Egypt-born member of European Parliament, lives under protection after writing article condemning Hamas.

Italian MEP Magdi Cristiano Allam is not afraid to say what he really thinks – even if it puts him in peril.

Sipping tea in a sukkah in Jerusalem as a bodyguard watched not far away, Allam casually pointed out that he’s been under protection for 11 years, as if being living with the knowledge that his life is in danger is not unusual at all. Continue reading

Lahav interviews Italian MEP Magdi Cristiano Allam (via @BonomoMI Twitter)

Deputy Defense Minister Danon skipped this year’s budget votes to be at fundraiser.

State Comptroller Joseph Shapira singled out three politicians with close ties to the US Wednesday for raising too much funds on their primary campaigns: Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon and Likud Beytenu MK Moshe Feiglin.

Shapira expressed disapproval of politicians who raise money for their primary campaigns abroad, saying that, in his opinion, it should be illegal.

Donations from abroad consisted of a quarter of the total contributions candidates received in the six parties that held primaries: Likud, Bayit Yehudi, HaTikva, Kadima, Meretz and Labor. Continue Reading

Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi promised something new, but MKs excelled at recycling old antics and proposals in the Knesset’s summer session. Still, a record number of female MKs left their mark.

‘There’s nothing new under the sun,” King Solomon wrote thousands of years ago, and he may as well have been talking about the Knesset. MKs and parties come and go through the legislature, and at the close of the 19th Knesset’s summer session, it seems like their tactics and ideas never change.

Rising stars Finance Minister Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid, and Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of Bayit Yehudi, took the last election by storm. The Yesh Atid campaign said, “We’ve come to make a change” and promised new politics, while Bayit Yehudi’s slogan was “Something new is beginning” – but neither was able to pull it off on a parliamentary level.

There are 48 new members of the 19th Knesset, and the first haredi-free coalition in a decade, and yet, there wasn’t much going on that was new and original in the summer session that ended this week – except for a generous dose of girl power. Continue reading 

Voting on the state budget is not fun for MKs, to say the least.

There are no speeches to interrupt with clever comments, just hour after hour of responding to manual roll call votes called by the opposition to intentionally drag out the legislative process as long as possible and exhaust the coalition.

So, how do MKs pass the time in the plenum? Some of the government’s most senior ministers brought books to read.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu read The Last Lion, a biography of his idol, former UK prime minister Winston Churchill in English, occasionally taking notes. Continue reading

Finance Minister Yair Lapid reads “Media War: Reaching for Hearts and Minds” by MK Nachman Shai (Labor) – Credit: Noa Amir

Niles the Barber loves repeating his life story. Even though I only took the bus for four years, I heard it dozens of times. His real name is Niles Levy and he works in a company that manufactures women’s underwear, or “pahn-ties,” as he says it in his posh, British accent.

Everyone on the bus calls him “The Barber,” because he would tell anyone willing to listen that he used to work for Vidal Sassoon, in London. No, seriously, the guy with the big blackkippah used to cut ladies’ hair. I guess that’s why he has carefully gelled grey curls cascading below his skullcap. Continue Reading

An Israeli “Air Force One” would save millions each year; PMO claims Netanyahu didn’t know cost of installing bed on plane, but past reports indicate otherwise.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is known to be a history buff – he loves to read biographies of great leaders, and his father was a historian – but he seems to have forgotten that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” as philosopher George Santayana said.

How else can he explain making the same blunder three times within four years? And why hasn’t the PMO taken the obvious step to prevent further faux pas in the future – and save millions each year – by buying a private plane? Continue Reading

Experts weigh in on the new Finance Minister’s use of social media to get his message across.

Several days have passed since Finance Minister Yair Lapid posted his much-discussed “Ricki Cohen” status on Facebook, but social media experts are in agreement – it was a success.

What Lapid succeeded in doing, however, is another question. Some social media professionals praised the finance minister on Wednesday for connecting to the public by directly releasing messages via Facebook. Others, however, accused him of bolstering his celebrity status and keeping the public discourse shallow. Continue Reading

New Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein managed to eat matza on all three Passovers he spent in Soviet prisons.

‘I’m not getting a grace period,” Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein says with a smile this week, five days after being sworn into his position.

On his first day on the job, Edelstein presided over the swearing-in of the new government. The next day, before the Knesset adjourned for a month-long recess, he oversaw plenum votes on the budget and the Chief Rabbinate.

“After that, I had to go work for the real ‘boss’ and do some Passover cleaning at home,” he jokes. Continue Reading