As the dust began to settle in the wake of Tuesday’s general election, Likud officials on Wednesday worked on two primary messages: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be ousted as head of the party, and Likud won’t abandon the national-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties.
In the afternoon hours, Netanyahu convened a meeting with the heads of the Yamina and...
Following Tuesday’s deadlock election results, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Thursday morning to request a meeting “at any hour today” to discuss the possibility of forming a unity government.
“Benny, it is on us to form a broad unity government,” he told Gantz, whose party is leading with 33 seats compared...
According to official results released by Israel’s Central Elections Committee, with 90% of the ballots counted Blue and White maintains a slight lead over the Likud, with neither bloc clearly positioned to form a majority coalition.
Blue and White: 32
Likud: 31
Joint List: 13
Yisrael Beytenu: 9
Shas: 9
United Torah Judaism: 8
Yamina: 7
Labor: 6
Democratic Camp: 5
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Right-wing, religious bloc: 55
Left-wing, secular bloc: 52
Arab parties:...
Joint Arab List leaders celebrated as voting booths closed Tuesday night, heralding “the end of the Netanyahu era” as a surge in voter turnout led to exit polls predicting from 13-15 seats for the party.
“We feel good that cannot form a government,” Joint List leader Ayman Odeh told supporters at their campaign event in Nazareth. “We’re back to...
The right-wing Yamina alliance announced shortly after polls closed on Tuesday night that it is breaking break into three separate parties. Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked announced the move in a letter delivered to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein.
Shaked and Naftali Bennett will now lead the New Right Party; Rafi Peretz will lead the Jewish Home Party; and Bezalel Smotrich will...
Israel’s second election of 2019 kicked off Tuesday morning as 10,885 voting stations across the country opened their doors at 7 a.m. to 6,394,030 eligible voters. The majority of voting stations will close at 10 p.m.
In the previous election, on April 9, parties needed 32,860 votes to receive one Knesset mandate. To pass the electoral threshold, parties needed 3.25%...
Israel’s Central Elections Committee issued an injunction on Sunday against an initiative to bus 15,000 Arab voters to voting booths on Tuesday, ruling that the initiative violated election laws.
The injunction, against NGO Zazim, came following a petition submitted by the Likud Party. Zazim is heavily funded by the U.S.-based New Israel Fund.
In 2017, the Knesset passed the “V15” law...
It seems this election campaign, which began in earnest only a few weeks ago, was dominated mostly by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with occasional shouts heard from Israel Democratic Party leader Ehud Barak and barely a whisper from Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz. Few candidates, if any, made as clear policy declarations as did Netanyahu and...
An estimated 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Israelis converged on Jerusalem’s Bar-Ilan intersection on Sunday for a United Torah Judaism Party election rally.
Top religious leaders urged them to get out and vote, while UTJ leader Deputy Health Yaakov Litzman warned that Tuesday’s election is part of a struggle “over our right to be ultra-Orthodox, to observe the commandments, to lead a life...
At its weekly meeting on Sunday, held in the Jordan Valley, the Cabinet approved Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to officially recognize the community of Mevo’ot Yericho. Netanyahu also reiterated his pledge to annex the Jordan Valley if reelected.
At the meeting, Netanyahu said it was clear that the U.S. peace plan was going to be released just days...
