Israel’s opposition Likud party has selected a hawkish slate of candidates for upcoming parliamentary elections.
This would make peace moves with Israel’s Arab neighbors increasingly unlikely if Likud wins the Feb. 10 national vote.
Leader Benjamin Netanyahu hoped to present a more mainstream list of candidates to broaden his party’s support among Israelis.
But party members voting in primary elections ending early yesterday preferred candidates with uncompromising views on territorial withdrawals.
Those include Benny Begin, son of former prime minister Menahem Begin. Another is Moshe Feiglin, an extremist settler whose platform calls for denying non-Jews the right to vote for Israel’s parliament.
Cabinet minister Haim Ramon of the rival Kadima Party says the Likud’s new list shows it is a “party of the extreme right.” Recent polls show the Likud leading Kadima.
“It will not be possible to conduct a diplomatic process or even talk about a diplomatic process with such a hawkish list,” said Yoav Krakovsky, Israel Radio’s political affairs.
The most recent opinion poll, published last week, predicted Likud would win 35 of parliament’s 120 seats, compared with 26 for its closest rival, Kadima, led by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Although candidate lists are an important factor in Israeli elections, the contests largely hinge on the popularity of party leaders — and Netanyahu’s ratings in opinion surveys have been high.
Political analyst Hanan Crystal said Netanyahu had hoped a less hawkish profile for Likud would help the party capture more center ground from Kadima, which has been slipping in the polls since October.
“Netanyahu understands that battle lines with Kadima have been drawn in the fight for ... the 10 to 15 parliamentary seats determined by votes from the moderate right and center,” Crystal said on Israel Radio.
Netanyahu put a positive face on the results, calling the list “the best possible” in a speech to party loyalists and vowing to “improve security, strengthen the economy and continue a responsible diplomatic process” with Palestinians.
Netanyahu, prime minister from 1996 to 1999, has said he would focus on strengthening the Palestinian economy rather than on territorial issues that current US-brokered statehood talks have failed to resolve.
Tzahi Hanegbi, a senior Kadima legislator and campaign strategist, said the “real Likud” had emerged from the party election.
“Netanyahu’s dream team became his nightmare. The stars are out and the rebels are in,” Hanegbi said.
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS