April 06, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu has again been chosen to lead Israel’s next government following an election that did not deliver a majority to the prime minister or his rivals.
Netanyahu, who has served as prime minister for more than a decade, does not have a clear path to assembling a majority coalition in Israel’s 120-seat parliament, the Knesset. But he received the support of 52 lawmakers, more...
April 02, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — Following yet another Israeli election, voters are getting to know an unlikely kingmaker: Mansour Abbas, an Arab-Israeli lawmaker who might be the one to break Israel’s two-year political stalemate.
Abbas, head of the United Arab List political party, is not the kind of politician who usually wields power in the Jewish state. He’s an Islamist who has more in common ideologically with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood...
March 24, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — On Tuesday night, after Israeli TV stations broadcast the first exit polls from the country’s elections, a rabbi who had just won a seat in parliament tweeted out a traditional blessing of thanks, called the “Shehechiyanu.”
“Blessed are you, Hashem, our God, ruler of the universe, who has kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this day,” wrote the rabbi, Gilad Kariv....
March 23, 2021
(JNS.org) – Initial exit polls from Israel’s national election on Tuesday indicate that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with support from his right-wing bloc—if the Yamina Party is included—would have a narrow Knesset majority, giving the Israeli leader an unprecedented sixth term in office.
Exit polls show Netanyahu’s Likud winning 31 to 33 seats, with his wider right-wing bloc of around 53 to 54 seats. While this is short...
March 23, 2021
Jerusalem Post Chief of Strategy, Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman brought in the latest exit poll data from Israel late Tuesday night as CCJN editor Alan Smason conducted an interview with her. This was the fourth Israeli election in the last two years and, as had occurred in the previous three elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have a solid lead of between 30 and 32 seats in the Knesset for his...
March 19, 2021
By BEN SALES
(JTA) — For the fourth time in two years, Israel is holding an election.
And for the fourth time in two years, no one knows who will win or what will happen next. In many ways, the election on Tuesday feels like the last three — some of the same central issues, the same dysfunction and many of the same candidates.
In other ways, however, it feels...
December 22, 2020
(JTA) — Barring an unexpected last-minute deal, Israel’s government will likely dissolve this week after a bill to delay a crucial budget deadline was scrapped late Monday night.
The lack of a deal, or a delayed deadline, means the country appears to be headed toward its fourth election in two years. The new election would likely take place on March 23, 2021.
The deadline was for the parliament, the Knesset,...
December 02, 2020
(JTA) – Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Tuesday that his party will back a bill crafted by the opposition in parliament to dissolve the government, likely sending Israel to its fourth election in two years.
The votes from Gantz’s Blue and White would provide the needed votes for the measure to pass in the Knesset.
Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, formed a unity government earlier this year by agreeing...
April 20, 2020
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz signed a deal Monday to form a “national emergency government’ that keeps Netanyahu as the prime minister for now.
Israel has spent more than a year under a caretaker government as neither Netanyahu nor Gantz could assemble a coalition government. With the agreement, the country avoids a fourth national election in less than a year and...
April 17, 2020
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin transferred the task of forming a government to parliament on Thursday, ending Benny Gantz’s attempt to form a unity coalition with his rival, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli lawmakers now have three more weeks to find a solution to the country’s yearlong political deadlock. If they don’t by May 7, Israel will head to a fourth election.
Gantz, head of the Blue and...
