Fatah in turmoil as rivals unite ahead of election
Barghouti, Kidwa form joint list for PLC vote EU: Israel not granting visas to its delegation for Palestinian elections,
The crisis in the ruling Fatah faction intensified on Wednesday as two of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s political rivals, Marwan Barghouti and Nasser al-Kidwa, agreed to join forces ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election.
Barghouti and Kidwa struck a deal to run in the election under a unified list called Al-Huriyya (Freedom), Palestinian sources said.
Hani al-Masri, a prominent
Palestinian political analyst, confirmed that Barghouti and Kidwa have agreed to run together in the election.
“I’m honored to be part of the list,” Masri said. “I hope the list will contribute to much-needed changes in the Palestinian political system.”
The alliance between Barghouti and Kidwa is seen by many Palestinians as a major challenge to Abbas and the Fatah leadership.
The new list consists of more than 60 candidates, including Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, the sources added.
Sa’ar could have called on Lapid to step aside and enable Yamina leader Naftali Bennett to form a government in a nice, courteous way, ideally in private. The New Hope leader had wanted Lapid to do everything possible to pursue Bennett, because of the importance of preventing him from joining a Netanyahu-led government.
But Sa’ar, who is still mad at Lapid for meeting with United Arab List (Ra’am) head Mansour Abbas the morning after the Passover Seder instead of wooing Bennett, chose to publicly shame him on social media instead.
In his tweet to Lapid, Sa’ar called him “Guteh,” a name familiar to Israelis from the classic 1972 movie Metzitzim, whose English name is Peeping Toms.
Guteh was a lazy, amoral hipster played by Uri Zohar, who is now a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbi but was far from it in those days. Guteh spent his days drinking, doing drugs and chasing women.
“It’s a big insult,” veteran Jerusalem Post film critic Hannah Brown said. “It’s like calling him a lazy slacker lightweight.”
Sa’ar’s earlier tweet that he had “conceded his ego” and urged Lapid to do the same, led to a fight on Twitter. Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levy mocked Sa’ar, saying “you conceded your ego with six mandates? Amazing. Serious concession.”
New Hope MK-elect Sharren