Wow: Jewish Home MK disses Obama
For the Hebrew impaired, the tweet above is from a Knesset Channel (like CSpan in the US) interview with MK Ayelet Shaked, number 2 on the Jewish Home party list and a likely minister in the next Netanyahu government. She says "Just like I don't decide who Obama's ministers are, he shouldn't decide for us. And they also should not be interfering in construction in Judea and Samaria."
She's obviously trying to tell Obama that Israel is a democracy, that the people have spoken, and that it's not his place to interfere.
Somehow, I don't think that message is going to be treated fondly on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.
Labels: Ayelet Shaked, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem construction, Jewish Home party, Judea and Samaria construction, Knesset elections 2015
Israelis to Obama: 'The hell you'll tell us whom to vote for'
President Hussein Obama's efforts to influence Israel's upcoming election may be backfiring. This is Anshel Pfeffer, one of Haaretz's more Leftist writers.
Haaretz - for those who have forgotten - is Israel's Hebrew 'Palestinian' daily, probably the most Leftist rag among Israel's better known Leftist rags. (By the way, only about 5% of Israelis read Haaretz - they have a much wider audience among the elites in the US and Europe).
Here's the
weepy news about the latest polls.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud would win 25 seats and the Labor Camp would secure only 23 if elections were held today, a new poll conducted by Haaretz-Dialog found on Monday.
The poll, which was conducted under the supervision
of Professor Camil Fuchs with a representative sample of 514
respondents, showed Netanyahu gaining three more seats than what his
party was predicted to win in the last poll conducted in January. The
margin of error in the poll was 4.2 percent.
Naftali Bennett's Habayit Hayehudi weakened in this poll to receive 14 seats, compared to 16 in the last survey.
The Joint List (Hadash and Arab parties) strengthened, predicted to win
12 seats, while Yesh Atid weakened from 12 to nine seats.
Kulanu and United Torah Judaism were both slated
for eight seats, while Yisrael Beiteinu and Shas were predicted to
receive six seats. Respondents gave Meretz five seats and Yachad was
predicted to get four.
That would put the Right at 25+14+8+6+6+4 = 63, the Left at 23+9+5 = 37, the Arabs (who have never been in any coalition at 12 and Kulanu (which really could go either way) at 8.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jewish Home party, Knesset elections 2015, Labor party, Likud party, Meretz, Shas, Tzipi Livni, United Torah Judaism party, V-2015, Yesh Atid party, Yitzchak Herzog
Tzipi and Buzi sing something stupid
With apologies to the Hebrew-impaired, this was too good not to share.
Let's go to the videotape.
Heh.
Labels: Balad, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jewish Home party, Knesset elections 2015, Labor party, Likud party, Meretz, Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni, Yitzchak Herzog
Israel to hold elections on March 17
Prime Minister
Netanyahu fired Ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni on Tuesday, effectively bringing about the government's fall. It's been less than 21 months since the last election.
One reason he felt comfortable doing this is the tweet above. Lapid's party (which currently has 19 seats) will be cut in half, while I've seen polls that indicate that Livni's party will disappear.
The likely beneficiary of the move is the Jewish Home party leader,
Naftali Bennett.
Bennett stands to gain because, according to every single poll, his
party is the only one that can be expected to grow by 50% or more in the
ballots. Presently, Jewish Home has 12 MKs. The polls predict 17, 19,
maybe more. These numbers are commensurate with those Bennett had in the
polls in late 2012, before an extremely hurtful – and self-injuring –
Likud election campaign reduced his public support.
Bennett is now the likely candidate for minister of defense, come
April. Since defense is Bennett's forte – although finances are
certainly not a point of weakness for the all-Israeli hi-tech superstar
economics minister – this is without a doubt the position he is angling
for. The public is not ready for Bennett as prime minister, and people
close to him, like Minister Uri Orbach, say so too. But a successful and
dominant defense minister who brings security back to the Israeli
streets, and possibly spearheads a strike on Iran's nuclear industry,
later in his term, is a shoo-in to replace Binyamin Netanyahu at the
country's helm, when the time comes.
