Israel’s 2 main political parties deadlocked after election

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s two main political parties were deadlocked Wednesday after an unprecedented repeat election, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu facing an uphill battle to hold on to his job.

The election’s seeming political kingmaker, Avigdor Lieberman, said he’ll insist upon a secular unity government between Netanyahu’s Likud and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White parties, who based on partial results are currently tied at 32 seats each out of the 120 in parliament.

Without Lieberman’s endorsement, both parties appear to have fallen well short of securing a parliamentary majority with their prospective ideological allies.

With results still pouring in, Lieberman insisted the overall picture was unlikely to change. He also demanded a secular “liberal” government shorn of the religious and ultra-Orthodox allies the prime minister has long relied upon.

“The conclusion is clear, everything we said throughout the campaign is coming true,” he said outside his home in the West Bank settlement of Nokdim. “There is one and only option: a national unity government that is broad and liberal and we will not join any other option.”

That could spell serious trouble for the continuation of Netanyahu’s lengthy rule.

Gantz, a former military chief, has ruled out sitting with a Netanyahu-led Likud at a time when the prime minister is expected to be indicted on corruption charges in the coming weeks. It raised the specter of an alternate Likud candidate rising to challenge Netanyahu, though most of its senior officials have thus far pledged to stand solidly behind their leader.

Netanyahu, the longest serving leader is Israeli history, had desperately sought an outright majority with his hard-line and ultra-Orthodox allies in hopes of passing legislation to give him immunity from his expected indictment.

Israel’s attorney general has recommended charging Netanyahu with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three scandals, pending a long-awaited hearing scheduled in the coming weeks. A formal indictment would increase the pressure on Netanyahu to step aside if he does not have immunity.

The partial results released Wednesday by the Central Election Commission were based on a tally of 56% of the potential electorate. Overall turnout was 69.4%.

According to the partial results, Likud with its natural allies of religious and ultra-nationalist parties mustered just 56 seats — or five short of the needed majority.

Gantz’s Blue and White and its center-left allies garnered 55 seats, placing Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu and its nine seats in the middle as the deciding factor.

The only precedent for a unity government in Israel came after the 1984 election and saw a rotating premiership between the heads of the two largest parties.

The joint list of Arab parties, who have never sat in an Israeli government, also finished strong, with results indicating they had earned 12 seats to become the third-largest party in parliament. Should a unity government be formed, its leader Ayman Odeh, would become the country’s next opposition leader, an official state position that would grant him an audience with visiting dignitaries, a state-funded bodyguard, monthly consultations with the prime minister and a platform to rebut his speeches in parliament.

Addressing his supporters early Wednesday, Netanyahu refused to concede defeat and vowed to form a new government that excludes Arab parties, continuing his campaign rhetoric of questioning the loyalty of the country’s Arab minority — a strategy that drew accusations of racism and incitement.

“There neither will be nor can there be a government that relies on anti-Zionist Arab parties. Parties that reject the very existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Parties that vaunt and praise bloodthirsty terrorists who murder our soldiers, citizens and children,” he said.

In his first comments Wednesday morning outside his home, Gantz said he had already begun working toward forming a “unity government” but urged patience until the final results were announced, likely on Thursday.

Focus will then shift toward Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, who is tasked with selecting the candidate he believes has the best chance of forming a stable coalition. Rivlin is to consult with all parties in the coming days before making his decision. Lieberman’s recommendation will carry a lot of weight regarding who will be tapped as the prime minister designate.

The candidate would then have up to six weeks to form a coalition. If that fails, Rivlin could give another candidate for prime minister 28 days to form a coalition. And if that doesn’t work, new elections would be triggered yet again. Rivlin has said he will do everything possible to avoid such a scenario and Lieberman has ruled it out as well.

Lieberman’s primary stated goal is to push out what he sees as the excessive power of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and have wide a coalition that can effectively tackle Israel’s most pressing security and economic challenges. But Netanyahu accused his former ally of plotting to oust him from office out of personal spite.

Behind the two is decades of a roller-coaster relationship. Lieberman, once Netanyahu’s chief of staff, has held a series of senior Cabinet posts and was often a staunch partner. But he’s has also been a rival, critic and thorn in Netanyahu’s side.

