The MK from Balad, one of the parties making up the Joint List, called
Israel an oppressive, racist and apartheid state, saying he is
pessimistic that there will be peace soon and international sanctions
were the most effective way to combat Israel.
“The only way for
this society to change is the way of South Africa … international
pressure, international sanctions, saying one basic elementary thing:
Justice for Palestine,” he stated. “Without boycotts and sanctions,
Israel will not do and comply with international law.”
Ghattas
said international pressure is “the only mechanism Israel is afraid of,”
and the only way “to force Israel to comply with international law.”
“I
can promise you one thing, that it will not take time like in South
Africa for Israel to change. Israelis are very connected to the world
and very sensitive to the world and once serious action is taken by the
international community, Israel will obey,” he argued.
Ghattas
added that “BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] and popular
movements are the major and the most elementary step that have to be
taken in order to make governments and international bodies held
accountable.”
The Joint List MK argued that the “occupation” and
is not only of the West Bank but that all of Israel is “settler
colonialism” and an “apartheid regime.”
“When we say colonial
settlers … this is the right description for Israel as a whole, Israel
dominating what was called Israel in the 1967 borders and all the other
areas that were in the 1967 war occupied by Israel. We, as Palestinian
citizens that have Israeli citizenship after 1948 are still victims of
this colonial settler regime,” he said.
At another point in the
speech, he said that when it comes to the “apartheid regime, the
differentiation as if inside 1967 borders [or out] – this
differentiation does not exist, actually. Perhaps in some aspects the
level … of the racism or apartheid is different, but the same colonial
settler apartheid reality is all over Palestine.”
All of Israel, Ghattas argued, has been taken over by “settlers.”
Never heard of the World Social Forum? Neither had I. But it sounds like it ought to be renamed the World Conference of Anti-Semites.
Ghattas made the statements last week at the World Social Forum in
Montreal, which is meant to be a far-left alternative to the annual
World Economic Forum in Davos. The Canadian federal government revoked
its partnership with the forum, because of anti-Semitic content,
policies and promotional materials, including excluding Jewish Israelis
and supporters of Israel and a session blaming worldwide terrorism and
imperialism on Zionists, which was promoted with a caricature featuring
classic anti-Semitic imagery of a hook-nosed man with forelocks, a beard
and a black hat controlling Uncle Sam. The session was later canceled
and the caricature removed from the website.
And Israel allows this anti-Semite to serve in its Knesset. What is wrong with us?
Much more on Sabeel, which sponsored Ghattas' appearance at this conference, here and here.
Ezra Nawi, an Israeli Jewish plumber, has a long history as a left-wing activist helping Palestinians in their struggle against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Now he is under arrest in Israel, after a right-wing activist surreptitiously filmed him bragging about exposing Arab brokers who tried to sell Palestinian land to Jewish settlers. Such sales are a capital crime under Palestinian law.
Considered
variously as a big-mouthed provocateur and a colorful human-rights
adventurer, Mr. Nawi has become the latest symbol in the battle between
advocacy groups on opposite sides of Israel’s political spectrum, and
the increasingly fierce debate here over the nature of Israeli society
and democracy.
The debate has heated up as Israel’s conservative government is pushing
forward contentious legislation that would require nongovernmental
organizations to disclose funding they receive from foreign governments
in their publications, advertising and meetings with public officials.
The proposed bill, which supporters say is meant to increase
transparency, would apply mainly to leftist groups critical of Israel’s
policy toward the Palestinians, since rightist groups mostly receive
private funding from abroad, and it has already drawn harsh criticism
from the Obama administration and European diplomats.
No, this story is not about the NGO law, which the Times so hates. It's about yet another Leftist fascist who thinks he has the right to endanger other people's lives.
It
is an odd case. Mr. Nawi, described in a 2009 New York Times profile as
“the Robin Hood of the South Hebron Hills,” helping Palestinians who
love him and “thwarting settlers and soldiers who view him with
contempt,” is now accused of endangering the lives of Palestinians. That
is because selling land to Israeli Jews is punishable by death
according to the Palestinian Authority. Although the authority is not
known to have carried out any executions for any offense in more than a
decade, there have been reports of torture in its prisons.
The
Ad Kan video, from about a year ago, shows Mr. Nawi behind the wheel of
his jeep, bragging about what appeared to be a dubious sideline to his
activist work in the West Bank.
He told the man sitting next to him, whom he believed to be a fellow
sympathizer, that he sometimes posed as a land broker and engaged with
other land dealers mediating sales of Palestinian-owned land to Jewish
settlers, then handed over their details to the Palestinian Authority
security services.
Asked what the Authority did with such people, Mr. Nawi said it “catches them and kills them.”
Days later, he was arrested at the airport as he was about to leave the country.
Odd? Not to anyone who knows the history of Israel's prosecutorial regime burying charges against the Left. Only by gathering evidence so convincing that even the Left-leaning Uvda had to run with it or lose all credibility could Nawi's disgusting behavior be exposed.
There is a story here. Too bad it's not the one the Times chose to tell.
Jewish Voice for 'peace' seeks to free accessory to murder
Israel Radio reported this morning that a Jew and a 'Palestinian' - both 'peace activists' - are being held for meeting with an enemy foreign agent.
