Politics and Knesset
The Arab-majority alliance’s endorsement is contingent on Blue and White leader Benny Gantz forming a center-left government, says Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh.
“We are in the midst of a global event unlike anything in the history of the state’s existence,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Likud Party minister Ze’ev Elkin told JNS that the first hurdle is that by working in partnership with the Arab parties, “Blue and White, and Lieberman are lying to their voters.”
Of new cases, seven returned from Europe and six contracted virus in Israel • Patients reportedly in “light condition” with three already released from hospital.
“The law is unnecessary. At the time, it greatly wronged my people, but now it’s time to rethink it—and many other things,” says the Joint Arab List’s Aida Touma-Suleiman.
With 80,000 Israelis under self-quarantine, the nation has upped the number of countries on the no-fly list and begun putting tourists on planes home.
“I loathe bullying, but I am not taking any lessons from a party that has presided over systematic bullying and discrimination against those who stick up for the Jewish community and for Israel in this country,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“If you ask Israeli Arabs, they will say that part of their identity is Israeli. The younger generation feels more Israeli than Palestinian, but now they feel the state is accusing them of being traitors,” said Rodayna Badir, an expert on Arab society in Israel working on research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“Why beat around the bush? Pass a law saying Gantz is prime minister—not for four years, but for 40,” says Yamina’s Ayelet Shaked after Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz calls to pass a law barring an indicted prime minister from taking office.
Even after two other elections, the numbers remain tight, and other issues loom on the horizon—namely, the March 17 trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Contact has already been established with “a number of MKs from the other side,” says a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This is not the result that will put Israel back on the right path,” says Blue and White leader Benny Gantz after release of exit polls • Labor head Amir Peretz blames Gantz’s “irresponsible campaign” for “damaging the left-wing bloc.”