The Moldovan-born Lieberman started as a top Netanyahu aide in the 1990s before embarking on a political career of his own as a nationalist hard-liner and champion of immigrants like the former Soviet Union like himself. But he resigned last year as defense minister because Netanyahu kept blocking his plans to strike hard against Gaza militants.

Lieberman passed up the chance to return to the post following April’s election, refused to join Netanyahu’s emerging coalition and forcing the do-over vote. Assuming he sticks to his guns this time as well, Netanyahu could be done as Israel’s prime minister.

Liberman is now “the linchpin,” wrote Nahum Barnea, a prominent columnist in the Yediot Ahronot daily.

“I don’t think that anyone is prepared to risk a third election, not even for Netanyahu,” Barnea added. “Maybe the time has come to say goodbye.”

Trump says California cities 'destroy themselves' with homelessness

President Trump said Tuesday he cannot let California cities continue to “destroy themselves” by failing to adequately address homelessness, as state and local officials look reluctantly to the federal government for help in combating the ongoing housing crisis within the nation’s most populated state.
Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route in San Francisco, Trump addressed the state's problem with homelessness, saying, "We can't let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what's happening."
“We have people living in our … best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings ... where people in those buildings pay tremendous taxes, where they went to those locations because of the prestige,” Trump continued. “In many cases, they came from other countries and they moved to Los Angeles or they moved to San Francisco because of the prestige of the city, and all of a sudden they have tents. Hundreds and hundreds of tents and people living at the entrance to their office building. And they want to leave. And the people of San Francisco are fed up, and the people of Los Angeles are fed up.”

"The people of San Francisco are fed up, and the people of Los Angeles are fed up."
— President Trump

Earlier this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and several California mayors and county and state officials asked the Trump administration for 50,000 additional vouchers for those most affected by the housing crisis, the Los Angeles Times reported. In the letter signed Monday, they also requested the federal government provide incentives for landlords to accept the housing vouchers.
“That’s a pretty remarkable opportunity, if they’re sincere in their desires,” Newsom said at a news conference. “If they’re insincere and this is, God forbid, about something else — politics, not good policy — then they’ll reject it outright. I hope that’s not the case.”

The president’s two-day fundraising trip to California has been met with protests and swift criticism from celebrities aiming to prevent him from awakening Republican support in the Democrat stronghold state ahead of 2020.  Meanwhile, officials spoke of putting political differences aside briefly enough to welcome the president in a partnership in addressing homeless in the state together.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, said in a Facebook video post ahead of Trump's arrival that he hoped the president would work with the city to end homelessness, but added he has not been invited to meet with the president during his stay on Los Angeles.
Trump said he would discuss possible solutions to California’s homelessness crisis with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson when he comes to join the president in the San Francisco Bay Area and then Los Angeles. Carson requested to meet with Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore to discuss housing issues, including homelessness. They are expected to meet Wednesday.
As Trump fails to announce possible policy proposals to address homelessness on the West Coast during his California trip, local officials are speculating that Trump plans to clear homeless encampments he referenced to reporters on Air Force One and move people to government operated shelters on federal land, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Department of Justice and Los Angeles law enforcement union officials deliberated possible “workarounds” to circumvent court settlements, rulings and lawsuits that hinder the Los Angeles Police Department’s ability to clear homeless encampments from public property, according to the newspaper. On Monday, the White House also considered the option of deregulating the housing market to increase the supply of apartments, condominiums and homes in California.
Trump kicked off his two-day California fundraising trip Tuesday with a $3 million Bay Area luncheon at the home of Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, to be followed by a $5 million Beverly Hills dinner at the home of real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer. He's expected to bring in an additional $7 million on Wednesday with a breakfast in Los Angeles and luncheon in San Diego. Trump’s tour is to raise money for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee composed of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.