While the radio did not disclose who they are, the uber-Leftist Jew-haters at Jewish Voice for 'peace' are petitioning for his release (if you think my description of JVP is an overstatement, go here).
If you're wondering why this Jewish-born drek is being held, go here.
Hazan says that he condemns the electrical short circuit and says that it's forbidden to issue blanket condemnations of all the electricity in the country.
Republicans Overseas in Israel files High Court petition against FATCA agreement
Republicans Overseas in Israel, which can legitimately purport to represent 85% of American voters living in Israel (based on the results of the last elections) has filed a petition with Israel's High Court of Justice seeking to stop Israel's banks from transferring required information to the Internal Revenue Service under FATCA. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions to disclose to Lois Lerner's IRS the value of all foreign accounts held by US citizens. US citizens who actually live abroad are up in arms about this because it means that we have to go through two regulatory systems in all of our dealings with local banks (example: I had to fill out a W-9 to show that I have a US social security number in order to get a car loan from an Israeli bank for my car in Israel last year).
If you're a US citizen who lives in the US you no longer have any foreign bank accounts - at least in Israel where long before the Bank of Israel signed an agreement with the IRS, the local banks forced all non-Israeli residents to close their accounts. That means that this is almost entirely about people who live in Israel by any definition.
ROI’s petition claimed that the new information sharing process is not
only beyond government officials’ discretionary authority absent Knesset
legislation, but also in violation of the Basic Laws which create
certain property and privacy rights defending against an automatic
transfer of personal data absent a reasonable chance to object
(currently there is no chance to object.)
In courts in many
countries, including now Israel, the argument is, that the FATCA law and
how foreign countries are implementing, means it functions as a dragnet
of massive amounts of private information which could be misused and
where there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
Zell explained that “we
are not saying the Israeli tax authorities are prohibited from
transferring information to the IRS or other foreign tax authority…where
there is a reasonable basis to suspect tax evasion.”
He said
that Israel can already do this under existing conventions and that the
problem is to “collect and transfer such data to foreign governments
without a showing of cause and without allowing the affected taxpayers
an opportunity to be heard before the information is transferred.”
The
equal treatment issue is that only dual US citizens are being treated
this way by the Israeli government, and not persons who are
dual-citizens of any other countries, let alone most Israelis who are
solely Israeli citizens.
The application is most “absurd” said Zell with cases of persons who merely have an American greed card.
But
so far other litigation against FATCA and its consequences have had
mixed results, with lawsuits in the US and Canada being initially
dismissed and currently pending appeal.
...
“If the Court addresses the merits of the case, I believe our chances
are quite good… The action of the Bank of Israel is highly problematic,
given that there was absolutely no statutory basis for its action…. The
Government Decision…directly infringe[s] upon fundamental rights and no
attempt was made to mitigate the damage,” stated Zell.
He also
said treating American-Israelis differently is “clearly
discriminatory…There is no easy answer to that... the Government simply
disregarded the privacy interests of the affected class, signed what is
effectively an adhesion [coercive] contract and paid no attention
whatsoever to the fact that the US Government…does not provide adequate
protection for private information,” confirmed he said by the European
Court of Justice and Israel’s Justice Ministry.
As Zell said,
“taxpayers have a fundamental right of privacy protected by Basic Law
and statutory law. The Government sought to nullify these rights with
the wave of a hand and the Knesset thus far has said no. We hope the
High Court of Justice will agree.”
Video with English translation of Ezra Nawi saying he turns 'Palestinian' land sellers over for torture and death
Thursday night's video showing Leftist 'human rights' activists Ezra Nawi and Nasser Najawa ran 44 minutes long. Now, StandWithUs has translated two of the key minutes into English (subtitles).
Let's go to the videotape.
Palestinians deserve the freedom to make decisions about their own property. Those who consider themselves Palestinian...
Posted by StandWithUs on Sunday, January 10, 2016
By the way, I hope the gentleman referred to in the video as 'Arik' (the one who did the recording) is well-hidden. Nawi undoubtedly knows who he is and surely wants to have him killed.
Israel's Left is circling the wagons around two of its own. Ta'ayush's Ezra Nawi (pictured) and B'Tselem's Nasser Nawaja were shown on Israeli television on Thursday night telling a Right wing activist with a hidden camera that they turn over 'Palestinians' who wish to sell land to Jews to the 'Palestinian security forces' for torture and death.
Although the story has gotten little exposure outside of Israel, here it's all the rage. Over the weekend, Israel's hard left has been circling the wagons to defend Nawi and Nawaja.
Both Nawi and Nawaja are among the most internationally renowned
members of Israel’s radical left. Earlier this year, Nawaja published an
anti-Israeli op-ed in The New York Times,
accusing the Jewish state of “dispossession and oppression.” Nawi is
considerably more prominent: when he was arrested, in 2007, for
attacking Israeli policemen during a West Bank demonstration, more than
20,000 people—including a long list of prominent Israeli academics as
well as progressive American celebrities like Noam Chomsky and Naomi
Klein—signed a petition demanding his release.
Responding to the piece with a statement on its Facebook page,
B’Tselem said that while it opposed tortures and executions, reporting
Palestinians interested in selling land to Israelis to the PA was “the
only legitimate course of action.”
These revelations comes at an inopportune moment for the two NGOs, as
the Israeli government is considering measures to regulate non-profit
organizations receiving financial support from foreign governments. Ta’ayush,
according to the Jerusalem-based group NGO-Monitor, receives some
foreign donations but does not disclose its funding.
B’Tselem, on the
other hand, is considered one of Israel’s leading civil rights
organizations, and receives financial support from
the governments of Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands,
Norway, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, as well as the European
Union and the New Israel Fund.
Amazingly, B'Tselem, a favored grantee of the American non-profit organization The New Israel Fund, defended the action portrayed on today’s show, claiming that “This is the only legitimate channel for a Palestinian.”
Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett accused the
New Israel Fund and the European Union of funding Israeli human rights
activists who turn in innocent Palestinians, and later urged foreign
ambassadors to Israel to stop transferring funds to these organizations.
(Both, B’Tselem and Ta’ayush receive funding from France and the United Kingdom, as well as from American Jews.)
Ta’ayush has in the past partnered with Rabbis for Human Rights
– of which Rabbi Gordon Tucker of Temple Israel of White Plains is a
donor - to bring “hundreds of volunteers to work side-by-side with
Palestinian farmers during Olive Harvest campaign.”
The pushback from the Left has been so fierce that even journalists like Maariv's Ben Caspit and Haaretz's Barak Ravid (both Leftists themselves) have criticized the Left wing organizations for not disavowing Nawi and Nawaja (links in Hebrew).
Of course, then there are the real Jew haters, like Gideon Levy, who still has a platform at Haaretz.
In a report on left-wing groups which operate in the West Bank, Uvda aired secretly recorded footage
of Israeli activist Ezra Nawi saying that he had exposed Palestinian
land brokers who sold West Bank land to Jews, and turned them over to
the Palestinian Authority.The right wing and the settlers celebrated the
event of course. Another outpost has fallen into their hands. They have
already compared the left-wing activist Nawi to the Duma murderers, no
less. The rightists and settlers, known for their deep concern about the
lives of Palestinians, were shocked by Nawi’s statements. But the right
is not the story. The story is how a lethal virus has penetrated what
is almost the last outpost of real journalism.
How has a McCarthyist right-wing organization, whose motives are
clear (and despicable) and whose sources are unknown, succeeded with
such ease in enticing such respected journalists as Ilana Dayan and Omri
Assenheim? How has this flagship joined the ranks of the false
propaganda which masquerades as journalism?
That is how to conduct delegitimization. That is how it is done to
liberal organizations in the darkest of regimes, and now here too, and
on Uvda – no less.
Presenting the human rights organizations as dangerous groups, and
penetrating them, is compared to penetrating ISIS. The McCarthyists are
glorified, depicted as heroes of Israel who excelled in battles in Gaza.
All these are well-known ploys. And against this background, all that
is left is to record Nawi boasting, to catch him uttering the taboo
words, to present him as a “senior” activist, to ignore the entire
context — the crimes of the occupation and the expulsion form the
Southern Hebron Hills, which you never heard about on Uvda. Just ignore
the holy work done by left-wing activists in this battered region, spice
it with a few lies such as “execution” by the Palestinian Authority,
add a few generalizations, suspicions and slander – and the dish is
ready.
To those of you with even the slightest suspicion that Levy is onto something, I suggest that you go watch the video of Thursday night's broadcast (it's in Hebrew only, but I summarized it here). It doesn't get much more clear cut. Nawi and Najawa turned 'Palestinians' who wanted to sell land to Jews ('Palestinians' whose existence the Israeli Left denies) over to the 'Palestinian security services' for torture and murder. And they did it with a sadistic smile.
'Human rights' organizations @taayush and @btselem turn 'Palestinian' land seller over to 'Palestinian security services' for torture
For those who can, I strongly recommend watching the original report (44 minutes in Hebrew). Unfortunately, Blogger only allows the uploading of videos up to 100 megabytes - this one is nearly 180 megabytes.
Here's a brief summary:
Ilana Dayan's Uvda (Fact) program on Israel's Channel 10 last night featured an expose on a group of Right wing activists from the center of the country who managed to place a mole in Taayush, a Jewish-Arab organization that advocates for 'Palestinian human rights.'
The mole, an alumnus of an elite IDF combat unit who won an award for bravery during the war in Gaza in the summer of 2014 (while this was going on!), managed to record Ezra Nawi, the Jewish leader of Taayush, in conversations with an Arab land owner who wished to sell land south of Hebron (near Jewish villages) to Jews.
Nawi met with the land seller (in the mole's presence), and then proceeded to conspire with a Btselem 'Palestinian' activist named Nasser Nawajeh to turn the land seller over for 'investigation' by the 'Palestinian security services.'
Yes, that's right, the European-financed 'human rights organizations' turned over (and apparently not for the first time) a 'Palestinian' who wished to sell land to Jews to the 'Palestinian security services' for torture (Nawi says it outright) and 'neutralization' (i.e. murder).
I'm hoping this video will be translated into English because it rips the mask off the 'human rights' activists and the self-hating Jews who are trying to destroy the Jewish state.
