President Reuven Rivlin announced that he had tasked Yesh Atid political party leader Yair Lapid with forming Israel’s next government, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that he had failed to build a coalition. Lapid, like Netanyahu before him, has 28 days to try and form a government.
In a televised statement from his official residence, Rivlin said that his “main consideration” in choosing Lapid was that he had the best chance of forming a government that can win the support of a majority of at least 61 parliamentarians in Israel’s 120-member legislature; though this, the president acknowledged, would be difficult.
In addition to his own party, Lapid received the backing of Blue and White, Labor, Meretz, Yisrael Beytenu and, unlike in the previous round of recommendations, the right-wing New Hope and predominantly Arab Joint List put their weight behind Yesh Atid.
Lapid and Yamina leader Naftali Bennett have in recent weeks been negotiating the terms of a potential coalition, and are reportedly closing in on agreements in many areas, with the Yesh Atid chief saying that he would allow Bennett to serve first as prime minister in a rotation deal.
Israeli security forces apprehended the Palestinian who is suspected of having carried out a drive-by shooting at the Tapuach Junction in the West Bank that left one Israeli teenager dead and two injured. The attacker was arrested in the town of Silwad just hours after 19 year-old Yehuda Guetta died in hospital from wounds sustained in the attack.
“Security forces will continue to act resolutely against anyone who carries out a terrorist attack and against those who assist him,” the Shin Bet security agency said in the aftermath of the incident.
In the four days since the drive-by shooting took place security forces had been focusing their manhunt in the Nablus area and had closed off the Palestinian village of Akraba where the car used in the attack was found. Dozens of Palestinians, many of them family members, were detained on suspicion that they had provided shelter or support to the attacker while he was on the run.
The IDF sent reinforcements to the West Bank out of concern that copy-cat attacks or other violence could increase.
Israel early Thursday morning allegedly conducted strikes targeting Hezbollah posts in Quneitra, located in the Syrian-held part of the Golan Heights adjacent to the shared border. The Israeli air force is believed to have struck targets with helicopters. No injuries were reported.
It was the second reported Israeli operation in Syria in 24 hours, following a purported mission in Latakia.
The IDF has repeatedly struck sites in Syria in an attempt to prevent Iranian entrenchment in the country, as well as to halt the shipment of weapons to Teheran’s Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror proxy. IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi has said that missile strikes have slowed down Iran’s machinations in Syria: “We have struck over 500 targets this year, on all fronts, in addition to multiple clandestine missions.”
Intelligence experts have noted that over the past year there has been an expansion in the targets hit by Israel across Syria, where thousands of Tehran-supported fighters have been involved in regaining much of the territory previously lost by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a decade-long civil war.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi hosted Muslim ambassadors for a traditional Eid al-Fitr event, also known as the “Festival of Breaking the Fast,” marked by Muslims worldwide after the month-long Ramadan holiday.
“The path toward peace with our neighbors in the Middle East goes through mutual recognition,” Ashkenazi said, adding that, “[in] recognizing each other’s culture, traditions, ambitions and dreams…around the Eid al-Fitr table, we see how tradition and religion can be factors that bring our people closer together.”
كان من دواعي سروري أن أستضيف هذا المساء سفراء، علماء دين، شخصيات عامة وموظفي وزارة الخارجية المسلمين لمأدبة إفطار رمضانية. إن شهر رمضان هو شهر السلام، ولقد أحضرت معها السنة الأخيرة نقطة ضوء للسلام في الشرق الأوسط. pic.twitter.com/O0bVoE3pFH
— גבי אשכנזי – Gabi Ashkenazi (@Gabi_Ashkenazi) May 5, 2021
The event was attended by, among others, the ambassadors of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Albania, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tanzania and Kosovo, as well as by notable religious and public figures.
Notably, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani joined the special occasion via Zoom.
Both Abu Dhabi and Manama are signatories of the Abraham Accords, a peace deal brokered by former US president Donald Trump that normalized relations between those capitals and Jerusalem.
HonestReporting is pleased to inform you that it is organizing a remarkable mission to the Jewish state from October 5-12, 2021.
The behind-the-scenes trip includes:
- 5-star accommodations at the Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
- Exclusive briefings by political, defense and academic leaders
- Tour of the Lebanon border with an anti-terrorism expert
- Insider’s look into the complexities of the disputed West Bank
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Recommended Reading
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The Khatam Al-Anbiya Camp and the Future of the Revolutionary Guards’ Empire (Dr. Reza Parchizadeh, Begin-Sadat Institute for Strategic Studies)
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Human Rights Watch Crosses a Threshold (Clifford D. May, Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
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Jared Kushner Founds “Abraham Accords Institute” (Barak Ravid, Axios)
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How to Keep Zionism Alive for Generation Z (Alex Ryvchin, Algemeiner)
- VIDEO: Who Won? Dance-off Between Israeli and Egyptian Soldiers on Border (Jerusalem Post)
Loving this: Israeli and Egyptian soldiers have a cross-border dance-off 🇮🇱🇪🇬🕺💃pic.twitter.com/kHIvE2BU14
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) May 4, 2021
