יום שישי, כ״ה תמוז תשפ״וFriday, July 10, 2026
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By JTA
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would be willing to speak to the Knesset, but only on the issues he chooses. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Abbas last week to address the Knesset and said he would be willing to travel to Ramallah to speak to the PA leadership. “Netanyahu comes up […]
By JTA
Leftists may not like Moshe Feiglin’s view of the Palestinian Authority, but they love him for his pro-marijuana stance. Meretz MK says, “On this we have a shared goal.” Feiglin reveals, “I don’t smoke.”
Netanyahu played one-up on Abbas Monday, inviting to speak at the Knesset. A reciprocal invitation from Abbas for the Prime Minister to speak in Ramallah is not likely.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu publicly stated on Wednesday that he ordered Housing Ministry Uri Ariel to retract his plans for development of the controversial E-1 area of Maaleh Adumim because of expected reaction of the international community at the same time he is campaigning against letting up the pressure on the Islamic Republic. He said […]
The Knesset will be lacking one of its more colorful Knesset Members for two weeks following an Ethics Committee decision to punish Haredi MK Meir Porush for handcuffing himself to the Knesset podium last July in an outstanding theatrical appearance.. MK Porush was enraged over the bill, now law, that almost all Haredi youth must […]
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Arab Members of Knesset furiously protested the standardization of Jewish visitation rights to the Temple Mount at a session of the Israeli Knesset Committee for the Interior on Monday. Deputy Minister for Religious Services Eli Ben-Dahan said during the meeting that he is seeking an agreement on the visitation rights with Israel’s chief rabbinate. But […]
The new law that the Knesset passed Monday night to allow couples to register for marriages wherever they want will help prevent civil marriages abroad and stop a wave of assimilation, according to the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization “Local rabbinates functioned as mini-monopolies, causing widespread resentment among both religious and secular couples,” the Tzohar group said. […]
Approximately 3,000 protesters, including Jewish Home party Knesset Members, protested at the Ofer prison near Jerusalem Monday night, where 26 terrorists will be freed during the night. Their “human chain” has no chance of stopping the release of terrorists, but the demonstrators hope their presence may add enough angry sentiment among Israelis to stop the […]
The Jewish Home took a stand against freeing more terrorists. It knew it would lose. The Likud won the battle but may have lost the next war – the one that is fought at the election polls.
Israel insisted in July that it would release 104 terrorists in four stages as a test of Abbas’ willingness for peace. Three murders and two attempted murders later, Israel will bow to Kerry for stage two.
The US enjoys a “check and balances” system of legislative, judicial and executive powers. In Israel, the leftwing keeps an imbalance. The rightwing is too immature to succeed to pass a bill to change it.
Israel’s new offshore gas industry will generate $60 billion in revenues in Israel over the next 20 years, Finance Minister and Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid told the Knesset in its first day of the winter session Monday. He charged the Opposition with damaging the economy by placing obstacles to the natural gas hook-up, […]
By JTA
Yair Lapid, Israel’s Finance Minister and leader of the number two Yesh Atid party in the coalition government, met with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials Thursday. Lapid, who was in Washington to attend a round of World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings, sat down with Biden, Treasury Secretary Jack […]
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Knesset Members Meir Sheetrit of Tzipi Livni’s HaTnuah party and Aliza Lavie of Lapid’s Yesh Atid) were able to thwart an anti-Israel initiative promoted by Palestinian Authority representatives at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva this week. The Arabs tried to insert an “emergency motion” into the agenda that called for all parliaments […]
By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Knesset Members Meir Sheetrit of Tzipi Livni’s HaTnuah party and Aliza Lavie of Lapid’s Yesh Atid) were able to thwart an anti-Israel initiative promoted by Palestinian Authority representatives at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva this week. The Arabs tried to insert an “emergency motion” into the agenda that called for all parliaments […]
Abbas is doing a great job to make the PA non-existent. He claims cooperation with the IDF is great but the IDF must stop entering Arab cities to arrests terrorists. Even Livni is not that naïve to agree.
Efforts to bring Hollywood stars to Israel have extended to include Latin America, with a delegation of TV personalities and news executives arriving Monday from Central and South America as well as from the United States for a week-long visit. The trip was announced by America’s Voices in Israel (AVI), part of the Conference of […]
Jerusalem police once again have prohibited Jews from visiting the Temple Mount because of security officials' unintended admission that they cannot or do not want to deal with violent Arabs. Officially, police say that they blocked the planned visit of hundreds of Jews to the holy site on Tuesday, the sixth day of the Sukkot […]
Baltimore native Rabbi Avraham Leventhal, who moved to Beit Shemesh eight years ago after making aliyah, has tossed his hat in the political ring and is running for a seat on the city council. Elections will take place October 22. Another former American, Rabbi Dov Lipman, also was active in politics after making aliyah. He […]
“You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Lapid soared to political stardom on his “middle class” soap box, which turned out to be full of hogwash. His wealth now is estimated at $6 million.
