Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s main coalition partner threatened to quit on Monday unless bickering ministers agreed to a proposal to end wholesale military draft exemptions for Jewish seminary students. A government-appointed committee failed on Sunday to finalise a draft law that limits the number of those exempted from compulsory army service each year to…
Sheldon Adelson asked for a meeting, and Yair Lapid consented. Adelson’s purpose in asking for the meeting was to ensure that Lapid would not cut government support to the Birthright program — which totals $40 million per year — as part of the budget cuts. In these words, more or less, Lapid described the enigmatic…
Just months after a dazzling political debut, Israel’s new finance minister Yair Lapid has come crashing down to earth with a budget that critics say hits the very people he vowed to protect – the middle classes. The deficit-cutting package was approved by the cabinet early on Tuesday and now passes to parliament, where Lapid…
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Saturday to protest against austerity measures presented this week as part of the state’s new budget. Rallies were expected to take place in cities across the country, bringing back the social protest that took Israel by storm two years ago. Some 10,000 people were estimated to be…
That fight within the Jewish Home party over nominations for chief rabbi has more to it than meets the eye. True, it opens up a fault line within the religious Zionist movement, between the liberal wing that backs Rabbi David Stav and the more religiously conservative wing that backs Rabbi Yaakov Ariel. But it’s also…
Ultra-Orthodox publicist and children’s author Chaim Walder took Finance Minister Yair Lapid to task on Sunday in an essay published by the Haredi newspaper Yated Ne’eman, comparing remarks the latter made two years ago to the text of a 1939 speech by Adolf Hitler. Walder’s essay, “Soul-deep hatred with no holds barred,” references a letter…
Israel’s new finance minister, Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, gave his first Knesset speech as a cabinet minister on Monday, April 22, the opening day of the parliament’s spring session, and in defiance of longstanding tradition, he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself. Longtime Knesset observers say they can’t remember ever hearing such a…
Yesh Atid surprised pundits when it came second in the January general election in Israel, despite the fact it was a brand new political party with a leader, Yair Lapid, who had never served in Knesset. But it doesn’t stop there. If a poll released today is right, then Yesh Atid has increased its popularity…
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