Gantz said, “It was an easy decision to enter the government, but the decision to leave was very difficult.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

According to a Channel 12 poll, a right-leaning party consisting of Naftali Bennett, Yossi Cohen, and Gideon Sa’ar would claim 24 Knesset seats, the largest in the Knesset.

The poll taken on Monday also indicated that in such an election, the National Unity Party would take 20 seats, Likud 16, Shas 9, Otzma Yehudit 8, Yesh Atid 8, Yisrael Beytenu 7, and an alliance between Labor and Meretz win 7.

In addition, United Torah Judaism would win 6 seats, the Religious Zionist Party 5, Ra’am 5 and Hadash-Ta’al 5.

War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday night announced that his National Unity Party would leave the government that was established after October 7th.

At a press conference in Ramat Gan, Gantz said, “It was an easy decision to enter the government, but the decision to leave was very difficult.”

“Unfortunately, Netanyahu is stopping us from reaching a true victory,” continued Gantz. “Therefore, we are now leaving, today, the unity government. With a heavy heart, but wholeheartedly.”

Gantz urged Netanyahu to do “everything he can” to support Biden’s 3-phase hostage deal.

Gantz said National Unity will back “any responsible roadmap” from the opposition.

The post New right-wing Israeli party would be largest if elections were today appeared first on World Israel News.

Liberman’s conditions include Sabbath public transportation, a haredi conscription bill, and steps to decrease the authority of the Chief Rabbinate.

By JNS

Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Sunday agreed to Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman’s coalition demands, tweeting a Facebook post by Liberman showing his party’s preconditions for joining a Gantz-led government and writing, “Agreed, we must move forward.”

Liberman’s conditions include the delegation of the operation of public transportation and businesses on Shabbat to local authorities; a haredi conscription bill; allowing civil marriage in Israel; allowing local rabbis to oversee conversions; and setting pensions equal to at least 70 percent of the current minimum wage.

Separately on Sunday, the Knesset increased Gantz’s security detail after various death threats against him since Israel’s election last week were deemed credible, the AP reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party won more votes than Blue and White, but still does not have a 61-seat majority required to form a government.

According to Gantz, a man tried to assault him on Saturday evening as he arrived at a speaking engagement. The Blue and White leader also claims that Netanyahu supporters have been threatening him online, citing posts calling for him to be murdered just like former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated by a Jewish ultra-nationalist in 1995.

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The Israeli politician also accused the prime minister of shirking his domestic duties to focus on bolstering his image in advance of the upcoming elections.

By World Israel News

Leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party Avigdor Liberman referred to the forthcoming release of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan five weeks before Israeli elections as, “a little suspicious to say the least.”

Liberman made the remarks on Saturday at an event in Raanana, Ynet reported.

“Instead of going 2.4 km to the Knesset” to pass a law enacting Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, “[Netanyahu] would rather fly 9,476 km to Washington,” he added

According to Liberman, the Knesset could pass a sovereignty law “this Tuesday.” He referred to Netanyahu’s claims regarding sovereignty as “a public relations stunt,” Times of Israel reported.

Liberman also referred to Netanyahu’s pursuit of immunity in the corruption cases he is currently battling and accused the prime minister of promoting “religious coercion.”

With regard to Lieberman’s comments about the White House peace plan, the Israeli politician was referring to the reported imminent release of the Trump’s blueprine to resolve the decades-long conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Trump said he would likely release his long-awaited Mideast peace plan shortly before he meets Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main political rival Benny Gantz, just five weeks before Israel heads to the polls for the third round time in less than a year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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“These are the death throes of your career,” Education Minister Rafi Peretz, head of the national religious Jewish Home party, told Liberman.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Political figures and education leaders on Tuesday fiercely criticized Yisrael Beitenu head Avigdor Liberman for saying that some religious pre-army military academies are “turning into religious militias.”

Speaking at the IDC Herzliya Conference earlier in the day, Liberman first acknowledged that these academies “have prepared some of the best, most courageous fighters, and I hope they continue to operate.”

His suggested solution was to put them under the sole auspices of the Defense Ministry. The mechinot (pre-army academies) are currently funded by the Education Ministry within the national religious department.

Reactions to his statement were fast and furious.

“Someone who attacks the heroes of Israel just to get a few votes should be ashamed of himself,” remarked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he listed a some well-known graduates of these academies who died in service of their country.

“There has never been an educational enterprise that contributed to the army and the state like the pre-military academies,” declared Education Minister Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who headed one such academy in Gush Katif, the Jewish communities in Gaza that existed before the 2005 Disengagement.

“As one who founded one of the flagships in Atzmona and raised thousands of youth to contribute and volunteer for the country, I say to Liberman: Release us, your time has come and gone. These are the death throes of your career. At a time when Israeli society needs unity and healing of rifts – you just stoke the fire and deepen the polarization,” Peretz said.