The laws on ownership of land under the Palestinian Authority (PA),
originally enacted during the Jordanian occupation of Judea and Samaria
(1948–1967), prohibit Arabs from selling Arab-owned lands to “any man or
judicial body corporation of Israeli citizenship, living in Israel or
acting on its behalf.” According to several media sources, including the
NY Times, Ha’aretz and Jerusalem Post, selling land to Jews is
considered an act of treason by the Arabs because it threatens the
future Palestinian state and leads to “the spread of moral, political
and security corruption”. Arabs in the Palestinian Authority who sell
land to Israelis may be sentenced to death. The interrogation by PA
security forces of Arabs suspected of selling land to Jews involves
severe torture.
...
When asked what happens once Palestinian Authority police lays its
hands on the sellers, Nawi says, “It catches them, kills them.” He then
added with a vicious smile, “First Zubur, then Gazanga.” Zubur is an
Arabic word used in Hebrew to describe hazing—humiliation and physical
torment. The Gazanga part is not a known word, but implies, in the
context of the tape, the demise of the victim.
Ezra Nawi and his Arab associate, B’Tselem activist Nasser Nawaj’ah,
from the village of Yatta, are left-wing stars, who have been part of
the anti-settlement movement for decades. This is why the Israeli left,
before and immediately following the broadcast Thursday night, began a
campaign in their defense.
The left has praised Nawi and Nawaj’ah to high heaven over the years,
including accolades from linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist,
historian, logician, social critic, and political activist Noam Chomsky;
author, social activist, and filmmaker Naomi Klein; Ben-Gurion
University Prof. Niv Gordon; and Meretz Chairperson MK Zehava Galon.
They will not allow for these two folk hero activists to gain a new
renown as agents of death.
B’Tselem accused the show of legitimizing what was, essentially, a
right-wing operation. In that sense, the fact that journalist Dayan
described sending to their certain death Arabs whose only sin is wanting
to sell land to Jews, appears from B’Tselem’s point of view like her
embracing of the “occupation.” Gideon Levy told Dayan on air that “If
that’s all that those plants discovered, it’s a badge of honor for the
human rights organizations.”
...
Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Betzalel Smotrich said “what we’ve watched
tonight is the loss of a moral compass, a betrayal of the State of
Israel and an injury to life under the guise of defending human rights.
This phenomenon is not an invention of Ezra Nawi, unfortunately it is
typical of many of the extremist left wing organizations which are
concealing an extremist political agenda under the cover of human
rights.”
The report’s editor, Ami Assenheim, told Makor Rishon about the
process that preceded the screening: “Nawi is not alone,” he said. “You
see a mix of left-wing activists from other places. Nawi collaborates
with another Jewish activist in Ta’ayush. These are not the actions of a
single individual in a single organization. You see people conspiring
to turn in a land broker to the Preventive Security Force (PSF), knowing
what would be the fate of people like him. They were very embarrassed
when we called them up for a response. There were long silences and
phone hang-ups.”
Nawi himself accused the report of being an effort to sabotage his
heroic work on behalf of the Palestinian population in the southern
Hebron Mountain. “I wasn’t the one trapping the land broker, the
opposite is true,” he said. Nasser Nawaj’ah also denied his role as it
was described in the report, but not quite with the same level of
self-righteousness.
A couple of comments. The timing of this show's release is probably not accidental. As I have noted previously, the Knesset is currently considering a bill to expose foreign government funding of 'NGO's. This show could well advance that bill.
The comments by the Right wing infiltrators at the end were particularly notable. They said that they actually feel sorry for the ordinary 'Palestinians' who are being used not only by their own 'leadership,' but also by organizations that purport to protect their human rights. In other words, the Israeli Right is far more humane to 'Palestinians' than are the 'human rights' organizations.
Sadly, this story is unlikely to get a lot of publicity outside of Israel. But that shouldn't stop us from trying.
In an editorial in Sunday's editions, the Washington Post blasts a bill proposed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) which would force disclosure of foreign government funding of Israeli NGO's.
The proposed law, introduced by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, was
approved by a cabinet committee Dec. 27 and sent to the Knesset, where
it faces additional debate and votes. It would apply to those
organizations that receive more than half their funding from “foreign government entities.”
The groups would be required to identify themselves as principally
funded from overseas in any public communications and in interactions
with government officials, and they would have to list the sources of
funding in reports. Members of the groups would also be required to wear
a special badge when present in the Knesset, with their name and the
name of the NGO. This is now a requirement of lobbyists. Violations could result in stiff fines.
Apparently the Post has never heard of a US law called the Foreign Agents Registration Act. This was lifted from a Facebook page.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was enacted in 1938. FARA is a
disclosure statute that requires persons acting as agents of foreign
principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic
public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as
well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those
activities. Disclosure of the required information facilitates
evaluation by the government and the American people of the statements
and activities of such persons in light of their function as foreign
agents. The FARA Registration Unit of the Counterintelligence and Export
Control Section (CES) in the National Security Division (NSD) is
responsible for the administration and enforcement of the Act.
Most of the groups that would be forced to register in Israel are Leftist groups which are funded by foreign governments. The Post itself notes that most Rightist groups will not be affected because their foreign funding comes mostly from individuals.
