![Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party attends the swearing-in ceremony of the 19th Knesset, the new Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem February 5, 2013. REUTERS/Uriel Sinai/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3DDXV](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/RTR3DDXV.jpg/RTR3DDXV.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=dPCgcuB8)
![Mazal Mualem](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-09/mazal%20book%202.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=28S04G5r)
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
Mazal Mualem is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Israel Pulse and formerly the senior political correspondent for Maariv and Haaretz. She also presents a weekly TV show covering social issues on the Knesset channel. She is the author of "Cracking the Netanyahu Code" (published 2022). On Twitter: @mazalm3
![Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid (There is a Future) party attends the swearing-in ceremony of the 19th Knesset, the new Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem February 5, 2013. REUTERS/Uriel Sinai/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3DDXV](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/RTR3DDXV.jpg/RTR3DDXV.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=dPCgcuB8)
![Labour party leader Shelly Yachimovich addresses supporters at her party's headquarters in Beit Berl, north of Tel Aviv January 23, 2013. Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged the bruised winner of Israel's election on Tuesday, claiming victory despite unexpected losses to resurgent centre-left challengers. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3CTBL](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/1-RTR3CTBL.jpg/1-RTR3CTBL.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=coTyziDi)
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Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![Members of the 19th Knesset, the new Israeli parliament, stand as President Shimon Peres arrives to their swearing-in ceremony in Jerusalem February 5, 2013. REUTERS/Uriel Sinai/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3DDXN](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/RTR3DDXN.jpg/RTR3DDXN.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=ksz6egAh)
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Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem March 3, 2013. More than a month after Israel's election, Netanyahu is still without a new coalition, his hopes of enlisting traditionally loyal cabinet partners - ultra-Orthodox factions - challenged by a pact between an odd political couple. REUTERS/Gali Tibbon/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3EII7](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/1-RTR3EII7.jpg/1-RTR3EII7.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=4p671cIj)
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Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![Aryeh Deri (C), leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, attends an annual pilgrimage to the gravesite of Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, a Moroccan-born sage and kabbalist also known as the Baba Sali, in the southern town of Netivot January 14, 2013. Powerful political players for years, Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties must now reckon with a new force ushered in by voters bent on stripping them of perks they have relied on for decades. Picture taken January 14, 2013. REUTERS/Amir Cohen (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/RTR3CWJ3.jpg/RTR3CWJ3.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=5Fj8h18l)
![Mazal Mualem](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-09/mazal%20book%202.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=28S04G5r)
Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem March 3, 2013. More than a month after Israel's election, Netanyahu is still without a new coalition, his hopes of enlisting traditionally loyal cabinet partners - ultra-Orthodox factions - challenged by a pact between an odd political couple. REUTERS/Gali Tibbon/Pool (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3EII7](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/1-RTR3EII7.jpg/1-RTR3EII7.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=4p671cIj)
![Mazal Mualem](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-09/mazal%20book%202.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=28S04G5r)
Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends a Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah February 26, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3EAX8](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/03/1-RTR3EAX8.jpg/1-RTR3EAX8.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=nI8ljio9)
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Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![Israeli Arab Parliament member Ahmed Tibi (C) gestures as he stands on a bulldozer during a demonstration against Israel's construction of a road in the Arab neighbourhood of Beit Safafa in Jerusalem February 10, 2013. Some 50 Palestinians protested against the construction of the road, which they claim is an expropriation of their land. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST BUSINESS CONSTRUCTION) - RTR3DL5H](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR3DL5H.jpg/RTR3DL5H.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=vOIm9OQU)
![Mazal Mualem](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-09/mazal%20book%202.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=28S04G5r)
Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Arens and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a news conference in Tel Aviv February 28. Arens said fighter planes had already raided key Hizbollah targets in Lebanon. The Israeli assault came in response to a roadside bomb that went off near an Israeli convoy in the south Lebanon occupation zone killing [Brigadier-General Erez Gerstein,] and a Radio Journalist and two soldiers.
**DIGITAL IMAGE** - RTXISY0](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/1-RTXISY0.jpg/1-RTXISY0.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=zV6oPUdm)
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Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![A woman walks past campaign posters for the Arab-led Hadash party in the Israeli-Arab city of Umm al-Fahm December 26, 2012. Disillusioned, disappointed and divided, Israeli Arab voters will traipse to the polls next week in ever dwindling numbers, aware that none of their community will have any say in how the country is run. Picture taken December 26, 2012. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (ISRAEL - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS) - RTR3CHRM](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/1-RTR3CHRM.jpg/1-RTR3CHRM.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=pYpSVHe-)
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Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![A mosque in the Palestinian West Bank village of Abdullah Ibrahim (rear) is seen behind houses in West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, near Bethlehem December 22, 2011. Israel on Wednesday said four European U.N. Security Council members should support a resumption of stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks because their criticism of the Jewish state, including it's construction of new settlements, could sideline them from negotiations. REUTERS/Baz Ratner (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR2VJOQ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR2VJOQ.jpg/RTR2VJOQ.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=GQk7ZBks)
![Mazal Mualem](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-09/mazal%20book%202.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=28S04G5r)
Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics
![A combination photo shows Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on January 21, 2013 and Naftali Bennett (R), leader of the Bayit Yehudi party, in Tel Aviv January 20, 2013. Netanyahu made an election-eve appeal on Monday to wavering supporters to "come home", showing concern over a forecast far-right surge that would keep him in power but weaken him politically.In the last stretch of a largely lacklustre campaign that could produce the most hardline government in Israel's history, Netanyah](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/02/RTR3CR6V.jpg/RTR3CR6V.jpg?h=deb44574&itok=bCurh3Uv)
![Mazal Mualem](https://www.al-monitor.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-09/mazal%20book%202.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=28S04G5r)
Mazal Mualem
In Tel Aviv, reporting on politics