Showing posts with label Likud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Likud. Show all posts

Monday, March 13, 2017

Israel Reminds Trump It Has No Peace Partner - Israel Today

Israel Reminds Trump It Has No Peace Partner

Monday, March 13, 2017 |  Israel Today Staff
Days after US President Donald Trump phoned Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and urged him to finally make peace with Israel, a top Israeli government official said Abbas is not a genuine partner for peace.
“Israel is just telling the truth about Abu Mazen’s [Mahmoud Abbas] extreme positions, which negate the existence of [Israel] as a Jewish state,” National Infrastructure Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) told Israel Radio.
Abbas is expected to visit the White House at Trump’s invitation in the coming months.
Before that happens, Abbas is hoping to forge some kind of unity amongst the fractious organizations - both political and military - that make up the Palestinian Authority.
At an urgent meeting called in Ramallah on Sunday, Abbas stressed that “national” unity was needed in order effectively negotiate with the new American president.
The fact that Abbas does not have effective control of the territories supposedly under his rule has been a major sticking point for Israel when it comes to making land concessions.
For instance, the Palestinian Authority was supposed to govern the Gaza Strip following Israel’s withdrawal, but the coastal enclave was quickly and easily seized by Hamas.
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Monday, November 2, 2015

Will Netanyahu's Government Survive? - Ryan Jones, ISRAEL TODAY

Will Netanyahu's Government Survive?

Monday, November 02, 2015 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

Many say the Likud won the last election in spite of Netanyahu because most Israelis understood the vote was really about the identity and future of the State of Israel. But is that enough?
The full article appears in the November 2015 issue of Israel Today Magazine.
CLICK HERE to read it all
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Friday, October 23, 2015

Israel Will Respond Strongly to Palestinian Terror - CHARISMA NEWS

Terrorism continues in Jerusalem, a great deal of it stemming from the conflict over the Temple Mount.

Terrorism continues in Jerusalem, a great deal of it stemming from the conflict over the Temple Mount. (Reuters file photo )

Israel Will Respond Strongly to Palestinian Terror




Standing With Israel
While Israel is under constant attack, with four attacks in one day alone this week, the nation is united in vowing to eradicate Palestinian terrorism. 
Yair Lapid a leader of the opposition noted: "If someone attacks with a butcher knife and storms at an Israeli citizen, I am not willing to have a discussion about his motives. If someone comes out with an ax and attacks a woman at the bus stop, I am not ready to have a debate on the most polite way to neutralize him.

If Abu Mazen (PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas) is selling lies to his people even though he knows it encourages violence and bloodshed, I will not be among those who ignore it. The silence of the left against Abbas is a new level of complete disillusionment with their philosophy. What lies in front of it is a simple and absolute truth: Jewish blood is not cheap."
While the media wrongly portrays Israel's response to terror as equal to Palestinian terrorism, Israel's viewpoint can be summarized by the ideological leader of the Likud, Netanyahu's political party.
As Ze'ev Jabotinsky said in 1938, "Human society is based on reciprocity. If you remove reciprocity, justice becomes a lie. A person walking somewhere on a street has the right to live only because and only to the extent that he acknowledges my right to live.
But, if he wishes to kill me, to my mind he forfeits his right to exist—and this also applies to nations. Otherwise, the world would become a racing area for vicious predators, where not only the weakest would be devoured, but the best."
Expect a strong price to be paid by those who murder in Israel. This terrorist jihad must end.

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Thursday, March 19, 2015

What Now for Israel's Government? - ISRAEL TODAY

What Now for Israel's Government?