The Post blinds itself to the difference between the pernicious influence of a foreign government which acts out of its own self-interest and those of an individual who in any event is unlikely to be an actor in foreign relations. Hopefully Israel's Knesset will be smart enough to ignore the Post and see the difference - just like Congress did nearly 80 years ago.
The bill is definitely not a danger to Israeli democracy.
Israeli MK's details among those dumped by Ashley Madison hackers
For those of you living in caves, several weeks ago, hackers got into the website of Ashley Madison, a site that facilitates married people having affairs. The hackers threatened to expose the names, addresses and bank account numbers of the site's registered users if the site did not shut down. The site, on the verge of an initial public offering, did not shut down and hoped to find the hackers. Too late. Today, the site's users were exposed. One of them is an Israeli MK (more details about him at the end of this post).
Hackers dumped online personal details of more than a million users of infidelity website AshleyMadison.com – including that of an Israeli Knesset member, according to reports.
The MK told Israeli media that he intends to file a police complaint over identity theft.
After threatening to release salacious details on as many as 37 million customers of the website, which uses the slogan "Life is short. Have an affair," hackers claimed to publish a huge cache of email addresses and credit card data stolen in July.
Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the authenticity of the posting. Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison and Established Men, widely described as a "sugar daddy site," did not verify the data was real, but said it was aware of the claim.
...
It is possible to create an Ashley Madison account using someone else's name and email.
So who's the MK? Well, he's also a polygamist already... and he's an 'Israeli Arab.'
The official Knesset e-mail address of Joint List MK Taleb Abu Arar, a
bigamist, was found to have registered for Ashley Madison, a dating
website for people who want to cheat on their spouses, when hackers
released about 36 million members’ e-mail addresses.
According to
the hack, Abu Arar not only registered for the infidelity site, he
confirmed his e-mail address. That extra step is not necessary in order
to join Ashley Madison, but the hack indicates that 24 million of the
e-mail addresses released were confirmed.
Abu Arar denied having any connection to the website and said he plans to file a complaint to the police.
“Someone
signed up with my e-mail address in order to sully my good name,” he
said, calling for Ashley Madison to reveal the source of the
registration.
Knesset e-mail addresses can be accessed by MKs
and their aides on the Knesset’s secure computers, or via an encrypted
connection from computers outside the Knesset, and with a code on the
MKs’ and aides’ phones.
Unlike the average hacked Ashley Madison
user, Abu Arar will have to explain his presence on the infidelity
site to not one wife, but two. The second wife is by a common-law
marriage, in order not to break the law against bigamy. Abu Arar, who is
Beduin, has a combined 10 children from both of them.
The first wife didn't exactly agree to the second one. Let's go to the videotape (sorry - Hebrew only - Hat Tip: Lahav Harkov).
Likud MK Benny Begin is a rarity in Israeli politics: an honest politician. It's a sad commentary on both Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government's prospects for survival that Netanyahu has in essence forced Begin to resign from the government.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Facebook post Friday that
while he would “make every effort to incorporate MK Benny Begin into
the cabinet later,” Likud’s coalition partners had objected to changing
the agreed-on number of portfolios per faction, making it impossible to
keep both Begin and Erdan.
Netanyahu’s Facebook post seemingly left Begin no choice but to announce his resignation from the cabinet.
“Over the past few days I have turned to my friends
and partners, the heads of the coalition, with a personal request to
leave our friend, Benny Begin, as an additional Likud minister in the
government,” Netanyahu wrote. However, the coalition partners would not
permit the number of ministers per faction to change and allow Likud to
have 13 ministers.
Netanyahu, who effusively praised Begin in the post,
also wrote that “there is not a shred of truth to the claim that he
[Begin] said he would refuse to resign from the cabinet.”
...
Begin was first appointed minister without portfolio, while Erdan,
who was number two on the Likud Knesset list, remained outside the
cabinet after turning down an offer to become public security minister.
Erdan wanted the Foreign Ministry portfolio, which Netanyahu insists on
holding himself, or a ministerial portfolio that included elements of
both the interior and public security ministries.
When Erdan’s demands were not met, he refused to
join the cabinet. However, last week Erdan agreed to become minister of
public security, strategic affairs and public diplomacy.
Erdan’s appointment angered his fellow party member
MK Zeev Elkin, who was initially given the strategic affairs portfolio
along with immigrant absorption. He then demanded to be made Jerusalem
affairs minister and threatened that, otherwise, he would absent himself
from Knesset votes, which could put the coalition at risk considering
its razor-thin majority (61-59).
Netanyahu subsequently had to break his
commitment to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat that the Jerusalem Affairs
Ministry would be abolished and its powers absorbed into the Prime
Minister’s Office.
One MK having a temper tantrum is enough to bring down this government. Anyone want to take bets on how long it will last?
UPDATE 3:57 PM
Get a load of these two tweets from JPost Knesset correspondent Lahav Harkov.
It's not that surprising that Begin would have resigned and not told anyone, since he refuses to hire a spokesperson.
