Last week, after Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced the decision to call early elections, I asked former President Reuven Rivlin if, during last year's traditional swearing-in ceremony for the new government, he had imagined that it would only last for a year. Rivlin smiled and replied, "The truth is, I never believed it would make it even that long."

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Since bidding farewell to the President's Residence in Jerusalem last July, which had been his home for seven years, Israel's 10th president has remained silent. He agreed to grant me a special interview ahead of the publication of my new book, which deals with the inner workings of parliament from the perspective of a journalist who has been wandering the Knesset halls for the past 31 years.

Following last week's political drama, I asked Rivlin if, in his opinion, Bennett and Lapid's decision to dissolve the Knesset was inevitable.

"They had no choice," Rivlin, 83, said. "You can't lead a government without a majority. They both wanted to bring this chapter to an end in an honorable way, without being extorted by a few individual lawmakers."

The last year, during which the survival of the coalition was dependent on the votes of a handful of MKs, put lawmakers who under different circumstances would have probably remained anonymous, in the spotlight. But with Idit Silman, Amichai Chikli, Nir Orbach, and others making headlines, I asked Rivlin whether he believes the law should be changed so that MKs who buck against coalition or party discipline and go rogue should be required to return their mandate.

"No," he said. "I oppose legislation that would allow the expulsion of an MK who hasn't voted with their faction as that would curtail the freedom of action of elected officials."

Q: What about the "defendant law" currently being put forward by Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar that seeks to bar a person under criminal indictment from becoming prime minister?

"This is indeed legislation that is moral and important and should be passed but not at present when the Knesset is about to disperse. The current legal situation results from mistakes that occurred with the annulment of the law for the direct election of a prime minister when Ariel Sharon formed his government. We were not aware that we should have amended the law which contains a clause that stipulates that the Deri-Pinchasi ruling (in other words that a minister in the government must resign if he has been indicted) does not apply to a prime minister."

Q: Are you worried about the deterioration in the rhetoric we've heard in the Knesset over the past year?

"The discourse in the Knesset was always political but the problem is that today, unlike in the past, those who should lead by example are not fulfilling their duties. They don't know which direction to take and instead want to ask the opinion of the public that elected them. They do not lead, they are led."

"As soon as a leader says that he wants to be re-elected and therefore he wants to hear from the public what his voters want, it is like the tail wagging the dog, and that is how our leaders look today."

Q: Are you suggesting our politicians are dogs?

"In Tossfot [a medieval commentary on the Talmud] it says 'the face of the generation is like the face of the dog'. Anyone who has a dog knows that when they go for a walk, the dog will always walk before its master, as long as it knows where his master wants to go, but when they reach a crossroads, sometimes the master will go right, sometimes he will go left or straight on, and sometimes he will turn back. The dog doesn't know where its master wants to go, so it will bow his head and try to see what its master plans to do. In other words, the master is the one who must lead and decide where he's headed."

Q: How is it, in your opinion, that some elected officials dare to speak so vulgarly, to swear and slander their rivals?

"The deterioration in rhetoric results from the need for political power. In the past, political leaders would not take seriously the words of those with extreme views. When Rabbi Meir Kahane, the leader of the Kach movement, was elected to the Knesset, [Menachem] Begin said that if he would have to receive Kahane's support to be prime minister then he would rather not be prime minister. In other words, principles triumphed over political needs. The leaders in those years, [David] Ben-Gurion and Begin, even though they argued and insulted each other, wanted the good of the state. Today, our leaders do not think about the state, but rather how they can be re-elected.

"In the past, we elected to the Knesset people who could contribute to society. Today, leaders treat their rivals with contempt and address them with vitriol because they believe the public will value them only if they express themselves harshly and point to their rivals as traitors. Unfortunately, our leaders instead of pointing to the achievements they failed to achieve, point instead to the failures of their rivals. As a result, the people have lost their faith in the Knesset because it is incapable of taking decisions. This deterioration is deepening to the point where it has become a danger to democracy."

