Benny Gantz, the head of Israel’s centrist Blue and White party, received the mandate to try to form a government from President Reuven Rivlin in a ceremony in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been given the job of forming a new Israeli government by President Reuven Rivlin, after the opposition rejected any national unity government that allowed Netanyahu to lead it.
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.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered opposition leader Benny Gantz a “national unity” government — one in which the two leading parties agree to govern together.
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.
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.
As the country awaits final results, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed supporters at a post-election speech in Tel Aviv, declaring that Israel needs “a strong government, a stable government, a Zionist government, a government that is committed to Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.”
TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party mocked the rival Blue and White for putting out two contradictory statements in the same minute regarding Sunday’s flareup with Hezbollah on Israel’s northern border, and slammed the party’s number 2 Yair Lapid for putting politics before the lives of soldiers.
TEL AVIV – Twenty-one Knesset members cosigned a letter to members of the U.S. Congress on Monday, thanking them for the recent resolution rejecting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, but warning them that the resolution’s endorsement of a two-state
TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested Likud’s top 40 Knesset candidates – all of whom capitulated – to sign a pledge promising not to oust him after the elections.
TEL AVIV – A senior Likud minister on Sunday boasted that Israel is the only country in the world that has been “killing Iranians.”
TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday appointed Amir Ohana to replace Ayelet Shaked as justice minister, making him the first openly gay cabinet minister.Shaked was fired by Netanyahu earlier this week after she and former education minister
TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday fired ministers Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett, leaders of the New Right party that failed to cross the electoral threshold in the April 9 elections.
Because of Avigdor Liberman’s personal vendetta against Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli public has been denied their right to a government.
Some 1,500 worshipers arrived early morning Wednesday for prayers at the Tomb of Joseph in Nablus, according to media reports.
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.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wished a “mazal tov” to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in congratulations for his victory in the Knesset elections.
Following a dismal showing in the polls, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is negotiating a return to the Likud party. The negotiations are at an advanced stage, with Kahlon’s Kulanu party to be united with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Kahlon retaining his position as finance minister, Ynet news reported.
The New York Times had declared the election a “setback” for Netanyahu, based on exit polls that showed Likud losing by a substantial margin to the opposition,
The Times of Israel reports: Tel Aviv’s Kvuzat Shlomo hall, where Likud plans to hold its end-of-election-day event Tuesday at 11 p.m., is buzzing with activity.At the home of the Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball team, dozens of reporters have either started
TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party has been sounding the alarm throughout the day here, warning voters that the party is on the brink of a potentially devastating election loss that would lead to the formation of a “left-wing” government.
TEL AVIV – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called an emergency meeting to warn Likud party leaders that a right-wing government was at real risk of being toppled in favor of a left-wing and Arab-centric coalition put together by main rival party Blue and White following Tuesday’s elections.
TEL AVIV – Senior Likud official Gideon Sa’ar is the latest Israeli political figure to have his phone hacked, according to a report by the Kan public broadcaster on Sunday.
The final batch of polls conducted before Tuesday’s elections showed the centrist Blue and White widening its lead over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, even as the surveys unanimously indicated that the incumbent prime minister was best positioned to form the next government.
TEL AVIV – Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Tuesday said there was not enough evidence to prove unsubstantiated claims that a network of pro-Netanyahu social media accounts were funded by the ruling Likud party.
TEL AVIV – The mud-slinging between the two main parties vying for election victory next week continued Monday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Blue and White party of seeing Likud voters as “bots” rather than “real people,” amid reports of fake pro-Netanyahu Twitter accounts.
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.
