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The President arrived at his farewell visit to the White House at the invitation of the President of the United States, who wished to thank Rivlin for his years of activity as President for promoting partnership, hope and understanding in the State of Israel and its neighbors. At the start of the meeting, the Presidents made statements to the media. Biden said that “Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch. Israel has the right to defend itself." .....

As Yesh Atid party leader MK Yair Lapid was reportedly set to formally announce Tuesday that he had managed to put together a coalition after marathon overnight talks, the legal adviser to the president pushed back against a claim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party that the nascent government could not have Yamina’s Naftali Bennett serve as its first premier. The legal adviser to the office of President Reuven Rivlin, Udit Corinaldi-Sirkis, said in a statement that there was no legal reason why the MK entrusted with forming the coalition should not serve as alternate prime minister during the...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to form a coalition government before the scheduled midnight deadline. After a series of deadlocked elections, Netanyahu, a five-term incumbent, was given a mandate on April 6 by President Reuven Rivlin to try to piece together a coalition of smaller parties to comprise a ruling majority. The deadline of midnight on Wednesday came and passed without Netanyahu cobbling one together, leaving the prime minister's political future unclear. Rivlin said Beit HaNassi, or the "President's House," will "contact the parties in the Knesset regarding the process of forming a government" Wednesday morning. Benny Gantz,...

The price of eggs is going up. There's been a run on eggs and other commodities at grocery stores the law of supply and demand in play. Reports of higher egg prices in the last week but if you haven't seen it on the shelf, get ready, it is coming..... Those OPEC+ talks among oil producing nations aren't happening tomorrow as originally thought. That's the word from the oil minister of the Central Asian nation of Azerbaijan..... President Trump meanwhile continuing his efforts to keep the price of oil as high as possible with Russia and Saudi Arabia opening up...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suffered a serious defeat in his bid to stay on as premier by failing to form a new coalition government, but his rival faced similar difficulties as he set about the same task on Tuesday. Ex-military chief Benny Gantz will now be given the chance to try to negotiate a coalition, but a deadlock following polls held on September 17 remains -- and yet another election cannot be ruled out. It would be Israel's third vote within a year, after Netanyahu also failed to form a coalition following April polls. His decision to inform...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned the mandate to form a government to President Reuven Rivlin minutes after the end of the Simhat Torah holiday Monday night. President Reuven Rivlin received the message from Netanyahu. He will hold consultations with faction representatives and by law has three days to give the mandate to another candidate.

After months of attacking each other and not speaking, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nemesis, Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, will meet on Thursday morning at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem. Netanyahu repeatedly told Likud leaders that there is no point in speaking to Liberman, because the Yisrael Beytenu leader is determined to end the prime minister's political career. But after Blue and White leader Benny Gantz canceled a meeting with Netanyahu, he called Liberman on Wednesday evening. "There is no point in wasting the country's time," Netanyahu told Liberman. "We will meet and see if it is...

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and personal future hangs in the balance this week, as a pretrial hearing weighing whether to indict him on corruption charges kicked off. Following the four-day hearing which began Wednesday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will decide whether to indict Israel’s longest serving prime minister on fraud and bribery charges in three corruption cases. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and has said he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch-hunt” by the media and the left. The start of the hearing came after talks to form a unity government, following last month's...

In the aftermath of last week’s inconclusive elections, Israeli president Reuven Rivlin has asked Benjamin Netanyahu to form a government. Netanyahu has until October 24 to do so. Rivlin declared that Netanyahu, the current prime minister, has the best chance to form a government. I think Rivlin is correct that Netanyahu has a better chance of doing so than his main opponent, Benny Gantz, who specializes in declaring victory but not in achieveing it. But that doesn’t mean Netanyahu will succeed. He couldn’t accomplish this task after the April elections in which his party fared better than it did last...

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will tap Likud Chair and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the task of forming a ruling coalition, after meeting Wednesday evening with Netanyahu and his main challenger, Blue and White Chair Benny Gantz. The announcement comes after Rivlin received the official election results earlier Wednesday and as he encourages Gantz and Netanyahu to form a unity government.

Slovakia will open a cultural embassy in Jerusalem for now. But that appears to be a prelude to a larger move. “Slovakia is on its way to relocating its embassy to Jerusalem,” Head of the Slovak National Council Andrej Danko told Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the visiting delegation of Slovak lawmakers announced the Eastern European country would open a cultural center in the Israeli capital. The move, when it materializes, would mark a break from European Union policy on Jerusalem. Slovakia would join the Czech Republic and Bulgaria as the other European Union member states to...

Israel President Rivlin Addresses Poland, Anti-Semitism At Holocaust Remembrance By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyAthens, Greece — January 29, 2018 … Israeli President Rivlin commented on Poland’s denial of its role in the Holocaust. Rivlin, who is visiting Greece, stated that in relation to the new Polish legislation that Poland’s decision to place in prison those who speak of Poland’s complicity with Nazi Germany is a reminder that it is still beholden upon Israel, all Jews and Christians to fight for the memory of the Holocaust, as it happened. Research into the Holocaust must be free, open, and sincere. The...

President Reuven Rivlin was born on September 9, 1939, in Jerusalem. However, according to the Google search engine, the tenth president of the State of Israel was born in “Palestine.” The Mayor of Ra’anana, Ze’ev Bielski, made the shocking discovery. “While working on a speech for the arrival of President to Ra’anana, and I typed his name into Google in English, and then we were amazed to see that says he was born in Jerusalem—in the Palestinian state,” Bielski stated to Yediot Aharonot on Friday. […] This is not the first time that Google has leaned toward labeling parts of...

The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling Likud faction on Wednesday reached an agreement with the religious Zionist Bayit Yehudi on the formation of a rightist coalition, Israel Radio reported. The agreement, which was struck just two hours before the final deadline for Netanyahu to cobble together a ruling government, paves the way for a narrow, 61-seat coalition. By law, if Netanyahu failed to form a government by midnight on Wednesday, President Reuven Rivlin...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — March 25, 2015 … Part of the following was communicated by the President’s Office of Israel to the Israel News Agency. President of Israel Reuven Rivlin this evening, appointed outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu MK, with the task of forming the 34th Government of Israel, at a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. The President signed the official letter of appointment in his office with Prime Minister Netanyahu, before going on to make public statements. “In democracy, majority rules, and the majority has made its voice heard clearly in this election,”...

As usual, there is a big gap between what Arab countries promise and what they deliver. Ki-moon walks through a Hamas terror tunnel from Gaza to Israel last year. Photo Credit: Haim Zach / GPO UNRWA said Tuesday it has suspended it program rehabilitate Gaza, which may be good news for Israel since it says material shipped to Gaza are also being used to rehabilitate terror tunnels. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told President Reuven Rivlin in New York Monday night that the United Nations has sent a team to Gaza to investigate assertions by Israel that metal and cement shipped...

Rivlin is in New York to address the official Holocaust commemorations of the United Nations. His schedule includes meetings with African-American leaders and others. According to unsourced Israeli media reports, the White House invited Rivlin to a summit meeting with Obama in Washington. Israeli media outlets, including Channel 10 and the Ynet news site, have suggested the White House invitation was meant to embarrass Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was not invited to meet with Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry during his stay in Washington to address both houses of Congress in early March. Netanyahu was invited to...

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres ended his term as president of Israel on Thursday—a man who symbolizes hopes for peace capping a seven-decade public career amid the brutal reality of war. Peres handed the ceremonial but high-profile presidency over to Reuven Rivlin, a legislator from the hawkish Likud Party. Although the globe-trotting elder statesman has made clear he has no intention to retire, few expect him to hold public office again, after a career that dates back to the 1940s and has seen him occupy almost every major government position in the land. […] … In sharp contrast to...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem --- Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel President-elect Reuven Rivlin ‘agreed to agree’ on Wednesday, embracing with a hug and a smile for the cameras. Formal congratulations from the Prime Minister to the President-elect were in order despite the fact that Netanyahu worked very hard to find a different Likud candidate for the office – and Rivlin knew it. They’ve been at odds for years in fact; but they’re both professional enough and smart enough to know they must now set aside those differences. Given the many political differences between Netanyahu and Rivlin, the...

Political analysts say Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhau is making desperate maneuvers to try and prevent MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud-Beytenu) from being elected president in the coming weeks. The Knesset began its summer session Monday, a session that will focus on the process of electing a president, as Shimon Peres's term nears its end. Peres's term ends in July, and a successor is to be elected by the Knesset between 30 and 90 days before then. Netanyahu reportedly is still trying to bring about a six-month postponement of the election, after failing to do so until now. Sources close to him...