Politics and Knesset
Yisrael Beiteinu leader: If there’s no progress by Yom Kippur, “we will enter any effort to form a government in high gear”; Netanyahu: “Yair Lapid is the only reason there is no unity government.”
It features Rob Abrams, a Jewish anti-Zionist activist who in May 2018 led the Kaddish prayer in Parliament Square for 62 Palestinians killed on the Israel-Gaza border, at least 50 of whom were Hamas operatives.
Arab parties call on attorney general to investigate the treatment by Israeli security forces of the alleged ringleader of terror cell that killed a 17-year-old Israeli in August.
Likud ministers claim Blue and White No. 2 Yair Lapid is intent on preventing a power-sharing agreement between party leader Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz cancels last-minute meeting with Likud • Likud Party accuses Blue and White of having decided to “go to elections.”
And Avigdor Lieberman says Yisrael Beiteinu will never sit with “the ultra-Orthodox, the messianics, the Joint List or the Democratic Union.”
Adjustment comes after “real evidence” of electoral fraud is found in six northern Israeli towns; Division of Knesset seats between left- and right-wing blocs remains unchanged.
“Boycotts do nothing to bring about peace and are designed entirely to demonize Israel. This is another dark day in the history of the Labour Party,” said Labour Friends of Israel director Jennifer Gerber.
The Cairo Declaration calls for a boycott of Israel, accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating “apartheid” and robbing Palestinian land with the help of America’s “unlimited support to the Zionist perpetrators of genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people.”
Trump administration officials say the political stalemate in Israel is leading to a significant missed opportunity from Israel’s perspective, hinting that things may change after the 2020 U.S. elections.
The court agreed to the delay after Human Rights Watch Israel/Palestine director Omar Shakir’s attorney argued that a new government coalition might interpret Israel’s 2017 anti-BDS law differently.
“The argument right now revolves around the question as to who should serve as prime minister first and who second. I hope President [Reuven] Rivlin succeeds in bridging both sides, and that a decision will be made on the matter,” said Yisrael Beiteinu Party leader Avigdor Lieberman.
