{"id":22334,"date":"2018-11-18T22:23:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T22:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22334"},"modified":"2018-11-18T22:23:09","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T22:23:09","slug":"egyptian-sentenced-to-death-for-murder-of-christian-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=22334","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian sentenced to death for murder of Christian doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nJERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted calls for snap polls Sunday, saying Israeli elections now would be \u201cunnecessary and wrong,\u201d ahead of what he called last-ditch talks to hold his embattled coalition together.<\/p>\n

\nNetanyahu\u2019s right-wing coalition was thrown into crisis Wednesday after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman\u2019s resignation over a controversial Gaza cease-fire deal, leading to speculation over whether early elections have become inevitable.<\/p>\n

\nAfter Lieberman\u2019s withdrawal along with his Yisrael Beitenu party, Netanyahu\u2019s government was left clinging to a one-seat majority in the 120-seat Parliament.<\/p>\n

\nKey coalition partners say that is unworkable.<\/p>\n

\nNetanyahu, who has sought to delay calling elections, made his case at the Cabinet meeting on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\u201cIn a period of security sensitivity, it\u2019s unnecessary and wrong to go to elections,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/p>\n

\nHe noted past instances when right-wing governments had called elections that did not turn out as they had hoped.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe need to do whatever we can to avoid such mistakes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nElections are not due until November 2019.<\/p>\n

\nEducation Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party, which holds eight seats in Parliament, has demanded the defense portfolio as a way of keeping the government together.<\/p>\n

\nNetanyahu says he will take it over at least temporarily rather than hand the key ministry to one of his main right-wing rivals, though a last-minute deal could not be ruled out.<\/p>\n

\nOn Saturday, Bennett told Israeli television that Lieberman had \u201ccollapsed the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere is no more government and we are heading toward elections,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no other alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBennett declined to comment to journalists when entering Sunday\u2019s Cabinet meeting, but Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of his Jewish Home party said in a statement that making him defense minister was \u201cthe only justification\u201d to keep the government together.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nConflicting reports<\/p>\n

\nNetanyahu met Bennett on Friday, but conflicting reports emerged from their discussions.<\/p>\n

\nA source close to Bennett said the two had agreed that \u201cit would be senseless to continue\u201d with the same coalition.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThey will set a date for elections when they meet with the (other) coalition partners on Sunday,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n

\nWithin minutes, a statement from Netanyahu\u2019s Likud said that was wrong.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe prime minister told minister Bennett that rumors that a decision has been made to go to elections are not correct,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\nThe crisis was set into motion with Lieberman\u2019s resignation over the cease-fire that ended the worst escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since a 2014 war.<\/p>\n

\nSeparately, Netanyahu welcomed a US decision to vote for the first time against an annual UN resolution condemning Israel\u2019s occupation of the Golan Heights.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI would like to thank President (Donald) Trump and Ambassador (Nikki) Haley on this important and just vote that is completely in keeping with my policy,\u201d Netanyahu said at the start of a Cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIsrael will always remain on the Golan Heights, and the Golan Heights will always remain in our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe US voted against the UN resolution on Friday, dropping its practice of abstaining.<\/p>\n

\nThe non-binding text was adopted in a General Assembly committee by a vote of 151 to 2, with the US and Israel the only two countries opposing the measure. Fourteen countries abstained.<\/p>\n

\nHaley called the resolution \u201cuseless\u201d and \u201cplainly biased against Israel,\u201d citing concerns about Iran\u2019s military role in Syria to oppose the measure.<\/p>\n

\nThe vote continues US practice under Trump of adopting firmly pro-Israel positions.<\/p>\n

\nIn September, US ambassador to Israel David Friedman said he expects the Golan Heights to remain under Israeli control \u201cforever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nIsrael seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in a 1967 war and later annexed it in moves never recognized by the international community.<\/p>\n

\nThe resolution declares that the Israeli decision to occupy and annex the Golan was \u201cnull and void,\u201d and calls on Israel to rescind its moves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted calls for snap polls Sunday, saying Israeli elections now would be \u201cunnecessary and wrong,\u201d ahead of what he called last-ditch talks to hold his embattled coalition together. Netanyahu\u2019s right-wing coalition was thrown into crisis Wednesday after Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman\u2019s resignation over a controversial Gaza cease-fire deal, leading…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":22335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}