Hmmm.... Lapid: We won't recommend Left form next government
לפיד טוען שדבריו הוצאו מהקשרם אך הקלטת הראיון למקור ראשון מוכיחה שהוא אכן אמר: ״לא תמצאו אותי ממליץ על השמאל״, ובוזי זה שמאל?, שאלנו. "כן״
— חגי סגל (@haggai_segal) February 26, 2015
For the Hebrew impaired, the tweet above from Makor Rishon columnist Haggai Segal says "[Yesh Atid party leader Yair] Lapid claims that his words were taken out of context, but the recording of the interview with Makor Rishon proves that he said 'you won't find me recommending [that] the Left [form the next government].' 'And Buzi [Herzog] is the Left,' we asked. 'Yes.'
The way Israel's government works is that after the elections, the President calls in the leader of each party and asks who should be given the first opportunity to try to form a government. The President then charges the leader of the party who seems most likely to succeed to form a coalition. That's why sometimes, even if a party has the most votes, it will not be asked to form the government.
With Yair Lapid out as finance minister, the Knesset Finance Committee has released funding to the Jewish towns and villages in Judea and Samaria. Lapid, who was holding up the money, is furious, and has labeled the release 'bribery.' (He didn't really think he was going to get any votes from the 'settlers,' did he?
Yesh Atid is outraged at the request of Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu to transfer additional funds via the Finance Committee to
regional councils in Judea-Samaria, the party said in a statement on
Monday.
"This is an election bribery - this is an inappropriate course of
action in a democratic state," the party stated, asking the Knesset's
Legal Advisory to intervene over the issue.
Budgetary transfers to the regional councils had been frozen for months
by Finance Minister and Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, who was sacked
from his ministerial position last week and whose party left the
coalition in a dramatic political move.
Lapid's dismissal has finally paved the way for tens of cash-strapped
communities in the region to receive their funds, leaving leftists
livid.
But the issue is not the only budgetary transfer finally on the table
with Lapid's dismissal; the Finance Committee is expected to make
decisions on dozens of requests for government funding Monday in Lapid's
wake.
Rumor has it that the man behind the transfers is that 'settler' lover, Moshe 'Boogie' Yaalon.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon may be easing up on his own crackdown
on Judea and Samaria, it was revealed Monday, after leaks from closed
conversations Ya'alon had with unnamed officials indicated his support
for lifting a freeze on funds to Judea-Samaria regional councils.
"Our goal should be the immediate release of funds for the
development of settlements in Judea and Samaria, and I am working to do
this," Ya'alon allegedly stated. "These funds former Finance Minister
Yair Lapid held for political reasons, and now they [the Knesset - ed.]
have to release these funds."
Ya'alon's statements surfaced just as the Knesset Finance Committee announced that funds for Judea-Samaria regional councils had been unfrozen, after months of an on-and-off freeze instituted by Lapid for political purposes.
...
The report, if true, also shows a sharp reversal in Ya'alon's policies thus far. The Defense Minister has been personally behind the continuation of a military seizure of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva [Torah academy - ed.] and froze funds for a project to build new housing for IDF soldiers over 1949 Armistice lines just last week.
Interior Minister Gidon Sa'ar (Likud) told the committee that he
supports legislation that would enable the Knesset to veto court rulings
that knock down the Knesset's law - like the decisions that
disqualified the Infiltrators Law, twice.
In response, Deputy AG Dina Zilber said that AG Yehuda Weinstein will oppose such legislation.
In Israel, the Attorney General doubles as the Legal Advisor for the
Government and can basically decide the government's policy on
legislation even if a majority of ministers holds the opposite view.
"It is convenient to go to a court that adopts your views,” Zilber
chided Sa'ar. “But it is not a rubber stamp. In is one of the regime's
most valued assets. It is fine to criticize it, and the court is not
monolithic. The body that gave the court the authority to strike down
laws is the Knesset and therefore, there is no reason to be angry about
it.”
Zilber added that the AG “would not lend his hand to diminishing the authority of the High Court.”
So does this mean that the Knesset can take away from the court the authority to strike down laws? Well, no, because Ms. Zilber is incorrect. The court abrogated that authority to itself (in a case in which I played a small role when I worked in the government nearly 20 years ago) by striking down certain provisions of Israel's 1995 Investment Advisers law, which it said conflicted with the Basic Law - Human Dignity and Freedom. By choosing to invalidate only part of the law (the transition provisions) in an area that was not of great concern to the most of the public (the imposition of a licensing requirement for investment advisers), the court managed to establish the precedent of invalidating laws under the country's radar screen - a power it continues to expand to this day. Now, with the help of the country's Leftist Attorney General, the court is assured that it will not even have to deal with laws that challenge its rulings.
What recourse does the Knesset have? The only recourse I can think of is to replace Weinstein with someone more open when his term expires. Weinstein has a six-year term. There's a long way to go. He took office in 2010....
I've written before about Mohammed Zoabi, who is related to 'Israeli Arab' MK Hanin Zoabi, the traitor who was a passenger on the Mavi Marmara. Mohammed, who is a Muslim Zionist, has put out a video in which he calls the 'Palestinian Authority' the biggest terrorist.
“I am happy to see that Israeli hasbara [public diplomacy] is in such a
dire state that it needs a stupid boy with a twisted identity who
feels a continuous need to apologize to his strong masters,” Haneen
Zoabi told Ynet.
“The Israeli desire to highlight this delusional case shows the state’s
need for legitimacy, even if it comes from a questionable direction.”
