Category Archives: Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel’s coalition on brink of collapse after losing settler law vote

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Nationalist party New Hope threatens to exit arrangement after vote on West Bank settlers

Israel’s coalition government is teetering on the brink of collapse after a dramatic Knesset showdown over legislation to extend legal protections for settlers in the occupied West Bank.

In what was variously described by Israeli media as “one of the most surreal votes in Israeli history” and “political suicide”, the first reading of a bill renewing civilian legal rights for Jewish settlers in the West Bank failed to pass on Monday night.

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Israel’s Naftali Bennett loses majority after MP quits coalition

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Idit Silman’s departure amid row over Passover bread leaves PM with same number of seats as opposition

A key member of Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party has quit the Israeli coalition government after a row about unleavened bread during Passover, in a surprise move that leaves the prime minister without a parliamentary majority.

Idit Silman’s announcement left Bennett’s coalition, an alliance of parties ranging from the Jewish right and Israeli doves to an Arab Muslim party, with 60 seats – the same as the opposition.

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Why Israel faces new dangers in shadow war against Iran if nuclear deal is agreed

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Analysis: a new pact will be worse for Israel than the old one and Iran’s influence in the region has grown in recent years

The US decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal was an immense personal achievement for former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a leaked video, he boasted that he had personally convinced Donald Trump to scrap the 2015 accord between Tehran and world powers.

“I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement,” Netanyahu told members of his Likud party in the clip from 2018. “And we didn’t give up.”

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Police use of Pegasus malware not illegal, Israeli inquiry finds

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Police have been accused of spying on at least 26 individuals who are not criminal suspects

An inquiry into allegations that Israel’s police force systematically hacked into the mobile phones of Israeli citizens has found that while the police did use NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus malware, there is no evidence suggesting illegality.

In a series of explosive reports over the last two months, the local financial daily newspaper Calcalist accused the police of spying on at least 26 individuals who were not criminal suspects. Those named included politicians, protesters, and members of the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle – claims Netanyahu used to delay proceedings in his corruption trial.

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Israeli police ‘may have hacked phone’ of key witness in Netanyahu trial

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Claim emerges after officials admit finding evidence pointing to misuse of spyware by investigators

A key figure in the corruption trial of Israel’s former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have been illegally bugged by police, according to reports, amid global controversy about Israeli-made spyware and how it has been used.

In a recording broadcast by Channel 12 news, police are heard allegedly discussing tapping a phone belonging to Shlomo Filber, a former Netanyahu ally turned state witness. “It’s as if it’s illegal … to install the application,” a police officer says.

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Trump risked disaster with Abbas praise in key Israel meeting, ambassador says

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In new book, David Friedman recounts private meeting with Israeli president in which Trump also knocked Netanyahu – and how he says he turned his man around

Meeting then-Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem in May 2017, Donald Trump stunned advisers by criticising the then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for being unwilling to seek peace while Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, was “desperate” for a deal.

The comment “knocked everyone off their chairs”, David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, writes in a new book.

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Israeli minister defends police over alleged Pegasus spying

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Omer Barlev denied claims that protesters’ phones had been hacked

Israel’s minister of public security has expressed his firm support for the country’s police force after allegations it used NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus software to spy on Israeli citizens.

In an interview with the Guardian on Wednesday, Omer Barlev, the cabinet minister with responsibility for policing, denied claims made this week by Hebrew-language financial daily Calcalist that the phones of people who led protests against former premier Benjamin Netanyahu had been hacked into or surveilled by police.

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Benjamin Netanyahu ‘near to plea bargain’ in corruption trial

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Former Israeli PM understood to be in advanced talks with state attorney’s office over admitting to two counts of breach of trust

The former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly close to reaching a plea bargain in his corruption trial, a development that could mean an unexpectedly swift end to his turbulent political career and once again upend Israeli politics.

Israeli media were dominated on Sunday by the news that Netanyahu, the chair of the Likud party and leader of the opposition since being ousted last year from a 12-year-stint in government, has reached advanced talks with the state attorney’s office.

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Trump’s Peace review: dysfunction and accord in US Israel policy

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Barak Ravid has written a fascinating account of four chaotic years in which some progress was nonetheless made

Trump’s Peace is a blockbuster of a book. Barak Ravid captures the 45th president saying “Fuck him” to Benjamin Netanyahu and reducing American Jews to antisemitic caricatures. Imagine the Republican reaction if Barack Obama had done that. Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham would plotz. But Trump? Crickets.

Ravid also delivers a mesmerizing tick-tock of the making of the Abraham Accords, the normalization of Israel’s relations with four non-neighboring Arab states.

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Trump launched profane tirade about Netanyahu in interview – report

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Former president was furious over ex-Israeli PM’s acknowledgment Biden won election, book says

Donald Trump spat an expletive about his old ally, Israel’s ex-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for congratulating Joe Biden on his victory in last year’s election, according to a new book.