Q: Is this the reason that young, talented people are hesitant to enter politics?

"In the past, the public wanted to elect people who had proven their capabilities. Today they are no longer required to prove capabilities but merely the degree of their loyalty to the leader of their party. Now we have people in the Knesset who were anonymous before they were in the Knesset and will remain anonymous after they are no longer MKs. We have reached a situation where the silent majority doesn't even turn up at the ballot box on election day to vote and believes the Knesset is not worthy. "

Q: Isn't it a distortion that a politician like Naftali Bennett, who headed a party with just seven seats, served as prime minister for a year?

"In the past, there were two political blocs – Mapai headed by Ben-Gurion and Herut headed by Begin. They were followed by Yitzhak Shamir and Shimon Peres. In 1992, when the direct election law [for the position of prime minister] was legislated, I believed that it would bring political stability, but instead, it damaged the political system. It created sectorial politics in which the state is less important and gave way to personal politics, where what's important is the sector the head of the party belongs to. The only issue they [politicians] look at is how the system will take care of them.

"Take the Arab community for example. It never managed to unite into one slate before the Knesset raised the electoral threshold. Today, we have in this country sectors or tribes that say that have a state, when the tribes should be part of the country. Instead of the two blocs we used to have, there is only one bloc, which is treading water, and that is the Likud which commands around 30 seats, while the second bloc has completely collapsed. Once we used to say 'every bastard is a king'; today, everyone elected to the Knesset sees themselves as a candidate for prime minister."

Q: In your view, is Israel in 2022 suffering from a crisis of leadership?

"Of course. Many in the public say that if the state doesn't interest its leaders, why should those leaders interest me? The cooling-off law that requires senior officers from the rank of major general and above to wait for three years before they can go into politics after retiring from the army annoys me greatly. If there were a cooling-off period of just a year then more senior officers, for example, former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, could go into politics and contribute from their experience and capabilities just as former chiefs of staff like Moshe Ya'alon, Gabi Ashkenazi and Benny Gantz did."

Q: Do you not feel that the so-called Norwegian Law has been misused? There are over 20 MKs in the current Knesset thanks to this law. Isn't that a waste of millions of shekels?

"In my opinion, the Norwegian Law is illegitimate for the simple reason that such a sweeping law results in lawmakers entering the Knesset via this law lose their independence. The independence of elected officials is a sine qua non for the existence of a proper democracy.

"A situation could arise wherein an MK who has entered the Knesset through the Norwegian law announces that he is not willing to support a particular law and then his party responds by saying that if that MK doesn't vote in line with the resolution of his faction he will be dismissed from the Knesset and the minister who resigned [to allow him into the Knesset under the Norwegian Law] will return to the Knesset."

Q: Given your parliamentary experience, do you think the Knesset has the tools to supervise the government efficiently?

"The Agranat Commission, established in the wake of the Yom Kippur War fiasco, castigated the Knesset because it hadn't asked the prime minister the question, 'Why didn't you mobilize thousands of reserve troops on the eve of the war?' In other words, the commission set a precedent that it is the duty of the Knesset to supervise the government.

"A government over which the Knesset does not watch will not behave democratically. A Knesset that renounces its right and authority to ask questions, examine, and investigate is not fulfilling its duties."

Q: Do you think Israel will ever have a constitution?

"David Ben-Gurion understood that we must pay lip service on the issue of a constitution, but that we will never actually have a constitution. All the prime ministers who served after him also understood this and they too pay lip service to the idea of legislating a constitution.

"The reason we will never have a constitution is that the Arabs will not agree to it, as they claim that Israel should be a state of all its citizens and not just a Jewish and democratic state. Moreover, the ultra-orthodox demand clarifications on the question of who is a Jew, which is also a topic of controversy. The considerations that for all these years prevented the legislation of a constitution were political. Today everything is political."

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In February 2016, the media reported that Rivlin had decided to cancel his state visit to Australia in order to fly to Moscow to meet urgently with President Vladimir Putin. Sources at the president's office claimed at the time that Rivlin made the decision after meeting with then-PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who clarified to him that the meeting with Putin was more important.

