Israel News

President Reuven Rivlin is set to task a candidate with forming a government on or before March 17, the same day Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s criminal trial begins.

Smashing worries about voter fatigue and virus fears, authorities said Monday that Israelis were streaming to the polls in higher numbers than have been seen in years.

Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory in the Israel’s elections on Monday night, despite exit polls pointing to his right-wing bloc being below the 61-MK target he needs to form a government.

Three major exit polls in Israel showed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Likud poised to win 36 to 37 seats as elections concluded Monday, far outstripping the 32 to 33 seats predicted for left-wing rival Benny Gantz and the Blue and White party.

As part of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the IDF Coordination of Government Activities in the territories (COGAT), Israel allowed the entry of cattle and other goods into the Palestinian territories, according to a COGAT press release.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Sunday that his party’s internal polling showed he was a stone’s throw away from a Knesset majority that would allow the formation of a right-wing government.

The Knesset election on Monday will go down in history as the most unique Israel has had so far: It will have been the first time Israelis go to the polls for the third time in less than a year, with the total cost to the economy being at least NIS 9 billion ($2.6 billion) in lost productivity.

In a dramatic development for same-sex couples in Israel, the country’s top court struck down on Thursday a law that blocks single men and gay couples from using surrogacy to have children — giving the Knesset a year to pass a new law.

Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within a few weeks and available in 90 days, according to a release.
“Congratulations to MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. “I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat,” Akunis said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Israeli defense minister Naftali Bennett virtually announced a new war with Hamas in Gaza Tuesday, a day after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group launched 80 rockets and mortars into Israel.

Days before Israel’s third election in a year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks slated to overcome rival Benny Gantz, but not to win handily enough to become Prime Minister outright without help from other parties.

There are currently 1,600 Israelis in quarantine for coronavirus all across the country, stretching from Kiryat Shmona in the very north all the way down to Be’er Sheva in the south.

The United Nations Middle East peace envoy condemned Israel’s recent advancement of construction plans in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that he said would effectively cut the West Bank in two and isolate some Palestinian neighborhoods.

A barrage of rockets and mortars fell on Israel Sunday night and Monday morning, all engineered by the Iran-linked Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group, and now Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is threatening all-out war.

Israel’s defense minister warned that he wants Hamas to have a ‘painful spring’ and placed high odds of a major military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Security Council made a rare show of unity Monday when it called on all parties to maintain their support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Amid reports of an emerging ceasefire between Israel and the Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi warned Monday evening that the fighting may not be over yet.

In July 2017, Israeli historian Yoram Meital stumbled upon a handwritten 1028 CE biblical codex that was lying abandoned on a dusty shelf in a Cairo synagogue. Wrapped in simple white paper of the sort one finds on tables in cheap eateries, at 616 pages, the Zechariah Ben ‘Anan Manuscript is one of the era’s most complete and preserved examples of the ‘Writings,’ the third and concluding section of the Hebrew Bible. It had been lost to scholars for almost 40 years.

Two new polls in Israel show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party leading rival Benny Gantz’s leftist Blue and White Party, which has led in all the polls released since December, ahead of third elections Monday.

The US members of a committee that will map out areas of the West Bank that Israel may annex as part of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan have set out for Israel, Channel 12 news reported Sunday.