Leaks from Netanyahu and Bennett's immediate surroundings confirm
that Bennett has been talking to Netanyahu about the position of defense
minister, post-elections, and that Netanyahu has come to accept that
Bennett will be his most senior partner in the next government. Bennett
confirmed as much – most likely intentionally – when he scolded Minister Uri Ariel
the other day, and told him that his insistence on taking up more space
on the Jewish Home list than Bennett is willing to give him will cost
the party the defense minister's position.
For more analysis of Bennett's moves,
read the whole thing.
Others who may benefit from the March 17 elections (which were agreed upon by party heads on Wednesday morning - the government should officially fall on Wednesday afternoon) are the
Haredi parties.
Primaries will be held in Likud and Jewish Home in early
January, with votes on the head of the Likud on January 6 and similar
votes for leadership of Jewish Home the day before.
Hareidi MK Menachem Eliezer Moses (United Torah Judaism) spoke about
the recent polls that indicate Netanyahu will need the hareidi parties
in order to form a new coalition, saying "according to the polls we see
that without the hareidim it's impossible to move, no?"
Netanyahu accused Lapid the night before of trying to form an
alternate coalition to replace him with the hareidim, even as Lapid
denied siding with the hareidim in pubic statements. Netanyahu likewise
denied reports he had sought out a coalition with the hareidim.
The election's timing is likely to help the Haredim. It occurs on the Tuesday before the end of the winter semester in Yeshivas and Kollelim (the semester ends on Thursday the 19th in most of them). That means the final run-up to the election won't interfere too much with studies, while the vote will take place before many of the scholars leave for the Passover holiday. Hmmm.
For those who are wondering about my relative silence over the last couple of days, I have been busy earning a living this week....
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haredim, Jewish Home party, Knesset elections 2015, Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid
Will Yair Lapid's Sabbath press conference become the excuse to undo the coalition?
No one is fooling himself that Yair Lapid is a Sabbath observer. But the Israeli government nominally observes the Sabbath. And when the Finance Minister calls a press conference on the Sabbath to announce that there will soon be a solution to the 'budget crisis' (not exactly a matter of life and death that would permit desecrating the Sabbath), it could lead to the undoing of
Lapid's agreement with the Jewish Home party and
the end of the current coalition.
It should be noted that in December 1976, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin broke apart his coalition with the Mafdal religious Zionist party
over tensions, after an IAF ceremony at an airbase welcoming the
arrival of the first three F-15 fighter jets to Israel desecrated the
Sabbath.
Jewish Home, the offshoot of Mafdal, has yet to issue a response to
Lapid's Shabbat gaff, which comes mere days before the Jewish New Year
(Rosh Hashana) on Wednesday.
However, Jewish Home MK Shuli Muallem hinted that Lapid's move may
indeed cost the coalition, saying on Saturday "Yair Lapid has the right
to do as he pleases in his private home - to cut down trees or pump
water (forbidden acts on Sabbath - ed.) - but Yair Lapid works on
Shabbat and desecrates the day of rest with the goal of gathering a few
lost mandates."
"Jewish Home as a religious party in the coalition can not sit in the
government with someone who gathers mandates and desecrates the Sabbath
as if it's a normal work day," said Muallem, without elaborating on
what exactly her statement will mean in terms of practice.
Surprisingly, the criticism of Lapid didn't just come from the Right.
Surprisingly far-left Meretz party chairperson Zehava Galon joined the criticism of Lapid on Saturday.
"While you were enjoying your day of rest, Finance Minister
Yair Lapid decided to drag all the financial journalists from their
homes in the middle of Shabbat, inviting them to park at the entrance to
his house in Tel Aviv so that they could hear him read off a
thoughtless announcement," charged Galon.
"The reading took exactly a minute-and-a-half, but it certainly was
enough to destroy the Shabbat of the camermen and journalists forced to
arrive to hear the utterances of his excellency the finance minister,"
added Galon tongue-in-cheek, noting the "unfairness" towards Sabbath
observant journalists wasn't the only problem about his "futile
announcements" on Shabbat.
