Israel News for 10-23-2019

News Update

President Rivlin will hand over the mandate to form a government to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz tonight.

PM Netanyahu was unable to put together a coalition during his 28 day time period. Now Gantz will have the same amount of time. He’ll need to try and convince some of the parties currently part of the right wing block to join him, which seems unlikely. If he can’t then Israel will go to a third election. According to the most recent poll, half of the voters who voted for Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party will not do so again. However, a poll taken yesterday showed that Yisrael Beytenu would get the same number of seats.

The IDF said that one of its drones crashed in Lebanon today.

The drone was on a routine mission along the border. No intelligence is said to have been leaked. Lebanese media reported that Hezbollah shot down the drone. However, a Lebanese satellite television station affiliated with Hezbollah – Al-Manar – said a resident of Kafarkela, a village in southern Lebanon not far from Israeli border, downed the UAV with his shotgun.

The rabbi of the ultra-orthodox city of Elad, in central Israel, prevented a crew from the Israel Electric company from repairing a power outage during the Simchat Torah holiday on Monday.

The residents of Elad were left without power for 11 hours, until after the holiday. The rabbis own community have a generator.

The rainy season is Israel has begun. May we be blessed with abundant rainfall.