Liberman later took to Facebook in an attempt to clarify his remarks. Echoing Netanyahu, he said the mechina students are “the salt of the earth. But in order to preserve this tremendous enterprise … we must distance them from the rabbis who preach values that contradict the IDF’s heritage.”

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New Transportation Minister Betzalel Smotrich says that the most important goal is to create a new government without Liberman, who insists on the drafting of haredi men.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In a wide-ranging interview on Kan 11 News Monday, incoming Transportation Minister Betzalel Smotrich of the Union of Right Wing Parties said that as a man of God, he does what he believes is good for the country and its citizens.

“I’m not the prime minister’s man, I’m a man of the people of Israel,” Smotrich said. “I’m a man of the public that I represent. I serve God and do what I believe and think is good for the State and the people of Israel.”

This includes trying to build a united and strong right-wing for the upcoming elections that does not include Yisrael Beitenu, whose leader began his campaign by attacking haredi parties and, in particular, insisting on the drafting of ultra-Orthodox young men into the IDF.

“The big challenge for the right wing in these elections is to manage to form a stable government without Avigdor Liberman,” the national-religious minister said. “Every person who will run to the right of the Likud and wants to run in the next Knesset must run under one party name.”

He confirmed that to that end, he is willing to set aside his leadership aspirations if it will bring popular former justice minister Ayelet Shaked into the fold.

“Unequivocally, I will give up every place [on the party list] and every role, because this unification is more important than anything else,” Smotrich said. “Our responsibility in this campaign is to prevent the very costly and dangerous loss of right-wing votes again. If it were not for the loss of votes, we would have had a wonderful right-wing government here.”

Shaked and Naftali Bennett broke off from the Jewish Home party before the last elections to form the New Right, which narrowly missed crossing the electoral threshold, leading to the loss of four seats in the Knesset that would have allowed the Likud to build a coalition.

Smotrich, whose new job includes a seat at the security cabinet, also repeated his hard-line views on how Israel should react to the terrorism emanating from the Gaza Strip.

“My position is that at the end of the day, the only solution for Gaza that will finally bring peace, quiet and security to the residents of the South is to return to the Gaza Strip, take responsibility for it and re-establish the Gush Katif communities,” he said. “Until then, we only have tactical solutions — and there too we have to charge a more dramatic price.”

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Israel is heading to elections again after Netanyahu and his Likud party have failed to put together a viable coalition.

By Agencies and World Israel News Staff

After receiving an extension from President Reuven Rivlin, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu failed to form a coalition of 61 Knesset members needed to establish a government.

While 65 members of Knesset recommended that Netanyahu be entrusted with the formation of the new government after winning the April elections, he was unable to bridge the differences among his potential coalition partners.

Israeli lawmakers took the unprecedented step of dissolving the Knesset, throwing the country back into another election season just weeks after a national election.

After a 12-hour debate, lawmakers approved a measure by a vote of 74 to 45 to dissolve the 21st Knesset and hold new elections on September 17. The Likud-sponsored bill was supported by fellow right-wing parties Israel Beiteinu, United Torah Judaism, Shas and the Union of Right-Wing Parties as well as two Israeli Arab parties, Ra’am Balad and Hadash Ta’al.

As one of the only acts of the 21st Knesset, the decision to dissolve the parliament came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to form a governing coalition.

The failure largely came as a result of an impasse between former defense minister and Israel Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Liberman and the ultra-Orthodox parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism over a military draft bill.

Netanyahu needed 61 seats to form a governing coalition. Without Israel Beiteinu’s five seats, the Israeli premier would only have 60 seats in his right-wing coalition. As such, the move to dissolve the Knesset was set to preempt Israeli President Reuven Rivlin from choosing someone else to form a governing coalition after the May 30 deadline.

Lieberman, whose party draws support from Israel’s largely secular Russian immigrant community, refused to join the government unless the draft bill, which was crafted in the last Knesset, would be passed unaltered, which the ultra-Orthodox parties dismissed outright.

“To my sorrow, the State of Israel is going to elections,” Liberman told reporters at the Knesset. “We are natural partners in a right-wing government; we won’t be partners in a halachic government.”

“The Likud failed in this work of building a coalition… and they and the Haredim are to blame for Israel going to elections.”

In a statement, Netanyahu largely blamed Lieberman for the failure to form a government.

“The public in Israel made a clear decision. It decided that I will be prime minister, that the Likud will lead the government, a right-wing government,” said Netanyahu. “The public voted for me to lead the State of Israel.”

“All of the requests and demands of Israel Beiteinu were repeatedly rejected,” continued Netanyahu. “I presented a proposal. He rejected it. He wanted, in the clearest way, to bring down the government.”

“Avigdor Liberman is now part of the left. He brings down right-wing governments. Don’t believe him again,” he said.

