JERUSALEM — Two senior Israeli Cabinet ministers announced Saturday that they are forming a new party to run in April elections, hoping to present a hard-line alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said they were leaving the Jewish Home party and would instead lead a new list of candidates. The Jewish Home is a hard-line nationalist party that is especially popular with religious voters and West Bank settlers. Jewish Home has served as a junior partner to the Likud Party in the past two Israeli coalition governments. But Bennett and Shaked, who are both former aides to Netanyahu, have often been at odds with their former boss.

Source: Washington Post December 30, 2018 05:15 UTC