Q: Why was it so important to Netanyahu for you to meet with Putin at the Kremlin? What was the subject of the meeting?

"My visit to Moscow was made at the request of the defense establishment or to be more precise at the request of the Israeli Air Force commander at the time, Maj. Gen Amir Eshel. I told Putin at the meeting that I had come to speak to him in the name of the IAF chief on a topic of great importance for both countries. I noted before him that during IAF flights over Syria, in contravention of agreements between us, fire was directed at Israeli planes by Russian soldiers posted in Syria.

"I told Putin that our pilots are used to completing their mission and when surface-to-air missiles are fired at them, they respond against the source of fire. It is clear to us that we were fired on by Russian soldiers because we know that the air defense systems in Syria are controlled by Russia.

"I said to him. 'I don't know why Russian soldiers fired at our planes – is it possible that they didn't follow your orders?' Putin didn't respond directly, but he understood what I said. He said something that today, in view of the war between Russia and Ukraine, takes on added significance: 'I know that you are very friendly with American leaders; they must know and if they don't know then you must make it clear to them that I, too, have red lines and I will not agree in any way for them to take over the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea and if they cause problems for me I will be forced to respond.' I replied that Israel's foreign policy is determined by three principles: The first is our relationship with the United States. The second principle is also our relationship with the United States. And the third principle is our relationship with the United States."

Q: Over the years you have held several meetings with Putin. What is your impression of him?

"The conversations between us were held in Russian. A Russian translator who speaks very good Hebrew translated Putin, while our ambassador in Russia translated what I said.  Of the five meetings that we held, three were at the president's residence in Jerusalem, and two were at the Kremlin. We had good chemistry. Putin has a sense of humor and he really is as tough as he seems. My impression was that he doesn't like to hear anything boring."

Q: What conclusions should Israel draw from the fact that not a single country in the world sent its soldiers to Ukraine to help in the war with Russia?

"Israel can only rely on itself. Our alliance with the United States enables us to maintain our strength and independence out of the understanding that we constitute a strategic asset. States do not want to intervene in the wars of other states."

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Knesset members who dream of becoming ministers, deputy ministers, and/or receiving massive budgets on behalf of their constituencies one day, are ow waking up with added vigor amid a coalition in deep crisis, paralyzed in the Knesset without a minimal majority for passing important laws and decisions.

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Spring is indeed upon us, and along with the blooming flowers vibrantly painting our fields, certain MKs, who in the wake of former Coalition Chairwoman Idit Silman's decision to resign and join the Likud party in exchange for some assurance or another, can sense that now is their time to "blossom" – with threats, sanctions, or declarations of freezing their coalition membership.

The current Knesset has provided several such examples. MK Amichai Chikli (elected on the Yamina ticket) said back in May of last year that he would oppose a Bennett-Lapid rotation government, and therefore voted against the government's formation. Ever since then, he has allowed himself to vote in the Knesset as he sees fit. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett asked that he be labeled a defector (in other words, prohibiting him from joining any other faction in the current Knesset), while representatives of right-wing parties are already courting him.

Yamina MKs Nir Orbach and Abir Kara, meanwhile, have also been immensely empowered by Silman's resignation. Likud officials are ready to embrace them and give them almost anything they want if they support a no-confidence motion against the government. These two MKs, who still haven't proven their parliamentary chops, are already strutting around the Knesset with their chests puffed out.

The situation is similar in the Ra'am party. The "Shura Council" – the Islamic Movement's council of sages – decided Sunday to suspend its membership in the coalition and the Knesset for two weeks over recent clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The decision lacks any practical significance because the Knesset is in recess until May 9.

Beneath the surface, however, several Ra'am MKs (including chairman Mansour Abbas, Walid Taha, and Mazen Ghanem) are hinting that due to the events on the Temple Mount, the party should reconsider its partnership in the coalition and support for the government. It's safe to assume they will ultimately fall in line after Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Bennett offer them another generous benefits package.

