Tag Archives: Likud

Time to touch base on Israel’s political situation. I have studiously avoided writing about it for many weeks because the situation has been so in flux that whatever I wrote would probably have changed by the time most of my readers read my posting. More to the point, perhaps, I …

Hey, I know politics are a fact of life, necessary for civil governance.  But it happens that a consideration of the political situation here is neither inspiring nor uplifting these days.  In fact, it is depressing. I face the prospect of writing once again about our political situation, my friends, …

When the polls in Israel closed at 10 PM on Tuesday, the air was fraught with tensions.  Various exit polls, notoriously unreliable in any event, were providing such disparate results that there was little clarity on what the outcome would be. The count was announced early in the morning on …

A month ago we raised three questions in regards to the forthcoming Israeli election . The first has been answered. A group of three ex IDF Chiefs of Staff – Gantz, Ya’alon and Ashkenazi – have joined together with Yair Lapid to present the Israeli people an alternate leadership to …

A great many things have to come together over the next couple of months before we can say definitively that the political situation in Israel is really good. But I now feel a modest optimism that eluded me when last I wrote. “Modest,” because we never know what’s waiting for …

The silly season is upon us and the even sillier season seems to be approaching fast. Israel is going to elections on the 9thof April. On the one hand when it comes to actual policies, it is the Seinfeld election – yet again – an election about nothing – well …

This is the article I wanted to write one week before the recent Israeli elections but I chickened out.  Who wanted to predict inevitable defeat for the strangely named Zionist Camp, or is that Union, when the polls and the pundits were already celebrating victory?  The dust has settled but not the …

So Israel has a new government. Just. Prime Minister Netanyahu must be wondering why he decided to go to early elections after all: – his government currently has a slim majority indeed, just 61 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, – he has been forced to pay a very …

 Before I begin to discuss how it could be worse, a couple of housekeeping matters. First, dear readers, please know that I am working overtime on the Legal Grounds Campaign.  That’s a good thing, because it means we are developing a solid campaign to coincide with the formation of the …

The unthinkable has been avoided – narrowly. The greatest challenge now will be to deal with a detrimental, dysfunctional and, not infrequently, disloyal opposition. With respect to the people’s choice, if this is in fact its choice, I do not accept it … If that is the choice of the …

 I woke this morning in far off India to the news that Israel had done what I wanted it to do, what India did when the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, tried to interfere in their elections. As we watch the dust settle over the election results, …

The chances of a right wing victory in tomorrow’s election suddenly seemed far greater after last night’s rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. After a very frustratingly lackadaisical campaign – with an incredibly negative tone, and with polls showing the left ahead – a bubble of hope welled up. Some …

Israel Advocacy Update. Written by Emily Gian. Media and Advocacy Director, Zionist Federation of Australia.. The Israeli elections are getting close, and with only three weeks to go before polling, the entire country is in full campaign mode. There has been plenty of analysis about the different parties (of which …

I comment every year at this time about the difference between the way the secular new year and the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) are celebrated.  In the Jewish tradition it is a time for prayer and introspection. This year in particular, I think, the difference is marked.  For the …

It’s a long time since I have had a positive – even tentatively positive – sense of the political scene here in Israel. But here we are now, in a time of real turmoil, which nonetheless has within it the promise of something better than the unfortunate situation we’ve been …