Israel politics

TEL AVIV — In a first, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro made history by joining Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Western Wall on Monday.

TEL AVIV – Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main election rival said he is “not sure” about any of the three senior partners in his party, in a bombshell recording leaked to the Israeli press.

TEL AVIV – A majority of Israelis believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will beat his main political rival Benny Gantz in April’s elections and serve another term, tie David Ben-Gurion and become the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, a new poll aired Monday showed.

TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump came to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense Thursday as the latter awaited an announcement on whether he will be indicted on corruption charges, saying the Israeli premier was “tough, smart, and strong.”

After marathon, all-night talks, the leaders of the two top-polling centrist parties, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, announced Thursday that they had agreed to merge their party lists to challenge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s frontrunning Likud in the upcoming elections.

TEL AVIV – A senior Israeli official on Monday urged the attorney general not to be influenced by the media or the political left, who might lead him to make a rash decision regarding an indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of the April 9 elections. 

TEL AVIV – The Palestinian Authority has warned that Israel’s decision to implement legislation to cut off funding to the PA over its so-called pay-for-slay scheme will result in anarchy in the West Bank, with PA President Mahmoud Abbas saying that if Israel deducts even “one penny” from tax monies owed to the PA, the PA would not accept the money transfers. 

TEL AVIV – Taking a leaf out of then-GOP candidate Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has launched a Likud Party TV channel on Facebook, in what claims to be an attempt to “throw the ‘fake’ out of the news.” 

TEL AVIV – An oversized billboard of President Donald Trump shaking hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visible on Sunday from Tel Aviv’s main highway as part of the prime minister’s reelection campaign. 

Television polls published Wednesday indicated that Labor leader Avi Gabbay’s public termination of his partnership with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party damaged his party’s standing in the eyes of the Israeli public.

TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed to be living it up during a state visit to Brazil, and was caught on camera dining in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana, being swamped by fans on the beach, and even engaging in an impromptu round of soccer. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that ongoing corruption probes against him are not affecting his ability to manage the country and that early elections are not a foregone conclusion.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara Netanyahu will go on trial Sunday for allegedly using state funds to fraudulently pay for hundreds of meals, part of a list of legal troubles facing the family.

Benny Gantz, the former IDF chief of staff who led the army during the last war with Hamas, is set to form his own political party, Israel’s Channel Two reported on Wednesday.

TEL AVIV – Former president Bill Clinton confessed that he tried to help Shimon Peres win Israel’s general elections in 1996 against Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview on Channel 10 news that aired Tuesday. 

Ra’anana became the first city in Israel to have an openly gay mayor on Sunday, when Eitan Ginzburg completed his first full day of work on the job.

Police on Sunday announced there was sufficient evidence to indict Welfare Minister Haim Katz, his son, and top Israel Aerospace Industries officials on corruption-related charges.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political career may be closing in on four decades — and if he finishes his current term as PM in 2019, he will have become Israel’s longest-serving head of state — but he apparently hopes his children don’t follow in his footsteps.

Israel begins marking one year since the death of former president Shimon Peres this week with memorial events, while the respected statesman’s memoir is also being released.

Thousands of Likud supporters gathered Wednesday in Tel Aviv to rally in support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been beset by a series graft investigations and scandals surrounding him and his family.

Police investigators are set to question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a fourth time on Monday, as part of the ongoing corruption investigations into the Israeli premier.

The head of South Africa’s opposition met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Wednesday, mere days after the country’s president reiterated Pretoria’s longstanding travel directive discouraging senior officials from visiting Israel.

The criminal investigations into allegations of corruption by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deepened on Wednesday, as his wife Sara, a Likud minister and the publishing mogul at the center of one of the probes were reportedly summoned by police to testify over two separate cases.

Damning leaks from the ongoing investigations into Benjamin Netanyahu continued to trickle out Tuesday, with police reported to have seized hours of tapes from negotiations the prime minister held with a dominant media mogul over a mutually beneficial deal.

The purchase of alcoholic beverages, cigar boxes worth thousands of shekels, a regular and frequent practice funding the prime minister’s lifestyle – and the involvement of a key figure, in the person of businessman and movie producer Arnon Milchan.

Israel’s prime minister is denying wrongdoing a day after he was questioned by police for more than three hours over corruption allegations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied any wrongdoing Monday ahead of his expected questioning by police in a graft probe, telling his political opponents to put any “celebrations” on hold.

The Jerusalem Post reports: Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) called on Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) to pull out of the government on Monday after the cabinet approved Yisrael Beytenu’s entrance into the coalition.

Ynetnews reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman signed a coalition agreement on Wednesday morning after understandings were reached overnight Tuesday on Lieberman’s conditions to join the government as defense minister.

The Jerusalem Post reports: Avigdor Liberman joining the Israeli government demonstrates that Israel favors extremism and reinforcement of occupation and settlements over peace, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement issued on Thursday. “The appointment of Liberman to