None of this is unprecedented by a long shot. For instance, during the "dirty trick" affair in 1990, when Shimon Peres was about to present his new government and two Haredi MKs (Eliezer Mizrahi and Avraham Verdiger), who were going to support that government, "went absent" in exchange for promises – dashing Peres' dream at the last second.

In 1995, when the government headed by Yitzhak Rabin lacked the necessary majority to pass the Oslo B agreement, he was able to "convince" three Mks who had resigned from the Tzomet party to form the Yeud faction (Gonen Segev, Alex Goldfarb, and Esther Salmovitz) to join the coalition. In return, Segev (who is currently in jail after being convicted of spying for Iran) was given the energy portfolio and made a cabinet member, and Goldfarb was appointed deputy minister of the Construction and Housing Ministry.

To change the current situation, whereby MKs take liberties to do whatever they want, we must change the law and stipulate clearly that elected officials must obey their party's decision instead of "freelancing" – extraordinary circumstances notwithstanding.

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The legal bridge over which we returned home

Yesh Atid            

States are a three-dimensional event: there is a people, there is a country, and there is law. The third part sounds less important, but is necessary. Without recognition of the law, no state is a state. There is an expression for this, No Man's Land - "Nobody's territory". Israel, contrary to the claims of our enemies, is not the territory of no one, it is not the state of all its citizens - it is the land of the Jewish people. Our right to it is historical, it is a product of our military and economic power, and it is also a result of Israel being a legal entity. It is ours by virtue of the law.

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Legal recognition of Israel was born in the Balfour Declaration, but the San Remo Conference was the stamp on the passport. Instead of a letter sent to Chaim Weizmann by Lord Balfour, there was undisputed international recognition here. This conference, in the city that later became famous for a festival of sweet songs, made the final leap over the abyss of exile. For more than two thousand years, the people were in one place, and the land was in another. In one short conference, the legal bridge was built on which we walked back home.

In the legal world, it is customary to take precedents seriously. So here it is. Before anyone claimed ownership of this land, the world had already recognized our right to it. Formally, legally, in every other sense. I very much hope that after they signed the decision, they went to "La Pignese" trattoria in Sardi Square and ate the restaurant's famous strawberry cake. They deserved it.

Ours, thanks to power and not dependence

Yemina

The San Remo Conference was and remains a groundbreaking historical event where the Balfour Declaration, which recognized the historical right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, was reaffirmed. 101 years later, as the State of Israel celebrates 73 years of existence and we live the dream that our ancestors longed for 2,000 years - it is our duty to look at that event from other angles.

The conference in San Remo proved what the Minister of History teaches us over and over: the strong decide. Military power, however, is not a measure of justice or truth, but of one simple thing: power.

The decision of the Allies in San Remo was constitutive for the Jewish people, but woe to us if we draw our moral, historical and value justification for the Land of Israel from the nations of the world, who will one day stand by us and another day despise us, and will demand that our soldiers be put on trial and our leaders prosecuted.

The San Remo Conference is an important reminder that the Jewish state was not given to us by the grace of any power. Much blood has been shed here – heroes who heroically defended the settlements and the lines of defense. Survivors of the Nazi inferno, who with their remaining strength wore uniforms and held weapons.

101 years since the San Remo Conference are a reminder to each and every one of us: the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel by right and not by grace, based on strength and not dependence or weakness, and on the recognition of our historic and ongoing role as a people who have dreamed and fought tirelessly for the right to a sovereign and independent state.

Looking proudly at 101 years of international recognition

The Labor Party

This month, as we mark 101 years since the resolutions of the San Remo Conference, we can once again proudly look at the conduct of the Zionist movement in those days that led, in a smart and balanced way, the world powers to ratify Britain's commitment to establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Israel along with the Balfour Declaration. The British mandate that began immediately afterward, the White Papers and the establishment of the state, are all a product of the decisions made at that conference.

