The Main challenger of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Blue & White party Benny Gantz has warned that the premier’s rejection to resign is threatening a civil war in Israel.

Gantz urged Likud party officials to step in to replace the indicted premier as soon as possible in order to resolve the political deadlock over the formation of a new cabinet.

Calls have been growing for a leadership vote in Israel’s ruling party since Thursday when Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a set of corruption cases.

Meanwhile, Likud Knesset member Nir Barkat has presented a plan to hold primaries for a new position of deputy head of the party who would replace Netanyahu if he is forced to take a leave of absence to deal with the indictment.

Also another lawmaker Gideon Sa’ar publicly challenged Netanyahu calling for him to open up the party to new leadership.

A watchdog group has asked Israel’s top court to order Netanyahu to step aside after his indictment, adding to pressure he is facing from within his ruling party.

Israelis will have to go the polls in the coming weeks for the third time in a year if no party can form a coalition cabinet. Netanyahu is under fire to resign following his indictment in a graft scandal.

In politics nothing remains the same, observers say Netanyahu’s legal charges have also boosted voices within his own Likud party calling to overthrow Netanyahu after over a decade at the party’s helm although most still side with the indicted leader.

Source: Presstv

Israeli kingmaker Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday refused to endorse a candidate for prime minister, virtually guaranteeing the country will be forced into a new election, the third in less than a year.ADVERTISING

Lieberman’s comments came ahead of a midnight deadline for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rival, Benny Gantz, to form a coalition.

A September election left both Netanyahu and Gantz short of securing a required parliamentary majority to form a government, with Lieberman holding the decisive votes.

But after weeks of negotiations, Lieberman said he could not endorse either side.

“I made every effort. I turned over every stone,” he said.

Lieberman had called for a national unity government between Netanyahu’s Likud party and Gantz’s Blue and White. But the two leaders could not agree on a power-sharing agreement.

Gantz has until midnight to try to seek other partners, but without Lieberman, that appears impossible.

Gantz was given the opportunity to form a government last month after Netanyahu failed in the task.

(AP)

Inside the hearing room, U.S. Republican lawmakers repeatedly thanked Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman for his military service on Tuesday before challenging his testimony about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.

But outside the ornate chamber in the House of Representatives, it was a different story, with the White House and its backers unleashing on social media a full-throated attack on the uniformed officer’s credibility and loyalty.

Vindman, a decorated Iraq war veteran serving as the White House National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, testified before lawmakers in an ongoing impeachment inquiry led by House Democrats.

His family left the Soviet Union for the United States when he was three years old. Vindman testified that Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate a domestic political rival was an improper demand.

“Lt. Col. Vindman was offered the position of Defense Minister for the Ukrainian Government THREE times!” Trump aide Dan Scavino wrote on Twitter.

While factually correct, Vindman told the lawmakers that as a loyal American, he would not consider such an offer. He called it “comical.”

Trump himself was dismissive when asked about Vindman on Tuesday. “I never saw the man, I understand now he wears his uniform when he goes in,” Trump said.

Vindman usually wears a suit, not his uniform, while working at the White House, one Republican lawmaker, Representative Chris Stewart, observed. It is standard practice for military officers to wear their uniforms when testifying on Capitol Hill.

Last month Trump described Vindman as a “Never Trumper,” using a term for Republicans who oppose Trump.

Republican lawmakers at the televised hearing appeared keen not to cross a line that would upset constituents with a background in military service.

“Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, I think all of us would agree that your father made the right move to come here, and we’re glad that he did,” Representative Will Hurd told Vindman in one of the warmer accolades from Intelligence Committee Republicans.

Tensions emerged, however. At one point Vindman instructed the senior committee Republican, Representative Devin Nunes, not to call him Mr. Vindman. “It’s Lieutenant Colonel Vindman please,” Vindman said.

Stewart asked: “Do you always insist on civilians calling you by your rank?”

“I just thought it was appropriate,” Vindman replied.

Representative Mark Meadows, a Republican ally of Trump’s, said critics can question Vindman’s judgment, but should respect his service to the country.

“Every person who serves needs to be applauded for their service. But it doesn’t mean their judgment is 100% above reproach,” Meadows said outside the hearing.

