Israel Elections 5773

During the interview Bennett refused to answer what ministry he would like to head.

Right wing and Haredi parties form a seemingly insurmountable, 71-seat block.

MK Haneen Zoabi has been banned from running for the 19th Knesset by the Central Elections Committee, which censured her for supporting terrorism and for denying Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state.

JERUSALEM – With one month to go before Israelis cast their ballots, religious and nationalist parties have engaged in highly negative campaigns against each other, claiming that only their party will be able to pressure the next prime minister into promoting their domestic, economic and religious agendas. According to all polls, those parties are likely to be the basis of the next governing coalition – expected to be led by incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu challenged them, but Bennett and Lapid apparently worked it out.

At JewishPress.com we’ve spent countless hours discussing the pros and cons of voting for each particular party. Now we'll share some of the discussions that have made this election decision such a difficult one.

Tasked with the job of forming the next coalition government, Netanyahu sets out his goals for this term.

The Israeli Left is incentivizing the Palestinians to refuse negotiations and potentially use violence against Israel.

President Obama was issuing a not so subtly veiled threat to the Israeli voters.

TEL AVIV – His party shrunk, his opponents grew and his challengers multiplied. But with the results in, it seems Benjamin Netanyahu survived the Knesset elections Tuesday to serve another term as prime minister.

TEL AVIV – Political pundits have long debated who is the real Benjamin Netanyahu. Is he a pragmatist handcuffed by his right-wing support base and fealty to his late father’s nationalist vision? Is he a true right-wing ideologue whose apparent concessions to Israeli-Palestinian peace are but feints?

Likud Party lawmaker Tzipi Hotovely reportedly petitioned Israel's Central Elections Committee to prevent former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from running for office.

The Labor party, headed up by Shelly Yechimovitch, will be holding primaries on Thursday. Nana10 reports that senior staffers in Yechimovitch's office have set up...

MK Aryeh Eldad (Strength to Israel) and Knesset candidate Moshe Feiglin (Likud) traded barbs today over ideological purity and compromise in politics.

Expect an interesting conundrum on the opposition side.

The right of center parties continue to maintain their lead, albeit by a slightly smaller margin in eight polls released December 9-15.

Bennett benefited from the attacks on him.

In Israel they have a cute commercial where a cop revokes your whining license for 4 years if you fail to vote.

So my advice is, don't try to outsmart anyone. You will just be shooting yourself in the foot. Vote for the party you want to see lead the country.

A selection of videos from the Israeli election commercials.

The Jewish Home party announced the launch of its English-speaking campaign.

The method of the primaries for the Likud's Knesset list was drafted by the Likud's Constitutional Committee last night and is set to be approved by the party's Central Committee this evening in Ganei HaTa'aruchah in Tel Aviv. The scheme does not include the reserving of secure spots on the list - spots within the number of seats Likud is certain to win - for candidates chosen by Prime Minister and Party Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu. It was rumored that Netanyahu wanted such spots for Defense Minister Ehud Barak and possibly other members of Barak's Independence faction which broke off from Labor.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s call to disband the government and call for new elections may serve him well, if two public opinion polls published Thursday pan out.

Among the voters at large, 23% said their respect for Bennett went down, 17% said it went up, 50% said it didn't change, and 10% were not sure.

In depth analysis of the Likud's final list for the Knesset (part I in a series).

The poll comes on the heels of another set of polls which claimed that Israelis supported the two-state solution by a two-thirds margin.

JERUSALEM – With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu slate, still expected to be tapped by President Shimon Peres to form Israel’s 33rd government, its makeup will look different from the outgoing coalition.

The Likud has achieved much over the last four years for settlements and the nation, and aside from his silly insistence on the two-state solution, Netanyahu has been a pretty good Prime Minister.

Upset over the ousting of MK Michael Ben Ari

In a 12 year struggle, we have led the Religious Zionists deep into the ruling party. The Likud, in turn, gladly opened its gates wide.