Looking back at the days of the 1920 conference through the prism of our lives today in Israel 2021 can teach us quite a bit. We can learn about the tremendous importance of having a close and trusting relationship with the world powers. We can learn about the fact that Israel and the Zionist movement must be part of the international game, not a lone player. And we can proudly look at more than 100 years of international recognition of the Land of Israel as a home for the Jewish people, a task that the Zionist movement began several decades earlier.

Although the conference was the beginning of the British Mandate for the Land of Israel, it is only part of a long line of international efforts led by the leaders of the Labor movement at the time to ensure that the State of Israel could be established and for Herzl's vision to take shape. Today, 101 years later, we know the importance of those moments when the world signed the mandate for the British, with an explicit mention of the Balfour Declaration given three years earlier.

While today there are parties and movements in Israel that bear the name of Zionism in vain, and in fact endanger the existence of the Zionist enterprise and the State of Israel, the renewal of the Labor Party at this time is meant to ensure the party returns to the role it led then. Today it will lead to the renewal of the trust of countries around the world in Israel, to the demarcation of a secure border that will ensure the continued existence of the state forever and to the promise that the home for the Jewish people will be a home of equality and a just society.

Settlement: a divine and constitutional right

The Religious Zionist Party

After 2,000 years of exile, the people of Israel returned to their land. As part of the divine redemption process taking place before our eyes, the San Remo Conference is an important cornerstone, as a basis for the consent of the nations of the world to the process of the Return to Zion.

The League of Nations that convened in San Remo ratified the Balfour Declaration and gave a mandate to Britain to establish a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, and to establish a "close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands". In doing so, the League of Nations turned Britain's promise regarding the future of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel into broad international agreement. This is the cornerstone, according to international law, for the establishment of the State of Israel.

National-political ownership of the Land of Israel was granted exclusively to Jews, and the rest of the country's residents received only personal and religious human rights.

This decision also serves as a basis for the UN Charter. Article 80 of the Convention ratifies the San Remo Decisions and states that no decision taken by the UN in the future can be construed as detracting from rights already granted in previous international resolutions. In other words, the UN Charter, which is a kind of constitution, ensured the continuity and validity of the decisions of the League of Nations to establish a national home for the Jewish people in the territories of the British Mandate in Israel.

It should be stressed that settlement in all parts of our country is of course based on our right to the land according to God's promise and the Bible. But in the aspect of the consent of the nations of the world, it is based on the decisions of the San Remo Conference.

In terms of international law, not only do Jews have the right to establish a state in the Land of Israel and settle in all its territories, but the UN and the nations of the world have a duty to assist the people of Israel in this important process.

Fulfilling the dream of the prophets

New Hope

The 101 years that have passed since the decision of the San Remo Conference to allow Jews to re-establish their national home in the Land of Israel. Since then, the world in general and the Middle East in particular have experienced unprecedented upheavals and changes, but the truth about the right of Jews to return to their land and achieve independence has not changed.

This truth, enshrined in the natural and historical right of the Jewish people, was first shaped as a principle in international law in the decisions of the San Remo Conference and was realized 73 years ago in the declaration of independence of the State of Israel.

San Remo was a cornerstone in the just and worthy struggle of an ancient people, a struggle that continues to this day against those who do not recognize the right of the Jewish people to self-determination and the exercise of this right in the Middle East.

In San Remo, an historic and precedent-setting international decision was made. After nearly 2,000 years of exile of the Jewish people from their land, at the end of 400 years of Ottoman rule in the country, 40 years after the beginning of the first aliyah and a quarter of a century after the official establishment of the Zionist movement, representatives of the victorious powers in the First World War saw that the time had come to allow the Jews to fulfill the dream of the prophets.

The San Remo resolution was subsequently ratified by the League of Nations by its 51 member states, and translated into a detailed mandate outlining the plan for the establishment of the National Home of the Jewish people. Later, after World War II, the British Mandate, born in San Remo, was anchored in the United Nations Charter that replaced the League of Nations. Jewish independence in the Land of Israel became the part of law of the nations.

