After a raucous six-hour debate, 55 legislators registered their confidence in Netanyahu, 50 voted against, and an unprecedented 15 abstained or absented themselves from the ballot. The government\’s paper support is 66 out of 120 Knesset members, plus two far-right sympathizers from Rehavam Ze\’evy\’s Moledet.
During the yearlong tenure of the Netanyahu government, Syria has become the forgotten front in the Israeli-Arab peace process. The two sides aren\’t negotiating, and Warren Christopher\’s frequent-flier shuttles between Jerusalem and Damascus are already a relic of Middle East diplomacy.
Binyamin Netanyahu this week put the Bar-On affair behind him. The Supreme Court endorsed as \”not exceptionally unreasonable\” the law officers\’ reluctance to indict the prime minister and Justice Minister Tzachi Hanegbi for the abortive appointment of an underqualified party hack as attorney-general.
The conversion bill compromise was based on a position paper presented to the prime minister and his colleagues by a Reform and Conservative delegation.
The argument that Pollard was a spy, and that is all that matters, may be legally valid, but it is not morally valid.
Israel celebrated a strange Independence Day last week as it entered its 50th year and Binyamin Netanyahu\’s government looked forward to the first anniversary of its electoral victory.
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