The Times of Israel reports: Senior Zionist Union lawmaker MK Shelly Yachimovich leveled heavy criticism on her Knesset faction’s leader, Isaac Herzog, Sunday morning over his proposal to unilaterally disengage from West Bank territories rather than engage in talks with
An oped published on Wednesday in Commentary magazine claims that the Zionist Union party head’s declaration that the two-state solution is no longer viable marks a “sea change of major proportions” that is being ignored by the left and the Obama administration.
Isaac Herzog, the leader of Israel’s political opposition, whose visceral dislike of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is well-known, has declared that he supports Netanyahu in his efforts to oppose the Iran deal, which the U.S. Congress is about to consider. “I had a meeting yesterday where I learned about the deal and I think it is bad for Israel. [Netanyahu and myself] will certainly cooperate when it comes to the security of Israel. As an Israeli patriot, this deal is dangerous,” Herzog said in an interview quoted by the Times of Israel.
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who’s formally announcing on Monday evening that he’s running for president, told Breitbart News in a recent exclusive interview about his trip to Israel with his wife Tonette.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apparently defied the mainstream media and the Obama administration with a stunning, come-from-behind victory in Israel’s elections on Tuesday. Netanyahu’s Likud Party had been projected to lose to Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union by a margin of 26-22. Two exit polls released at the close of voting, however, suggested Likud would win, 28-27 (a third poll showed them tied). Netanyahu is now expected to form a new governing coalition.
Voting in Israel’s national election has ended, with exit polls showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a virtual tie with a center-left challenger.
Israeli voters head to the polls on Tuesday to decide which political parties will fill the 120 seats of the 20th Knesset, and–indirectly–who will form the next government. The Zionist Union–a bloc of left and centrist parties–has seen its modest lead grow in recent days. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched a “gevalt” campaign (a Yiddish expression of alarm), warning supporters he will lose unless they turn out to vote for his Likud Party over the alternatives.
The last pre-election polls in Israel show that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains the overwhelming favorite to lead the country, but show his party slipping to second place, losing ground to its center-left, Obama-backed rival. Bibi’s Likud Party will gain seats, but the rival Zionist Union–an alliance between Isaac Herzog’s Labor Party and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua Party–could also gain enough to win the Mar. 17 election. Netanyahu says there is a “real danger” he could lose.
In most democracies, and especially small ones, politics ends at the water’s edge. Whatever criticism the opposition might have about the government, especially the leader, it refrains from doing so purely for the benefit of a foreign audience. Not so for the Israeli opposition, headed by Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union, who has not only bashed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the United States as a purely political move, but has done so in a New York Times op-ed.
Americans–particularly conservative Americans–are accustomed to seeing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a strong international leader. He is “the Churchill of our time,” says talk radio’s Mark Levin. Yet Netanyahu struggled to win re-election in 2013, and faces stronger headwinds than ever as new elections approach on Mar. 17. Here are the top five reasons he may lose, and be replaced by opposition leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni (who would rotate the leadership).
New polls indicate that the surge enjoyed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in polls over the past two weeks may be ending. A survey of likely voters by the Times of Israel showed Netanyahu’s opposition, the Zionist Union, headed by opposition leader Isaac Herzog, now has a small but significant lead. In addition, among the roughly 1 in 4 voters still undecided before the Mar. 17 elections, more are leaning towards the opposition than Netanyahu’s Likud.
Despite a supposed White House policy against meeting foreign leaders facing elections, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry both met with Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog in Munich on Saturday. Herzog is the main rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Mar. 17 election, and his supporters played up the meeting as evidence that Herzog is more respected by the Obama administration and world leaders in general than Netanyahu.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party recently released a wildly popular campaign commercial in which a couple expecting a babysitter is greeted instead by the “Bibi-Sitter.”
Speaker of the House John Boehner announced Wednesday morning that he would invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress on Feb. 11. “In this time of challenge, I am asking the Prime Minister to address Congress on the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life,” Boehner said in a press statement. The timing suits Netanyahu perfectly, as it comes five weeks before Israelis will go to the polls on March 17.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have secured his re-election in March with a strong display on the world stage at last weekend’s anti-terror march in Paris. Though his critics on the left accused Bibi of exploiting the tragedy, and said that he drew attention to himself, Netanyahu bolstered his image as a world leader, and a steady hand in turbulent times. With the Obama administration absent from the march, he also–once again–struck a contrast in Israel’s favor.