12, 2023)
Republican members of Congress and presidential contenders are amplifying their criticism of U.S. President Joe Biden‘s Israel policy, largely centered around Biden‘s decision to stop transferring funds to research institutes or scientific and technological projects in the West Bank.
This is despite the fact that Biden stopped short of reversing the majority of Donald Trump‘s doctrine on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday formally extended an invitation for President Isaac Herzog to visit the White House on Tuesday, July 18, in an embrace of Israel’s head of state as Washington’s ties with the current government in Jerusalem remain icy.
Herzog will be in Washington to give an address on Wednesday to a joint session of Congress in honor of Israel’s 75th anniversary.
(July 11, 2023)
Whenever people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them that I’m a translator from English to English.
„My friends and I, many of whom are here around the table, have said this countless times, and millions of citizens who voted for the right-wing camp knew about the intention to reform the judicial system comprehensively,“ the prime minister added. „More than that, they demanded it from us. Anyone who was at our election rallies, in the city centers, in the neighborhoods, we heard the voice rising from the crowd.“
Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai met on Wednesday with former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Ya‘alon, former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, and attorney Eliad Shraga, chairman of The Movement for Quality Government, in light of the protest against planned judicial reforms in Israel and ahead of the Saturday demonstration in Tel Aviv.
(04.12.2022)
„It is not despite these challenges, but because of them, that I have not given up.“
J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy advocates.
However, with four days left, no clear coalition can be created following Tuesday’s election, according to a final poll carried out by Panels Politics on behalf of Maariv. As in a similar poll last Friday, the Netanyahu bloc received 60 seats, the Lapid bloc received 56 seats and Hadash-Ta’al received the remaining four, the survey found. The poll showed Hadash-Ta’al. Meretz, Labor, and Islamist Ra’am passing the electoral threshold of 3.25% of the general vote.
Rahimi was implicitly referring to hardliners who during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani opposed the agreement his government had concluded with world powers in 2015.
The lawmaker said that opposition to the deal was driven by political motives. He retorted that some politicians “did not want the previous government to restore the agreement. They wanted to be the ones to do it.”
Rahimi, a Sunni Muslim and a two-term parliament member, told the former opponents of JCPOA that they have to answer to the people as “why they did that to their livelihood.”
The basic income was a flagship policy of the populist 5-Star Movement (M5S), whose then leader, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, said „we have abolished poverty“ with the measure.
FdI was the only party to vote against it, Meloni noted with pride.
Gantz is expecting Lapid to be the silver platter on which his government will rest. He’s expecting Lapid to bow out gracefully a fourth time.
First, Lapid gave up on leading Kahol Lavan (back when it was a joint ticket). Then he gave up on a rotation as prime minister should it win. Then he let Naftali Bennett be the first prime minister in the outgoing rotation government. As far as Gantz and his supporters are concerned, that’s Lapid’s purpose – to be an indefatigable capitulator, the person who provides springboards and makes governments for others.
Despite its statements, the Interior Ministry plans to continue collecting fingerprints for its biometric ID database until 2025, at the earliest. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked has proposed a three-year extension of the emergency order that provides for gathering fingerprints from citizens. The Knesset must vote on the measure.
The ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority says it needs about two years to buy and introduce facial recognition technology that will obviate the need for fingerprints. The agency is considering retaining the fingerprint database for victim identification in the event of a national disaster.
The bill was rejected by the Knesset plenum six months ago, and since then, Shaked has struggled to obtain a majority. Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh (Hadash) said he was determined to prevent its passage. “We toppled the Citizenship Law, because we oppose racist, anti-democratic legislation”, Odeh said. “We will do everything we can to topple it again.” According to Hadash MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash), “This Israeli law is racist, collective, pre-emptive punishment. It can neither be justified, nor redeemed.” The Joint List also oppose Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s bill on drafting yeshiva students. All parties in the coalition support the bill, including Islamist Ra’am (United Arab List).
The controversial bill would tighten immigration controls and make it harder for Palestinians who marry Israeli Arabs to receive citizenship. The passage of a bill backed by right-wing parties and opposed by Meretz and Ra’am (United Arab List) was seen as a first step toward the formation of a right-wing government if opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu accepts a plea agreement.
(18.10.2021)
Speaking earlier at the official ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem commemorating the 26th anniversary of the assassination, Bennett said at the official ceremony in Jerusalem‘s Mount Herzl that an entire Israeli generation is suffering from PTSD, whose lives were shaken and molded by the assassination in 1995.
Mohsen Mehr-Alizadeh, one of the Reformist candidates in Iran’s presidential election, has dropped out of the race, in what will likely boost the chances of fellow Reformist candidate Nasser Hemmati for election.
The report, titled “Council rejects those responsible for the status quo,” also included an image of Reformist candidate Mostafa Tajzadeh, but did not name him in the text.
(05.05.2021)
On April 10, Khamenei told a grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late leader of the 1979 revolution, that he should not run. Hassan Khomeini, who had already chosen a well-known revolutionary catchphrase of his grandfather—”All of us together”—as his campaign slogan, had perhaps the best potential to increase turnout in the election and provide a victory to the embattled reformist-pragmatist camp.
With Khomeini out of the game, this faction convened in late April to choose alternative candidates.