Others saw the attacks on Vindman differently.

“We have never questioned the patriotism of Republicans, but today’s vile attacks on Lt. Col. Vindman, for simply doing his duty as he saw fit, leaves us truly shaken,” Will Goodwin, the director of government relations for VoteVets.org, wrote on Twitter. 

(REUTERS)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in calling on Donald Trump to come forwards and testify before an ongoing inquiry into potentially impeachable conduct by the president.

“Speaker Pelosi invited President Trump to come testify, and I think her invitation is correct,” Schumer said on Sunday during a press conference in New York, The Hill reported.

Earlier in the day, CBS’s Face the Nation aired an interview with Pelosi, during which she had said, “If he (Trump) has information that is exculpatory…then we look forward to seeing it.” “Trump could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants,” she had added.

The inquiry was launched after a whistleblower in the US intelligence community revealed that Trump had asked Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to help incriminate Joe Biden. The former US vice president is expected to pose a serious challenge to Trump’s 2020 re-election hopes.

Trump and allies reportedly made the smear campaign against Biden, a pre-condition for military aide to the former Soviet republic and a gift meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the White House. According to a rough transcript released by the White House, Trump asked Zelensky during a July call to work with Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, to “look into” the Bidens, namely Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who was hired by a Ukrainian gas company named Burisma.

Last week, the impeachment inquiry began taking hearings from key witnesses. The next batch of hearings is due later this week.

The White House has blocked almost everyone from cooperating with the inquiry, which it dismisses as a sham investigation.

Is Trump hiding anything?

Schumer, meanwhile, blasted a delegitimization campaign, launched by the president against the inquiry, which has seen him calling the probe “a witch hunt” and tweeting and retweeting derisive comments about it. Most recently, a tweet by the president bashed “The Crazed, Do Nothing Democrats,” who are behind the investigation.

“If Donald Trump doesn’t agree with what he’s hearing, doesn’t like what he’s hearing, he shouldn’t tweet. He should come to the committee and testify under oath, and he should allow all those around him to come to the committee and testify under oath,” Schumer said.

Schumer also raised the question whether the president was afraid of giving testimony. “When Donald Trump refuses to come to the committee, now that Speaker Pelosi has invited him, when he doesn’t let all the people around him come before the committee, you gotta to ask the question, what is he hiding? Why is he afraid to confront what these people have said?” he asked.

Source: Presstv

Anonymous sources in the White House have told an Israeli news website that US President Donald Trump has become “frustrated” and “disappointed” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel in general.

“Americans are discouraged and frustrated by Israeli politics and the current political crisis, which has prevented the White House from unveiling the political part of the deal of the century,” they were cited as saying by Ynet News, referring to the Trump administration’s so-called peace plan for the Middle East.

They added that the president, who has claimed of having a dream to end conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, has openly talked about feeling “very disappointed” with the Israeli premier.

Trump told his close assistants that Netanyahu should pay millions of dollars in annual aid to the Palestinian Authority if he thinks Washington’s decision to cut it altogether was wrong.

“The president doesn’t like losers,” said a White House source, referencing his failure to secure a clear victory in the April 9 elections.

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was fired by Trump, said at an event at Harvard University two months ago that the prime minister “played” Trump by providing him with incorrect information.

“In dealing with Bibi, it’s always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him,” Tillerson said. “It bothers me that an ally that’s that close and important to us would do that to us.”

Since he took office, Trump has illegally recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the Israeli capital and acknowledged Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s Golan Heights.

Source: Presstv

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump has admitted to actions that amount to “bribery” in the Ukraine scandal, accusing the Republican leader of an impeachable offense under the US Constitution.

“The bribe is to grant or withhold military assistance in return for a public statement of a fake investigation into the elections. That’s bribery,” Pelosi said at a news conference on Thursday at the US Congress.

“What the president has admitted to and says it’s perfect, I say it’s perfectly wrong. It’s bribery,” she added.

The US Constitution states that impeachable offenses include “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors”. What exactly that means is unclear. Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.

Only two American presidents have been impeached by the House, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither Johnson nor Clinton was convicted by the Senate.

In 1974, then US President Richard Nixon resigned in the face of certain impeachment and removal from office over the Watergate scandal.

