In an hour, a "flag march" through Jerusalem will begin. The march was scheduled for last week but delayed until today after police and security services objected to the route.
There is a march of Israeli flags every Jerusalem Day, which marks the reunification of the city under Israeli rule after the Six Day War. That march, mostly of national-religious youths (men and women separated) goes through the Old City to the Western Wall.
What makes the march controversial is that the men march through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Shops are closed and sometimes racist slogans are chanted by some marchers — though the event is once a year and usually not marked by physical violence.
This year's flag march, on May 10, was rerouted away from the Muslim Quarter because of heightened tensions. Despite this change, rockets were fired on Jerusalem by Hamas as the march was beginning, leading to its cancellation altogether.
The march today is being billed as a catch-up event after the May march was cancelled. It was also rerouted, but then the outgoing Netanyahu government instead decided to overrule the security services and allow it to go ahead a few days later: today.
Among the organisers of the march is the far-right Religious Zionism party, leading to accusations that it's a political stunt. The party logo has now been removed from even flyers, but it was there before.
Hamas has threatened to start another war if the march goes ahead. There's also the possibility of rioting from the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. The new Bennett/Lapid government has been in office less than 48 hours, so this will be its first test.
Israel has deployed 2000 police to Jerusalem and is readying Iron Dome batteries to intercept rockets. But... I don't think anyone really wants another war right now.
My prediction: there will, unfortunately, be some violence. Hamas will fire some rockets. The IDF will respond. But unless there's a terrible tragedy (a Hamas rocket hitting a crowded shopping mall, an Israeli strike hitting a family), I think everyone wants to move on quickly.
Anyway, hoping and praying this all passes without any violence at all.
The march is over. There were racist chants by the marchers, but no violence targeting the march itself. Some civil disturbances in Arab neighbourhoods led to 17 arrests, and to injuries among police and residents.
Instead of rocket fire, Hamas sent incendiary and explosive devices on balloons into Southern Israel ahead of the march, causing wildfires but no injuries. That allows Hamas to say it 'responded', but without forcing Israel to respond in turn.
Ultimately, today's march was a de-facto Opposition rally, a focus for attacks on Naftali Bennett and the new government.
British people are rightly laughing at this story that confuses the Rugby position "hooker" with the American slang term for a prostitute. But it's actually an example of how certain parasitic "news" sites do business.
The Tom Youngs story is stolen from @SkySportsNews. To avoid automated copyright takedowns, the para-sites steal it but change a few words out for synonyms. Compare: skysports.com/rugby-union/ne…
Compare these few paragraphs in the Sky Sports story with the Insider Voice version. It's straight-up plagiarism, with the occasional changing the order of a phrase or substituting a word.
One thing I was asked was about Ra'am, the Islamist party that joined the new coalition. They joined because they wanted to be part of a government and have influence.
Ra'am would have joined Netanyahu instead if he had the numbers. In fact, they tried to, but the far right parties refused to be in a coalition with them.
By joining the Bennett/Lapid government, they won policy commitments on stuff their voters care about: investment in Bedouin towns in the Negev desert, easing of demolitions, a plan to fight organised crime in Arab communities.
The Knesset, Israel's parliament, begins the process of testing the confidence of the government-designate. President Rivlin is joining the session.
Naftali Bennett, Prime-Minister designate, takes the podium to introduce the new government. Immediately, hecklers from Likud and their allies start shouting, screaming and preventing him from speaking
The Speaker (currently Likud's Yariv Levin, but about to be replaced) orders right-wing leader Bezalel Smotrich out of the chamber for intense heckling. Heckles continue. Far right leader Itamar ben-Gvir now ordered out too.
Is it just seven hours before the process to vote in (and swear in) a new government in Israel, and so far I am not seeing any plans for a largescale protest outside the parliament. No buses, no public calls.
Nothing is done until it's done. This isn't Jan 6, a technical procedure for an already-decided outcome. A rebellion of just two or three Knesset members could sink the planned government before it's seated. It's happened before.
At the moment, it seems like there are 61 members out of 120 ready to vote for the government. It doesn't look like there are any surprises. But, well, they wouldn't be surprises if we expected them.