Jim Jordan rips Nadler for calling Lewandowski to testify instead of DOJ inspector general Horowitz

While testy exchanges between Chairman Jerrod Nadler and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski got most of the attention at Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on impeachment, one Republican on the panel thought the proceedings should have taken an entirely different direction.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that if House Democrats wanted to explore whether President Trump deserved impeachment, “a great place to start” would be with testimony from Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department inspector general tasked with investigating alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
“A great place to start would be the inspector general's report that was issued just three weeks ago, the scathing report about Jim Comey," Jordan told Nadler during Tuesday’s hearing.
In his report, Horowitz claimed that Comey, the former FBI director who was fired by President Trump, violated bureau policies by drafting, leaking and retaining his memos documenting private discussions with the president.
Republicans have maintained that Comey’s actions were part of an anti-Trump agenda within the FBI prior to the 2016 presidential election, with other alleged participants including former FBI acting director Andrew McCabe and former FBI staffers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
Jordan noted Tuesday that he had previously requested that Horowitz appear before the Judiciary Committee, only to be rebuffed by Nadler.
"When I asked the chairman when we might have an opportunity to question Mr. Horowitz, he said, 'I don't know. I haven't thought about that’,” Jordan said.
“Of course you haven't thought about that," Jordan added. "Too busy trying to impeach the president. Too busy slapping subpoenas on Corey Lewandowski."
Jordan had said Monday that potential prosecutions of former FBI personnel could come from U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was tapped by Attorney General Bill Barr in May to probe the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
But it will be "a while" before Durham's probe is concluded, Jordan said.
Fox News’ Catherine Herridge and Joshua Nelson contributed to this report.

Iran Cartoons

Iran’s supreme leader: No talks with the US at any level

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader announced on Tuesday that “there will be no talks with the U.S. at any level” — remarks apparently meant to end all speculation about a possible U.S.-Iran meeting between the two countries’ presidents at the U.N. later this month.

Iranian state TV quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying this is the position of the entire leadership of the country and that “all officials in the Islamic Republic unanimously believe” this.

“There will be no talks with the U.S. at any level,” he said.

Khamenei said the U.S. wants to prove its “maximum pressure policy” against Iran is successful.

“In return, we have to prove that the policy is not worth a penny for the Iranian nation,” Khamenei said. “That’s why all Iranian officials, from the president and the foreign minister to all others have announced that we do not negotiate (with the U.S.) either bilaterally or multilaterally.”

There had been reports about a possible meeting between President Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly this month in New York.

But tensions roiling the Persian Gulf have escalated following a weekend attack on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia that the U.S. alleged Iran was responsible for — a charge Iran denies.

The crisis between Washington and Tehran stems from Trump’s pullout last year from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. He also re-imposed and escalated sanctions on Iran that sent the country’s economy into freefall.

The attack on Saudi Arabia, which set ablaze a crucial Saudi oil processing plant and a key oil field, was claimed by Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, who are at war with a Saudi-led coalition that is trying to restore Yemen’s internationally recognized government to power.

Trump declared Monday it “looks” like Iran was behind the explosive attack on the Saudi oil facilities. But he stressed that military retaliation was not yet on the table in response to the strike against a key U.S. Mideast ally.

Oil prices soared worldwide amid the damage in Saudi Arabia and fresh Middle East war concerns. But Trump put the brakes on any talk of quick military action — earlier he had said the U.S. was “locked and loaded” — and he said the oil impact would not be significant on the U.S., which is a net energy exporter.

The Saudi government called the attack an “unprecedented act of aggression and sabotage” but stopped short of directly pinning blame on Iran.

One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the U.S. was considering dispatching additional military resources to the Gulf but that no decisions had been made. The U.S. already has the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group in the area, as well as fighter jets, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and air defenses.

Trump, alternating between aggressive and nonviolent reactions, said the U.S. could respond “with an attack many, many times larger” but also “I’m not looking at options right now.”

American officials released satellite images of the damage at the heart of the kingdom’s Abqaiq processing plant and a key oil field, and two U.S. officials said the attackers used multiple cruise missiles and drone aircraft.

Private experts said the satellite images show the attackers had detailed knowledge of which tanks and machinery to hit within the sprawling Saudi oil processing facility at Abqaiq to cripple production. But “satellite imagery can’t show you where the attack originated from,” said Joe Bermudez, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who examined the images.

The U.S. alleges the pattern of destruction suggested Saturday’s attack did not come from neighboring Yemen, as claimed by the Houthis there. A Saudi military alleged “Iranian weapons” had been used.

The Saudis invited the U.N. and other international experts to help investigate, suggesting there was no rush to retaliate.

For his part, Khamenei on Tuesday also reiterated Iran’s stance that if the U.S. returns to the nuclear deal, Tehran would consider negotiations.

“Otherwise, no talks will happen ... with the Americans,” he said. “Neither in New York nor anywhere” else.