They pledged to respect our right to sovereignty. We undertook to establish a model state, to be a light unto the nations.

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Political officials were saying Tuesday evening that President Reuven Rivlin will not grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an extension to his mandate to form a government when the 28 days he was allotted for the task run out.

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According to the officials, if by the end of the 28-day mandate, which ends at midnight on May 4, Netanyahu is unable to form a government, Rivlin will not allow him a 14-day extension as he is allowed to by law, as the extra time is unlikely to help.

Without either a government or an extra 14 days to form one, Netanyahu will have no choice but to hand the mandate back to the president. He is not in a position to dissolve the Knesset and hold another election, because that would require the support of 61 MKs, which Netanyahu does not currently have.

If the mandate is returned to the president, Rivlin will most likely hold a round of consultations with representatives of all the factions in the Knesset, after which he will mostly likely tap Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid to form a government. Lapid would have the same 28 days to complete the task that Netanyahu was originally government.

Should Lapid also fail to form a government, Rivlin will be forced to hand the mandate over to the Knesset. The parliament would then have 21 days to submit a written request to Rivlin to assign the mandate to another MK, who would have 14 days to form a government. The request would need the support of 61 MKs.

If the Knesset's pick to form a government were also to fail, Israel would hold another parliamentary election.

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Top Likud officials on Monday seemed to be coming to terms with the possibility that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be unable to form a government, a move that would either exile Likud to the benches of the opposition or spell another general election – Israel's fifth in two years.

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Likud faction chief MK Miki Zohar told members of the Arrangements Committee, which oversees parliamentary work until such time as the new government is formed, that "We understand that we are on the way to the opposition.

"Netanyahu will lead the opposition. We will go with our heads held high," he said, adding a remark meant for current opposition MKs: "Believe me, we're not going to go easy on you."

Some Likud figures suggested Sunday that given the prime minister's slim chances of forming a government, he should not wait for the 28 days afforded to him to form a coalition and inform President Reuven Rivlin that he will be unable to do so.

Rivlin will then have the choice between tasking another MK – most likely Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid – with trying to cobble together a coalition or giving the Knesset the mandate to do so.

The comments, made more frequently by right-wing officials over the past few days, followed a dramatic evening in parliament, which saw Netanyahu's rivals deliver him a stinging defeat in a crucial vote for control of the Arrangements Committee.

Yesh Atid and the Islamist Ra'am party were able to torpedo a Likud bill that would have given control of the committee and, by extension, control over issues such as the interim – and possibly permanent – make up of key Knesset committees.

Sinking the bill essentially allows the so-called "pro-change" block of Center-Left parties to determine the legislative agenda in the new parliament until a new government is formed.

Ra'am abstained in the vote on the makeup of the Arrangements Committee, which saw a 60 to 50 vote wrestle control of the form from Likud's hands. The committee will now comprise of 16 Center-Left MKs, 14 rg MKs, 2 Yamina lawmakers and one MK for Ra'am.

According to Hebrew media reports, Lapid and Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas agreed to the plan during an earlier meeting in the day at the Knesset.

In exchange for Abbas' support, Lapid is said to have agreed to give Ra'am a spot on the Knesset's Finance Committee, a deputy Knesset speaker position for one of its lawmakers, and to chair a committee on combating violence in the Arab community, if he forms a government.

Following the defeat, Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich, who has refused to endorse any Netanyahu-led government that includes Ra'am decrying it as the "Right's suicide," tweeted that the move underscored why a future right-wing government cannot count on the support of the Islamist party.

"The truth is, we're lucky this happened now and not in the middle of a [military] operation in Gaza," he wrote. "If you rely on terrorist sympathizers, don't be surprised when they turn on you."

Abbas later told MKs that he "will not tolerate this humiliation from Smotrich anymore."

Abbas confirmed Tuesday that he was meeting with officials from the Center-Left parties, but stressed that his party's support was "in no one's pocket. ... We kept the option of being the ones who can tip the scale.  We're here to serve Arab society and we won't be a punching bag and the object of blood libels. "

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The Knesset has begun preparations to elect President Reuven Rivlin's successor. Rivlin's term as president is slated to end on July 9, and according to law, elections for the next president must be held 30 to 90 days before his term is over.

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Knesset counsel Sagit Afik distributed a legal opinion to all 120 MKs on Sunday in which she noted that the exact date for the presidential election should be decided by the Knesset speaker and his deputy, and the decision must be made no later than three weeks before the date of the election, meaning that a new president will likely be elected in late May or early June.

Names of candidates must be submitted up to two weeks before the vote.

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MK Ofer Cassif said he was attacked by police officers during a demonstration in Jerusalem on Friday, despite telling officers at the scene that he was a member of Knesset.

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A video circulating online showed policemen punching Cassif and wrestling him to the ground at a protest against planned evictions in east Jerusalem. One of the officers can later be seen briefly kneeling on his chest.

Cassif was left with a swollen eye and torn shirt. MK Ahmad Tibi, a fellow lawmaker from the Joint Arab List, was among those sharing the video of the scuffle on Twitter, calling it a "brutal assault" and a violation of parliamentary immunity.

Cassif denied he intentionally provoked the officers and rejected claims that he called them "Nazis."

"It didn't help that I told them I was a member of Knesset and have immunity," he said. "They beat me and broke my glasses."

One eye-witness said: [Cassif] was on the ground and the policemen hit him repeatedly even though he told them he was an MK. Even if he was a 'regular' citizen, there's no justification for such violence."

The Israel Police said in a statement that Cassif attacked the policemen, who used "reasonable force" in response and released him as soon as they identified him as a member of Knesset. Jerusalem District Commander Doron Turgeman ordered an investigation into the incident.

Lawmakers from both political aisles condemned the police. New Hope party leader Gideon Sa'ar took to Twitter to write: "I despise the views of MK Ofer Cassif but the brutal police violence against him I consider as fierce blows to the Knesset of Israel and parliamentary immunity. Disgraceful and dangerous."

Religion Zionism Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich criticized the police as well, saying that the incident was "grave and unacceptable in a democratic state governed by the rule of law."

Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud) said, "I was appalled to see … a member of Knesset beaten by police officers. No citizen is deserving of such brutality."

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He vowed: "I will urgently speak with the public security minister [Amir Ohana] and insist that all the necessary steps are taken to hold those responsible accountable."

Joint Arab List officials demanded that the officers involved in the incident be suspended and that a full investigation be launched. "The responsibility doesn't just fall in the policemen but also on the winds blowing from the top on down against the people, protesters and MKs doing their jobs," one official said.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party may have won Tuesday's elections but it has yet to secure a solid majority in terms of potential coalition partners that would enable it to gain the 61 seats necessary to form a government. 

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The final tally is expected by Friday, but the numbers are updated as vote-counting proceeds, so a clearer picture will emerge as exit polls give way to results.

After the results are published, President Reuven Rivlin will consult with party leaders about their preference for prime minister.

By April 7, he is expected to choose the legislator with the best chance of putting together a coalition, but that won't necessarily be the leader of the largest party or political bloc.

That legislator will then have 28 days to convince potential coalition partners to join their new government and agree on a number of guiding principles as well as which party will be tasked with heading this or that ministry.

While the president has the option to offer a 14-day extension to form a coalition government, he is not obligated to do so.

If no party leader can be found that is able to cobble together a coalition, the Knesset will disperse, and the country will head to its fourth election in 90 days' time.

In the hope of avoiding such a scenario, a minimum of 61 lawmakers could submit a written request to the president asking him to provide another lawmaker 14 days to try and form a government.

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The post The ins and outs of stitching together the Israeli coalition: A guide to the perplexed appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The election for the 24th Knesset, similar to the three before it over the past two years, poses many challenges to the Central Elections Committee, mainly due to the trauma of the coronavirus, which some experts fear could see a surge in the wake of the election. The committee has prepared for this round, as the previous ones in 2020, albeit with slight changes.

