Free Republic

Israel plans to permanently replace all Palestinian laborers with foreign workers, in a major, ambitious initiative aimed at ridding the country of a perceived security threat, the Kan public broadcaster reports. Thousands of construction and agriculture workers from the West Bank have been barred from entering Israel for work since Hamas’s mass invasion and onslaught of October 7. Hamas reportedly gathered some of its intelligence for the attack from Gazans who had permits to work in Israel. To prevent a potential repeat in the West Bank, Kan says the government does not intend to allow the Palestinian workers back after...

God Bless the memory of Glen Campbell he lives a full life including the wild side with drugs the "illegal drugs" of course nowadays there's money to be made in drugs so we have legalized marijuana sales and the Pharma Industry cashing in and God Forbid anyone criticize Big Pharma which does a lot of advertising with Big Media... Folks like Peter Hitchens see connections between the extreme violence out there and the perps taking those "antidepressants" but in his column last weekend he too on the rage over Shamima Begum the teenager who joined ISIS (Islamic State) in Syria......

Joint communique says Jerusalem won't discuss new West Bank units for 4 months, authorize outposts for 6 months but PM, Hanegbi insist 'there is no change in Israeli policy' Israel committed to halting new settlement projects Sunday during a summit in Aqaba, according to a joint communique issued after the meeting, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly denied there would be any construction freeze over the Green Line... Preempting Netanyahu's rush to deny a settlement freeze, far-right members of the his governing coalition rejected the outcome of the summit. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is a minister in the Defense...

Incoming finance minister says he aims to promote free market, freedom of expression; Israel's new government isn't what you've heard, he argues Far-right Religious Zionism chair Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that controversial reforms proposed by the incoming coalition only seek to make Israel more like the United States. In a pitch seemingly aimed at the American public, the incoming finance minister said he has been vilified by US media, arguing portrayals of him as set on implementing Jewish religious law in Israel are mistaken... In the op-ed, Smotrich justified planned judicial reforms that...

Likud-led bloc fast-tracks legislation crucial to incoming coalition, seeking to reshape ministerial authorities, prevent MK rebellions Hours after electing a new Knesset speaker from their camp, incoming coalition members won premliminary votes on four bills, some of them highly contentious, set down as political preconditions for finalizing the hardline government coalescing under Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu... Clearing its first of several legislative hurdles eight days out from the December 21 expiration on Netanyahu's mandate to form the new government, the incoming coalition is sprinting to wrap up voting early next week... In addition to Likud, the three far-right and two...

Senior US officials say question of whether to speak with Smotrich, Ben-Gvir raised at White House meeting. A high-level meeting was held at the White House last week to discuss policy towards the new government in Israel, including the question of whether or not to hold talks with certain ministers from the "extreme right" Barak Ravid reported for "Walla". According to the report, this is the first meeting on the subject, which was held as part of a National Security Council forum, of which senior representatives from the State Department, the Defense Department and the American intelligence organizations are members....

Biden Admin. reportedly concerned Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir will be given important ministries in the Netanyahu govt. The Biden Administration is concerned that Benjamin Netanyahu will appoint Religious Zionism party chairman MK Bezalel Smotrich as Israel's next Defense Minister, journalist Barak Ravid reported for Axios. Smotrich had been seeking the Finance Ministry, but stated his willingness to allow the Shas party to be given that ministry if he receives the Defense Ministry in its place. The US Administration is reported concerned about Smotrich's hardline positions on Judea and Samaria and how Israel should respond to terrorism, as well as...

The Anti-Defamation League expresses concern 'over likely inclusion of extremists" in the next Israeli government. The ADL offers congratulations to Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu but notes that the coalition "will likely include represenatatives from the Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionist parties, including their leaders Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich," bot of which "have a long history of engaging in racist, anti-Arab, homophobic and other hateful behavior." "We believe that including these far-right individuals and parties in an Israeli government would run counter to Israel's founding principles, and impact its standing, even among its strongest supporters."...

