Israel
By Yisrael Price
YERUSHALAYIM -
Monday, December 28, 2020 at 1:09 pm | י ג טבת תשפ א
Ayoub Kara, sworn in as a Likud member of Knesset on Monday. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
MK Yifat Shasha-Biton has won another victory over the Likud party.
Shasha-Biton, who successfully opposed her own party’s lockdown policies as chairwoman of the Knesset coronavirus committee, on Monday won a fight against being branded a “deserter” from Likud after she defected to Gideon Saar’s New Hope Party, according to media reports.
Had Likud succeeded in the attempt to have the Knesset House Committee label her a deserter, it would have meant that New Hope would be denied public campaign funds that Shasha-Biton would otherwise be entitled to on behalf of her new political home. As Israeli political parties are apportioned funds on the basis of the number of MKs elected in the previous election, Saar’s new party is especially in need of those funds.
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Acting Knesset Legal Adviser Sagit Afik at a House Committee discussion in Jerusalem, December 21, 2020. (Screenshot: Twitter)
Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin on Tuesday used the last hours of the existence of a non-interim government in Israel before it dissolved and elections were called for the fourth time in under two years to announce the nomination of attorney Sagit Afik as the next Knesset legal adviser.
Afik has been serving as the parliament’s acting legal adviser since April, when the previous longtime legal adviser Eyal Yinon ended his tenure after 10 years.
Afik couldn’t be appointed as full-time legal adviser because the country was ruled at the time by an interim government that cannot tap anyone for that position.
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An Israeli submarine openly crossed the Suez Canal last week, in a show of force against Iran, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The move was approved by Egypt, according to the report, which cited Arab intelligence sources.
The submarine surfaced and faced the Persian Gulf, which lies on the other side of Saudi Arabia.
The IDF declined to comment on the report. I m proud to work at The Times of Israel
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Dec. 22, 2020
The Knesset voted down a bill late Monday that would have postponed a Tuesday-night deadline to approve Israel s 2020 state budget, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kahol Lavan chief Benny Gantz failed to reach a compromise to avert what would be Israel s fourth election in two years. Given the bill s defeat, the Knesset is expected to dissolve at the end of the day on Tuesday, absent a last-minute surprise deal.
Forty-seven lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, while 49 voted against it and 24 did not vote. Three Kahol Lavan lawmakers – Miki Haimovich, Asaf Zamir and Ram Shefa – broke ranks and voted against the bill, while the rest of the party s members were absent. One member of Likud, Michal Shir Segman, who is expected to join Gideon Sa ar s new party, also broke ranks with her party to vote against the bill.