January 31, 2013
3:08 pm

Israel’s Tea Party and how it helped Yair Lapid

The electorate recognized there was no alternative to Netanyahu, but that didn’t stop it from dragging him away from the intolerant nationalism of his party

By Paul Gross

January 27, 2013
9:01 pm

A Bedouin settlement in the Negev (illustrative photo credit: Alana Perino/Flash90)

Government backs landmark Bedouin settlement deal

Cabinet approves compromise to give official recognition to most illegal towns in the Negev, drawing criticism from left and right

By Aaron Kalman

January 23, 2013
5:16 pm

Knesset members stand during a ceremony marking 17 years since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, on October 28, 2012. (photo credit: Yoav Ari Dudkevitch/Flash90)

In the next Knesset, a radical case of musical chairs

It’s out with the old — more than 50 of them — and in with the new

By Gabe Fisher

January 11, 2013
9:21 am

A worker prepares ballot boxes for the previous elections, at a warehouse in Shoham, near Tel Aviv, January 8, 2013 (photo credit: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

Likud-Beytenu to play hardball with settlers if they don’t vote for the list, report says

Netanyahu’s party said infuriated by settlers who join Likud to influence primary results but then vote for the competition

By Elie Leshem

January 2, 2013
11:13 pm

The national unity government scenario

The Jewish Home party’s dramatic ascent could prompt Netanyahu to link arms with the left

By Ed Rettig

December 6, 2012
3:03 pm

Lt. Col. Hassan, left, teaching a young tracker the ropes (Photo credit: Mitch Ginsburg/ Times of Israel)

In the silent footsteps of the Israeli army’s sharp-eyed Bedouin trackers

They spend their waking hours on the front line, protecting sovereign Israel and West Bank settlements from terrorist infiltrators. And then some go home to unrecognized villages, slated for destruction

By Mitch Ginsburg

December 3, 2012
3:41 pm

Benny Begin with Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Knesset in 2012 (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The politics of petulance

Israel is moving to the right — unsurprisingly, given the threats on every front — but the Likud just took that shift to a whole new level. Electing a band of grandstanding populists, and announcing settlement plans as a kind of punishment to the Palestinians, won’t help Israel negotiate the treacherous new regional realities

By David Horovitz

November 28, 2012
3:07 pm

The new Likud minus Zeev Jabotinsky

Gone are the party’s traditional respect for minority rights and the rule of law

By Josef Olmert

November 27, 2012
9:20 am

Just don’t call them nationalists

The majority of Likud primary-voters opted for ideological purity and uncompromising extremism

By Ari Moshkovski

November 27, 2012
1:33 am

A Likud supporter outside the Kfar Saba Likud polling place on Nov 26, 2012. (photo credit: Yehoshua Yosef/Flash90)

Netanyahu says primaries result shows Likud ‘is the people’s party’

PM calls on low-ranked moderate candidates to stay with him, as hardliners celebrate; Labor brands the list ‘extremist’

By Sam Ser

November 27, 2012
12:55 am

Moshe Feiglin documents his experience of the Likud Primaries in Tel Aviv, November 26, 2012. (photo credit: Flash90)

Moshe Feiglin leads hardliners’ rise on Likud’s Knesset slate, at expense of moderates

‘This is just the beginning,’ says Feiglin. ‘Eventually, we will build the temple and fulfill our purpose in this land'; veteran Begin could lose his seat, Meridor almost certainly will

By Raphael Ahren

November 25, 2012
3:29 pm

A Likud supporter carries a poster of far-right party member Moshe Feiglin (Uri Lenz/Flash90)

Moderate Likud veterans may be on their way out as party’s young right flank set for gains

Moshe Feiglin said to have a shot at a realistic Knesset spot, but Netanyahu may seek to torpedo his candidacy — as he has done in the past

By Raphael Ahren

November 13, 2012
3:05 am

An Israeli soldier directs an APC after returning from an operation along the Israel-Gaza border (file photo: Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

Despite mounting talk of Gaza ground op, senior minister says current round of violence over

Benny Begin calls on government to exercise restraint; defense minister places blame on Hamas, says Israel will choose time and means ‘to restore our deterrence’

By Sam Ser and Times of Israel staff

November 7, 2012
2:55 pm

Founding Fathom: Why do we need another journal about Israel?

On launching a global intellectual space for serious bi-partisan debate about Israel

By Alan Johnson and Toby Greene

October 28, 2012
8:31 am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman leads a meeting at the Knesset on October 15, 2012. (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Liberman dismisses reports of opposition within Likud to new alliance

‘No one will leave,’ says Yisrael Beytenu head, blaming ‘hysterical” media and leftists for criticisms of his partnership with Netanyahu

By Yifa Yaakov and Times of Israel staff

Topic: Benny Begin