The Yesh Atid party, chaired by Yair Lapid, continues to lose popularity in the latest poll, with Meretz picking up the pieces and Likud, Jewish Home and Labor holding on to their strength. If elections were held today, Lapid’s party would win only 12 seats, compared with 19 Knesset Members that it won in the […]
By JTA
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid has barred five party lawmakers from meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas , who had invited them to a toast in honor of Rosh HaShanah. The five lawmakers withdrew their acceptance of the invitation, according to the newspaper. Lapid ordered the withdrawal because it could prejudice the […]
Tzipi Livni, Israel's senior negotiator in talks with the Palestinian Authority and head of her own tiny six-Knesset Member “Tnuah” party, is sniping at the coalition partner Jewish Home party for being an obstacle to a peace agreement. She told Israel Radio’s flagship Reshet Bet station Tuesday morning that the peace talks would have greater […]
"By your own hand you have raised expectations to a dangerous level - one that might cause the whole region to spin out of control."
Haredi Knesset Member Moshe Gafni said he doesn’t mind if yeshivas are monitored to make sure those enrolled are learning so long as universities get the same treatment. He had commented in the Maariv newspaper that students who do not actually learn day and night in yeshivas should serve in the army. MK Gafni, answering […]
The capitulation on the Temple Mount leads to the construction halt in Jerusalem.
A new Knesset Channel shows Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid in a severe meltdown in popularity, removing any doubts of the political law of gravity that the higher and faster a newbie's star rises, the quicker it falls. An overwhelming 78 percent of the respondents said they do not trust Lapid as Finance Minister, […]
Like his policies or not, Netanyahu, knows how to talk. See the video to his response to the chutzpah of an Arab MK who says Arabs were in Israel before Jews and will be afterwards.
At least one Haredi Knesset Member and Arab MK showed in the Knessset on Wednesday that they communicate with each much better than with most other MKs and Israeli citizens. MKs Yisrael Eichler and Ahmed Tibi both are vehemently opposed to the new law that raises the entrance level for small political parties. In their […]
Bennett lost the battle for Chief Rabbis but he may have won the war. A Knesset Channel poll shows Jewish Home party as the second largest, only three seats behind the Likud and three ahead of Lapid.
If you don’t like a law, just tear it up. That is what eight Arab MKs did last month, but Ahmed Tibi also dumped water on it at the Knesset podium. Now he is banned as Deputy Speaker and must pay a fine.
Watch for free the best theatre in the world. After the Knesset passed a bill on first reading to require all Jews to service in the IDF, Haredi MKs tore their shirts in mourning. Act Two to follow.
Arab MK Zoabi calls Israel a Nazi-Apartheid state. MP TIbi says a suicide bomber is a martyr, not a terrorist. And Christian Arab Bashara Shlayan, fed up with them, is forming a pro-Zionist Arab party.
The Knesset has driven the last nail in the once holy coffin of changing the clocks twice a year according to the timing of Passover and Yom Kippur. Daylight Time will remain until the end of October.
Big Lie, big explosion. Media spread a story yesterday that Kerry will be back in town this week. Today, the PA claims Bibi met with PA honchos. Abbas forgot that Kerry’s wife is in critical condition.
By JTA
Two bills submitted to the Knesset on Tuesday would legislate Israel’s Jewish character and as a democratic state. A bill proposed by coalition chairman Likud Knesset Member Yariv Levin and Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked would create a Basic Law declaring that Israel is the national home of the Jewish people and does not recognize […]
MK Eli Yishai, the former head of the Shas party has decided he will not be running for mayor of Jerusalem, according to a report in the Israeli, Chareidi La'Daat website. Yishai was the political head of the Shas party until Shas's spiritual leader, Rav Ovadia Yosef, kicked him out and replaced him with Aryeh […]
Yisrael Beitenu Knesset Member Shimon Ohayon, on United Nations World Refugee Day, called on the Arab League to accept responsibility for the exodus of Jews from the group’s countries before and after the re-establishment of the State of Israel . “The Jews of Arab countries, starting in 1947, were used as weapons by the Arab […]
The Knesset passed into law on Tuesday a requirement that at least four women be included on the committee that elects rabbinical court rabbis. Haredi Knesset Members voted against the bill. The committee automatically includes the Justice Minister, who currently is Tzipi Livni and who will sit on the committee in addition to the four […]
The Knesset Monday approved on the first reading a bill that would cut salaries of Knesset Members and the President of Israel by 10 percent. Salaries of ministers and judges would be cut by one percent. The measure passed by a margin of 38-15 but likely will be altered by Knesset committee that will discuss […]
Yair Lapid’s star is beginning to dim, with his Yesh Atid party losing two seats in the Knesset in a Knesset Channel poll released on Monday. The two-seat drop from its current standing in the Knesset is even more serious when taking into consideration that Lapid was sitting on top of the poll three months […]
The Jewish Home (HaBayit HaYehudi) party will be meeting Sunday afternoon to officially (and finally) announce their support for Rav Stav as Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi. The decision was made after it became clear that the law that would allow Rav Ariel to run, was not going to pass. Rav Ariel is the preferred choice for […]
The newly married MK made a decision to go custom.