Democrats in the House launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump in September after a whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Democrats are looking into whether Trump abused his power by withholding $391 million in US security aid to Ukraine as leverage to pressure Kiev to conduct an investigation that would benefit him politically.

The Democratic-led impeachment inquiry shifted to a public phase on Wednesday and revealed new evidence that Trump was willing to sacrifice America’s interests for his own.

The public hearings were launched after weeks of closed-door interviews, marking a new phase of the impeachment probe that could determine the fate of Trump’s tumultuous presidency.

Republicans sought to undercut the public hearing by focusing on Hunter Biden’s role on the Burisma board, pointing out that he was paid $50,000 a month and questioning his qualifications.

Two top US diplomats, William Taylor and George Kent, delivered damning testimony on the first day of the public hearings, describing Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine.

Taylor, the US Ambassador to Ukraine, testified that he was told Trump “cared more about” investigating Biden and improving his reelection chances than caring about US interests.

Trump dismissed the probe again as a “witch hunt” and said he was “too busy” to watch the first public hearings, during which he received strong support from Republican lawmakers.

Asked about the new allegations, while hosting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House, Trump replied: “First time I’ve heard it.”

Source: Presstv

Bolivia is teetering on the brink of a civil war following violent protests which forced President Evo Morales to step down in order to avoid bloodshed.

A senator proclaimed herself Bolivia’s interim president Tuesday in an effort to fill the power vacuum, but Morales condemned the move as a “sneaky coup”.

The power grab came just as Morales, who transformed the Andean nation as its first indigenous president, left the country for Mexico with the aim of helping Bolivia recover from weeks of violent protests.

But the events unfolding in the wake of deputy Senate speaker Jeanine Anez proclaiming herself as interim president portended more violence ahead as rival protesters fought on the streets of the capital. 

Shortly after Morales left for Mexico where he was granted asylum, he accused opposition leader Carlos Mesa and protest leader Luis Fernando Camacho of staging a coup with the help of police.  

Evo Morales Ayma✔@evoespueblo

Así fue mi primera noche después de dejar la presidencia forzado por el golpe de Mesa y Camacho con ayuda de la Policía. Así recordé tiempos de dirigente. Muy agradecido con mis hermanos de las federaciones del Trópico de Cochabamba por brindarnos seguridad y cuidado.

His departure came after what is seen by many as a dramatic coup against the one-time llama shepherd from the Bolivian highlands and former coca growers’ union leader.

As president, Morales helped lift millions out of poverty, increased social rights and presided over nearly 14 years of stability and high economic growth in South America’s poorest country.

Bolivia has been experiencing years of political and economic stability and growth under his rule. The economy has grown by an annual average of about 4.5 percent, well above the regional average, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts it will grow at four percent this year.

“It pains me to leave the country for political reasons, but I’ll always be concerned,” Morales said on Twitter Tuesday. “l’ll return soon, with more strength and energy.”

Coup or revolt?

The opposition has claimed that a fight for “democracy and peace” led Morales to resign and depart the country.  

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday the Bolivian military had broken with the constitution by pressing Morales to stand down.

Uruguay, Cuba and Venezuela have also said Morales was deposed illegally.

Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, was declared president for a fourth term in the election but the opposition rejected the outcome and claimed that there had been fraud in the election process.

Source: Presstv

Bolivian Ambassador to Tehran has told Press TV that the ongoing coup in her country is a “soft” one backed by foreign governments who wanted to see the anti-US president, Evo Morales, overthrown.

“Evidently it is a coup d’état that has been going on for a long time, but has been completed after the October elections,” the ambassador said in an interview with Press TV on Monday evening.

After the October elections, she said, the opposition – knowing that it could lose the election – had basically started to say that there was a fraud in this election and ask for a second round for the elections, and then ask for the resignation of President Morales

She said the opposition has clearly been planning the coup from a long time ago with strong support from foreign countries – including the support for the opposition leader,

The ambassador noted that the ongoing coup is of a kind different from the one in 1970s when the army and military equipment were deployed in the streets and many people were killed. “It is a soft coup to change the president who is not aligned with the interests of the US.”

President Morales has established sovereignty in Bolivia, ending the “robbery” of the country’s resources by transnational corporations and the oligarchy, the ambassador noted.

