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Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay informs Blue and White leader Benny Gantz he’s leaving the party, becoming the seventh member of the centrist list to jump ship.
Shay thanks Gantz, and says: “I admire Benny, respect him very much and wish for Israel to have more leaders like him with modesty, honesty, personal example, and unconditional sacrifice for the good of the state.”
Izhar Shay poses at the Knesset, on April 29, 2019 (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90) I m proud to work at The Times of Israel
I’ll tell you the truth: Life here in Israel isn’t always easy. But it s full of beauty and meaning.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits a vaccination center in the Arab Israeli city of Tira, amid speculation he could place an Arab lawmaker on his Likud list ahead of the March 23 elections.
According to Channel 12, asked about the possible placement of an Arab lawmaker on his right-wing list, Netanyahu tells a reporter, “I don’t rule that out. I’ll sort out my issues with the Likud election committee and we’ll see.”
Netanyahu’s Likud has campaigned in the past on unfounded claims of electoral fraud in Arab communities. But the prime minister has in recent months formed a quiet alliance with the Joint List’s Mansour Abbas.
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Interim Police Commissioner Motti Cohen leaves the position tonight, after two years on the job as the government dawdled on naming a permanent police commissioner.
He’ll be replaced by Maj. Gen. Alon Assur until the government’s candidate for the position, Border Police chief Yaakov (Kobi) Shabtai, officially assumes the role of police commissioner.
Acting Chief of Police Motti Cohen visits a temporary checkpoint in Jerusalem on September 18, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
I m proud to work at The Times of Israel
I’ll tell you the truth: Life here in Israel isn’t always easy. But it s full of beauty and meaning.
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The Israel Defense Forces says the deadly crash of a training plane last month was due to a “lack of control,” as it unveils further details on the incident.
It also says Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin approved returning the fleet of Grob G 120 “Snunit” trainer planes to service. Norkin ordered the fleet grounded after the November 24 crash, which killed Cpl. Lihu Ben-Bassa, 19, and his trainer, Maj. (res.) Itay Zayden, 42, when their plane crashed near Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev in southern Israel.
In an interim report presented Thursday to Norkin and the families of the casualties, the investigative team determines that the plane crashed due to a “lack of control over the flight that developed during the drill,” but says it still couldn’t say “what caused the plane to enter into an uncontrolled maneuver.”
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Israel and the United States vote against the UN’s budget for 2021, citing the international body’s “bias” against Israel and its plan to hold an event marking the 20th anniversary of the World Conference against Racism. Israel and the US withdrew from the 2001 conference in Durham, South Africa after texts circulated at the conference censured the Jewish state.
“Twenty years ago, the Durban conference convened with the worthy goal of combating racism. But, like many UN initiatives, it was promptly high-jacked by organization[s] and member states, that are interested in attacking Israel and delegitimizing its right to exist. They are not interested in human rights,” Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan says.