By MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST— With just seven weeks to go before voters head to the polls, Israel’s largely left-wing media has gone on a rampage. Tossing aside any pretense of objectivity, a slew of prominent journalists and media outlets are doing everything in their power to demonize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and evict him from…
By ISRAEL HAYOM— Over the last two days, since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni from the coalition, the center-left parties have been talking about joining forces in efforts to unseat the incumbent prime minister in the upcoming early elections, set for March 17, 2015. In response,…
By YORAM ETTINGER, ISRAEL HAYOM— The value of Secretary John Kerry’s assessments and proposed peace agreement, which would reduce Israel to a 9-15 mile waistline (the pre-1967 lines), in the increasingly raging Middle East, is consistent with Kerry’s track record. Until the eruption of the civil war in Syria, Kerry was a member of a…
By NADAV SHREGAI, ISRAEL HAYOM — For years, the world has regarded Judea and Samaria as Palestinian territory illegally occupied by Israel • But now a group of hundreds of jurists from Israel and abroad is fighting back in the battle for the historical and legal truth. If international legitimacy for the settlement enterprise were…
By GIL RONEN, ARUTZ 7— The Knesset can be a tough crowd for any Prime Minister. The fierce debate often forces the Knesset speaker to intervene and even discipline MKs who are deemed too disruptive. So PM Netanyahu must have been quite pleased at requiring the speaker to call the legislature to order for a…
By DEPKAFile –Executive Report — The two top ministers in the new Netanyahu government both have big plans. While overlapping at some points, the two will certainly butt heads on others. Finance Minister Yair Lapid in particular has his eye on deep cuts in defense spending to reduce the budget deficit. Defense Minister Moshe…
By MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST—- I have a confession to make. Despite living in this country for more than 18 years and developing a healthy dose of cynicism, I still find Independence Day to be one of the most moving dates on the annual calendar. Blue-and-white is everywhere, people are in a festive mood, and special…
BY MICHAEL JOHNSON, inCONTEXT— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party announced a new coalition with the secular Yesh Atid party, the far-right Jewish Home party, and the centrist Hatnua. Just two days before the March 16th deadline to form a new government, Israel’s new coalition will control 68 of the Knesset’s 120 seats. Yesh…
BY SHIRA SORKO-RAM, MAOZ— Nobody has a clue as to what our new government coalition is going to look like. Not the TV presenters, the Internet bloggers, the newspaper pundits. In fact, not even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. (Although by the time you get this issue of the Maoz Israel Report, miracles may have…
By RON JAGER– The popular ultra-Orthodox Israeli politician Aryeh Deri is preparing a comeback after a 13-year hiatus that included a prison term for accepting bribes. The charismatic Deri, 53, was a rising young star who transformed Shas from a small, niche party into a major factor in Israeli politics before he went to prison.…