U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron talks LGBT rights, schoolgirls who join ISIS, and Twitter with BuzzFeed News UK. It’s election day in Israel. And say no to green peanut butter.
Today is election day in Israel, and socioeconomic issues have taken a central role in the campaign, challenging the long-held notion that Israel would always vote based on security issues first, BuzzFeed News Middle East correspondent Sheera Frenkel reports from Tel Aviv. This does not bode well for current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has touted national security as the core of his platform.
Netanyahu, who is of the conservative Likud Party, faces competition from Isaac Herzog, leader of the Labor Party, who has been able to cobble together a formidable opposition Zionist Union coalition. In Israel's parliamentary system, a politician becomes prime minister by putting together a coalition of parties who give an endorsement for that person to become party leader.
If Netanyahu becomes prime minister following today's vote, and serves for at least three years, he will hold the title of Israel's longest-serving prime minister.
And a little extra. Netanyahu reverses policy on Palestinian statehood. In a reversal from a previously stated stance, Netanyahu said in a video interview released Monday that he would not establish a separate Palestinian state if he wins the election, the New York Times reports. Palestinian officials consider the reversal a validation of something they have believed for a long time: that he has worked to undermine the two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Others saw it as a last-ditch election ploy to win right-wing voters.
This is what life in Syria is like after four years of war. As the country's brutal civil war enters its fifth year, more than half of the population have fled their homes and life expectancy has fallen by 20 years. BuzzFeed News' Shyamantha Asokan spoke to three Syrians about what everyday life is like in such a hellish situation. They described an amazing resilience, and even snatches of happiness.
A group of Syrian Kurdish people who fled from clashes between ISIS militants and pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party forces rest in a building under construction after crossing into Turkey from a transition point of Suruc district in Sanliurfa, Turkey, Oct. 9, 2014.
Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu Agency / Getty
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron sat down for an interview with BuzzFeed News UK yesterday. Here are some of the highlights:
Cameron spoke out strongly in favor of trans and LGBT rights: "It's only when a society says marriage is there for everyone – whether you're straight or gay and it's a great institution … you end this idea that it's somehow fair to criticize people or do down people because of their sexuality."
He called the British schoolgirls who joined ISIS "deeply misguided," adding, "We want to get them back and get this radical nonsense out of their heads."
Asked whether he ever checked his Twitter mentions, which often involve abusive comments, he said: "I have a little bit, yes. Well, you've got to take the rough with the smooth in this job."
- Cameron maintains he would stay on as a member of parliament if he lost the upcoming national elections, set for May 7.
UK Deputy Editor Jim Waterson and David Cameron.
Thomas Alexander / BuzzFeed