“This is a coup that finishes with the resignation of our president, serving these foreign objectives,” she added.

The envoy’s comments came after Latin America’s leftist governments and prominent politicians denounced the opposition-led “coup d’état” in Bolivia against the government of Evo Morales, who was forced to step down as president under pressure from the army amid violent post-election protests.

Morales — Latin America’s longest-serving president — was declared the winner of Bolivia’s October 20 presidential election.

The opposition, however, rejected the outcome and said there had been fraud in the election process. That sparked violent street protests, which left three people dead and hundreds more wounded, in what the Morales government called a coup bid.

Source: Presstv

Bolivian President Evo Morales announced his resignation Sunday, caving in following three weeks of sometimes-violent protests over his disputed re-election after the army and police withdrew their backing.

“I resign my post as president,” the leftist Morales said in a televised address, capping a day of fast-moving events in which several ministers and senior officials quit as support for Latin America’s longest-serving president crumbled.

The streets of La Paz immediately exploded in celebration, as jubilant Bolivians set off firecrackers and waved the country’s red, yellow and green flag.

Morales, 60 and in power since 2006, was declared the winner of the October 20 presidential election a narrow margin, giving him a controversial fourth term.

But the opposition said there was fraud in the vote count and three weeks of street protests ensued, during which three people died and hundreds were injured.

The Organization of American States carried out an audit of the election and on Sunday reported irregularities in just about every aspect that it examined: the technology used, the chain of custody of ballots, the integrity of the count, and statistical projections.

As chanting Bolivians kept up demonstrations in the street, Morales called new elections, but this was apparently not enough to calm the uproar, and the commanders of the armed forces and the police joined the calls for the president’s resignation.

Violence continued Sunday as a caravan of buses taking opposition supporters to La Paz was attacked, leaving three people injured, including one by gunfire.

To make the announcement that he was stepping down, Morales traveled by plane to the coca-growing Chimore region of central Bolivia, the cradle of his career in politics.

It was there in the 1980s that Bolivia’s first indigenous president made his name as a combative union leader defending farmers who grow coca, which in the Bolivian countryside is used for medicinal and other purposes. It is also the raw material for making cocaine. 
He was accompanied by vice president Alvaro Garcia Linera, who also resigned.

On social media, Bolivians speculated that Morales might leave the country, perhaps going to Argentina, which just elected a center-left government.

(Source: AFP)

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has called a new presidential election in an outstanding concession, as the opposition in the Latin American country has disputed the results of the recent election that the incumbent has won.

In a TV address on Sunday, Morales said he would “call for new national elections, which, by voting, allow the Bolivian people to democratically elect new authorities.”

The announcement came after the Organization of American States (OAS) — which was tasked with doing a count audit after the opposition claimed the previous poll was fraudulent — released a preliminary report saying the election must be re-run due to irregularities.

“The first round of the election held on October 20 must be annulled and the electoral process must begin again, with the first round taking place as soon as there are new conditions that give new guarantees for it to take place, including a newly composed electoral body,” the organization said.

Electoral authorities announced that Morales secured an outright win in the first round of the presidential election on October 20, while his rival and the head of the Civic Community opposition party, Carlos Mesa, refused to recognize the results of the vote.

Opposition parties claimed that there had been irregularities in the vote-counting process, and the Bolivian president accused the opposition of trying to overthrow him.

The new announcement by Morales came after he called on Saturday for “urgent” negotiations with the opposition amid reports that the country’s police and security forces had joined anti-government protesters.

Morales, who spoke at a press conference in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, called for a round-table discussion with the four political parties represented in the country’s assembly.

The Bolivian military said in a statement the same day that it wouldn’t confront the demonstrators in the weeks-long standoff over Bolivia’s disputed election.

Three people have died and hundreds injured in often violent protests since Morales claimed a fourth consecutive term in the election.

The president came to power in 2006 as Bolivia’s first indigenous leader and has won his previous three terms with solid majorities.

Morales won last month’s vote with a lead of over 10 points against Mesa, his nearest rival. The victory was marred by a near 24-hour halt in the count, which, when resumed, showed a sharp shift in Morales’ favor.

Source: Presstv