Tag Archives: Israel

The Associated Press reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-awaited pre-indictment hearing on corruption charges began Wednesday in Jerusalem, as a jittery political world eagerly sought clarity on his legal standing amid the stalemate that followed the country’s second inconclusive election of the year. Netanyahu is currently struggling to prolong his lengthy rule by building a unity government with his …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin tapped Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next government, setting off weeks of political jockeying as the incumbent tries to maintain his hold on power. Mr. Rivlin’s announcement came as talks between Mr. Netanyahu and rival Benny Gantz to form a broad unity government after last week’s inconclusive election have …

Vanity Fair reports: Benjamin Netanyahu is learning the hard way that Donald Trump is a fair-weather friend. The right-wing Israeli prime minister had been among the president’s few steadfast friends on the world stage; Trump, in turn, has long stood strong with Netanyahu. But after Bibi appeared to suffer a stinging loss in the Israeli elections this week, Trump did …

Haaretz reports: U.S. President Donald Trump was “played” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on several occasions, said Trump’s former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday during a panel interview with Harvard professors. Tillerson, who had a contentious tenure as the U.S.’s top diplomat, said that Netanyahu is “an extraordinarily skilled” politician and diplomat, but “a bit Machiavellian.” He continued, …

Haaretz reports: With 98 percent of the vote counted in Israel’s election, Kahol Lavan grew by one seat to 33, widening its edge over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. Kingmaker Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party lost a seat, leaving it with eight in the incoming Knesset. The results give the center-left a slight advantage of 57 seats, compared to …

The Jerusalem Post reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on his chief electoral rival Blue and White Party head Benny Gantz to hold talks toward the creation of a unity government, during a speech he gave at the memorial ceremony for former Israeli president Shimon Peres. “I propose that we meet as soon as possible without preconditions to cooperate in …

Politico Europe reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies failed to garner a majority of seats in Israel’s legislature, as Israelis went to the ballot boxes for the second time in a year on Tuesday following an inconclusive election in April. With 92 percent of votes counted, the prime minister’s Likud party is set to take a total …

The Associated Press reports: In an apparent setback for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the longtime Israeli leader on Tuesday fell short of securing a parliamentary majority with his hard-line allies in national elections, initial exit polls showed, putting his political future in question. Results posted by Israel’s three major TV stations indicated that challenger Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White …

The Guardian reports: Facebook has suspended a chatbot on Benjamin Netanyahu’s official page after it breached hate speech policy by sending visitors a message warning of Arabs who “want to destroy us all”. Battling a tight election race in the run-up to the 17 September polls, the Israeli prime minister has sought to appeal to far-right religious and nationalist voters …

Politico reports: The U.S. government concluded within the last two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cell-phone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, D.C., according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying …

NBC News reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that he may annex the Jordan Valley and other parts of the occupied West Bank “in coordination” with the United States — a move that risks shattering the fragile status quo in the volatile region. “This is a historic opportunity to apply sovereignty to communities in Judea and Samaria,” he …

The Times Of Israel reports: The US State Department has removed the “Palestinian Territories” from its website’s list of countries and areas in the Middle East, sparking an uproar among Palestinian officials. The current version of the website only mentions Palestinians on its page for Israel, in the context of the Trump administration’s peace efforts. Archived versions of the State …

Israel’s Haaretz reports: U.S. President Donald Trump, in a series of bizarre Wednesday morning tweets, quoted praise from a conservative radio host who referred to him as the “King of Israel” and renewed his attacks on Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. The Twitter storm follows Trump’s latest controversy on Tuesday when he claimed that American Jewish people who vote for Democrats …

The Jerusalem Post reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, was furious after not being welcomed on the speakerphone on a plane by the captain of an El Al flight to Ukraine, according to Channel 12’s report on Sunday. Netanyahu rose from her seat and angrily requested to enter the cockpit, but the security guards prevented her from doing …

The New York Times reports: A day after barring Representative Rashida Tlaib under pressure from President Trump, Israel said on Friday that she could visit her 90-year-old grandmother, who lives in the occupied West Bank, but only after she agreed in writing not to “promote boycotts against Israel” during her trip. But after being criticized by backers of a boycott, …

NRP reports: Israel’s interior ministry announced Friday that it would allow Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan to enter the country as a private citizen to visit her aging grandmother, reversing an earlier decision to bar her amid pressure from President Trump. The about-face on Tlaib, whose parents are Palestinian immigrants to the U.S. and who has close relatives in …

The Huffington Post reports: Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), two of Israel’s sharpest critics in Congress, have been barred from entering the country ahead of their proposed visit to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel officials announced Thursday. Israel decided to ban the freshman lawmakers in response to their support for the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment …

Haaretz reports: Advertising companies have to run the anti-gay campaign ads created by the ultra-Orthodox-Zionist Noam party, the acting chairman of the Central Elections Committee Neal Hendel [photo] ruled Tuesday. Hendel determined that in their decision not to run Noam ads, some billboard companies had derogated from equality and freedom of expression, and caused “effective harm to [Noam’s] ability to …

Politico reports: Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, both outspoken critics of Israel and its occupation of the West Bank, will be allowed into the country during a trip there in a few weeks, the Israeli ambassador said Friday, potentially heading off a diplomatic spat. “Out of respect for the U.S. Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America, …

The Times Of Israel reports: More than a dozen rabbis from the city of Elad near Tel Aviv issued an edict declaring all dogs bad and warning residents that keeping them will make them accursed. The edict, dated June 14, contains the signatures of all the Sephardic rabbis in Elad, a city of about 46,000 residents where most of the …