The dissolution of the Knesset comes after a frantic day of political offers and horse trading that saw Likud negotiators offer a wide range of ministries and legislative promises to members of the Labor Party and Blue and White Party, who are both set to sit in the opposition.

As one of the biggest possible political bombshells, Likud offered Labor to join the coalition in exchange for possible portfolios such as Finance and Justice. Even senior Labor MK Amir Peretz was reportedly offered the presidency following the end of Rivlin’s term. The reports also suggested that the government would nix legislation to override the Supreme Court and immunity for Netanyahu.

However, Labor reportedly rejected these offers after serious consideration.

Additionally, reports indicated that Likud negotiators looked into the possibility of bringing in some members of the Blue and White Party into the coalition. MKs were offered a range of portfolios from Defense and Finance, to Justice, Culture and Communications. Others were also offered future appointments as ambassadors or favorable legislation for specific MKs such as addressing Druze concerns over the nation-state law or speeding up the immigration of Ethiopia’s Falash Mura community.

In the hours before the vote to dissolve parliament, reports also surfaced of a compromise deal between Liberman and the ultra-Orthodox parties whereas the military draft bill would get a first reading and afterwards would proceed for a second and third reading by “mutual consent.”

Likud purportedly pressured the ultra-Orthodox parties to back the proposal or risk going back to the original military draft law, which would mean thousands of a ultra-Orthodox men would be liable to be drafted.

In the end, all the negotiations and proposals were rejected.

In his comments following the dissolution, Netanyahu declared that Likud “will run a sharp and clear election campaign, and we will win.”

The post Netanyahu fails to form government, new election called for Sept. 17 appeared first on World Israel News.

“Bombing an empty building and then feeling good, as if this is what is deterring Hamas, is nonsense – it does not work,” the New Right leader said.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Education Minister Naftali Bennett demanded a much more severe response to Monday’s rocket barrage by Hamas on Israel and repeated his wish to become defense minister in order to “deal with Hamas properly.”

Israeli fighter jets struck over a dozen Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets across the Gaza Strip on Monday. Early Tuesday, tanks and helicopters joined the attack on the Hamas’ military. Israel also allegedly gave warnings ahead of time so that the buildings were unpopulated when hit.

This didn’t satisfy Bennett, who heads the New Right party.

“I expect the prime minister to give the IDF an order to sever Hamas from its capabilities” and to keep it that way, he told residents of Kibbutz Alumim in the south.

“Bombing an empty building and then feeling good as if this is what is deterring Hamas is nonsense – it does not work,” he asserted.

Bennett also opposed the idea of a ceasefire with Hamas on Monday night.

“A ceasefire at this time would be a hallucinatory ‘wind at the back’ for terror,” he stated. “There’s not a country in the world that wouldn’t exact a price for missiles on its citizens, and there’s not a country in the world whose citizens’ blood is forfeit as we’ve experienced over the last several days.”

Al-Jazeera reported overnight that Egypt had brokered a Hamas-Israel ceasefire, but Foreign Minister Israel Katz categorically denied it Tuesday morning.

“There is no ceasefire,” Katz said in an interview on Israeli radio. On the other hand, he added, “It may be possible to eliminate Hamas, but there is no real proposal to topple Hamas.”

Avigdor Liberman, former defense minister and chairman of the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu party, joined Bennett Tuesday in blasting the IDF response as being too weak. Writing on his Facebook page, he said, “How does it happen that after a ‘powerful’ response, according to the prime minister, no terrorist was even scratched?”

Liberman, who resigned last November from his post after publicly disagreeing about Israel’s response to the Hamas terror activities, called for an urgent meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to discuss the events of the last few days.

The post Ceasefire with Hamas ‘hallucinatory,’ Bennett says appeared first on World Israel News.

In an exclusive interview, Yair Shamir clarifies why acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz was out of context when he quoted his father, former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, and reveals some new information about the late Israeli leader.

By Avrohom Shmuel Lewin, JNS

Acting Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz caused an uproar last week during an interview with Israeli TV when he quoted former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir as having said, “the Poles suckle anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk.”

As a result, Poland and Czechoslovakia cancelled their participation in a meeting of European Union members in Israel that was to have been taking place the following day. Ultimately, the meeting was canceled all together.

In an exclusive interview in Tel Aviv with JNS, Yair Shamir, 73, a former agriculture minister who also served as chairman of El Al Airlines and of Israel Aerospace Industries, spoke of his father’s remarks about the Poles and why Katz’s statement was out of place. He also expressed trepidation about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance and revealed things about his father that were never disclosed.

Yair Shamir: My father’s parents lived in a town in Poland that had a mixed population of Jews and non-Jews, and my father’s father (my grandfather) served as head of the population of both the Jews and non-Jews. The non-Jews would also come to him to settle disputes that would arise among themselves, or between them and other Jews. He worked in the lumber industry, owning several forests, and most of his employees were Poles.