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff
A brief, but stormy election campaign has come to an end, and not only is Benjamin Netanyahu still prime minister, he appears poised to establish a far more stable government made up only of right-wing parties.
In the coming days, President Reuven Rivlin will select the candidate best positioned to form the next government. Given Likud’s crushing victory over the left-wing Zionist Union faction, that candidate will be Netanyahu.
Rivlin has expressed his hope for a national unity government, and is expected to ask Netanyahu to consider such an option.
But while a coalition consisting only of Likud, the Zionist Union and one or two other parties would be an interesting prospect, it is far more likely that Netanyahu will capitalize on the results of the elections by building a coalition made up of right-wing and religious parties.
Likud brings 30 seats to the table. It has natural partners in Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home (8 seats) and Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beiteinu (6 seats). The new Kulanu faction (10 seats) of Moshe Kahlon, himself a former Likud heavyweight, is also expected to be an easy sell for Netanyahu.
That would already bring Netanyahu’s coalition to 54 out of 120 Knesset seats.
At that point, Netanyahu could again approach Yair Lapid and his centrist Yesh Atid party, but it is unlikely he will want that headache. It was Lapid who essentially brought down the last government over budget disputes.
Netanyahu’s other option is to woo the two ultra-Orthodox parties - Shas (7 seats) and United Torah Judaism (6 seats).
Getting Shas and United Torah Judaism into the government is easy, provided Netanyahu is prepared to offer the Interior Ministry, significant public funding for Orthodox yeshivas and to make compromises on legislation requiring ultra-Orthodox males to do military service like all other Israeli Jews.
If he’s willing to pay that price, Netanyahu can establish a coalition of 67 seats.
This coalition would still have some differences of opinion regarding economic and social issues, but would largely see eye-to-eye on security and diplomatic issues like Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
In other words, it would appear Netanyahu has the opportunity to form the coalition he wanted and one that might finally serve a full four-year term.
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Friday, March 6, 2015

What Speech Means for Netanyahu's Political Future

What Speech Means for Netanyahu's Political Future

Associated Press photo
JERUSALEM, Israel -- While in the U.S., Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a warm welcome and much praise. Speaking before Congress, he made a strong case against Iran in what some termed the speech heard round the world.
Now that he's back home, the question is will it make a difference in the upcoming national election.
Some Israeli political analysts say the performance helped his party's chances, but a lot could happen before voters go to the polls in two weeks.
"For voters who have voted Likud in the past, and now are not sure, that Netanyahu's [congressional speech] would be an important help for him. Setting the agenda on security issues, I don't think it clinches the election for him. There's still a long way to go," Guy Lurie, with the Israel Democracy Institute, told CBN News.
According to one poll after the speech, Likud gained two seats. It also showed 44 percent of Israelis believe Netanyahu is most qualified to be prime minister.
While the two main parties remain far apart on issues like economics, the rivals agree on the Jewish state's biggest threat. 
"There is not much difference between [Yitzhak] Herzog and Labor and Netanyahu and Likud when it comes to the negotiations with Iran," Bar-Ilan University Prof. Eytan Gilboa told CBN News. 
Surprisingly, many commentators from the Gulf Arab nations stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Netanyahu's warning to the United States and criticized President Barack Obama's negotiations with Iran, a country they consider a mortal enemy.
One influential Arab commentator called Obama "the ally of political Islam, [which is] the… mother of [all] the terrorist organizations."
"I am very glad of Netanyahu's firm stance and [his decision] to speak against the nuclear agreement at the American Congress," Saudi columnist Dr. Ahmad Al-Faraj wrote in Al-Arabiyah. "I believe that Netanyahu's conduct will serve our Saudi interests, the people of the Gulf, much more than the foolish behavior of one of the worst American presidents."
And Times of Israel political analyst Haviv Rettig Gur wrote that Netanyahu's speech assured "Sunni Arab peoples and governments… [Notes:that] Israel will hold the line even if America fails us on Iran."
While control of the Knesset is at stake in the upcoming election, the results will be felt throughout the region and around the world.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

iSRAEL'S Early Elections: Who Wins, and Who Thinks They'll Win?

Early Elections: Who Wins, and Who Thinks They'll Win?

