Naftali Bennett delivers remarks. Opens by slamming the current (Netanyahu) Government for negligence and mismanagement over the Meron tragedy and says repeated elections are a disaster.
Bennett: There is no option for a pure right-wing government. Anyone who tells you this is lying to you. Netanyahu is dragging the country to crisis for personal reasons
Bennett: I will work with my friend Yair Lapid to build a unity government. Every party is welcome. This isn't a left-wing government, and the left-wing parties made significant compromises to join it.
Bennett: Don't believe the fearmongers. Come and support this government. Ends on a sentence of prayer.
This was a strong speech by Bennett. Smiling, confident, calm. And surprisingly harsh words about Netanyahu. He's finally burnt his boats.
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The United States is one Trump statement away from a civil war. That's been true since November, and if Twitter hadn't taken away his account it might have actually happened late January. But it's still true now. If he calls for people to rise up, they will.
It's looking increasingly likely that Bennett will replace Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel in the next few days, despite winning just seven seats (6 following a defection) in the last election.
Bennett is more ideologically right-wing than Netanyahu. His party is even called "Rightwards". But the government he'd lead would be a broad coalition of parties of the centre, left and right.
The much-hyped meeting of the Yemina ("Rightwards") party caucus finished after less than an hour. The five other Knesset members gave Bennett their unanimous support. That means that Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett could notify the President today that they can form a government.
Watching former Boris Johnson advisor @Dominic2306 testify at the Parliamentary inquiry on the Covid-19 pandemic, I'm struck how it's SO much better, more useful, more constructive and more informative than a Congressional hearing.
@Dominic2306 No subpoena power (Cummings himself has refused to attend a committee summons before), no enforceable penalties for lying. But also no grandstanding by Members, no speeches, no nonsense. Short questions, long answers.
Cummings reflective. Apologises for not setting up a Downing Street "red team" on the coronavirus to inspect Govt preparation in January 2020.
Israel plans to remove ALL remaining Covid-19 gathering restrictions on 1 June. That includes the Green Pass rules that restrict places to only vaccinated people.
For the time being, indoor masking requirements will remain though this is also under review. Tight border controls and, presumably, infection quarantine, will also remain in force.
Enforcement of the Green Pass, occupancy limits etc hasn't been enforced for a while. But case numbers, test positivity and hospital numbers continue to collapse.
QAnon influencer GhostEzra is now promoting the neo-Nazi film "Europa – the last battle", which claims that Jews created Communism and deliberately caused both World Wars, provoking the innocent Nazis who were only defending themselves, as part of a plot to found Israel.
GhostEzra has 335k subscribers to his Telegram channel and has been posting more and more antisemitic content in the last couple of months.
"Europa - the Last Battle" is LONG, like 12 hours long, and includes Holocaust denial, Rothschild conspiracies and everything you'd expect. It's constantly shared by
Neo-Nazis in MAGA and QAnon spaces, seeing those communities as fertile recruitment grounds.
There was ethnic violence. There were mobs. There was a death — a Jewish man in Lod, Yigal Yehoshua, was murdered by an Arab mob. In death, he donated a kidney to an Arab woman who lives in my neighbourhood. jpost.com/israel-news/je…
There were Jewish far-right mobs that organised retaliatory attacks that led to the hospitalisation of an Arab man in Bat Yam and the arson of a shop.