Carried by Sheldon Adelson’s private jet, the American who spied for Israel Jonathan Pollard and his wife Esther landed at Ben-Gurion Airport early Wednesday morning. They were greeted on the tarmac by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, cabinet secretary and acting Prime Minister’s Office Director General Tzahi Braverman and the office’s spokesperson Shir Cohen.
Not present was Interior Minister Arye Dery, who had been asked a few days prior to issue an identity card to the new immigrant. Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz was also absent, of course, as were Immigration and Absorption Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata and Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog.
Even those who take pride in Israel’s record inoculation numbers must admit it’s the first country to go into a third lockdown ■ Bidding farewell to a disappointment named Gantz
But now, with Gideon Sa’ar as a main rival and Naftali Bennett as a secondary challenge, the tactic that had served him so well is no longer relevant. It will be harder for him to paint them as “left-wing collaborators.” He will try, of course, but even the tricks of the world’s best campaigner have their limits.
Netanyahu is going into this election campaign season with his worst starting numbers in months. Even before Sa’ar broke with Likud to found his own party, the Likud-right-ultra-Orthodox bloc had 65 to 67 Knesset seats, out of a total of 120. A homogenous coalition that would free him of the nightmare awaiting him in the courtroom of Judge Rivka Friedman-Feldman and give him a license to eliminate the legal system had been in his pocket. But not anymore.
Israel open to teaming up with Gulf states on missile defense, official says al-monitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from al-monitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Derech Eretz MKs Yoaz Hendel (L) and Zvi Hauser (R), April 29, 2019.
In an interesting political move, alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz (Blue&White) fired Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel (Derech Eretz) today from his ministerial position. Zvika Hauser and his partner Yoaz Hendel merged with Gantz’s Blue&White party when they all joined Netanyahu’s dysfunctional unity government. Gantz will take over the Communications ministry.
With the Knesset in the midst of voting for new elections, and after the semi-dramatic exit of MK Gidon Sa’ar from the Likud party, Hauser and Hendel made it clear they would run with Sa’ar’s party in the next election and supported Sa’ar for the position of Prime Minister in the next Knesset.