When the war broke out, his employees helped him build a shelter and hiding place; it was like a bunker, where he stored food, beds and blankets, and everything you would need. He brought his family to live in this bunker—my father’s sisters, their husbands and children. But those same employees who helped him build the bunker later murdered him and the entire family, and took all of their belongings.

My father wasn’t there because he had immigrated to Eretz Israel [the Land of Israel] in 1935. He repeatedly wrote and pleaded with them to leave Poland and come to Israel to join him, but his father kept pushing him off, saying “maybe next year.”

‘Katz missed the context’

So you can understand why my father spoke in such a way about the Poles. However, Katz missed the context in which he said it. There was Yitzhak Shamir the private citizen and then there was Yitzhak Shamir the foreign minister or the prime minister representing the State of Israel. As a private citizen, he would say things like “the Poles suckle anti-Semitism with their mothers’ milk” or “my foot will never step on Polish soil.” He would never even speak their language. As far as he personally was concerned, he was “finished with them.”

Then there was Yitzhak Shamir the foreign minister. As such, he realized that Poland was an important country and it was imperative to forge good diplomatic relations with it; therefore, he would contain his emotions. Katz did not make that differentiation and caused an outcry.

Q: What is your take on the upcoming elections in Israel? Is there a threat to Netanyahu’s leadership?

YS: This election will be interesting. The small parties will dissipate. Only two blocs will remain, and the people will have to choose either here or there; there’s no ambiguity. I think in the end, Bibi [Netanyahu] will take the election, but if he would not have run at all, the Likud would take the election without any doubt. People are fed up with Bibi.

On the one hand, Bibi is showing more maturity than before; he is taking more risks and is doing things that he didn’t do before, like developing ties with the Arab world. And he is trying to get more votes for the Likud by steering the Likud more to the center of the political spectrum than to the right. But as far as the “grand plan” for Israel is concerned, I see an erosion; I don’t see him showing any strength in that area.

Q: If, as you say, he is developing ties with the Arab world, where do you see an erosion? What grand plan are you talking about?

YS: I mean in the area of Eretz Israel. He is ready to make territorial concessions because when he meets with Arab leaders, what can he offer them besides territory? Of course, there’s the common enemy that brings Bibi together with the Arab world: Iran. But, in the end, at some stage, they will demand more Israeli concessions in exchange for any relations.

Q: One can say the same thing about your father when he went to meet with the Arab world in Madrid?

Netanyahu ‘remains ambiguous’

YS: When he went to Madrid, my father made a condition loud and clear that he is going only to negotiate peace for peace, but if you want to negotiate land for peace, then forget about it. “I’m not coming,” he said. Bibi is not saying that.

Another thing, Bibi never retracted his speech that he made at Bar-Ilan University in favor of a two-state solution, nor did he cancel the Oslo accords. He remains ambiguous about these issues.

Q: Is that why he is not promoting settlement activity in Judea and Samaria?

YS: I think he knows details of Trump’s peace plan, that it will demand territorial concessions there. He is interested in that plan being delayed as much as possible. Therefore, he feels that any action in Judea and Samaria will accelerate the announcement of the peace plan. He is very careful and never took concrete action to promote settlement activity in Judea and Samaria.

I think this reflects his true opinion, as stated in his speech at Bar-Ilan; therefore, he is leaving all the doors open in Judea and Samaria. That’s not good. On the one hand, the Jewish population is growing there, and at the same time, the security situation has weakened there. The Arabs have become more brazen because they feel the world has their back.

In Gaza, the situation is worse than in Judea and Samaria because in Judea and Samaria they know that the IDF will enter whenever they want. In Gaza, however, they use civilians as human shields, so it is much more difficult. They know how to play with human lives very well.

Q: Have you missed being out of politics?

YS: Not at all, and I have no desire to return. There is no one to talk to; there is no common ground; it’s all about extreme egotism and personal interests. There is no ideology, no vision, no goal. When I joined the Yisrael Beiteinu party, I thought I could make a difference, and although I did make some changes, they were minor. In order to make a significant change, you have to have partners, and I don’t feel there are partners there today.

In my opinion, the only one in the Knesset today that is ideologically inclined and doesn’t have only personal interests in mind is Ayelet Shaked. She has proven to be a very capable, clever and eloquent politician with integrity. If she were in Likud, she would be a real threat to Bibi.

By the way, after I was sworn in as agriculture minister six years ago, she came over to me and, after introducing herself, said that she entered politics because of my father. She said that when she was an elementary student in the eighth grade, my father once came to speak before her class. She was so impressed and taken by his integrity, honesty and conviction that when she came home that day after school, she told her parents: “I want to be a politician like Yitzhak Shamir when I grow up.”

Liberman ‘was a disappointment’

Q: Do you think your colleague Avigdor Liberman was qualified to be defense minister, and should he have resigned as he did?

