“Annexation plans did earn a considerable boost if exit polls showing a 59- to 60-seat showing for Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc prove true. But not necessarily because the Likud leader will be able to form a coalition: While there may not be 61 MKs willing to sit with Netanyahu, there is a majority of lawmakers willing and eager to legislate Israel sovereignty over large swaths of the West Bank. And luckily for backers of the controversial policy over the Green Line, a coalition is not needed to see it through.”

“A top Palestinian official said Monday initial Israeli election exit polls indicating victory for right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed that ‘annexation’ had won. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the exit polls by Israeli media showed that ‘settlement, annexation and apartheid have won the Israeli elections. Netanyahu’s campaign was about the continuation of the occupation and conflict,” Erekat added on Twitter, saying the result would ‘force the people of the region to live by the sword: continuation of violence, extremism and chaos.’” Also see: Bennett says election delivers victory for ‘annexation government’

“The Palestinian Authority said while it views the results of the election as ‘an internal Israeli affair,’ the Palestinians won’t allow the outcome of the vote to undermine Palestinian rights.’We only care about preserving our legitimate national rights, first and foremost Jerusalem and its holy shrines,’ said PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh. ‘We won’t allow anyone to liquidate our cause.’ The Palestinians were prepared to deal with any Israeli government that ‘commits to achieving a just and comprehensive peace that is based on international resolutions to establish an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders,’ he said.The Palestinians ‘will thwart all conspiracies that aim to eliminate our national cause and will emerge triumphant,’ Abu Rudaineh said.”

“There should be no sugarcoating what happened. Israelis voted for a government led by an accused criminal who has spent the last year inciting against the country’s Arab minority and undermining its independent institutions, from the military chain of command to the law enforcement system he has slandered as being in the hands of his opponents. What these results also represent is a staggering repudiation of the two-state solution from the majority of Israelis in favor of a vision in which the Palestinians live in permanent legal inferiority to their Israeli neighbors, despite both peoples living under the jurisdiction of the same authorities.”

“…The political situation today is not fundamentally different from what it was in the fall of 2018, save for the fact that Netanyahu’s reputation as a teflon politician has grown even stronger after surviving repeated attempts to oust him. How did this happen? The answer is actually quite simple: Blue and White bet that the Israeli electorate would choose the veneer of democratic principles — such as the rule of law, checks on power, and so on — over the brazen ideological pursuit of Jewish supremacy over the entire land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, as advanced by Netanyahu and his allies. They lost that bet three times in a row.”

“With more than 90 percent of the vote counted after Monday’s election, the country’s Arab citizens have good reason to celebrate. As it stands, the Joint List (an alliance of four Arab-led parties) will have 15 seats in the next Knesset, two more than it had in the last government…Two key factors explain the big gains posted by the Joint List on Monday: a dramatic increase in voter turnout within the Arab community; and plummeting support for Jewish parties among Arab voters.”

“The racism that was evoked in this last election by the Center-Left likely widened the gap between Blue and White and Likud and helped ensure that the Arab Joint List, headed by MK Ayman Odeh, would secure its 15-seat minimum in the 23rd Knesset.Not only did they vote in higher numbers, but those that had supported Jewish parties in the past came to understand that they needed to vote instead for the Arab parties to receive civil rights and equality.”

“Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev (Likud) on Wednesday slammed the Blue and White and Joint Arab List parties for attempting to pass a law to prevent Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from being asked to form a government. ‘[MK] Ahmad Tibi promised, and he’s keeping his word: He promised to get rid of Netanyahu and the Likud. He promised to control [Blue and White Chairman MK] Benny Gantz, and Gantz isn’t standing up to the pressure, he’s giving in to Tibi. Such a legislative process as the one Tibi is leading Gantz to is nothing less than the beginning of a government coup. We will not allow this to happen.’”

