🧳 BEN GURION AIRPORT STRIKE DISRUPTION PERSISTS: Amit Segal reported after returning from Ben Gurion Airport that thousands of passengers were still waiting hours for luggage despite the strike ostensibly having ended. He also sharply criticized Pinhas Idan over his conduct during the continuing disruption.
🗳️ LIEBERMAN OPPOSES PRE-ELECTION PLEDGE TO BACK THE LARGEST OPPOSITION PARTY: Avigdor Lieberman argued that opposition parties should enter the election independently rather than committing in advance to recommend the leader of the largest list for prime minister. He said each party must maximize its own electoral strength and warned that premature endorsements could drive voters toward the Netanyahu bloc or cause them to stay home.
Lieberman estimated that Bennett could lose 3–4 seats by endorsing Eisenkot in advance, while Yisrael Beytenu could lose at least two. He said all parties should therefore present their own candidates through the election and added that afterward he would reveal a formula intended to satisfy the bloc’s participants.
The accompanying analysis questioned why an additional post-election formula would be needed if Lieberman’s objection is purely electoral and raised the broader question of whether voters should know before the election whom the bloc ultimately intends to support for prime minister.
🏗️ BEN-GVIR’S CLAIM OF 10,000 NEGEV HOME DEMOLITIONS CHALLENGED: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that 10,000 homes had been demolished in the Negev over the past year and a half as part of enforcement against illegal construction.
The accompanying analysis disputed the figure, noting that Ben-Gvir had said only two days earlier that authorities had reached the 10,000th structure demolished nationwide this year, including a demolition in Jawarish, Ramla. It also stressed that official counts of “structures” can include tents, shacks, caravans and livestock enclosures rather than permanent homes, and estimated that the number of actual permanent houses was probably around 100.
The analysis further noted that rebuilt structures can be demolished and counted repeatedly, and that many illegal structures are removed by their owners to avoid sanctions linked to enforcement demolitions. It nevertheless credited Ben-Gvir, Amichai Chikli, the Bedouin Authority and other bodies with making progress in enforcement, while maintaining that this progress does not substantiate the specific claim of 10,000 homes demolished in the Negev alone.
🕯️ YEHUDA KATZ LAID TO REST AFTER 44 YEARS: Yehuda Katz was laid to rest on the Mount of Olives after 44 years.
May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion. And may HaShem avenge his blood.
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