YS: At first, I thought he was qualified, but after watching him perform, I realized that I was wrong. He was a disappointment; he could have done more if he wanted. A defense minister of Israel is supposed to transcend petty politics. When a defense minister of Israel resigns, it should cause an “earthquake,” not be viewed as a political move. But it passed without any outcry, as if it were a minor minister who resigns for political reasons.

Defense is Israel’s lifeline. His resignation was met with total apathy because he didn’t do anything during the time he was on the job, and so the people felt that nothing was lost by his resignation.

Q: Uri Ariel succeeded you in the agricultural ministry. Has he made any significant changes?

YS: I hear there is more infighting in the office since I left. That weakens the ministry significantly, and as a result, the agricultural industry in Israel is in retreat.

Q: Much has been written about your father in the course of the years. Can you tell us something about him that was not mentioned?

YS: I can tell you something personal in how he related to me that was not written anywhere. When I was training in the air force, I wrote him a letter that I was working to become an officer. At that time, my father was working for the Mossad in Europe. He wrote me back: “If you are going to lead others, always remember the biblical verse, Tzedek tzedek tirdof (Justice, justice shall you pursue).

At that time, I thought that he was telling me to be honest and act fairly with those under my command. Once, when I was older, I asked him why does it say tzedek twice? He replied, “Go study.” That was his standard reply whenever I would ask him something: “Go and find out for yourself.”

I searched and found that the first tzedek is to judge according to the law. The second is to have mercy—to take into account the circumstances facing the person in front of you and not to judge him only according to the law.

Another thing people don’t know about my father is that he loved chazzanut (cantorial music). He could sit and listen to it for hours. Over the weekend, there would be a two-hour radio program of chazzanut; we knew during that time that we couldn’t interrupt him.

Q: Did he have a favorite chazzan (cantor)?

YS: Yes, Cantor Shmuel Malavsky and family. I love chazzanut and opera too. I also have all the albums of Chassidic singers like Mordechai Ben David, Yaakov Shweky, Avraham Fried. My favorite is Avraham Fried. Whenever I’m depressed, I’ll listen to songs by Avraham Fried.

Q: When they asked your father to succeed Menachem Begin, did it come as a surprise to your family?

YS: Look, Begin stopped functioning quite a long time before he resigned. My father was foreign minister, and Ariel Sharon was defense minister. Sharon tried to implement all kinds of moves that he would not dare have tried when Begin was strong. But now Begin was weak and could not interfere, and  Sharon posed a problem. Finally, Begin announced he can’t lead anymore, and a struggle for the leadership ensued between my father and David Levy. Although my father was not the type to fight for leadership, he felt that for the sake of the country he has to prevent Levy from taking charge. He felt Levy was not qualified to be prime minister.

Opposed to peace deal with Egypt

Q: How did your father view Sadat coming to Jerusalem and the Camp David Accords?

YS: Generally, he supported forging ties with Egypt, which at that time was the biggest Arab country. What bothered him most was the price Israel had to pay for it—that we agreed to uproot settlements. He was adamantly opposed to that because he felt that was a precedent and would repeat itself later. I asked him why, when the vote for the peace deal with Egypt came up, he abstained. He said the clause in the agreement about uprooting settlements bothered him very much.

Q: Why abstain and not vote against it?

YS: I imagine because he was Speaker of the House and didn’t want to embarrass Begin. The deal would have passed anyway with an overwhelming majority, even if my father would have voted against it.

Q: At first, your father was reluctant to attend the Madrid peace conference in 1991, but in the end he did attend. What made him change his mind?

YS: There was tremendous pressure from the United States, and there were very hard and intense negotiations beforehand. In the end, all of my father’s conditions were met. Land for peace was not on the agenda. There was no independent representation of the PLO; they came as part of the Jordanian delegation. All the Arab states attended.

There is another condition that was never made known; I myself heard it from somebody else, not from my father. My father never spoke of it with us. He made a condition that a number of Jewish families should be allowed to leave Syria and unite with their families in Israel. That condition was met as well.

Q: Finally, what was it like being the son of the prime minister?

YS: Well, when my father became prime minister, I was 37 years old. I had already been a military officer, so it wasn’t as big a deal as it would have been for a kid whose father became prime minister.

The post Yitzhak Shamir’s son: Katz took father’s ‘Poles suckle anti-Semitism’ words out of context appeared first on World Israel News.

Since Liberman’s resignation, political indicators point to Israel’s return to the ballot to elect a new government.

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

A tumultous week on the Israeli political scene points to early elections within 90 days, senior coalition officials estimate.

Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman announced his resignation on Wednesday, leaving the Likud-led government with a narrow coalition of 61 Members of Knesset.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted by saying he had no interest in moving up the elections. He immediately began a round of consultations with senior Likud figures and leaders of the coalition parties in an effort to stabilize the government.