Citing an incitement campaign being waged against Mohammad Zoabi in the
wake of the video – including by his lawmaker relative – coalition
chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) wrote a letter to Public Security
Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Likud Beytenu) demanding that he
guarantee the teen’s safety.
Police have arrested three relatives of young Zoabi for threatening him.
MK Hanin Zoabi (United Arab List) argued that the three kidnappers
responsible for the abduction of three teenage yeshiva students are "not
terrorists" on Radio Tel Aviv Tuesday morning, in an inflammatory interview which also saw her denigrate Arab Zionist and distant relative Mohammed Zoabi.
...
MK Zoabi initially denied that she knew the brave teenager well
during Tuesday's radio interview, but then proceeded to insult him based
on what she did know.
"He's from a divorced family," she sniffed. "His mother now lives in Nazareth Illit, where he studies at a Jewish school."
"He's sleazy," she continued. "He's distorted his identity."
Zoabi then claimed that, in her "humble opinion," the kidnappers are not terrorists.
"It is strange that people who are under the Occupation and living
the high life ignore the reality that Israel kidnaps Palestinian Arabs
and jails them every day," she fired.
"They are not terrorists, I do not agree with you! They have seen no
other way to change their reality and they have to resort to these
measures until Israel sobers up a bit and feels the suffering of
others."
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) slammed MK Hanin
Zoabi in a Facebook post Tuesday, after the Israeli Arab MK justified the kidnapping of three yeshiva students by Hamas terrorists.
"Not only are the kidnappers terrorists; Hanin Zoabi is a terrorist," Liberman said.
He called for harsh judgement to be meted upon the MK. "The fate of the kidnappers and the fate of Zoabi, an inciter, should be the same."
...
"Expel her to Gaza and remove her diplomatic immunity," MK Miri Regev
(Likud) stated Tuesday. "This is a betrayal. She identified herself
with terrorists on the Mavi Marmara and now she identifies herself with the Hamas terrorists who kidnapped our three boys."
"I was not surprised to hear this," Regev added, "How can a traitor
like her blame them? She does not belong to us, but to Gaza."
MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) argued that Zoabi's statement breaks all
boundaries, and vowed to work diligently to see Zoabi expelled from the
Knesset permanently.
"Her position on the terrorists is closer to them than to us, she
should be with them instead of in the Israeli Knesset," Yogev said.
Don't hold your breath waiting for her to be expelled. It won't happen.
As of July, we will finally have a President who is more pro-Israel than pro-'Palestinian.' Former Knesset speaker Reuven 'Ruby' Rivlin has been elected Israel's tenth President by the Knesset. He will serve a 7-year term.
Rivlin, who won out in a field of five presidential candidates, will
replace President Shimon Peres in the position when the 90-year-old
steps down on July 27 when his seven year term comes to a close.
Sheetrit and Rivlin went to a second round runoff round after none of
the candidates managed to get a majority 61 votes in the first round of
voting on Tuesday.
Rivlin lead the first round with 44 votes,
followed by Sheetrit with 31 votes, former MK Dalia Itzik with 28 votes,
former Supreme Court justice Dalia Dorner with 13 votes and Nobel
Laureate Dan Shechtman with only one vote.
Rivlin teared up during
a speech to the Likud faction on Monday afternoon, saying "I was born
in the [Likud forebear] Herut Party and I never left it for any
temptation. Tomorrow may be my greatest hour, but it may be an important
time for the whole party, in which one of its sons will become
president of our country."
At the beginning of the faction
meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did not mention the
presidential race of his own volition, simply answering positively when
asked by reporters if he wants to wish Rivlin good luck. Then, the two
awkwardly shook hands.
When photographers asked if Netanyahu wants to express his support for the cameras, he said "I already did."
Rivlin is opposed to the creation of a 'Palestinian state.'
Here's hoping he brings back the President's Conference, which unfortunately is not happening this year.
Knesset coalition chairman writes letter against BDS groups' parade participation
Knesset Coalition Chairman Yariv Levin has written a letter to JCC Watch's Richard Allen opposing the participation of BDS groups in the Celebrate Israel Parade on June 1. The letter is reproduced above.
It would be nice to hear from concrete steps in this regard from Israel's foreign ministry and from its consul general in New York, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
Government passes new election law 67-0, law effectively does away with no-confidence votes
In a vote on the first of three bills that are to be passed between now and Thursday, the Knesset voted 67-0 to enact electoral reform.
I'll come back to the substance of the vote in a minute, but the JPost has accused the Knesset of stifling dissent because the manner in which the bills are being passed. It's important to look at why it's being done this way.
But it seems there is another reason for the government’s haste in
pushing through the three bills before the end of the Knesset winter
session on March 23. The parties making up the coalition are split on
support for the three bills.
Members of the more zealously religious Tekuma faction in Bayit Yehudi
and some other MKs in the party are sympathetic to the haredim and
therefore oppose the use of criminal sanctions against yeshiva students
who refuse to serve in the IDF. Tekuma, which is considering running
on a separate list in the next elections, also opposes the bill to
raise the threshold for getting into the Knesset.
Meanwhile, members of Yesh Atid and Hatnua oppose the referendum bill,
designed to put another obstacle in the way of a government asked to
vote on a territorial compromise with the Palestinians in a peace deal.