Trump lashed out in an interview for a book on US-Israel relations during his presidency, the author Barak Ravid wrote on the Axios website on Friday. Trump’s remarks were also published by the English-language website of Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

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Israeli PM suffers setback in vote on Arab citizenship rights law

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Parliament fails to renew law barring Arab citizens from extending citizenship rights to spouses

The Israeli parliament has voted down an extension to controversial legislation that bars Arab Israelis from extending residency or citizenship rights to Palestinian spouses, in an early blow to the country’s new coalition government.

After a marathon all-night voting session that ended on Tuesday morning, the Knesset decided not to renew the law in a 59-59 vote. The outcome is widely seen as a stinging defeat for the prime minister, Naftali Bennett, who failed to unite the coalition’s disparate ideological wings in what he reportedly himself referred to as a “referendum” on the new government.

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Israeli coalition faces early test over illegal West Bank settlement

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Leftwing Israelis accuse new government of kowtowing to right in deal to evacuate Evyatar outpost

Leftwing Israelis have accused the new government of kowtowing to the right over the handling of an illegal settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus, in what is viewed as an early test of the ideologically divided coalition’s stability.

About 50 Jewish families who have moved to the Evyatar settlement over the last two months, building on a hilltop claimed by Palestinian olive farmers, agreed to vacate the land on Friday afternoon.

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New Israeli government is just as bad as the last, says Palestinian PM

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Mohammad Shtayyeh condemns Naftali Bennett’s announcements in support of Israeli settlements

Benjamin Netanyahu’s ousting closes one of the “worst periods” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but the new government headed by a settler advocate, Naftali Bennett, is just as bad as the last, the Palestinian prime minister has said.

“We do not see this new government as any less bad than the previous one, and we condemn the announcements of the new prime minister Naftali Bennett in support of Israeli settlements,” Mohammad Shtayyeh said, referring to hundreds of thousands of Jewish Israelis who have taken land in the occupied West Bank.

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Israeli elections: Raucous scenes in Knesset as Benjamin Netanyahu ousted from office – video

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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year hold on power has ended as parliament voted on a new government of improbable allies. The schism was evident at a raucous session of the legislature ahead of the vote. Netanyahu loyalists, shouting ‘shame’ and ‘liar’, frequently interrupted the man set to replace him, nationalist Naftali Bennett, as he spelled out the new coalition's policies. During his last speech as prime minister, a combative Netanyahu vowed to return: ‘We will be back, soon’ he said multiple times 

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Benjamin Netanyahu: the former commando who became King Bibi

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As he leaves office, some see Israel’s longest-serving PM as ‘Mr Security’, others as someone who spurned the chance for peace

Israelis and Palestinians under the age of 30 have lived most of their lives with Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister of Israel. First elected PM in 1996 aged 46, King Bibi – as he is known by supporters and critics alike – has since then never been far from high office, which he is due to now depart aged 71.

Related: Israeli coalition ousts Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 years

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Israeli coalition ousts Netanyahu as prime minister after 12 years

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Far-right former settler leader Naftali Bennett to be installed as prime minister

Israel’s longest-serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been ousted from office by a loose coalition of rivals from across the political spectrum, united by their wish to end his 12-year run in power.

The opposition leader, Yair Lapid, a centrist former TV news anchor, won a confidence vote in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, by a razor-thin advantage of 60-59 seats on Sunday evening.

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New Israeli coalition government seeks to put an end to the Netanyahu era

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The opposition-led administration will be sworn in on Sunday if it can prevail in a confidence vote in the Knesset

Benjamin Netanyahu is due to be ousted from office on Sunday by a new Israeli government formed with the primary aim of dethroning the country’s longest-serving leader.

A motley grouping of politicians, including former Netanyahu allies turned foes, have set aside bitter differences to put an end to the prime minister’s historic run in power. If successful, it will also break a political stalemate that has seen four snap elections in the country since 2019.

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Ex-Mossad chief signals Israel culpability for Iran attacks

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Yossi Cohen reveals details of Iran nuclear programme attacks in interview timed to support Netanyahu

The outgoing head of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, has signalled the country’s clear responsibility for a series of attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear programme in an interview that appeared to have as much to do with Israel’s febrile politics as with Iran.

In a public intervention that appeared timed to help Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, before a Knesset vote on Sunday that could end his 12 consecutive years in office, the agency’s former head Yossi Cohenrevealed details of operations long attributed to Israel.

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Netanyahu says Israeli coalition poised to unseat him is result of ‘election fraud’

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Accusation comes as security services warn of an escalation in violent discourse in the country

Benjamin Netanyahu has said a newly formed Israeli coalition that is poised to unseat him as prime minister was the result of “the greatest election fraud” in the history of democracy.

The sweeping accusation, similar in tone to those made about the US election by his former close ally Donald Trump, came as Israeli security services warned of an escalation in violent discourse in the country.

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Netanyahu attacks ‘dangerous’ coalition seeking to topple him

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Israel’s longest-serving leader begins fight to remain in power as opposition parties rush to establish government

Benjamin Netanyahu has fought back against what he slammed as a “dangerous” coalition of opposition parties that were rushing to establish a government aimed at unseating the country’s longest-serving leader.

A day after the opposition head, Yair Lapid, announced that he and Naftali Bennett – his far-right partner and prime minister in waiting – could form a “government of change”, the race was on to get it voted on in parliament and sworn in.

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