The Yedioth Aharonoth daily quoted a senior coalition official as saying that the prime minister “does not want to give Liberman the credit that he led to the elections and caused the collapse of the government … There is one person who sets the agenda, and his name is Benjamin Netanyahu.”

However, Minister of Education Naftali Bennett presented Netanyahu with an ultimatum Wednesday evening: Give us the defense portfolio or my Jewish Home party will quit the coalition.

Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon, whose Kulanu party is part of the coalition, met with Netanyahu on Thursday, telling him that it was in the country’s best interest to dissolve the government hold elections.

“In the current situation, the right thing for the citizens of Israel and the Israeli economy is to go to an election as soon as possible,” Kahlon advised.

With coalition instability being the reality in the foreseeable future, Khalon said that projects and lawmaking will needlessly be held up, in which case early elections are the best option.

Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri of the Shas party followed Khalon’s lead and called to dissolve the government.

The Degel Hatorah party, on the other hand, believes Netanyahu should give Bennett the defense portfolio and maintain the current political status.

The post Is Israel heading to snap elections? appeared first on World Israel News.

The departure of Yisrael Beiteinu from the government leaves Netanyahu with a razor-thin one-seat majority in the Knesset.

By Benjamin Kerstein, The Algemeiner

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scrambling to shore up his governing coalition following the resignation of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot reported on Wednesday.

The Yisrael Beiteinu leader resigned on Wednesday in protest of Netanyahu’s “capitulation to terror” —  Liberman’s description of the Gaza ceasefire reached after a surge of violence earlier this week that included the firing of more than 400 rockets into southern Israel.

The departure of Yisrael Beiteinu from the government leaves Netanyahu with a razor-thin one-seat majority in the Knesset.

Further complicating the situation, Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party issued an ultimatum to the prime minister, saying it would also leave the coalition if Bennett was not chosen to replace Liberman as defense minister. A Jewish Home withdrawal from the government would erase Netanyahu’s Knesset majority and make early elections almost certain.

An anonymous source in Netanyahu’s Likud party told Yediot, “There is no need for elections in the midst of a sensitive security situation. The government can finish its term. In any case, at the moment the defense portfolio will become Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s responsibility.”

Yariv Levin, a Likud minister, stated, “Our responsibility is to continue the existence of a stable right-wing government, therefore the resignation of the defense minister is misplaced.”

The government would remain in office, he added, “as long as the participants work together, and of course we will not allow the exploitation of the situation for blackmail or irresponsible leadership.”

The next Knesset elections are currently scheduled for November 2019.

Reactions to Liberman’s resignation poured in on Wednesdy from across the political spectrum. On the right, the Jewish Home party said, according to a Channel Two report, “Lieberman was a security failure. It’s good that he resigned. In the last two years he has caused Hamas to cease to be afraid.”

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni of the center-left Zionist Union said the “government of failure” should immediately go to elections. “Elections are required that will bring about an emergency coalition led by the Zionist Union,” she stated. “The news of the resignation of the defense minister proves what we have been saying for many years — none of the elements of the coalition or all of them together have a security solution.”

Yair Lapid, leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party, said Liberman’s resignation signaled the end of the current government, adding that it showed Netanyahu had “no solution to Gaza.” He spoke as if the next election campaign was already underway, saying, “Today, the quest began for the return of security, responsibility and leadership to the State of Israel. Yesh Atid is ready. I am ready.”

The religious Shas party’s leader Aryeh Deri sounded a different note, saying, “The resignation of my friend Avigdor Liberman from the role of defense minister saddens me. Liberman served faithfully, devotedly, and extremely professionally, and his resignation weakens the government.”

Avi Gabbay, head of the Zionist Union, said Liberman was a failure and connected this to Netanyahu, saying, “He is as responsible as the defense minister.”

Tamar Zandberg, chairwoman of the left-wing Meretz party, blasted Liberman in no uncertain terms, stating, “It’s a blessing that we have gotten rid of Liberman, the racist and corrupt minister who debased Israeli politics. All the government ministers must follow in his footsteps.” She called the current coalition the most “polarizing” and “racist” government in Israeli history.

Former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak sounded a more moderate note, saying Liberman’s resignation showed “independence and consistency.” He blasted Netanyahu, however, stating, “The emperor has no clothes. … This is the beginning of the end.”

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Amid protests and government upheaval due to the ceasefire with Hamas, Netanyahu defended the move, saying there were secret considerations.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

Ahead of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s resignation due to his opposition to the ceasefire deal with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the truce agreement, saying there were reasons unknown to the public.

“In times of emergency, when making decisions crucial to security, the public can’t always be privy to the considerations that must be hidden from the enemy,” Netanyahu said at a state memorial service for David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, in Sde Boker.

“At these moments, it is not up to leadership to do the easy thing but to do the right thing, even if it is difficult. Leadership is sometimes to be criticized, when you know secret and sensitive things that you cannot share with the citizens of Israel, and in this case the residents of the south, whom I love so much and appreciate,” he added.