The State of Israel will be going to vote on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. This will be the fifth election in less than four years. The near parity is between the competing political blocs: the Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-of-center on one hand, and the anti-Netanyahu left-of-center bloc led by Yair Lapid. Netanyahu’s Likud bloc has nevertheless a noticeable advantage; it has a reliable bloc of 60 mandates in the polls, and it may have an even higher number in the real poll – on Election Day. Netanyahu has only to find a single defector to form a narrow coalition government of...

More on racist Ahmad Tibi, including anti-black and anti-Druze bigotry the (Arab-Islamic MK) 1999 "אתה דרוזי משתף פעולה; הנעל שלי נקייה יותר מהעדה שלך" - גלובס 29.04.1999 השוטר הדרוזי, הטוען שאחמד טיבי גידף ותקף אותו, העיד היום (ד') בבית המשפט המחוזי בירושלים. "אתה דרוזי משתף פעולה. הנעל שלי נקייה יותר מהעדה שלך" - כך תיאר השוטר הדרוזי על התקרית עם טיבי סמוך למחסום ישראלי באיזור רמאללה. לדברי השוטר, אחמד טיבי לא היה בכלי הרכב שנעצר לביקורת והוא הגיע למקום רק לאחר שהוא הוזעק למקום ע"י נהגו. השוטר ציין בעדותו, כי לאחר הגידופים הראשונים, תקף אותו טיבי במכת אגרוף ואף אמר...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has not ruled out sitting with MKs Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud), Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism), and Itamar Ben Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), but opposes the formation for a "fully" right-wing government. In an interview with Channel 13 News, Bennett said, "A fully right-wing government, in the current sense, is, in my eyes, a disaster, because it does not have the balances." He added, "Netanyahu, Bezalel, and Ben Gvir...in a different constellation, can be fine, but a government trapped in the hands of the extreme is horrible and awful, even if it is the other side." .....

A right-wing MK sparred with the chairman of a pro-coalition Arab faction overnight, after the Knesset voted to back a controversial bill aimed at offering electricity hookups to illegal Bedouin homes. The Knesset voted 61 to 48 Monday night to back MK Waleed Taha's (United Arab List) so-called “Electricity Law” in its first of three readings. Following the Knesset vote, Religious Zionist Party chief MK Bezalel Smotrich demanded that the United Arab List, which drafted and lobbied for the bill’s passage, explicitly condemn the recent wave of Arab terrorist attacks in Israel. UAL chief MK Mahmoud Abbas walked out of...

With most of the votes counted and no decisive outcome as far as who the next Prime Minister will be, or if Israel will be headed to an unprecedented fifth national election in less than three years, one thing is clear, the big winners in Israel’s national election this week were Israeli Arabs. One might have said that a year ago, after Israel’s third national election in (what was then) a year. Then, the “Joint Arab List,” a faction made up of four Arab political parties running together, won a striking 15 seats in Israel’s Knesset (parliament). This made the...

According to Channel 13, 97.6% of the votes from Tuesday's elections have already been counted, Blue and White stands at 33 seats and Likud at 31 seats, with Blue and White leading by a narrow margin. It is important to note that these are still not the final results. Overnight, the committee was counting the near quarter of a million soldiers' votes cast by Israeli soldiers. The Central Election Committee (CEC) has been updating its website since the close of the polls at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. The last update was at 10:40 a.m. on Thursday: 4,354,991 votes had been...

Right-wing factions convened at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, deciding to establish a "right-wing bloc" headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, that will work for the establishment of the next government. It was decided to form a joint coalition negotiations team for all factions in the bloc. In addition to Netanyahu, the meeting saw the participation of Minister Yariv Levin and faction heads: Yaakov Litzman, Moshe Gafni, Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Bezalel Smotrich. Minister Aryeh Deri met with Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this morning, as he was unable to attend the meeting due to the memorial ceremony...