Barry Shaw

The newly announced Israeli unity government has to run the gauntlet of a week-long opposition attempt to persuade members of the coalition to peel away from their parties and thereby reduce the coalition’s numbers below the required 61 seat mandate. [Barry Shaw]

Associated Press (AP) CEO Gary Pruitt penned a complaint against Israel for destroying the office building in which the AP, and other foreign media outlets, were renting space. The building was owned and being used as an operations center by Palestinian Hamas. [Barry Shaw]

The most serious case concerns Case 4000. This is the case in which Bibi is charged with a media bribery scheme with the owners of Bezek and Walla communications and media companies. In this case, the owners, Shaul Elovitch and his wife, Iris, are also co-defendants with a separate legal team. The charges claim that Walla gave Bibi favorable coverage in exchange for him making government policies favoring Elovitch’s Bezek company to the value of around 1.8 billion shekels. [Barry Shaw]

Deafened under the constant drumbeat of the virus crisis has been the ongoing efforts to form a new Israeli unity government. What was perceived over a week ago as a quick solution between the Bibi-led Likud and the Gantz-led remnant of the Blue & White Party, cruelly named the Black & Blue Party by some members of the political right in Israel, has become bogged down in a tactical Game of Thrones, as the horse-trading for government ministries leads to friction and division. [Barry Shaw]

As the coronavirus sweep its destructive path around the world, including in Israel, leaving health and medical experts advising governments and authorities to take radical measures to “flatten the curve,” healthy populations have had their lives totally disrupted potentially to the point of personal and familial ruin. The virus and stringent government imposed steps have inflicted an unbearable economic toll on the nation. [Barry Shaw]