Israeli centrist Yair Lapid will forswear an alliance with Palestinian political parties if he gets the nod to form the next government. Instead he will court a rightwing religious Jewish party.

As Netanyahu likens himself to the captain of the Titanic amid the coronavirus pandemic, Israeli political protests of his powergrab have gone forward despite lockdown, with people in cars with black flags.

The Israeli High Court ruled yesterday that the leader of the Jewish Power Party, Michael Ben Ari, is barred from running in the upcoming Israeli elections due his racism. But Jonathan Ofir asks what about the racism of the whole party he is part of, that is still permitted to run? “One less racist potential lawmaker in the Israeli parliament, such as Ben Ari, is no doubt a welcome absence,” Ofir writes, “But this does not root out Israeli Zionist racism – that one is a completely mainstream and permanent feature.”