Anonymous ID: fff9c0 Jan. 6, 2019, 1:51 a.m. No.4624254   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>4287 >>4370

Israeli alliances crumble as candidates envision a post-Netanyahu era

 

JERUSALEM (NYTIMES) - With elections a few months away, it is political fratricide season in Israel: From left to right, candidates are sticking knives in the ribs of their natural allies in hopes of elevating their own chances of succeeding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

This week, the Zionist Union, a 4-year-old liberal alliance, blew itself up as the Labor Party chief, Mr Avi Gabbay, humiliated veteran politician Tzipi Livni by abruptly breaking with her and her boutique party Hatnuah (The Movement) while television cameras rolled.

 

Popular ministers, Mr Naftali Bennett and Ms Ayelet Shaked, abandoned their right-wing party, the Jewish Home, to form a new one - the New Right - that they vowed would be less beholden to religious leaders but would still push to settle the West Bank and oppose a Palestinian state.

"People can say, 'Netanyahu will win anyway, so maybe I'll vote for so-and-so'," Prof Rahat said. "For the Likud, it's not good."

 

Mr Netanyahu has a more immediate reason to fear: Waiting just offstage with the equivalent of a broadaxe in hand is the Israeli attorney general, Mr Avichai Mandelblit, who is expected to decide in the coming months whether to heed police recommendations that he indict Mr Netanyahu on bribery or other charges arising from three major corruption investigations.

 

https://www.straitstimes.com/world/middle-east/israeli-alliances-crumble-as-candidates-envision-a-post-netanyahu-era