With Israel’s new government barely a month old, tentative signs are emerging of renewed tension between the country’s political leadership and its military establishment. Several news reports, based on apparently targeted leaks from the military’s intelligence and strategic planning branches — and perhaps the Shin Bet security service — suggest that the army’s senior command…
When U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Israel in early April, he waxed optimistic about getting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process back on track. But even as Israeli leaders smiled in public alongside him, a stubborn reality went unacknowledged: Of the main parties in the new government, only one actually championed restarting the peace process…
During Israel’s election campaign last January, the new Yesh Atid party’s single most popular stand was its vow to end the exemption that Haredim, or ultra-Orthodox Jews, receive from mandatory military service, which is obligatory for other Israeli Jews. Now, to the surprise of many cynics, that promise is about to be fulfilled. In politics,…
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-Beytenu party announced Friday afternoon Israel-time that the coalition negotiations are complete, and the government will be presented to President Shimon Peres on Saturday night. Expect a swearing in on Monday (just don’t ask what Sara Netanyahu will be wearing for this swearing in). There was a last-minute hitch last-night which saw Jewish…
The Forward looks today at some of the winners in Israel’s new coalition deal, but who are the losers? Apart from the obvious answer which is the Haredi parties, who were left out in the cold, Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz is one of the biggest losers. His party has just two seats in the new…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely encounter harsh opposition within his Likud party if high-ranking ministers and Knesset members soon find themselves without a job. Party officials on Sunday threatened an “intifada”, or uprising, over what they call “Netanyahu’s failure to give out positions” to members of Likud and other formerly close coalition partners. The…
Netanyahu is almost there. As Israeli politicians took a pause in their discussions for the Shabbat break, all sides expressed optimism that a new coalition could be announced within days. Netanyahu’s Likud-Beiteinu party is close to finalizing a deal with its two major coalition partners: Yesh Atid and HaBayit HaYehudi. According to press reports, in…
Although there has never been much sympathy for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community in any part of the country’s secular society, suddenly this has changed. As the prospects improve for a Netanyahu-Lapid-Bennett (or Likud-Yesh Atid-Habayit Hayehudi) coalition whose first project will making military service compulsory for the Haredi youth that has until now been exempt from it,…
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