Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman met with Gadi Eisenkot yesterday but refused to commit to recommending that the Yashar leader be tasked with forming the next government when he meets with President Isaac Herzog, the Kan public broadcaster says in an unsourced report.
Liberman met with B’Yachad’s Yair Lapid yesterday, Kan reports.
The outlet notes that Liberman is demanding MK Oded Forer from his seven-MK faction be appointed as Knesset speaker, a decision that would likely be opposed by the Arab parties. However, the so-called change bloc is said to be concerned that Liberman could torpedo the nomination of any other candidate.
Liberman has long said that his party will not join any coalition that includes the two Arab-led parties, but also that he will not sit in a government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Herzog will meet with party heads on Wednesday to hear their nominations, but has publicly backed the idea of a unity government of the opposition parties with Netanyahu. Coalition whip Likud MK Ofir Katz yesterday ruled out a rotation agreement in a potential government.
Kan reported yesterday that associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have told Eisenkot that there will not be talks for a unity government if Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana was to be replaced, or even if an attempt was underway to unseat him.
Key Update
Yemen’s Houthis say that Saudi strikes targeted a key Red Sea port and oil facility in Hodeidah province, wounding seven people.
The Iran-backed group is fighting a Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government after a civil war reignited in one of the world’s poorest countries.
Saudi-coalition strikes on Ras Issa port wounded four civilians, while three more were hurt in an attack on an oil facility in Bajil district, Houthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi says in a post on X.
“These repeated attacks on oil facilities and vital ports constitute a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and add to the series of war crimes in Yemen that target civilians and critical infrastructure,” he says.
A new American military operation against Iran may come soon after tomorrow’s US midterm elections, The Atlantic reports, amid weeks of reports and public remarks threatening renewed strikes.
The report says, citing two unnamed non-administration sources close to US President Donald Trump, that Trump is mulling over who to scapegoat for the failure to end the Iran war, after his advisers mistakenly assured him ahead of its February start that it would be over long before the midterms.
These include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, the report says.
Hegseth is unpopular in the White House, with sources quoted as alleging his assessments have been overly optimistic to keep Trump happy. “Hegseth is good at telling the president what he wants to hear,” one of the outside advisers tells The Atlantic.
He has fired the Pentagon’s top military planner, Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, with Caine’s office appearing out of the loop by first issuing a statement thanking him for his decades of service, only to hours later say the previous statement “did not appropriately reflect the full circumstances.”
Key Update
A tanker traveling southeast through the Gulf has been struck by two unidentified projectiles on its port side, 72 nautical miles east of Saudi Arabia’s Ras al-Khafji, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency says.
All crew members are accounted for, and no environmental impact has been reported, the monitor adds.
The husband of a woman who was killed in a violent incident in Petah Tikva earlier tonight has also been found dead a few streets away, police say.
According to police sources cited by Hebrew media, the husband likely murdered his 43-year-old wife with an axe, while their four children were at home, and then died by suicide after being pursued by cops for an hour.
Police say forces are at the scene and conducting an investigation.
Key Update
US President Donald Trump again claims that the conflict with Iran will end soon, either through a deal or another American offensive.
“We’ve had such a victory, and we’ll put it away very soon, one way or the other,” Trump tells the Right Side Broadcasting Network.
“Either they’ll make a deal, or we’ll just end it. End it — I guess you could say maybe the easy way,” he says, suggesting that another US offensive would be more successful than the previous ones.
Later, Trump tells a campaign rally in Iowa that he may have to give Tehran “the hammer” at some unspecified time.
“And the only reason why I’m not finished with Iran is I want to be nice. I want to try and save all those lives if I can… But at some point we’re going to have to give them the hammer,” the 80-year-old president tells supporters ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
Trump has been claiming that the Iran war would imminently end since just a few weeks into the conflict, which started on February 28 with joint US and Israeli strikes against the Islamic Republic.
More recently, he has predicted a swift end to the conflict after this coming Tuesday’s midterm elections.
AFP contributed to this report.
A woman has been found dead in Petah Tikva after a violent incident, with police suspecting murder.
Magen David Adom medics found the 43-year-old without vital signs and pronounced her dead at the scene, according to the emergency group.
Police say forces have arrived and opened an investigation into the circumstances.
A Learjet 60 with nine people on board has crashed in a residential area near Cresthaven, Florida, the US Federal Aviation Administration says.
Everyone on board died when the aircraft crashed about 12:50 p.m. ET (1750 GMT), according to a social media post from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who calls the incident a “horrific tragedy.”
The plane took off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, the FAA says in a statement, adding that the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.
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