On Dec. 28th, 2015, the first openly gay member of the ruling Likud party, and the third ever in Israel, was sworn into the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
Amir Ohana took office, following former Member of Knesset (MK) Silvan Shalom’s resignation after Shalom, the then Interior Minister faced a barrage of sexual harassment complaints.
Ohana will take over as Interior Minister, replacing Shalom.
Noticeably absent from the 120 member parliament were 13 members of Israel’s right wing coalition, of which Likud chairs. All of the absentees were from the Shas and the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties.
UTJ admits that Ohana’s potential advocacy for the LGBT community led to their boycott of his swearing in, while Shas claimed ignorance of the event altogether.
Regardless of whether Shas is feigning ignorance to save face, this demonstrates one of the peculiar cleavages in the Likud led Israeli coalition.
Regardless of whether Shas is feigning ignorance to save face, this demonstrates one of the peculiar cleavages in the Likud led Israeli coalition.
Both Shas and UTJ are Orthodox Jewish parties, and thus inclined to hold more socially conservative positions than the secular Likud party.
Navigating between the secular and religious movements in the Israeli Right presents a strong problem for the coalition.
One such instance includes UTJ leaving the 1999 coalition due to a turbine delivery on the Sabbath.
Israeli Knesset Building. Photo Credit: Chris Yunker/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
These cleavages further present themselves in discussion of the Palestinian residents of Israel, and Palestinian Administered regions.
While UTJ trends against expansion of the Israeli state to encompass the West Bank and Gaza, Naftali Bennett of the Jewish Home Party (another right wing partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government) and the current minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs has inserted himself in several controversies related to the Palestinian question, including claiming there is “no problem” with killing Arabs, and banning a book from school curriculums about a pair of lovers separated by the Israel Palestine conflict.
This new exposure brought about by the swearing in of Ohana of these cleavages only reveal longstanding issues between various religious and Zionist flavors in the conservative coalition.
While this show of disrespect to the Likud party may be an isolated incident, Netanyahu ought to take care not to allow these instances, or growing instability in the PA, to break up his narrow majority in Knesset.
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Here’s A Shock, ISIS Is Corrupt As Hell
The strain of governing is weighing down the Islamic State group, a new report in the Financial Times states. The FT reports that the terrorist group, which is commonly referred to as ISIS, is having trouble stamping out the institutional corruption that was endemic under previous regimes in the territory it controls. “You’d have a front-line… Read More
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Can Marco Rubio Save His Florida Campaign By Rallying Young Miami To His Aid?
By Camila Saenz
RISE NEWS Fellow
Senator Marco Rubio once again set foot on Florida International University’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus Wednesday, but this time he is looking for some serious help from the students he once taught.
Rubio is a born and raised Miamian with a family background not uncommon to the 54,000 students who attend FIU.
Rubio also previously taught a Florida Politics class on Monday’s and Fridays even after he was elected to the US Senate.
And according to the college professor tracker, Rate My Professor, students enjoyed his class at the university and seemed to like him.
“Probably the most amazing professor I have ever had,” one reviewer wrote on Rate My Professor. “Not to mention that he is a sitting U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate. Would definitely take him again.”
Rubio’s political history runs deep in the southern end of Miami-Dade County. He was a long serving member of the Florida House of Representatives (where he eventually rose to be speaker of the body) and was a city councilman in West Miami starting when the future Presidential candidate was in his mid-twenties.
Marco Rubio at a MSNBC town hall on the campus of FIU. Photo Credit: Camila Saenz/ RISE NEWS
But not everyone is fond of Rubio these days.
“The people of Florida can’t stand him. He couldn’t get elected dog catcher,” Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump said recently. “There will be a lot of advertising. It’s the only thing that might save him. But I doubt it.”
The question many students at FIU find themselves asking is whether or not Rubio will win the Florida primary, and whether they should continue to support him.
“I feel since he is born and raised in Florida he has a connection with the people of Florida,” FIU student Frank Mercado. “Age does not determine how well of a president a person will be, Rubio though young can still be a good choice.”
