Likud

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he has taken steps to build 3,500 new homes on the West Bank, DPA reported. 

"We are building up Jerusalem and the outskirts of Jerusalem. I gave an immediate directive, to deposit plans to build 3500 housing units in E1," the prime minister said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu easily won a vote to keep the Likud party helm, the party said on Dec. 27, in a boost ahead of what is likely to be a hard-fought general election in March.

Thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned coalition agreements, which according to opposition leaders will represent the end of democracy in the country, AFP reports.

Crucial elections are taking place on Tuesday in Israel, presenting a real threat for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hold on power. The Blue and White alliance of centrist opposition parties has been performing very well in public opinion polls and appears to be on a par with the governing right-wing Likud.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forged an election alliance with a far-right party on Feb. 20 as his strongest challengers formed an alliance too.

The Jerusalem Report, a news magazine published by Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post, fired on July 24 the illustrator Avi Katz after a cartoon depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the lawmakers from his ruling Likud party as pigs.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Aug. 30 went on the offensive against "fake news" in the Israeli media implicating him in alleged corruption cases.

"The 'fake news' industry has reached a record level. The aim is to secure indictments, at whatever price and quickly, against me," he told a meeting of activists of his rightwing Likud party near Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.

Police questioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for three hours on Jan. 2, on suspicion of receiving expensive gifts from businessmen, as part of a graft probe that has shaken the country's politics.

The Israel Tax Authority said on April 11 it was imposing a value added tax on local sales by international Internet-based firms, a change that could affect multinational giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook.

Prior to the new directive, a foreign company's income from sales in Israel would be taxed only if the product was produced locally.     

The flamboyant wife of Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom published an "inappropriate joke" Sunday about US President Barack Obama on her Twitter account, only to later delete it and apologise.