“A preliminary analysis of the results from Monday’s Knesset election shows that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party increased its strength for the most part by attracting “soft-right” voters in the major cities, and not due to the higher voter turnout. The shift came among voters who in the past had voted for Kulanu and Gesher and among prior supporters of Kahol Lavan who voted Likud this time.”

“…the Joint Arab List knows that even with 15 or possibly 16 seats, they won’t have an easy time getting things done from the opposition with a right-wing government in power. It’s possible that the Joint Arab List MKs still haven’t realized that someone will have to pay the political price for the ‘Anyone but Bibi’ camp’s failure to oust Netanyahu and the Right for the third time running…”

“Global ecommerce company Amazon will now be delivering parcels for free to customers in the occupied Palestinian territories, reported Wafa news agency. The Palestinian Economy Ministry said in a statement that the American company has reversed its policy on charging delivery fees for items being delivered to customers in the Palestinian territories. It attributed the policy reversal by Amazon to ‘a series of Palestinian measures aiming at halting disregard to the Palestinian identity and recognising settlements.’ This comes after Amazon was accused of being bias following a Financial Times report that revealed it was delivering free to Israeli settlements since November, while Palestinian customers living in their towns and villages near the illegal settlements were being charged fees of over $24 for its services.

“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that the State Department will take action against what he called the ‘harassment’ of US businesses blacklisted by the “so-called” UN Human Rights Council. Neither the UN Human Rights Council nor the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights can tell you what to do,’ Pompeo told the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the largest pro-Israel lobby group in North America.”

“President Donald Trump will speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference for the second consecutive year. The venue for the March 14 appearance, the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, is owned by Sheldon Adelson, a major benefactor of the RJC and Republican campaigns, including Trump’s. Unlike his predecessors, Trump rarely enters into neutral or hostile political territory and thus mostly speaks to groups that favor him. That preference extends to pro-Israel groups. Trump has not attended the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference since 2016, when the group rebuked him for disparaging then-sitting President Barack Obama from its stage.”

“Relations between Jordan and Israel are at their lowest ebb since the signing of the 1994 peace treaty between the two countries, and the treaty itself is now ‘at risk,’ Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said on Monday. ‘Today, we are at the lowest level in the relationship that has been since signing the peace treaty,’ Razzaz said in an interview with CNN. ‘The peace treaty can go into a deep freeze mode and therefore it is definitely at risk.’ According to Razzaz, Jordan is angry about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and parts of Judea and Samaria as set forth in the U.S. ‘Prosperity to Peace’ plan, and about Israeli ‘violations of the sanctity of Muslim and Christian endowments in Jerusalem.’” [Video of CNN interview with Razzaz is here.]

“‘Israel is going to be “America’s most important ally in the 21st century,’ Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said on Tuesday. Speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., Dermer said the two most important things the United States looks for in an ally are ‘security and technology.’ When it comes to security, both Israel and Britain are America’s most reliable allies, said Dermer, but when it comes to technology Britain is ‘not in the same time zone as Israel.’”

“Serbia is planning to open an ‘official state office’ in Jerusalem, the country’s president announced Tuesday, joining a small number of countries that have diplomatic missions in the city…Earlier this week, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, said he would soon appoint an ambassador to Israel, the first from his country in some 20 years. The envoy would be posted in Tel Aviv, he clarified, adding that he sees no reason why the DRC would not open a ‘commercial section’ in Jerusalem.”

“WhatsApp has taken a step toward winning its widely publicized lawsuit against the NSO Group after the Israeli spyware merchant failed to show up in court, according to a notice of default entered Monday in California. WhatsApp sued NSO in October after finding evidence that the hacking firm had abused a flaw in the Facebook Inc.-owned messaging app’s popular chat program to remotely hijack hundreds of smartphones. The lawsuit – along with alert messages that WhatsApp sent to hundreds users alleged affected by the hacking – sparked disclosures about NSO’s surveillance work across the world.The case was closely watched, both because of the high-tech surveillance angle but also because it was unusual for a major service provider to sue a hacking company on behalf of its users.”