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After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fired ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni on Tuesday paving the way for snap elections, a Channel 2 poll has shown what results can possibly be expected from the upcoming voting session. According to the poll, Likud would remain the largest party if elections were held today, gaining 22 mandates. Jewish Home would strengthen to 17 mandates. The third largest party would be Labor, at 13 seats. Yisrael Beytenu would gain ten seats, and the as yet unnamed new party of former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon would likewise gain ten, becoming the surprise of the...

Lapid: Israel-US relations in 'crisis' After Ynet learns White House officials prevented defense minister from meeting Kerry and Biden, Lapid says 'We need to act with more respect. We must remember that US funds and technology helped Gaza operation.' "There is a crisis with the Americans and it needs to be addressed as a crisis," Finance Minister Yair Lapid said Saturday after ongoing tensions between Washington and Jerusalem led US officials to block Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon from meeting with senior administration officials during his current US visit.

As polls show strong support for Jewish Home among the electorate – and rapidly slipping support among voters for her Hatnua party – Justice Minister Tzippy Livni said Thursday that as far as she was concerned, the party headed by Nafatali Bennett had no place in the coalition. “Jewish Home is a party based on deep ideological and religious ideas which will never allow Israel to sign a peace treaty with the Palestinians,” Livni said. “They have no place in the government.” ..... A new poll released Monday shows that if elections were held today, Jewish Home would get 19...

Finance Minister Yair Lapid reiterated Wednesday night the Yesh Atid party's position regarding the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). "The left wants peace at any price and the right is not willing to pay any price for peace," Lapid stated, claiming that, in contrast, Yesh Atid forms the political "center." "We do not deal at all with peace, unless it will be to 'say goodbye' [literally 'to separate in peace']," he added, a reference to his previously-stated opinion that the best outcome for Israel would be a "fair divorce" from the PA. He said the goal is...

“In every aspect, it seems the world is losing its patience for us,” Finance Minister Yair Lapid told Ynet on Friday, following reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued tenders for 1,400 new settlement homes. […] Lapid said he believed the world’s impatience with Israel is manifested in many aspects. “In the case of Horizon 2020, we’ve managed to prevent the damage, and then we were suddenly faced with the ASA boycott. We couldn’t generate any effect around the Iranian deal, because we weren’t loud enough, and that is due to the fact that our status is not as it...

An op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday by Roger Cohen, titled "My Jewish State" has shed light on comments Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid made during a sit down with the columnist in August 2013. During their chat last summer, Lapid reiterated his lack of interest in Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Lapid reportedly told Cohen “the fact that we demand from Palestinians a declaration that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state, I just think this is rubbish. I don’t need that. The whole point of Israel was we came here saying we...

The Jewish Home party responded coolly Sunday to a thinly veiled threat by Finance Minister Yair Lapid, the head of the Yesh Atid party, to remove the Jewish Home from the Coalition and replace it with another party if negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) make progress. "The person who assembles the Coalition is the prime minister," said Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked, "and he will decide who will be in the Coalition." When she was asked by Channel 2's reporter about the negotiations with the PA, Shaked replied, "As we have already said in the past, as long as...

The European Union’s new ban on areas located beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines will do nothing to advance peace talks, Finance Minister Yair Lapid wrote on Friday. In fact, said Lapid in an op-ed which appeared in the New York Times, the ban will simply encourage terrorist groups. “As the American secretary of state, John Kerry, leads new efforts to reinvigorate peace talks among Israelis and Palestinians, one of the obstacles—if not the main one—is the presence of extremist Palestinians and their supporters,” he wrote. … According to Lapid, “The world shouldn’t make things easier for extremists. It’s challenging enough...

Minister of Finance Yair Lapid today sent a conciliatory message to the haredim (ultra-orthodox), whom he called "brother", telling them that the equal sharing of the burden law would benefit them and give them a sense of participation and dignity in Israel. Earlier today, the Perry Committee on drafting haredim approved its recommendations, including criminal penalties for haredi draft dodgers. "In recent years, this committee has brought down coalitions and ended careers," said Lapid about the Perry Committee. "The fact that we have resulted in that, in three years, 70% will be drafted is a badge of honor for the...

In an outdoor café, wearing jeans and his trademark black T-shirt, Finance Minister Yair Lapid gave his first interview to foreign press since taking office. “Lapid has embarked on a media blitz, deploying his telegenic good looks and sound-bite savvy,” the newspaper observed. In the interview, Lapid acknowledged that thousands of settlers would someday be uprooted, something he called “heartbreaking.” The interview itself revolved mainly around the stalemated negotiations with the Palestinians, but also on the future aspirations of the Yesh Atid chairman. Lapid told the NYT that he is still hoping to succeed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but clarified:...

