Page 10 - AT

A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 9 april 2019
A look at the field: Major players in Israel's elections

By ISABEL DEBRE they won't foreclose future
JERUSALEM (AP) — It's a peace negotiations.
crowded field in Israel's Although Blue and White
elections as over 40 par- has inched ahead of Li-
ties will be slugging it out kud in some polls, the party
on Tuesday for seats in the may find it more difficult
country's parliament. to recruit suitable coalition
There is the right-wing flag- partners.
ship, centrist newcomers, ___
ultra-Orthodox parties, THE NEW RIGHT
Arab parties and fringe A pair of nationalist minis-
movements. But only a ters, Naftali Bennett and
handful will win the neces- Ayelet Shaked, ditched
sary 3.25 percent of total their religious Jewish Home
votes cast to cross the elec- party and formed the "New
toral threshold needed to Right" to attract a broader
enter the Knesset. range of secular but still
Israeli democracy operates staunchly pro-settler voters.
on a parliamentary system They've promised to join Li-
of proportional-represen- kud's coalition, along with
tation in which the gov- a handful of other right-
ernment needs a majority wing and religious parties,
to rule. Since no party has Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz speaks during an election campaign rally to his support- but their sudden maneuver
ever earned more than 61 ers in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, April 7, 2019. hints that their political as-
of the 120 seats in the Knes- Associated Press pirations may extend be-
set, a coalition is required. yond Netanyahu's corrup-
Polls show Prime Minister to Netanyahu's personality corruption charges. list presents the first viable tion-stained rule.
Benjamin Netanyahu's cult and strong base. If Netanyahu wins another challenge to Netanyahu's Bennett, often the first to
rightist Likud in fierce com- Netanyahu has brazenly al- term, he will be on track to long rule. slam Netanyahu for his fail-
petition with the centrist lied himself with Israeli set- become the longest serv- If elected, Gantz would ure to deter Gaza rockets,
Blue and White party. Both tlers and courted national- ing leader in Israeli history. lead the government for is jostling for the position of
camps are trying to rile up ist and ultra-Orthodox par- He'll also have to simultane- the first two and a half years defense minister.
their bases to become the ties for his current coalition. ously lead the state while with Lapid taking over for As justice minister, Shaked
largest party in parliament In past elections, Likud has fighting criminal charges the rest of the term. has clashed with the Su-
while also convincing the depended on a ground- against him. The new coalition of cen- preme Court, which she
smaller parties to join them swell of populist support ___ trists and former military offi- views as a bastion of the
in a coalition after the re- from Mizrahi, or Middle THE CENTRIST VANGUARD cers has sought to mobilize Israeli left that unfairly cur-
sults become known. Eastern, Jews who harbor Ex-army chief Benny Gantz a united front to oust the tails her party's nationalistic
Here's a look at the major deep-seated resentment shook up the scene when scandal-plagued Netan- agenda.
players: toward Israel's European- he announced the forma- yahu, carrying the mantle Their sardonic campaign
LONG-RULING LIKUD descended founding elite tion of a new party earlier of clean government, eco- ads have stirred online de-
Israel's conservative Likud and their social democrat- this year, and several weeks nomic reform and respect bate, including one that
party has dominated the ic brand of politics. later, when he formed a for Israel's state institutions. features Shaked spritzing
political stage since 1977 This constituency appears partnership with centrist Gantz and his slate talk herself with a faux perfume
with only a few exceptions, poised to support Netanya- politician and former tele- tough about standing up to called "Fascism."
and it has controlled gov- hu again, despite the attor- vision host Yair Lapid, head Iran and striking Palestinian ___
ernment for the past de- ney general's intention to of the centrist Yesh Atid. militants to appeal to hard- THE OLD LEFT
cade in large part thanks indict him on three serious Their joint Blue and White liners but have also hinted The venerable Labor party,
once Israel's largest faction
Pakistan hands over 100 Indian that founded the state and
promoted
a
statehood
deal with the Palestinians,
fishermen in goodwill gesture has languished under de-
cades of Likud rule and an
impasse in the peace pro-
cess. It now appears over-
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Karachi and escorted to taken by Blue and White
Pakistani authorities have the eastern city of Lahore. and can only hope to join
handed over 100 detained Pakistan and India fre- a coalition led by the new
Indian fishermen to their quently arrest each other's front-runner of the center-
country's officials at the fishermen on charges of left bloc.
Wahga border crossing. illegal fishing in their ter- The liberal Zionist Union par-
This is the first batch of a ritorial waters. They often ty dramatically split early
total 360 fishermen set for languish in detention until this year after Labor leader
release this month. such goodwill gestures are Avi Gabbay announced
The transfer on Monday shown from either side. the end of his party's union
comes as a goodwill ges- Tensions between the two with former Foreign Minis-
ture aiming to defuse ten- nations flared in February ter Tzipi Livni, embarrassing
sions between the two after a suicide bombing in her on live television. Livni
nuclear-armed South Asian the Indian-controlled part Released Indian fishermen leave the Lahore railway station on subsequently bowed out of
neighbors. The fishermen of Kashmir killed more than way to their homeland, in Pakistan, Monday, April 8, 2019. politics, ending her storied
Associated Press
were released Sunday in 40 Indian soldiers.q 20-year career.q