Is a ‘New Right’ ascending in Israel?

A constant stream of political polls gives clues to the stability of Israel’s current unity government anchored by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and challenger Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party. Read more

The great myth of Israeli annexation, Part II: De facto sovereignty

For the better part of the past year, one of the major diplomatic agenda items in the Middle East was whether or not Israel would apply its formal sovereignty over lands it controls in parts of Judea and Samaria, surrounding Jewish settlements, and along the strategic Jordan Valley. Read more

Abraham Accords are a paradigm shift of biblical proportions

The signing of normalization agreements between Israel and Muslim-majority Sunni Gulf States the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain represents the end of an era of pan-Arab belligerence towards the Jewish state, and the formal acknowledgment that it is a permanent fixture in the Middle East. Read more

Israelis are not celebrating upcoming holiday lockdown

Back in April and May, Israel halted what appeared to be the rapid trajectory of the coronavirus. A severe lockdown during the Passover holiday pushed the number of new cases per day, down from approximately 700 a few weeks earlier to less than two-dozen daily cases. At the time, many Israelis believed and hoped that the Jewish state’s bout with COVID-19 was coming to a rapid conclusion. Read more

Netanyahu, Trump and Obama doctrines on display with El Al flight to Emirates

When does a three-hour commercial flight from one nation to a neighbouring country represent a major diplomatic achievement? When the flight originates in Israel—a peace-seeking nation that has been subject to more hostility and double-standards than nearly every other nation on earth. Read more

Netanyahu’s five-point battleground to stay in power

Since fortifying Israel’s frayed political system with a victory over his political rivals and the formation of a unity coalition in April, governance for Israel’s embattled prime minister has been anything but simple. Read more

Netanyahu presumed innocent in Israel’s court of public opinion

Israeli media and their left-wing anti-Netanyahu allies have been anticipating for years the moment Benjamin Netanyahu would be dragged into a courtroom. Unable to beat Israel’s longest-serving prime minister at the polls, many have looked to a politically left-leaning legal system to get him out of office. Read more

Top 10 reasons Israel has (so far) survived coronavirus

Israelis are now once again taking to the streets in large numbers. Read more

Supreme Court validates Netanyahu government weeks after attempted putsch

On Wednesday, Israel’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected eight separate petitions filed against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the coalition agreement he signed with former challenger Benny Gantz. Read more

Netanyahu finally wins Israel’s elections, set to form large centre-right government

In a key political victory, embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured an additional 18 months in office, as challenger Benny Gantz dismantled his Blue and White Party alignment and agreed to bring his smaller Israel Resilience faction into a Netanyahu-led government. Read more

In his final act as Knesset Speaker, Edelstein ‘upholds dignity’ of Parliament

In the latest chapter in Israel’s political dysfunction, longtime Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein dramatically resigned his post on Wednesday rather than fulfill an overreaching order of the Supreme Court to hold an immediate vote on the assignment of a new speaker. Read more

Gantz fomenting Knesset crisis as Netanyahu leads Coronavirus response

In the midst of a bitter political crisis and without the support of a functioning Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been leading an aggressive response to Coronavirus to limit the spread of the highly contagious disease. Read more

Israel needs a ‘national responsibility government’

On Sunday, after a year of political deadlock, the eight parties that would be sworn into the Knesset the following day submitted to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin their recommendations for who should be tasked with assembling a government. Read more

A tale of two Israeli leaders

As coronavirus dominates headlines all over the world, Israel is emerging as a leader in the global fight to contain the pandemic, quickly enacting strict quarantine measures and border closures to limit the spread of the virus, as its biotech industries rush to develop home testing kits and vaccines. Read more

Netanyahu’s overwhelming victory and Gantz’s parliamentary putsch

Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents claim that the results of the three elections the country has held over the past 12 months have been essentially unchanged, with the embattled prime minister and his right-wing bloc repeatedly proving unable to muster a parliamentary majority. Read more

The undemocratic alliance bent on toppling Netanyahu

In Israel’s third election in less than one year, embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defeated his closest challenger by three Knesset seats (36-33), and his bloc of right-wing allies defeated the opposing left-wing bloc supporting challenger Benny Gantz by a stunning 18 seats (58-40). Yet, similar to the first two election contests, Netanyahu still remains precariously shy of a parliamentary majority. Read more

Netanyahu builds momentum in final days of third campaign

After 11 years of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, many Israelis have claimed that they are tired of Benjamin Netanyahu. Or are they? Read more

Challengers Gantz and Lapid attack Netanyahu-Trump relationship

Blue and White Party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are establishing their diplomatic credentials in the immediate run-up to Israel’s March 2 election with an insult to a U.S. administration that has arguably provided Israel with more diplomatic gains than any previous administration. Read more

‘Peace to Prosperity‘ plan shatters failed Oslo paradigm

With the presentation of its peace plan, titled, “Peace to Prosperity: A vision to improve the lives of the Palestinian and Israeli people,” the United States has essentially shattered the once-holy Oslo paradigm, having learned from the peace process’s failures and establishes a new path forward to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Read more

Why Trump is releasing his peace plan now

From early in the Trump administration, a Mideast peace team led by senior advisor to the President Jared Kushner, Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman set out to correct the mistakes of the failed Oslo Accords and redefine the terms for a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. Read more

Why Netanyahu is not planning to resign

While Israel’s government remains in a period of unprecedented paralysis, embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains entrenched in his position, despite being handed a series of criminal indictments that have been followed by calls from political opponents as well as longtime supporters for him to step aside and allow someone else to take over, either from the opposition or from his own ruling Likud Party. Read more

Gantz’s ‘internal war’ rhetoric is insulting and dangerous

Blue and White Party chairman and former Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz has insulted the decency and morality of Israel’s public, drawing false and dangerous comparisons between Israel’s current political dysfunction and the contentious period during which Israel entered into the highly controversial Oslo Accords in the early 1990s. Read more

Attorney for Netanyahu: What if the prime minister never received a bribe?

This week, a recording of a conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the owner of Israel’s Yediot Achronot newspaper, Arnon Mozes, was released to the press. Read more

Gantz’s empty mandate may lead back to Bibi

History has been made in Israel as, for the first time in a decade, someone other than Benjamin Netanyahu will be tasked with forming a government. Sort of. Read more

Joint Arab List’s ‘historic’ recommendation of Gantz likely to land in history’s dust bin

Israeli and international media have been making a lead story out of the Joint Arab List’s recommendation of Benny Gantz for prime minister, calling the recommendation “historic.” In regard to Israel’s current election deadlock, the announcement isn’t historic, influential or practical. And while the recommendation is important on some levels, it is so for reasons other than coalition-building. Read more

A ‘unity government’ cannot exclude religious parties

Try as some politicians might to make the current election about rifts between secular and religious Israelis, both the April and September polls were about a single issue: whether or not Benjamin Netanyahu will continue to serve as Israel’s prime minister. Read more

The political downfall of Israel’s right-wing

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political career as he continues to get battered by a complicated parliamentary system that he has led for the past 10 years—13 years in total. Read more

The results are in: Who will emerge from Israel’s election deadlock?

Israel’s hyper-democratic parliamentary system is being put to the test once again as the second round of elections in six months has yielded no clear winner. Read more

Tlaib two-step quickly validates Bibi ban

When Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri informed U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) they would not be receiving entry visas for their “trip to Palestine” as they described it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately followed with a lengthy statement in support of Deri’s action. Read more

The case for enlisting ‘haredi’ men into the Israeli military

Among key issues that have collapsed the 21st Knesset before its ministers have even been sworn into their positions is the enlistment, or lack of, Haredim serving in the military. Read more

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