It could have been easy. January 22 was not a good day for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it could have been far worse. The 2013 parliamentary elections meant that for the first time in his long political career, he would be leading the largest in the Knesset. Though his joint Likud-Beitenu list won only 31 seats — around 23% of the vote — Israel’s center-left was fractured and it always appeared certain that Bibi would keep his job. After all, despite his party’s underwhelming performance, there appeared to be two options for coalitions he could easily form. The...

Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid has reached out to Israel's youngest voting population Saturday night, holding a question-and-answer session with 200 members of Yesh Atid at Tel Aviv's Tailor Made club in a pre-election appearance. Lapid was joined by MKs Yaakov Perry, Mickey Levi, Ronen Hoffman, Aliza Lavie, Pnina Tamano-Shata, and Boaz Toporovsky. "Israel owes you an apology," Lapid stated in opening remarks, "because for 20 years it hasn't been working for you." "You are the ones who are here today, you decide to take your destiny in your hands and lead the change," he added. "Yesh Atid came to...

While in most countries immigration moves the electorate to the left, in Israel immigration moved the country to the right. In the United States the left is counting on demographics to make it easier for them to win elections, but in Israel demographic shifts have made it easier for the right to win. But the biggest problem for the Israeli left is that it’s tethered to its own version of ObamaCare in the form of the Palestinian Authority which won’t make peace, won’t stop funding terrorism and won’t stop playing the victim. As with ObamaCare, the Israeli left teeters between...

MK Danny Danon, who heads the Likud Central Committee, on Tuesday evening said that elections could have been prevented, and said he hoped the Likud will learn the lesson from the coalition collapse. "The makeup of the coalition undermined the governance, the mistake was that instead of forming a government with Bennett and the hareidi parties, [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] first of all added Tzipi Livni. That was a mistake, and we saw that Livni and Lapid did nothing but mess things up,” Danon told Arutz Sheva, hours after Netanyahu fired Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister...

Noting the "personal attack" directed towards him by Netanyahu - who accused Lapid and Livni of leading a "putsch" from within the coalition - Lapid insisted on issuing a response of his own. "Yesterday you stood in front of the entire nation and announced that you were dragged the State of Israel into unnecessary elections that no one but you wanted, because you are detached. You live in your own aquarium," Lapid fired. Lapid further accused the PM of preferring "to paralyze the economy" via snap elections, rather than to come to an agreement with him over the budget, and...

Eighty-four MKs support measure, which also passes first reading; Livni lashes ‘hysterical’ Netanyahu; Arab party leaders say they’ll unite Knesset members voted overwhelmingly in favor of dissolving the current Knesset in a preliminary vote on Wednesday. Eighty-four MKs supported the measure, none opposed it, and one Knesset member abstained. A first reading of the bill later Wednesday was also approved, with all 22 Knesset members present voting in favor. The move will be finalized on Monday with second and third readings. Knesset faction leaders agreed on March 17, 2015, as the date for new elections, in a meeting with Knesset...

None of this is a shock in the world of Israeli politics - the current coalition government is the 33rd to be created in the 66 years since the foundation of the state. You do not need the powerful graphics computer of an election night TV programme to tell you that two years is around the average life of a coalition arrangement. At least one poll has suggested that most Israelis are not convinced that it was really necessary to dissolve Parliament and the influential newspaper Haaretz has described the coming elections as superfluous. (snip) One unpredictable factor is the...

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Tuesday let loose at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the impending elections will "not be over zero value added tax," but over replacing a government she accused of "extremism, provocativeness and paranoia" without knowing how to fight terror while also "upholding freedom and Zionism."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after 8 p.m., less than two hours after firing coalition members Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government. "I turn to you tonight because in the current situation, in the current government, it is impossible to lead the nation," said Netanyahu, saying the impasse is preventing him from fulfilling his role as prime minister. While Netanyahu called it "one of the best governments, one of the most stable governments in the history of Israel," adding it was "a true unity...

PM says he took a 'personal risk' firing Lapid and Livni, but said they had made it impossible to govern; calls for snap elections. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after 8 p.m., less than two hours after firing coalition members Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government. "I turn to you tonight because in the current situation, in the current government, it is impossible to lead the nation," said Netanyahu, saying the impasse is preventing him from fulfilling his role as prime minister. While Netanyahu...