Following an Israeli news report that 88 percent of Israel’s female lawmakers experienced harassment, MKs who told their stories hope they sent an empowering message to women.

At the end of May, the top-rated Israeli news program broadcast a statistic that made waves in the Knesset: Of the 32 female lawmakers at the time (there are now 33), 28 had experienced sexual harassment or assault. Channel 2 Knesset reporter Daphna Liel dedicated nearly 15 minutes of the prime-time news hour to having nine Israeli MKs tell their stories, ranging from experiencing humiliating comments to assault.

“I never told my mother about this, I’m afraid to see how she’ll react,” MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin (Zionist Union) told viewers. “When I was 13 or 14, I was roller skating, and an older man pulled me into a stairwell. He looked down my shirt and said he was looking for pretty girls. It took me years to understand.” Continue reading

The new coalition seems stable enough for people to believe a mistaken email about a three-year budget, but will it use its super-stability to pull further to the Right than ever before? Probably not.

Cabinet ministers opened their email Wednesday night to find a surprise: a meeting on Sunday to discuss a three-year budget.

A minor panic broke out. Three years? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for a two-year budget, thus bolstering his government’s stability until 2019, was controversial enough. Now that he has five more MKs to vote with the coalition, he’s going to try to make a budget that will last the rest of his term? In the end, the email was a mistake. The Finance Ministry was going to give a three-year overview, which is standard practice, regardless of how many years the budget is to last. (It’s going to be two years; don’t panic.)

This anecdote reflects a sort of mythology that was quickly created since Netanyahu faked left and went right a little over a week ago. Netanyahu once again became “the magician,” as Likud activists nicknamed him after winning the last election by a landslide. In the eyes of pundits and political rivals and supporters, the prime minister instantly powered up, as though soon-to-be defense minister Avigdor Liberman was the polka-dotted mushroom to Netanyahu’s Super Mario, allowing him to do anything. And the life-lengthening power that mushroom bestows is the power of the Right. Continue reading

Some of the coalition’s most controversial proposals will have an easier time passing now that the coalition has been expanded to 66 seats.

The Knesset’s summer session, beginning Monday, was likely to be interesting even before the latest coalition shake-ups.

Now, however, summer in the Knesset is looking to be hotter than expected, even though the session may get off to a slow start thanks to The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York, which features five members of the coalition among its speakers.

The absence of the conference attendees, plus departing defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, means that even with a five-seat boost from Yisrael Beytenu, the coalition will have only 60 members in attendance. Still, the opposition only has 54 members (one of whom took part in the conference), so no dramatic losses are expected for the coalition.

This week will feature the procedural aftermath of the political deals: Voting Yisrael Beytenu ministers into the government; MK Orly Levy-Abecassis (Yisrael Beytenu) officially leaving her party; and Yehuda Glick’s swearing-in as a new Likud MK in Ya’alon’s stead.

Then, the real work will begin: Passing bills and working on the budget. Continue reading

The renowned activist hopes to turn the Temple Mount into “a world center for peace,” promote settlers’ rights and bring “light and love” to the world.

Most freshman MKs, certainly in a party as large as Likud, have to work very hard on standing out amid the names. Yehuda Glick, who is scheduled to be sworn in as a new MK on Wednesday, does not have that problem, and not just because of his bright red hair and beard.

Glick, 50, a longtime activist for equal rights for Jews on the Temple Mount, where only Muslims are allowed to worship openly, became a household name after an attempt on his life in 2014 by Mutaz Hijazi, an Arab man from Jerusalem, who called Glick “an enemy of al-Aksa.”Glick was shot in the chest four times in 2014.

The soon-to-be MK was born in the US, and his family moved to Israel when he was eight years old and currently lives in Otniel. He is the father of eight, two of whom he fostered after their parents were killed in a terrorist attack.

Before devoting his time to Temple Mount activism, Glick was spokesman for the Immigration and Absorption Ministry when now-Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein held the portfolio.

Glick will replace Moshe Ya’alon in the Knesset. Ya’alon, the former defense minister, recently resigned from the Knesset in a political storm.

Quoting Psalms, Glick said Sunday he will “put Jerusalem above my joy” and do what he can to change the situation on the Temple Mount, though he won’t be able to visit the holy site anymore because the prime minister has banned MKs from doing so. Continue reading

One of the most famous tropes of Charles M. Schulz’s classic comic strip “Peanuts” is when hapless protagonist Charlie Brown runs toward a football, and his frenemy Lucy pulls it away as he tries to kick it. Charlie Brown goes flying, screams “AAUGH!” and falls on the ground. Almost every autumn over 50 years of “Peanuts” comics and TV cartoons, Charlie Brown tells himself he knows better than to try again and he won’t be fooled by Lucy this time, but she always manages to pull him back in, and Charlie Brown lands flat on his back.