Wednesday, December 03, 2014 |  Ryan Jones   ISRAEL TODAY

It’s official. The current government in Israel is dissolving. An early election has been set for March 17, 2015. The nation is about to be plunged into yet another season of political campaigning.
The question on the minds of just about everyone is who benefits most from this move, and, equally important, who thinks they will benefit, but might be sorely mistaken?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu triggered the early election process by firing the two leading left-wing ministers in his cabinet - Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni - in hopes that going to the polls would deliver a less fractious 20th Knesset, enabling him to form a government that, in Netanyahu’s words, doesn’t include an “internal opposition.”
Surveys conducted by Channel 2 News and Channel 10 News shortly before Netanyahu’s announcement showed that most Israelis blamed the prime minister for the early elections, but that a plurality of voters would choose his Likud party in the upcoming poll.
According to both surveys, Likud will win 22 seats in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset in March, making it easily the largest party. Next would be the right-wing Jewish Home faction with 17 seats, followed by the left-wing Labor Party (13), a new right-wing party headed by former Likud heavyweight Moshe Kahlon (12), and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu faction with either 10 or 12 seats.
Lapid’s Yesh Atid party is predicted to fall from 19 to just nine seats, while Livni’s Hatnua faction will win just four mandates, barely passing the 3.25 threshold to make it into the Knesset.
If those numbers hold true, Netanyahu might get his wish of being able to form a majority coalition made up of only right-leaning parties that largely share his views on issues ranging from the peace process to economic reforms.
There is much speculation that Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett had a hand in bringing about the early election given that he and his party stand to gain the most. Jewish Home is the only party predicted to grow by more than 50 percent, and Bennett could then make a strong case for demanding the position of defense minister, putting him on track to one day take the prime minister’s chair.
Those on the left see a different outcome.
“The state of Israel isn’t stuck with Bibi anymore,” declared Labor MK Stav Shafir, referring to Netanyahu by his popular nickname.
Shafir continued by calling on left-wing voters: “This is our chance, the democratic camp in Israel led by the Labor party, to show that it is possible to do things differently. This is our time to bring the change that the public in Israel wants so badly.”
Earlier in the week, Shafir’s boss, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, insisted that despite the current poll numbers, he will be the next prime minister of Israel. “I think today it is clear that I present an alternative to [Netanuahu],” he told Channel 10. “I believe I’ll lead the next government.”
Further afield, US Secretary of State John Kerry said he hoped that whatever government comes next will help advance his own failed efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a failure that Kerry and the Obama Administration largely blame on Netanyahu.
Last, and certainly least, is Hamas, which tried to connect the dissolution of the Knesset to the summer’s Gaza war, even though security issues played little-to-no role in the disputes between Netanyahu, Lapid and Livni.
“The collapse of the Israeli coalition is another example of our victory and of Netanyahu’s defeat in Gaza,” declared ever-informative Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
PHOTO: The 19th Knesset votes unanimously for its own dissolution. (Flash90)
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Thursday, February 6, 2014

Storm Rages Over Status of Israeli Christians

Storm Rages Over Status of Israeli Christians

Thursday, February 06, 2014 |  Ryan Jones ISRAEL TODAY 
The Knesset's Labor, Welfare and Health Committee held a very stormy debate on Wednesday over the proposed recognition of local Christians as a minority separate from the rest of the Arab population.
The debate centered around a new bill sponsored by Member of Knesset Yariv Levin (Likud) that would acknowledge Christians as their own independent minority for the purpose of representation on local councils and the Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity.
In effect, such a law would legally differentiate between Chrisitans and Arabs, most of whom are Muslims.
In an interview earlier this month, Levin said that his proposed legislation makes perfect sense because "we (Jews) have much in common with the Christians. They are our natural allies, and a counterweight to the Muslims who want to destroy the country from within."
Arab MKs on the committee (all of them Muslim) responded with predictable outrage.
"Levin wants to divide the Arab public, which is already oppressed. We won’t be his slaves," insisted MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad), while MK Hanin Zoabi (pictured) said the bill would only increase Arab hostility toward the Jewish state.
To counter the arguments of the Muslims, the committee also heard from Shadi Haloul, who has been at the forefront of a Nazareth-based movement that is encouraging young local Christians to join the Israeli army and embrace their Aramaic heritage, rather than an imposed Arab identity.
"I'm proud to be Christian," Haloul told the committee. "We have a right to self-definition as well." Pointing to the Muslim representatives, Haloul went on to urge the committee's Jewish members, "Don't listen to those racists."
At that point, Zoabi reportedly called Haloul a "coward," and dared him to take this message to the streets of Nazareth, where local Muslims and unsympathetic Christians would "give you the proper response."
The thinly-veiled threat earned Zoabi ejection from the hearing.
The reality is that Haloul and others involved in the movement have been taking this message to the streets of Nazareth and many other Arab towns for well over a year now.
At times that effort has brought violence against them, but more often than not young Christians are identifying with the message and throwing off the hatred for Israel with which their previous "Arab" identity had saddled them.
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