BICOM
13th January 2021
The Financial Times report on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claim that Iran has allowed al-Qaeda to establish a base in the country. Pompeo told reporters yesterday: “Unlike in Afghanistan, when al-Qaeda was hiding in the mountains, al-Qaeda today is operating under the hard shell of the Iranian regime’s protection.” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif rebuffed the claims, writing on twitter: “From designating Cuba to fictitious Iran ‘declassifications’ and AQ claims, Mr. ‘we lie, cheat, steal’ is pathetically ending his disastrous career with more warmongering lies. No one is fooled. All 9/11 terrorists came from @SecPompeo’s favourite ME destinations; NONE from Iran.” Pompeo also confirmed long standing reports that senior al-Qaeda member Abu Mohammed al-Mari was assassinated in Tehran last summer.
Share
With just a few weeks until the filing deadline to run in Israel’s national election on March 23, many parties began to fill out their electoral slates with both familiar and fresh faces.
Going it alone: Former Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon broke off from Yesh Atid on Sunday evening, announcing that his Telem Party would run independently for the first time. “The reign of Netanyahu is over,” he declared. Those joining him include former Blue and White Science Minister Izhar Shay, Hagai Levine, the former head of the Israeli doctors union, and anti-Netanyahu protest leader Gonen Ben-Yitzhak. Ya’alon also introduced and then quickly rescinded the candidacy of attorney Ayman Aburiya, after it emerged that he was facing a bribery indictment. Army Radio’s political correspondent Michael Hauser-Tov called Ya’alon’s lineup an “ideological salad… puzzling even today when ideology seems to barely have any effect on the ballot box.”
Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. Photo: Mueller / MSC via Wikimedia Commons.
JNS.org – Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has decided to run separately from Yesh Atid in the next election, and his Telem Party will attempt an independent bid, according to multiple media reports on Saturday.
Telem and Yesh Atid were original members of Blue and White, but broke with it when leader Benny Gantz decided to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Yesh Atid chairman and opposition leader Yair Lapid confirmed that Ya’alon would not be running with his party, tweeting: “I value and respect [him] very much and wish him luck.”
Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse,
It was a short-lived, shaky marriage of convenience both sides disliked yet endured until they could no longer stomach it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s expedient partnership with Benny Gantz collapsed on December 22 after seven months of mutual distrust and constant backstabbing and infighting.
With the collapse of their national unity government, Israel was propelled into its fourth general election in two years. It will occur on March 23, amid a lingering coronavirus pandemic which has devastated the economy and killed 3,141 Israelis. The current government will remain in place until a new one is formed after March.
Israel
By Yisrael Price
YERUSHALAYIM -
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 at 4:02 pm | ז טבת תשפ א
(Left to right): Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Gabi Ashkenazi and Moshe Yaalon, leaders of the Blue and White party, on election night, March 3, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
The end of the Likud-Blue and White coalition could well be the end of the political careers of Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.
According to a Channel 13 report, the two leaders of the Blue and White party are thinking of leaving politics rather than running in the next election.
The report comes amid polls showing that Blue and White, which currently holds 15 seats in the Knesset, will barely scrape past the threshold with 5 or 6 if elections were held now.