Netanyahu's Bloc Beat the Exit Polls
With 90% counted, it's 53 to 48. Nobody has 61, and Likud alleges fraud.
Netanyahu's bloc pulled ahead of the exit polls. With about 90% of ballots counted Wednesday night, his bloc had 53 seats to Gadi Eisenkot's 48, both short of 61. Arab-led parties were on track for a record 19. Likud called the election "stolen" and asked police and the Shin Bet to investigate. Official results are due Nov. 4. 12 The backstory →
Judge Alvin Hellerstein died at 92. The Orthodox federal judge in Manhattan still had the Nicolás Maduro drug case on his docket. He handled most of the 9/11 civil suits. He set sentencings on Fridays so he could spend Shabbat asking himself whether they were fair. 3
The Chofetz Chaim's yeshiva has students again. The Radin Yeshiva in Belarus had 300 students before World War II. When Canadian rabbi Dovid Hofstedter found it about five years ago, it was a theater. This month about 100 rabbis reopened it as a working school. "We didn't want to just have some sort of tribute to the past," Hofstedter said. 4
Semafor should answer the question it was asked. KIND founder Daniel Lubetzky wrote on X Wednesday that Semafor CEO Justin Smith once told him Qatar's government paid far more than a program cost. By Lubetzky's account it was $2 million for a $50,000 "media training" boot camp, and he says he told Smith that sounded like "being bribed." A Semafor spokesperson said the outlet "has never accepted investment from any government or sovereign wealth fund" and didn't address the payment. Days earlier, Semafor ran a piece by its Gulf editor arguing that accusations of Qatari terror funding lack evidence. Our view: Lubetzky is describing a private conversation, and Semafor could settle it with one number. A newsroom that publishes a defense of Qatar should say what Qatar pays it. 5
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