“Our enemies begged for a ceasefire, and they knew very well why,” the prime minister stated.

The Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was reached Tuesday evening after Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza launched close to 500 rockets into Israel within 24 hours, resulting in one death and dozens of injuries.

Several ministers, including Liberman, and members of the Opposition slammed the deal.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the entrance to Sderot following the ceasefire announcement, blocking roads and burning tires. “Bibi go home,” one sign read.

Liberman is also calling for early elections.

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“We will not give up until we complete the task,” Liberman said in his statement of support for the death penalty bill. 

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman vowed to persist with his push to pass a bill that would make it easier for military courts to sentence terrorists to death.

“After more than three years of stubborn struggle, next Wednesday the death penalty law for terrorists will finally be brought before the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee for approval, and we will not give up until we complete the task,” he tweeted Tuesday.

The bill would amend the current Penal Law that allows the death penalty to be handed down only via a unanimous decision by all the judges on the panel in a military court. Should the bill become law, a terrorist could be sentenced to death if two of the three judges agree to it. The bill would apply to those convicted of fatal acts of terrorism, based on the Israeli legal definition.

The bill was approved in a 52-49 vote in its preliminary reading by the Knesset in January.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced during a coalition meeting on Monday that he has permitted the legislation to proceed.

The bill, proposed by MKs Robert Ilatov, Oded Forer and Yulia Malinovsky of Liberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, will now be voted on at the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, which will prepare it for its first reading at the Knesset plenum.

During the January plenum debate, Ilatov said lawmakers have a “moral obligation to the citizens of Israel who have been suffering from terror since the state’s inception, and even beforehand.”

“When terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons end up going free (in prisoner exchanges), I think the most moral thing is for (terrorists) to get the death penalty,” he said.

Ilatov noted that capital punishment is a legal penalty in 31 states in the United States.

The bill’s explanatory note states that “the fight against terrorism is the world’s greatest challenge in the 21st century, and all the more so, Israel’s greatest challenge.”

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“We have examined all the options and Israel’s final resort is to strike at Hamas,” Defense Minister Liberman said.

By Jack Gold, World Israel News

Egyptian mediation has failed and Israel is on its way war. That was the message Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman delivered Monday to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Israel has recently seen an increase in the intensity and the volume of violence and attacks emanating from Gaza, which culminated in Wednesday’s rocket attack on Israel which destroyed a home in Beersheba.

Palestinian riots on Israel’s border with Gaza are not “popular protests” as Hamas depicts them but rather carefully orchestrated violence organized by the terror group, he said.

“Fifteen thousand people do not show up by foot at the border fence,”  Liberman said. “We have been talking since March 30 about the tens of millions [of shekels] Hamas has spent … They pay for every person killed $3,000, each seriously wounded $500, and a moderately injured [rioter receives] less than $200.”

No deal with Hamas

“When we talk about an arrangement and I’m expressing my opinion here – I do not believe in any arrangement with Hamas. It does not work, it has not worked in the past, it will not work in the future,” the defense minister stated.

Israel has “reached a situation where there is no alternative – anything other than the hardest, heaviest blow that we are capable of dealing Hamas in the Gaza Strip – will not help. We are in a state of ‘no choice,'” he added. “We have arrived at that point where we need to arrive at decisions, we have examined all the options.”

Hamas has called for war on Israel, and Hamas means what it says, he noted, and “therefore, we need to reach clear conclusions, and beyond the conclusions we need actions.”

The Security Cabinet met Wednesday night to consider its response to a rocket attack from Gaza. Its discussion was not made public.

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Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced Sunday morning that he will reopen the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman announced Sunday morning that he will reopen the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings, allowing supplies to enter the Gaza Strip.

Liberman’s decision came after Palestinian organizers of the ongoing mass riots on the Gaza-Israel border ordered their people to keep their distance from the border fence and to protest in a non-violent manner.

“The March of Return is continuing until its goals are attained, with an emphasis on the importance of holding marches that will be non-violent and led by the people,” one of the organizers, Khaled al-Batsh, a top leader in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,  said in a statement late last week.

The “March of Return” is the term Hamas and other terrorist leaders have given to the riots, in which demonstrators hurl stones and Molotov cocktails, plant explosives and infiltrate into Israel, sometimes torching Israeli Army positions and equipment.

Al-Batsh and other terrorist leaders justified their change in tactics as a way to give another Egyptian mediators another chance to bring about a ceasefire.

Egypt also reportedly warned the Palestinian leadership in Gaza that if they continued their violence they would risk a harsh Israeli response.

Palestinian leaders may have also been convinced to reduce tensions following a marathon-long overnight meeting of Israel’s Security Cabinet which lasted into the early hours of Thursday morning last week.

The session came in reaction to a missile launched into a Beersheba home that nearly killed a mother and her three children.

