Blue and White party

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz signed a coalition agreement to form a unity government, ending a year and a half political deadlock.

TEL AVIV – In a dramatic day for Israeli politics, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his erstwhile rival Benny Gantz made an alliance deal as Gantz was voted in as Knesset speaker, prompting his Blue and White party to split up in protest.

TEL AVIV – Conservative radio host and bestselling author Mark Levin on Thursday declared that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents in Israel were attempting to usurp democracy using a law concocted to keep him from forming a government.

TEL AVIV – The Blue and White party on Wednesday confirmed it was working on getting a law passed that would prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as an indicted prime minister, from leading the country.

TEL AVIV – Israeli voters took to the ballots Monday for the third time in a year with the hopes of breaking a political deadlock and seeing the formation of a 23rd Knesset. 

TEL AVIV – Coronavirus could prove to be the wild card tipping the election outcome one way or another as a new poll reveals some 400,000 eligible Israeli voters may choose not to over fears of exposure. 

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party has inched ahead of rival Blue and White in major polls taken days ahead of the national election. 

JERUSALEM – The Blue and White party has come under fire for its latest ad campaign which has been denounced as “antisemitic” and full of “hate and incitement.”

TEL AVIV – For the second time in three days, a senior aide to Blue and White chief Benny Gantz – this time his main campaign strategist Joel Benenson – was discovered to have made incendiary comments on social media against President Donald Trump, including calling him “deranged,” “bigot” and “narcissist” and drawing comparisons with Hitler.

TEL AVIV – The senior advisor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief political rival, Benny Gantz, called President Donald Trump a “psychopath” and compared him to Hitler in a shocking series of past tweets unearthed ahead of a meeting between the Blue and White leader and Trump Monday.

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main challenger Benny Gantz on Saturday unveiled a new slogan for his Blue and White party bearing a striking resemblance to former president Barack Obama’s “Forward” campaign for his 2012 reelection.

TEL AVIV – Members of the Knesset for the ruling Likud party’s main challenger, Blue and White, signed a letter in 2015 aimed at pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a meeting with then-presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday accused his main rival, Benny Gantz, of being “entirely dependent” on the Joint List of Arab parties in order to form a government, after MK Ahmad Tibi threatened Gantz’s Blue and White party that his party would not join a coalition if it continues to back annexation of the Jordan Valley.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acquiesced Monday to demands that his Likud party hold primaries for the party leadership in the case that new elections are called, pitting the prime minister against his main challenger within the party MK Gideon Sa’ar. 

Blue and White and Likud have agreed that the next round of elections will be held on Monday, March 2, 2020, barring a last-minute coalition deal in the next two days.

Forming a minority coalition with the Joint List would be a slap in the face to IDF soldiers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a message to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz in his address to a conference held by the Makor Rishon weekly on Monday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering “returning the mandate” given to him by President Reuven Rivlin to form a Knesset majority as soon as Sunday should the talks between negotiating teams for the Likud party, headed by Netanyahu, and Blue and White, led by Benny Gantz, end without result.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rallied his supporters against the Blue and White party, while urging his election challenger Benny Gantz to “show leadership” and join a Likud-led alliance of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties.

President Reuven Rivlin taps Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new coalition, for the second time in five months. The move comes after efforts to force a unity agreement with Blue and White’s Benny Gantz fail.

The Central Election Committee amended its vote tally early Wednesday, awarding Likud an extra seat at the expense of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party following last week’s election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured his religious right-wing political partners Monday night that he would stick to his pact to negotiate as a bloc with them, after agreeing to launch unity talks with chief rival Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party.

After completing meetings with party representatives to hear their recommendations as to who should form the next government, and with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz receiving majority support in the new Knesset, President Reuven Rivlin on Monday issued an invitation for a meeting between the two in an attempt to move forward in the coalition-building process.

In a dramatic shift, the Joint List alliance of Arab-majority parties recommended Blue and White leader Benny Gantz for prime minister on Sunday, seemingly paving the way for the centrist party to get the first crack at assembling a coalition.

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman on Sunday said his right-wing party will not recommend any candidate for prime minister during its consultations with President Reuven Rivlin later in the evening.

Benny Gantz’s Blue and White centrist party has opened a two-seat lead over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, according to updated voting results Thursday morning from the Central Election Committee.

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on Thursday dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer of a unity government that includes all the religious right-wing parties, insisting that the next coalition should have himself as prime minister, not Netanyahu, and be committed to liberal policies on religious issues.

The Central Elections Committee began counting the final votes early Thursday morning, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main challenger, Benny Gantz, still caught in an apparent deadlock.

With 89.8 percent of votes having been counted by the Central Elections Committee, Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party on Wednesday was projected to secure 32 seats in the Knesset, edging ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, which stood at 31 seats.

The veteran Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman took the political gamble of his life when he spurned his mentor, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and forced an unprecedented repeat election. As results began rolling in from Tuesday’s vote, it appeared to have paid off.

In his first public comments the day after elections, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz on Wednesday morning said he hoped for a “good unity government.”

As official Israeli election results continue to trickle out, a major Israeli television network is reporting that around 91% of the national vote has already been counted and the results evidence no clear path to victory for any candidate.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implied that a former strategist for Barack Obama currently working with the Blue and White party in Israel was behind a Politico report claiming the U.S. government concluded that Israel was “most likely” behind the placement of cellphone snooping devices purportedly found in the vicinity of the White House.

It took three days after the election, and 24-hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed his election victory over Benny Gantz, for the defeated Blue and White chairman to call the Likud leader and offer his congratulations.

TEL AVIV – After almost all the votes had been tallied Wednesday, a clear picture of a country divided along partisan lines emerged, with Likud and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu representing one half of the map and Blue and White- and the dream of changing the “old guard” that its leader Benny Gantz symbolized for so many – standing in for the other. 

TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared victory here tonight as revised exit polls projected his clear path to forming a right-wing coalition and early official election results put Netanyahu’s Likud party ahead of his Blue and White rivals.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a “clear victory” for his Likud party — even as main challenger Benny Gantz insisted that his Blue and White party had won the tight elections Tuesday.