Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis began voting Monday in the country’s unprecedented third election in less than a year to decide whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power despite his upcoming criminal trial on corruption charges.

01 Mar 2020; MEMO: Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that he is not concerned with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Jordan’s threats as his government has already begun the annexation of the West Bank, Arab48 reported on Friday.

01 Mar 2020; MEMO: Israeli Defence Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Friday that Israel aims to push Iran out of Syria within the upcoming 12 months, Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported.

JERUSALEM (AP) — For the third time in under a year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks re-election, and once again the Israeli leader is on the ropes.

After two inconclusive elections last year, opinion polls forecast another stalemate — a troubling scenario for Netanyahu who will go on trial on corruption charges just two weeks after Monday’s vote.

28 Feb 2020; MEMO: In a major international survey, only 37 per cent of Israelis said human rights groups should be able to operate freely, as reported by the Times of Israel.

26 Feb 2020; MEMO: In a letter sent to a resident who was born in Tel Aviv, a municipal mayor in France has referred to the city as “former Palestine”. The Mayor of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin, sent the letter on 5 February to inform the resident that he is registered on the electoral list for Marseilles, but called his birthplace “Tel Aviv – Ex-Palestine”.

26 Feb 2020; MEMO: The Likud party has reportedly “given up on attempts to persuade Itamar Ben Gvir, the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, to withdraw from the election race”, according to sources cited by the Kan broadcaster yesterday.

26 Feb 2020; MEMO: In an attempt to win votes in the upcoming elections, current Likud government brought 43 Jews from the Falashmura community in Ethiopia, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday.

The new immigrants travelled from Addis Ababa airport to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport in Israel, where they were reunited with family members who are already in Israel.

25 Feb 2020; MEMO: Some 540 former Israeli Air Force officers have appealed to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin not to let current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu form the next government, Arab48 reported yesterday.

In a letter, Arab48 said was reported by Yedioth Ahronoth, the pilots said: “In the State of Israel it is impossible for a situation to exist in which a man who is indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust will form a government.”

JERUSALEM, Feb 24 (NNN-XINHUA) – Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is facing the battle of his life, with crucial national elections to take place on Mar 2, and a corruption trial to be opened only two weeks later.

Last July, Netanyahu became the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, surpassing David Ben-Gurion.