After a few days of party splits, the last 48 hours have been all talk about party mergers. Rumours about a merger on the ‘centre’ continue. A new poll showed a theoretical merged party of Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid getting 24 seats, though that same poll had higher vote-shares (12 for […]
Category: Israeli politics
Election roundup Monday 15 December
Today’s election update: After last night’s press conference at which Shas leader Arye Deri was supported by founder R. Ovadia’s daughter, Adina bar-Shalom, today several recordings surfaced of Mrs bar-Shalom criticising Deri’s leadership of Shas. Eli Yishai, the former Shas leader who left the party yesterday, held a press conference tonight to discuss his own […]
Election roundup Sunday 14 December
Political catch-up after a busy day (long post but short paragraphs): Eli Yishai has left Shas to form a new political party, provisionally called “Maran” (offensive much?). He might be joined by Uri Ariel of Tekuma, leaving the Bayit Yehudi. If they join up, the new CharDal (charedi-nationalist) party, probably Israel’s most right-wing party, will […]
The Israeli Public and a Strike on Iran
When I came to Israel nearly a year ago, there was intense speculation that an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities was imminent. Working inside the Jewish community in the UK, we had lots of worries about a possible strike, Iranian retaliation and the political and security ramfications. British news, Israeli news, world news […]