Photo: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons With only days remaining until Israel’s political parties must present their finalised slates for September’s general election, there has been further maneuvering on the left and right, and between Arab parties. Two weeks ago, the Labor party announced that it had agreed a merger with Orly Levy-Abekasis’s Gesher party.…

Photo: עט הזמיר, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons With less than two months to go until polling day, the contours of the battlefield for Israel’s general election on 17 September have begun to look a little clearer. Over the past week, Labor leader Amir Peretz announced a deal between his party and centrist Gesher party. Its leader, Orly…

Photo: Adi Cohen Zedek, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Six weeks after the Knesset voted for new elections in September, the Israeli political landscape looks no more certain than it day after Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprising failure to form a government. The Israeli prime minister had appeared to emerge victorious from April’s general election, but weeks of…

Photo: עט הזמיר, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons In a back to the future move, Amir Peretz last night succeeded Avi Gabbay as the next leader of the party that built the modern State of Israel. 67-year-old Peretz – who led Labor from 2005 to 2007 – beat two younger candidates famed for leading Israel’s 2011…