Daily Briefing Jan. 30 – Does Israel’s corruption score show awareness, or problems?

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East, and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz and senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur join host Jessica Steinberg.

Horovitz and Rettig Gur discuss Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s comments about a new right-wing bloc in Israeli politics, including who would be part of it, and why he’s starting to talk about it now.

They then take a closer look at Israel’s worst-ever score in Transparency International’s ranking of public sector corruption worldwide, and whether that means the country is doing better or worse in terms of awareness and responsibility.

Horovitz also talks about the plea deal and lenient sentence for United Torah Judaism MK Yaakov Litzman, who admitted to using his former position as deputy health minister to impede the extradition to Australia of Malka Leifer, a former school principal accused of sexually assaulting minors.

Finally, Steinberg reports on Tel Aviv art galleries that banded together to support freedom of expression by showing the work of artists who withdrew their pieces from the Ramat Gan contemporary art museum — a protest move after a piece by fellow artist David Reeb that was deemed offensive was pulled.

Discussed articles include:

Bennett said to eye ‘new national camp’ with coalition partners Liberman, Sa’ar

Israel’s deepening slide into corruption

Litzman signs plea deal in Leifer case, avoiding jail time and paying symbolic fine

Galleries to present protesting artists’ works in weekend show of solidarity

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