Shelly Yacimovich

Labor chairman Isaac Herzog (Photo by Activestills.org)

Go ahead Herzog, join the coalition

The fact that the head of Israel’s opposition could soon join forces with Netanyahu may actually bode well for the Israeli Left and Palestinian citizens alike. The Israeli media has been beside itself this week with the possibility that the head of the opposition Isaac Herzog, leader of the Labor Party cum Zionist Union, may…

By Dahlia Scheindlin May 18, 2016

The children of Hashem Al Azzeh look through a window in their house near the Israeli settlement of Tel Rumeida in the West Bank city of Hebron. Their home has been attacked by Israeli settlers on numerous occasions. (Activestills)

The children who won’t let us forget the occupation

A six-year-old Palestinian girl was run over on a main road while begging for change in northern Israel. She is one of many Palestinians sent over from the West Bank, where both poverty and despair is only growing. By Yasmine Halevi The above photo is of Fatma from Hebron. She is six-and-a-half years old…

By +972 Magazine January 2, 2016

Israeli soldiers near the Palestinian city of Halhul, where the bodies of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers were found. (photo: Activestills)

Refusal by elite IDF reservists angrily dismissed as ‘political’

Following the public refusal of 43 reservists of the IDF’s 8200 intelligence unit, politicians and other veterans of the unit have openly denounced the reservists, viewing their refusal as an unacceptable politicization of their army service. Political leaders both from the government and the opposition condemned 43 reservists from Israel’s prestigious 8200 intelligence unit who stated their refusal to take…

By Dahlia Scheindlin September 14, 2014

Latest

Leader of the National Religious Party ("Jewish Home") Naftali Bennett (photo: Yotam Ronen / activestills.org)

The top five most hypocritical Mandela eulogies by Israeli politicians

Israeli politicians have begun updating their Facebook pages with eulogies for the late Nelson Mandela. What do statesmen of the Jewish state – one of the last western countries to support the South African apartheid state and which today practices apartheid-like policies between the river and the sea – have to say about the man…

By Ami Kaufman December 6, 2013

Yair Lapid with "Yesh Atid" activists (photo: Yotam Ronen / activestills.org)

Yair Lapid: The rise of the tofu man

Despite an astonishing surge to second place in the polls, chances of Yair Lapid making an actual premiership bid are slim. He is risk-averse, lacks a political program, and his projected coalition is too fanciful to work. Lapid is much more likely to join Netanyahu’s next government, and the only question is: Will Lapid be…

By Dimi Reider January 22, 2013

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres (photo: activestills.org)

Bibi can relax – the ‘center-left’ is really on the right

The actual right-wing bloc looks set to win over 100 of the Knesset’s 120 seats in Tuesday’s election. There’s only one reason to vote against it: the future. “Right-wing bloc’s majority slashed,” read the headline over today’s election poll in Haaretz. “The gap is closing,” according to the poll in today’s Yedioth Aharonoth. Both surveys…

By Larry Derfner January 18, 2013

Tzipi Livni (photo: Sandy Teperson/CC)

Finally, Israel has an opposition: Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party

With all due respect to Meretz and Hadash … Until yesterday, the occupation was not an issue in the Israeli election campaign; the only parties running against it were Meretz and the non-Zionist, Arab or largely Arab slates, all of which are marginal to the country’s politics. But with Amir Peretz’s departure from the Labor…

By Larry Derfner December 7, 2012

President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu (photo: Pete Souza / white house)

Post-UN bid, anybody still think Obama is going to ‘save Israel from itself’?

Since winning reelection, Obama has championed Netanyahu’s war in Gaza and rejectionism in the UN. Enough illusions about this U.S. administration. It’s hard to see how Mitt Romney could have been any more pro-occupation or anti-Palestinian than Obama’s been since getting reelected three and a half weeks ago. (That’s all it was!) First Rashid Khalidi’s…

By Larry Derfner November 30, 2012

Mitt Romney and PM Netanyahu during Romney visit to Israel July 29, 2012 (Avi Ochayon/GPO)

After Bibi’s bet on Romney, ‘peace camp’ can beat him

Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni can win the January 22 election. If there is one loser in the U.S. election outside the U.S., it is Benjamin Netanyahu – and all of Israel knows it. No one is fooled by his denials that he backed Romney and opposed Obama as demonstratively as he possibly could. The…

By Larry Derfner November 7, 2012

Shaul Mofaz (Photo: Sgt. Andy Dunaway, U.S. Air Force (United States Department of Defense photo), Public Domain/Wikimedia commons)

Shaul Mofaz, potential statesman, deserves a break

By Roni Schocken Congratulations to Benjamin Netanyahu and Shaul Mofaz. I’ve been fond of Mofaz for a while now. Ever since he served as defense minister in Ariel Sharon’s government during the disengagement from Gaza, Mofaz has been building himself up as a serious politician and perhaps even a statesman. It was during the disengagement…

By +972 Magazine May 10, 2012

IAF fighter jet during an exercise [illustrative ] (photo: IDF Spokesperson / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Israeli public preps for elections: Just ‘don’t mention the war!’

Election season has begun, and the Israeli public desperately wants one thing: escapism. Last night, after the Israeli election was set for September 4, I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that I thought summed up the public mood, which the main “opposition” candidates have been and will be catering to. The T-shirt showed a comically wide-eyed, frightened John Cleese and his classic line from Fawlty Towers: “Don’t mention the…

By Larry Derfner May 3, 2012