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Far more double envelopes: In the election for the 23rd election, the number of voters using double envelopes was some 330,000. These include soldiers, policemen, inmates and guards, official Israeli emissaries abroad, women in battered women's shelters, people who are hospitalized, those with disabilities – and this year, people who have contracted the coronavirus and are in isolation.

"Vote and Go" voting stations: Making their election-day debut, these stations will cater to people with the coronavirus and in isolation. They will be dispersed in 500 tent facilities across the country. In Jerusalem: At the Mount Herzl parking lot, the Givat Ram parking lot, and the Pisgat Ze'ev and Ammunition Hill neighborhoods. In Tel Aviv: Park Hadarom, Shlomo Group Arena, and the Redding station north of the Tel Aviv port.

Confirmed cases in taxis: Some 12,000 confirmed cases will arrive at the special "vote and go" stations in Gett taxi cabs, their rides funded by the Central Elections Committee. The cabs will have plastic barriers between the driver and passenger, who will only be allowed to sit in the back seat.

People in isolation: Around 39,000 individuals in isolation will be allowed to enter the "vote and go" stations in their own cars. Those who don't have a car at their disposal can, as stated, order a Gett taxi funded by the Central Elections Committee.

Drones: The Central Elections Committee has rented aerial drones to keep tabs on the traffic situation at the "vote and go" stations. If a station becomes too congested and people have to wait in line too long, officials can divert incoming voters to other stations.

Voting stations at Ben Gurion Airport: For the first time in the country's history, four voting stations will operate at Israel's main international hub to allow Israelis arriving from abroad to vote via double envelope. The stations will be placed before the border control check. Israelis arriving from abroad will have to undergo a Health Ministry inquiry, a corona test, and enter isolation if they haven't been vaccinated twice.

Corona patients in hospitals: Corona patients hospitalized in any of the 38 medical centers across the country will also be able to vote in the election, as with all other patients confined to hospital grounds.

Vote counting: Due to the large increase in the use of double envelopes, the Central Elections Committee has hired some 6,500 vote counters.

A tight schedule: The Central Elections Committee must finish the vote count and calculate the distribution of mandates by the commencement of Shabbat on Friday evening. In other words, it will have less than three days from the time voting stations close at 10 p.m. on Tuesday until Friday evening. This is a tough task, mainly due to the large number of double envelopes, which take longer to count.

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The post Seeking to defeat pandemic fears, Israeli elections employ high-tech solutions, old-school safeguards appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Senior political officials expressed concern over low voter turnout in Tuesday's elections, saying that the prolonged political crisis in Israel – Israelis will go to the polls for the fourth time on March 23 – has resulted not only in voter fatigue but in growing public apathy.

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The March 2020 elections saw a robust voter turnout of 71.52%, but there are no guarantees that this trend will translate into Tuesday's polls.

Adding to these concerns is the coronavirus pandemic, as many voters could opt to stay home rather than risk potential exposure to COVID-19 at a polling station.

Meanwhile, the Israel Police is gearing up to secure Election Day.

Some 20,000 police officers will be deployed nationwide to ensure an orderly vote.

A source privy with the preparations told Israel Hayom that one of the biggest concerns in the fake news on social media regarding the presence of coronavirus patients in polling stations in an attempt to drive voters away.

The Central Election Committee has set up special polling stations for COVID patients and voters who are quarantined to protect public health as much as possible. Special sanitation measures and social distancing protocols will be imposed in ballots nationwide, so as to minimize the risk to public health.

The Police Cyber Crimes Division will monitor online chatter to thwart such incidents. Learning from past experience 400 polling stations have been flagged at being at risk of voter tampering.

Police Operations Directorate Commander Brig. Gen.Shimshon Nachmani said that the police had no intelligence indicating any specific intent to create public disturbances on Election Day, but stressed the troop are "prepared for any extreme-case scenario."

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