Former Israeli Knesset Member and Minister of Justice Tommy Lapid argued persuasively, but erroneously in a recent Jerusalem Post op-ed that both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu are right in their contrasting approaches to the peace process. Continue reading »

I was surprised this morning to see campaign posters for Likud Party leader Binyamin Netanyahu on most of the public buses I passed on my way to work, considering that at present, the next general election is scheduled to take place in 2010. Continue reading »

Is Prime Minister Ehud Olmert trying to prepare Israelis for the surrender of the Golan Heights to Syria?

On Monday, Olmert explained in detail to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the only thing that would buy Israel peace with Syria would be ceding the entire Golan. He expounded on the issue despite stating that he remains opposed to negotiations with Damascus at this time.

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Rather than sit in relative obscurity as the Knesset’s fifth largest party, Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud is now the third largest party after Thursday’s final vote tally resulted in a small but significant shake up in the allocation of seats in the 17th Knesset.

The 17th Knesset will now look like this following the count of the final 150,000 ballots from on-duty IDF soldiers, prisoners, Israelis abroad, etc:

1. Kadima - 29 seats (+1)
2. Labor - 20 seats
3. Likud - 12 seats (+1)
4. Shas - 12 seats (-1)
5. Israel Beiteinu - 11 seats (-1)
6. National Union/National Religious - 9 seats
7. Pensioner’s Party - 7 seats
8. United Torah Judaism - 6 seats
9. Meretz - 5 seats (+1)
10. Ra’am-Ta’al - 3 seats (-1)
11. Balad - 3 seats
12. Hadash - 3 seats

So all of you who were praying for “Bibi”, keep doing so!

This seemingly minor alteration means that he will most likely now serve as official opposition leader, rather than the head of a largely insignificant faction.