Israeli Government Loses Majority as Backbencher Quits

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)
Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)
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Israeli Government Loses Majority as Backbencher Quits

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)
Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks as he visits an army base in the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, April 5, 2022. (Reuters)

An Israeli lawmaker quit the government's wafer-thin ruling coalition over a religious dispute on Wednesday, throwing the fragile alliance into disarray without a majority in parliament.

Backbencher Idit Silman's departure raises the possibility of new parliamentary elections less than a year after the government took office. While Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government remains in power, it is now hamstrung in the 120-seat parliament and will likely struggle to function.

Silman, from Bennett’s religious-nationalist Yamina party, had opposed the distribution of leavened bread and foodstuffs in public hospitals — in breach of religious tradition during the Passover holiday, public broadcaster Kan reported.

Bennett's coalition of eight political parties ranging from Islamists to hard-line nationalists and dovish liberals — all united solely in their opposition to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — now holds 60 seats in the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

The Knesset is currently in recess, and it remains unclear if the opposition will now have enough support to hold a no-confidence vote and send Israelis to the polls for the fifth time in just over three years.

Silman, said she “cannot lend a hand to harming the Jewish character of the state of Israel and the people of Israel,” and would work to form a right-wing government, Kan reported.

Israel has held four elections in two years in a protracted political crisis over Netanyahu's fitness to rule while on trial for corruption. The deadlocked elections were finally broken in June when Bennett and his allies ousted Netanyahu after 12 years in office by cobbling together a coalition of unlikely allies.

Netanyahu, now opposition leader, congratulated Silman and “welcomed her back home to the nationalist camp.”



Cuba Left Reeling after Hurricane Ravages Island

A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)
A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)
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Cuba Left Reeling after Hurricane Ravages Island

A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)
A man rides a bicycle along a flooded street after the passage of Hurricane Rafael in Batabano, Mayabeque province, Cuba, on November 7, 2024. (Photo by Yamil LAGE / AFP)

Cuba was left reeling Thursday after a fierce Category 3 hurricane ripped across the island, knocking out the country’s power grid, downing trees and damaging infrastructure. No fatalities were immediately reported.
Hurricane Rafael crossed a western portion of Cuba on Wednesday evening about 75 kilometers west of Havana.
Some 50,000 people took shelter in Havana, with thousands more doing the same in regions south and just west of the capital since they lived in flood zones or in flimsy homes. The main road from Havana to the southern coastal city of Batabanó was strewn with dozens of utility poles and wires.
Lázaro Guerra, electricity director for the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said power had been partially restored in the island’s western region and that generation units were powering back up. But he warned that restoring power would be slow-going as crews took safety precautions.
As Rafael plowed across Cuba on Wednesday evening it slowed to a Category 2 hurricane as it chugged into the Gulf of Mexico before heading toward Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Late Thursday morning, the hurricane was located about 200 miles (320 kilometers) west-northwest of Havana. It had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (345 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph).
Earlier in the week, Rafael brushed past Jamaica and battered the Cayman Islands, downing trees and power lines and unleashing heavy flooding in some areas.
Authorities in Jamaica are searching for a couple last seen inside a car that was swept away by floodwaters, police told Radio Jamaica News.
Thousands of customers in Jamaica and Little Cayman remained without power as crews worked to restore electricity after the storm.
Rafael was expected to keep weakening as it spins over open waters and heads toward northern Mexico, although the hurricane center warned there was “above average uncertainty” in the storm's future track.
Meanwhile, many Cubans were left picking up the pieces from Wednesday night, after a rocky few weeks in the Caribbean nation. In October, the island was hit by a one-two punch. First, it was hit by island-wide blackouts stretching on for days, a product of the island’s energy crisis. Shortly after, it was slapped by powerful hurricane that struck the eastern part of the island and killed at least six people.
The disasters have stoked discontent already simmering in Cuba amid an ongoing economic crisis, which has pushed many to migrate from Cuba.
Classes and public transport were suspended on parts of the island and authorities canceled flights in and out of Havana and Varadero. Thousands of people in the west of the island had been evacuated as a preventative measure.
Rafael is the 17th named storm of the season.