Lapid’s sounds like Bibi on the “peace process.” He has no trouble raising a regressive tax that hurts the middle class. But give the Haredim a break from the draft? Not in this government. We’ll see.
Likud Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely ascended the Temple Mount Sunday in what she was a personal and not a political visit prior to her wedding Monday night. The visit was coordinated with the police, and no incidents were reported. Hotovely, 34, was engaged to attorney Ohr Alon, who is orthodox, two days before the new […]
Eliminating all secular studies is taking "Talmud Torah k’neged kulom" to an absurd extreme.
The importance of the caucus on organ harvesting in China, sponsored recently by the Liberal Lobby in the Knesset, cannot be exaggerated.
Lapid is beginning to smell like a rose thanks to Haredi tycoons. He is taking yeshivas off the government dole and balancing the budget. How will yeshivas survive? The tycoons have an answer - money.
What is really being gained by continuing to force Haredim to stay in the beis medrash full time via a draft that exempts Haredim?
By JTA
Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni ordered her ministry on Thursday to draft legislation that would make the gender-based segregation of women illegal. "Discrimination against women in public places, in public services, cannot be allowed," she said in a radio interview. She wrote on her Facebook page, "Removal of women from the public sphere is damaging […]
For Lapid to successfully challenge Netanyahu, he will need to find the right time for a strategic exit from the government.
Netanyahu again plays chess, or poker, with the United States. Kerry wants a building freeze to satisfy Abbas’ conditions for resuming talks. Netanyahu reportedly agreed – but for only five weeks.
A bill to increase the minimum number for a political party to be represented in the Knesset has passed a ministerial committee and will be brought to the Knesset for a first vote. If it passes, it will be discussed in a Knesset committee for returning to the Knesset for further votes. The bill is […]
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has given his blessing for the charismatic Aryeh Deri to return to his former position as head of the Shas political party at the expense of Knesset Member Eli Yishai. Since the return of Deri to the Knesset after the end of his seven-year banishment as a result of […]
By Yair Lapid
Last week, a few minutes after my stormy exchange with haredi members of Knesset, I went to what we in the Knesset call the "back cafeteria." It is not exactly a cafeteria but rather a lounge area behind the plenum where members of Knesset alone can enter.
The absence of Haredi parties in the government is already being, and women probably will be among those nominating Israel’s next rabbinic judges and chief rabbis.
The following is my response to a woman who criticized me for visiting the Temple Mount. In a letter to me, she claimed that I broke the law and irresponsibly provoked Arab anger. She suggested that my actions should conform to the will of the “majority.”
If Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid has any hopes of gaining one or even two Haredim as his fans, his deputy Finance Minister blew it “on air” when he called Haredim “parasites” on a Haredi radio program.
Police have arrested an African immigrant who charged at Knesset Member Elazar Stern in Tel Aviv Sunday night, hit him, knocked his kippa off his head and then stepped on the kippa several times. MK Stern is a product of a national religious yeshiva, former head of the IDF Manpower Department and now presents Tzipi […]
Nearly 1.5 million Arabs are Israelis. Most are decent citizens, even if not Zionists. But more and more want to destroy Israel. For the first time, an Israeli Arab allegedly joined Syrian jihadists.
Claiming the 2-year budget concept a failure, the country will revert to the 1 year budget system.
By Rafi Farber
The finance minister will be me and only me, and I will cut everyone’s budget by 100% and return all the money to the taxpayers who it was stolen from.
Newly-appointed Deputy Knesset Speaker Moshe Feiglin has warned one of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin’s grandchildren that her remarks about him are grounds for libel. Noa Rotman, after hearing that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Feiglin as of one several deputy speakers, wrote on Facebook, “Feiglin is the man who established Zu Artzeinu, the movement […]
The 33rd Knesset is off to a flying start. MKs kissed and hugged each other, Haredim walked out, and Arabs called the coalition”racist.” Tomorrow, the Knesset return to more bickering.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu surprised many Likud followers Monday by naming his long-time nemesis Moshe Feiglin as of one several Deputy Knesset Speakers. The Knesset elected Knesset Member Yuri Edelstein as Speaker, replacing Reuven Rivlin. Feiglin heads the Jewish Leadership faction that for years has been trying to become the dominant influence in the Likud […]
After a month of poker, chess and blind man’s bluff, a coalition is in place. Netanyahu played miserably, Lapid refused to move, and Bennett was the kingmaker, proving that politics is compromise.
