Every since the Knesset speaker was replaced and the Likud-led bloc started legislating the measures guaranteed under the coalition agreements, the conventional wisdom was that the outgoing government would use the backwind for its unrestrained attacks on the yet-to-be-sworn in government. There were some who were convinced that Prime Minister Yair Lapid's bloc would follow through on threats it had made, at least in the Knesset – where they have the easiest platform to express its opposition to various initiatives.
Despite being in the minority, the outgoing bloc has enough tools at its disposal to wage some obstructionism, through real fights in the committees, endless filibusters, and more. But to everyone's surprise, all the tough talk on civil disobedience and massive demonstrations have been replaced by a whole host of deals on procedural matters in the Knesset.
Along with the sighs of relief among right-wing lawmakers on being spared the need to stay days on end in a never-ending plenum session to deal with the slew of procedural objections from the opposition to slow down the process, they have also been slightly concerned that there is some hidden reason for this lack of fighting spirit on the part of the opposition. Something doesn't compute in having the Knesset just ends its deliberations that day at the early hour of 6 p.m. without much debate, and everything is run so smoothly in the plenum despite Netanyahu being days away from his deadline and there being...
A fake BBC News report that falsely accuses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of displaying a stolen painting has been circulating on X since April 21. The footage appears to show the Ukraini...
