Bibi

Monday

James Snell

Netanyahu’s war on lawyers has thrown Israel into turmoil

Chaos reigns in Israel, a country in the throes of an ad hoc general strike called by trade unions, university students, numerous industries across the country, and many military and civil defence reservists. Demonstrators are storming buildings and fighting the police. Some council leaders say they are beginning a hunger strike. If you wanted to fly into Ben Gurion airport today, as tens of thousands of people usually do of a weekday, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. It’s closed.  Why is all of this happening? In the immediate term, because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked his defence minister, Yoav Gallant. Gallant is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and is a loyalist. He said that Netanyahu should

Sunday

Limor Simhony Philpott

Is time up for King Bibi?

In the run-up to its fourth election in two years, Israel is enjoying its vaccine success story. The number of seriously ill Covid patients is in decline, the R rate is slowly falling and the economy has started to reopen. But prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not reaping the rewards. Support for Netanyahu’s party, Likud, although still the largest, has shrunk significantly since the last elections where it won 36 seats. Blue and White, which won 33 seats, has since crashed and burnt due to brilliant political manoeuvring by Bibi (and a staggering lack of political sophistication by leader Benny Gantz). Yet Likud is expected to only win 30 seats