On Wednesday, a large crowd of students waited to catch a glimpse of Rubio walk through the doors of the Graham Center Ballrooms where he participated in a town hall hosted by MSNBC.
Such an honor to have heard you at FIU’s Town Hall event, @marcorubio. Wishing you the all best in your campaign!??? pic.twitter.com/H6rLFQRjDM
— megan quintana (@megan_quintana) March 9, 2016
“Rubio has made a large impact on the republican campaign in this election cycle,” A student attending the town hall said after the event. “He is the strongest candidate out of the final four, however, he lacks years and experience.”
According to RealClear Politics, Trump is currently ahead in the polls by more than 15 points in Florida.
The Florida primary will decide which candidate will receive an additional 99 delegates; it can either give Trump a tighter grip on the GOP nomination or help Rubio stay competitive.
If Rubio loses Florida, he is expected by some to drop out of the contest.
“Donald Trump makes the Republican Party look bad and Ted Cruz does not do a much better job,” Nicolas Zapata, a registered Democrat and FIU student said. “Rubio is the best choice out of the Republicans.
Florida votes on March 15th.
For more information on voting for the 2016 Presidential Preference Primary in Florida visit http://dos.myflorida.com/elections/for-voters/voting/.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us!
Cover Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Why The Republican Party Is So Out Of Touch With Reality On Climate Change
By Nicholas Olivera
In mid-December, leaders from 195 countries came to an historic agreement in Paris about how to address the global crisis of climate change. The agreement was heralded as a pathbreaking moment for both international diplomacy and the scientific consensus concerning climate change.
Back home in America however, things felt a bit differently, as they often do.
A week after the historic agreement, President Barack Obama mocked Republicans for their continued failure to recognize climate change as a real issue.
“The American Republican party is the only major party that I can think of in the advanced world that effectively denies climate change,” Obama said according to the Guardian.
According to a recent Pew survey, only 27% of Republicans believe that global warming is mostly an issue caused mostly by human activity.
Only a couple of the Republican presidential candidates have expressed the belief that global climate change is a man-made threat.
Former governor of New York George Pataki has openly acknowledged his stance on climate, saying during October’s GOP debate: “It is not appropriate to think that human activity — putting CO2 into the atmosphere –doesn’t make the Earth warmer. All things being equal, it does. It is uncontroverted.”
Pataki has spent some time working towards a cleaner environment, having served as co-chair of the Independent Task Force on Global Climate Change, an independent commission dedicated to preventing climate change.
The group even issued a report back in June of 2008 making market-friendly recommendations in order to cut carbon emissions 60 to 80 percent by the year 2050.
And while Pataki is a staunch believer in climate change there’s no mention of it on his campaign website.
Why would a candidate with so much passion for the issue of climate change leave it out of their campaign?
“The fact that it isn’t being talked about very much by the rest of the candidates doesn’t surprise me,” Dr. David Woodard, a professor of political science at Clemson University and former consultant of Republican candidates told RISE NEWS. “I have found that other candidates have gotten a lot more mileage by bringing up the terrorist issues.”
Six of the remaining dozen candidates have dismissed the issue entirely.
Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum has said in the past that he believes that climate change is nothing more than an excuse for “more government control of your life.”
Texas senator Ted Cruz asserts that climate change was simply concocted by “power-greedy politicians.”
And of course Donald Trump has made his beliefs concerning the issue known in a rather vulgar way.
This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014
The remaining candidates are caught somewhere in the middle; each of them have publicly expressed a mixture of doubt, hesitancy, and skepticism in regards to climate change.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie has acknowledged the existence of global climate change but argues that the degree to which human activity contributes to it is up for debate.
Former governor of Virginia Jim Gilmore (yes, he is still running) claims to need more proof as to whether or not it is a man-made issue. Even former governor of Florida Jeb Bush has expressed his skepticism.
But chances are this is an issue that won’t pick up traction within the GOP nomination contest this year.
“I don’t think it’s an important issue this year given the events in California along with other terrorist attacks,” Woodard said. “The other candidates are going with the more hot-button issues where they get the most press attention and conflict with their peers.”
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