The attorney general returns to Netanyahu a piece of the coalition puzzle and approves a deal reserving the Foreign Ministry post for Lieberman. Lapid will have to settle for something else, at least for now.
A political tsunami is approaching, and the Jews in the land of Israel are fighting over total non-issues. If it weren’t so sad, it would be comical.
“Here I come, ready or not” is the message from the White House, but it might be putting on a good face. What would be the reaction if Obama said, “If you can’t get your act together, I’ll stay home.”
By Batya Medad
One thing that Netanyahu does understand is that a Prime Minister should have as broad a coalition as possible to represent all sectors in Israeli society.
Michael Ben-Ari has provided great copy for the media since he was a National Union MK. His new party to counter the “leftist” Jewish Home lost out. Now he knows what Israel needs – another party.
No coalition? No ticket on Air Force One. Israel television says that if Netanyahu cannot form a government by the final March 16 deadline, Obama will tear up his March 20 ticket.
Arab MK Haneen Zoabi (Balad) doesn’t allow us to flee from ourselves. She holds an intelligent, scathing and vital mirror to our faces.
Feiglin finally is a Knesset Member after years of trying, but he is looking at the future. He told a Queens dinner, “When I am Prime Minister, God willing, Tzipi Livni will not be in my government.”
The era of Godless leadership in the Knesset ended with Menachem Begin. One might even say it ended with the Six Day War.
Purim is an upside-down holiday, but Women of the Wall Rabbi Silverman takes the cake. She calls the Knesset Achasverous, a wicked goy, and suffers “tragedy” for her regarding them as enemies.
Netanyahu wheels and deals, Livni sacrifices herself on the altar of a Cabinet post, Shas plays cute and the public is fed up. A new poll shows that if elections were held today, Lapid would win.
By Batya Medad
Bennett shouldn't have trying to play chicken against a pro.
Talks on a new government coalition have turned into spin after spin and bluff after bluff, with “everyone on first” and no one at home. Everyone is wearing masks to the point that some people, like Livni, already have lost their identities. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s deal with Tzipi Livni to appoint her in charge of […]
When, against all odds, we managed to restore the Likud and the national camp to power in 1996, it turned out that the Right really didn't have an alternative to Oslo.
Gideon Sa'ar, a contender to replace Netanyahu as party chairman, may be taking recent allegations more seriously than initially believed.
As a youth, MK Dr. Ruth Calderon was not satisfied with the secular treatment of Judaism she got in Israeli schools. So eventually she founded a secular yeshiva.
Not exactly what Jewish Home voters thought they would get on election day.
Do these rabbis really think that Naftali Bennett, an observant Jew, or Rabbi Dov Lipman have “risen in our generation to destroy the Jewish people”?
The institution of party primaries in Israel needs to be expanded not shrunk, so that the government will be under the supervision of the people from which it derives power and the moral authority to govern.
By Meir Indor
Once Knesset Members have made cuts to their own salaries, it will be much easier to cut away at the fat that is choking the budget.
By Batya Medad
I was especially disturbed in the troubling times leading to the Disengagement expulsions when so-called Torah observant rabbis said that a Knesset vote could over-ride the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.
Netanyahu chose an Israeli satirist as his double for Facebook’s annual Doppelganger week. If Yair Lapid would double as Rabbi Lau and Bennett as Obama, Israel would be ready for Moshiach.
By Meir Indor
In these days of candidates, spinsters, and strategists, it’s comforting to know that there are people of action, known only to those who must know, swimming against the current of self-interest.
Tzipi has a lot more important things to celebrate now!
By Shalom Bear
Tasked with the job of forming the next coalition government, Netanyahu sets out his goals for this term.
MK-elect Dov Lipman is reportedly not very happy about having to relinquish his US citizenship.
His first wife is 8 years his senior, the younger is 22.
For an Israeli election race where no one can actually say what the important issues of the race are, voter turnout has been at an all time high all day long. By 2:00PM, voting was at 38.3%, compared to the previous high in 1999, when it was at 34%. At 4:00 PM, voting reached 46.6%, […]
If you are thinking of voting for Kadima and Shaul Mofaz, if you are thinking of voting for Likud and Bibi Netanyahu - take a look at this news report.
By Barry Rubin
Netanyahu’s impending victory is due to the fact that the prime minister has done a reasonably good job, the economy is okay, terrorism is low, he’s kept out of trouble.
By Rafi Farber
Just about everything they both say is idiotic.
By Tzvi Fishman
The only thing preventing it from becoming a reality is the tragic fact that so many Orthodox Jews prefer living in the Diaspora.
Let's face it, people here don't vote for representatives. Party bosses and power players do.
July 3, 2026 
