Free Republic

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...

The Jewish Home party is facing growing pressure over the threat to Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, with residents of the region calling on MKs to make their issue make-or-break for the coalition. The Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council voted unanimously Thursday to call on Jewish Home MKs to make it clear that if a Jewish town or neighborhood is destroyed, they will leave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government. Yesha Council head Danny Dayan called party head Minister Daniel Hershkowitz and faction head MK Uri Orbach to inform them of the council’s decision. Orbach and Dayan agreed to bring...

Never mind Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni. Israelis are chattering about the candidacy of Orly Levy, a 35-year-old former fashion model running for Parliament from the state's hard-right Israel Beitenu party. Local wags have made quick work of her thin résumé, and even Levy herself admits, "I have no political experience at all." Some Israelis are amused. "This would be like Paris Hilton going to the Senate," says filmmaker Etgar Keret. "You could make a reality show about this." A scary one: according to the latest polls, Levy's ultranationalist party is surging, and could win as many as 18 seats...

Apr. 22, 2006 11:23 | Updated Apr. 22, 2006 23:32 Olmert, Peretz agree on largest government ever By GIL HOFFMANOlmert and Peretz - partnersInterim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor Chairman Amir Peretz talk in the Knesset during its inaugural session. Photo: Associated PressIsrael will have its largest government in history with 27 ministers by the end of the week, according to an agreement reached on Thursday night between Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Labor chairman Amir Peretz, sources close to both men said Saturday. Olmert and Peretz met after 11 p.m. at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and...