MK Isaac “Buji” Herzog (Zionist Union), still opposition leader, is the Knesset’s very own Charlie Brown, the mild-manered guy who just can’t get a break, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is his Lucy-esque tormentor, who’s always one step ahead of everyone else. Continue reading

A tech millionaire runs an unapologetic, macho political campaign, calling for a new beginning, and claiming to speak truth to power, in a challenge to the establishment.

Sound familiar? That sentence could easily describe Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett or Labor leadership candidate Erel Margalit.

When Margalit released his first campaign video last month, the first wave of responses focused on the fact that he used some mild expletives; the clip’s tagline was “Give us back the country, damn it!” There was a lot of talk about how this was Donald Trump-esque vulgarity entering the Israeli political scene.

Then, the chattering classes began pointing out that Margalit had hired Moshe Klughaft, Bennett’s longtime strategist, and that the two campaigns seemed to be using the same language (minus the cursing in Bennett’s campaign). Continue reading 

Ya’alon’s plan after selling off his most valuable political assets may remain to be seen, but it’s apparent that the defense minister has learned a thing or two about political subterfuge.

When Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ended his tenure as IDF Chief of Staff, he famously said that he continued to wear high boots on the job because of the “snakes” in the Kirya, the Tel Aviv military compound, a reference to other generals.

Last week, when asked in a pre-Remembrance Day interview with Army Radio if he should be wearing high boots these days, as well, Ya’alon chuckled and said he knew what he was getting into when he entered politics.

A week after that interview, after his meeting with Netanyahu about his call for IDF officers to freely criticize the government, those boots probably would have come in handy.

One hopes, for Ya’alon’s sake, that he really does know what he’s gotten into, because he seems to have been selling off all of his political assets lately. Continue reading

With no designated foreign minister in sight, Yair Lapid decided to become a diplomat in his fight against the government from the opposition.

Israel doesn’t have a “shadow government” like other countries do, but it’s clear that Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid still sees himself as Israel’s shadow foreign minister.

Like any opposition member worth his name, the former finance minister has vocally criticized much of the government’s foreign policies since it was sworn in last year, but he hasn’t limited himself to talk. Lapid traveled to Brussels, Geneva, Washington and more to advocate for Israel before foreign leaders and diplomats.

The way Lapid tells it, after finding Yesh Atid in the opposition after the 2015 election, he looked for a way to make himself useful.

Lapid spoke to The Jerusalem Post at a cafe in his Ramat Aviv neighborhood, wearing the black T-shirt and jeans that was his signature look for many years as a television presenter, before he became a politician. He spoke near-fluent English – occasionally deliberating over the best word – in an almost-British accent he picked up as a child, when living in London while his father, former justice minister Yosef “Tommy” Lapid was Ma’ariv’s correspondent in London.

“I tried to figure out how I can still do good for the country in the best manner possible,” he said of his focus on foreign policy after leaving the Finance Ministry for the opposition. “I was elected to serve the people of Israel in the best manner I can, and this was it.”

Plus, there was the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to keep the Foreign Ministry for himself. Continue reading

Making sure Israeli students learn math and science at the highest levels will ensure Israel can meet any threats it may face, Education Minister Naftali Bennett says.

Nearly a year after Education Minister Naftali Bennett was sworn in, he seems to be enjoying every moment in the position.

Bennett seemed like an unlikely choice for the post, as someone known best for his security and diplomatic positions, and whose previous major portfolio was the Economy Ministry, but he managed to bring his own talents to the job, shifting his focus to something his predecessors had neglected: making sure Israel’s education system matches its reputation as the Start- Up Nation.

“I’m obsessed with Israel’s future,” Bennett said, presenting his vision for the Education Ministry to The Jerusalem Post from his Tel Aviv office. Continue reading

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) was already negotiating his party’s joining of the coalition and a two-year budget is likely to motivate him to seal the deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gained the nickname “King Bibi” in 2012, after he appeared on the cover of Time magazine with that headline on an article that said the premier had consolidated his political power with no successor in sight.

While Netanyahu’s royal status has had its ups and downs in the four years since, Sunday marked a high point for the prime minister; following his agreement with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on a two-year budget for 2017-2018, “King Bibi” is poised to reign as elected prime minister until 2019 – and longer than Israel’s first premier, David Ben-Gurion.

Netanyahu is currently the second-longest serving prime minister of Israel after Ben-Gurion, who served 4,575 days, or about 12-and-a-half-years, and also was an unelected prime minister from May 1948 until February 1949 when the first Knesset was sworn in.