And Yisrael Beitenu MKs are disgruntled that the draft law does not
obligate Arab Israelis to perform national service.
To overcome these points of dissent, the heads of all the parties
making up the coalition have been asked to sign a document committing
their MKs to vote in favor of all three bills as a single package deal.
Coalition heads fear that if the votes are delayed until after the
Knesset break is over, the shaky arrangement that was cobbled together
might fall apart and one or more of the bills will not pass.
There is nothing unlawful about this sort of parliamentary wheeling and
dealing. The coalition is permitted to speed up the legislation
process, particularly ahead of a looming deadline like the one facing
the Knesset, in order to pass a bill. Coalition parties regularly
strike quid pro quo deals, where one party agrees to support the
legislation of another party on condition that this support is
reciprocated.
But the conflation of both of these tactics is a bit much, particularly
when the bills up for discussion are so controversial and when their
passage is far from time sensitive.
For the first bill, at least, the coalition held. But then, you wouldn't think it would be so controversial to raise the threshold for getting into the Knesset from 2% of the vote to 3.25% (minimum three MK's to minimum four MK's), would you? I thought this bill ought to be a slam dunk. Aside from the threshold, it limits the number of cabinet ministers to 18 and the number of deputy ministers to four, and gets rid of the title "Minister without Portfolio." That's all good because ministers cost millions of Shekels. So what's bad in this bill? This:
The new law also requires the opposition to form an alternative
government and appoint an alternate prime minister as a precondition for
submitting no-confidence measures.
The current opposition consists of the left-wing Labor party, the further left-wing Meretz party, the Haredi parties and the Arab parties (who may have a hard time making the threshold unless they unite). What are the odds on those disparate groups reaching an agreement on an 'alternative government'? Given that no Arab party has ever been in the government and that the Haredim and the Left have agreed on very little over the last 35 years, I would say that the odds are quite poor. So essentially, there are no more no-confidence votes.
Given that we vote for parties rather than individuals, the coalition parties will be strengthened by this measure and 'Israeli democracy' will become even more distant from its constituency than it is already.
None of that bothers Avigdor Lieberman. He thinks that the opposition has to humor him by showing up for the vote rather than going on vacation for three days of futility.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday denounced the opposition as
a group of "whiners, post-Zionists, and terrorist representatives" in
response to its decision to boycott the Knesset vote on a bill which
limits the number of government ministers and raises the minimum vote
threshold for parties to win representation in parliament.
Once upon a time, Azmi Bishara was a Knesset member representing an 'Israeli Arab party.' In 2007, Bishara fled Israel (and resigned from the Knesset) when it was discovered that during the 2006 Second Lebanon War he was helping Hezbullah to target missiles. That's called treason.
For a while thereafter, Bishara continued to receive his pension and other benefits from the Knesset! The Knesset finally revoked those benefits in 2010. Bishara now lives in Qatar, where he is close to the ruling family.
Inspector Tamim was formerly the police chief of Dubai. He made himself famous during the uproar that followed the liquidation of Hamas arms dealer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Tamim has gone a little off the wall lately, and Israel Radio reported in its 9:00 am newscast that Tamim has accused Bishara of being an Israeli agent, and calling for Bishara to be expelled from the Persian Gulf. Here's hoping they get to duel it out over those charges really soon.
One of the results of the lack of individual accountability for Knesset members is that Israel's government usually operates using the method of 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.' Now, we're seeing the opposite, and it's becoming a full-blown war.
Infuriated at Jewish Home's Ayelet Shaked's vote in committee on Wednesday for criminal sanctions against Haredi draft dodgers, Yated Neeman, the mouthpiece of the mainstream Lithuanian Haredi community, does an expose on the budget for 'settlements' in Judea and Samaria (link in Hebrew).
The article claims that the 'settlements' (which presumably does not include the Haredi 'settlements' of Beitar Ilit and Kiryat Sefer) are an economic and security burden.
The article claims that budgets are passed through hidden methods for 'isolated settlements' and for dangerous roads, and that doesn't even take the security costs into account. According to Moshe Gafni, a Haredi MK from the United Torah Judaism party and the former chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, "the reality in which a company of soldiers [100-200 soldiers] guards one and a half 'settlers' at fantastical expense is a set way of operating."
"We're talking about the most sectoral group in the country," said Gafni. "They worry about themselves without end, and add paragraphs and sub-paragraphs [into the budget] that bring them billions."
The line beneath the headline reads:
So long as we are paying in the hard currency of damaging the Haredi yeshiva world - will their partners in Yesh Atid ask them 'where is the money'?
The article claims that in 2011, the number of 'settlers' increased by 5% while the government's cost of maintaining them increased by 38%.
The article is one of three in Yated this Friday against the 'settlers' and it says that it's the first in a series.
During the debate over drafting Haredim, Gafni warned that he had information that would show how much the government spends on 'settlers' - a contingency of the Jewish Home party, and that he would release it if Jewish Home was instrumental in bringing about criminal sanctions for Haredi draft dodgers.
'You scratch my back, I scratch yours. You kick my shins, I kick yours.' Sounds a lot like the period of the destruction of the Second Temple (which was destroyed due to baseless hatred). And no, that's not meant to exclude Jewish Home's actions on the draft from the definition of 'baseless hatred' either.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