___

Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

US shares info with Saudi Arabia that blames Iran for oil field attack: report

Iran was the staging ground for the weekend attacks on the massive Saudi Arabia oil field, according to U.S. intelligence that was shared with the kingdom, a report said.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported that the intelligence report—that was not shared publicly—indicated that Iran raided the massive oil field with at least a dozen missiles and 20 drones.
The State Department did not immediately respond to an after-hours email from Fox News on Tuesday morning. The Journal's report said that a Saudi official indicated that the U.S. intelligence was not definitive. The official told the paper that the U.S. did not provide enough evidence to prove without a doubt that Tehran’s hand was involved.
President Trump has said the U.S. is “locked and loaded” and able to respond to the threat but also said he wants to avoid war. Iran has denied any involvement in the attack. Ahead of UN meeting, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said "there will be no talks with the US at any level," the Associated Press reported.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, sparking huge fires and halting about half of the supplies from the world's largest exporter of oil. The attack was seen by some analysts as a Pearl Harbor-like event.
The fires led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels in crude supplies, as Saudi officials said part of that would be offset with stockpiles.
Fox News' Alex Pappas contributed to this report

Durbin asked about prospects of Kavanaugh impeachment, says ‘get real’

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was asked Monday about the prospects of Democrats taking up an effort to impeach Brett Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court and responded, “Get real,” according to a report.
Calls to impeach Kavanaugh came after an essay in the New York Times brought to light separate sexual misconduct allegations against him dating back to his time at Yale. The Times reported that the FBI did not investigate the claim.
The paper was forced to run an editor’s note and revised the essay after it was revealed that it left out that the accuser declined to be interviewed and her friends said she doesn’t recall the incident.
The report prompted 2020 Democrats to call for Kavanaugh's ouster. The new push to impeach Kavanaugh appeared to divide Democrats still eyeing an effort to impeach President Trump.
“We’ve got to get beyond this ‘impeachment is the answer to every problem,” Durbin said, according to Politico. “It’s not realistic. If that’s how we are identified in Congress, as the impeachment Congress, we run the risk that people will feel we’re ignoring the issues that mean a lot to them as families.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler, the New York Democrat and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said the committee will ask Christopher Wray, the FBI director, about the investigation during a later hearing. Nadler stressed that his focus is on impeaching Trump.
A Kavanaugh impeachment would require a majority vote in the Democratic-controlled House, and two-thirds vote in the GOP-majority Senate.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., will reportedly file an impeachment resolution on Tuesday. She said he must be "held accountable for his actions."
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report

NYT reporters behind Kavanaugh story suggest key information was removed by editors

The New York Times reporters behind the controversial piece on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh claimed Monday night that key details missing from the sexual misconduct allegation may have been removed from the original draft in the editing process.
Late Sunday, The New York Times walked back an explosive report about a resurfaced allegation of sexual assault by Kavanaugh from his college days. The piece by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly was adapted from their forthcoming book, "The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation," and alleged that there was corroboration of an incident in which Kavanaugh, as a college student at Yale, exposed himself to a female classmate at a party.
The paper was forced to issue an update that included the significant detail that several friends of the alleged victim said she did not recall the purported sexual assault. The newspaper also stated for the first time that the alleged victim refused to be interviewed, and has made no other comment about the episode.
Pogrebin and Kelly said in an interview that information was included in their original draft of the piece.
"In your draft of the article, did it include those words that have since been added to the article?" MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell asked.
"It did," both Pogrebin and Kelly responded.
"So somewhere in the editing process, those words were trimmed," O'Donnell said in clarification.
Pogrebin then explained that The Times doesn't usually include names of victims and that she believed that when the editors removed the name, the crucial information that she didn't remember was also removed.
"So I think it was just sort of an editing, you know, done in the haste in the editing process," Pogrebin added.
"Were you involved in the decision to amend this and do the correction- the addition online to the piece?" O'Donnell followed.
"We discussed it," Pogrebin said. "We felt like there was so much heat, there's so much- everyone has been has been seizing on various aspects of this that we certainly didn't want it to be an issue anymore and we certainly never intended to mislead in any way. We wanted to give as full of a story as possible."
President Trump issued a full-throated call for resignations and changes in management at the paper over the essay during a fiery rally in Democratic-leaning New Mexico on Monday night.