Following that meeting, Minister of Housing Yoav Galant, former head of Israel’s southern command, warned of a sea change in Israeli policy. He told Channel Two news “I can say one thing very explicitly – the rules of the game are about to change.

“We will no longer accept the arson terror and the border terror,” he said.

According to reports, the events this weekend were to play a major role in determining whether Israel launched a military operation into Gaza. But Israel’s military noted the demonstrations were much calmer than usual and reported that the protesters stayed away from Israel’s border fence.

Likud Knesset Member Yoav Kish said, “We were very close to making a decision to significantly escalate the situation in Gaza,” he said. “I assume that this is one of the last attempts at an agreement.”

“The blow to Hamas will come. It’s just a question of when – and it’s not worthwhile to fall into [the trap of going according to] their timetable.”

TPS contributed to this report.

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“You don’t have to go on the ground in Gaza, but you need to have [Hamas] leaders afraid to walk down the street,” said the head of the Eshkol Regional Council head following a rocket attack on Beersheba.

By World Israel News and TPS

Eshkol Regional Council head Gadi Yarkoni expressed disappointment Thursday at the lack of significant military response to the rocket fire from Gaza that hit Beersheba just before 4 a.m. the previous day.

The rocket destroyed a family home with four people inside, who narrowly escaped death. The mother saved herself and her three children by fleeing to a fortified room at the sound of the red-alert siren. Shortly after, a 20-kilogram explosive payload hit the house.

“We should have taken advantage of the Beersheba incident to restore deterrence. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen,” Yarkoni told Israel’s Channel 10 news.

“You don’t have to go on the ground in Gaza, but you need to have their leaders afraid to walk down the street,” Yarkoni declared.

Following a five-hour-long emergency security cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem Wednesday night, the Israel Defense Forces lifted all restrictions across the Gaza border communities, which were implemented following the Beersheba incident.

Israel’s senior ministers discussed how to respond to the escalation. But there wasn’t widespread support for action that could potentially drag Israel into a full-scale military confrontation with Hamas.

Lieberman: Hamas means it

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman reportedly favors a forceful response by the IDF.

“They’re always telling us that Hamas didn’t mean [to fire the rocket]. Even in the 1930s, they said Hitler didn’t mean it. In the 1970s they said it about Khomeini and we know how that ended,” said Lieberman, adding that “when Hamas says [they want to destroy Israel], they mean it.”

A source within the cabinet accused the defense minister of warmongering as part of his political rivalry with Jewish Home Party Chairman Naftali Bennett, with whom Lieberman is competing for right-wing votes. “[Lieberman] is demanding that we go ‘all the way’ because he knows the Cabinet will stop him,” he said.

Government ministers have accused Lieberman of purposefully escalating the situation in Gaza, citing a decision by the defense minister to stop all fuel shipments from entering the Gaza Strip, including the newly purchased Qatari-funded fuel, without discussing the move with other ministers or the prime minister.

Opposition offers solution

Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni criticized the government’s decision-making process. Speaking to Israel’s Kan Bet Radio, Livni said that there was a solution to the crisis in the Gaza Strip as early as 2014, during Operation Protective Edge.

“There was a solution which I brought to a vote during Protective Edge, but Netanyahu chose not to adopt it,” she said.

“I drafted a proposal, which Jordan, Egypt, the Americans and other countries were on board with. The U.N. Security Council was about to vote on a decision which sole purpose was to demilitarize the Gaza Strip and rehabilitate it both financially and from a humanitarian standpoint. The objective was that Hamas would not benefit from it, and that the Palestinian Authority would gradually return to power in Gaza.”

“That did not happen,” Livni continued, “I was with Netanyahu in the room, the Americans were waiting for an answer, and Netanyahu said, ‘Why do we need this?’ Well, this is why we need this.”

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Following an intelligence tip-off, a Border Police counterterrorism unit arrested the 19-year-old suspect.

By World Israel News Staff and TPS 

Shortly before midnight on Thursday, security forces apprehended the Palestinian terrorist who stabbed a 32-year-old IDF reservist at a bus stop near Nablus (Shechem) in Samaria in the afternoon. The victim remains in moderate-to-serious condition.

A second victim, an Israeli woman, was injured by bullet shrapnel as shots were fired at the terrorist.

Following an intelligence tip-off, a Border Police counterterrorism unit arrested the 19-year-old suspect.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman praised the forces for their “outstanding intelligence work,” adding that a further mission remains to catch the terrorist who shot and killed two people at the Barkan industrial zone on Sunday.

Col. Sagiv Dahan, commanding officer of the Shomron Regional Brigade, said that catching the terrorist “was possible because of Intelligence and operational activity and the cooperation of the Israel Defense Forces, Israel’s Security Agency and Border Police Forces.

“Our mission is to continue to strengthen the safety and protect the quality of life of Samaria residents,” he said.

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