Hmmm.
Labels: Jewish Home party, Sabbath observance, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid party, Zehava Gal-On
It may have been a rocket - will the IDF respond?
It is now being reported that what was fired from Gaza on Israel around 6:30 this evening was
a rocket and not a mortar.
There have been mixed reports on the precise nature of the projectile fired, with Channel 10 saying
the attack was a mortar shell as opposed to a rocket; likewise, IDF
spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner labeled it a mortar shell on the
IDF's official Twitter feed. However, nearly all other major Israeli media sources have identified it as a rocket attack.
As is usually the case outside of an official operation, Hamas is claiming that it did not do it.
The Hamas terrorist organization claimed Tuesday night that it had
nothing to do with the rocket attack, saying it remains committed to the
ceasefire. Hamas breached numerous ceasefires during Operation
Protective Edge, as well as over the course of recent years.
"The Palestinian factions are committed to the truce," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "We want it to continue."
He questioned whether the attack as reported by Israel had in fact
taken place. "There is no evidence that there was mortar fire from the
Gaza Strip," he said.
Yeah, right....
Politicians on the right say Israel must respond in order to avoid a deterioration in the situation.
MK Danny Danon (Likud) spoke out after the attack, saying "we must
not compromise with terror, we should have subdued Hamas during
Operation Protective Edge because terror doesn't change its face."
"Now we must respond with strength in response to the fire for the
sake of deterrence and for the sake of the faith residents of the south
gave to the leadership which said there will be quiet for a long time,"
stated Danon.
The former deputy defense minister, who has been critical of
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over his management of the operation,
added "only 21 days have past and we're returning to the trickle of
terror from the Gaza Belt. Self-restraint now signals acceptance of the
situation."
The attack came hours after Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon predicted that Hamas would not renew its terror attacks on Israel on September 25 if an agreement - which appears unlikely - is not in place. Hmmm.
In the meantime, Yaalon is being slammed by MK's from the Jewish Home party for dismissing an IDF officer - alleged to be former IDF chief rabbi
Avichai Ronsky - for leaking information to Jewish Home party leader
Naftali Bennett.
"Hamas fired a multi-rocket salvo in honor of the agreement to reconstruct Gaza.
But the defense minister is busy hazing (former IDF Chief) Rabbi
(Avichai) Ronski and slandering Minister Bennett," wrote [Jewish Home party MK Orit] Struk, noting a
dispute over information Bennett reportedly used to attack top IDF
brass in Security Cabinet meetings.
While Ronski was identified in reports as being the suspected source of the leaks who was later dismissed, he told Arutz Sheva on
Tuesday that he did not pass any materials to Bennett, has not heard
anything of the dismissal - and indeed still is scheduled to perform
reserve duty next month.
Not responding to this rocket fire from Gaza would be a terrible mistake and would invite a creeping escalation of the rocket fire from Gaza - as has happened after the end of every other operation. Will the government authorize the IDF to respond? I would guess that we will know the answer to that question before the sun is up in Israel on Wednesday morning - about seven hours from now.
Labels: cease fire, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas rockets, IDF, Jewish Home party, mortar shells, Moshe Yaalon, Naftali Bennett, Operation Protective Edge
Obama may yet long for the current Netanyahu government
As much as President Hussein Obama may loathe Prime Minister Netanyahu and his current government, one day soon Obama may actually look back on it nostalgically.
There's a new poll out, and while it shows that Netanyahu would likely remain Prime Minister if he chose to call elections today, he would do so with a much more Right leaning government. While today, the Right and religious parties hold 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats, this poll indicates that
they would hold 70 were elections to be held today.
The poll gives Likud 28 seats (up from 19), the Jewish Home 19 (up
from 12), Yisrael Beytenu 9 (down from 12), Shas 7 (down from 11),
United Torah Judaism (UTJ) is unchanged at 7.
All in all, the nationalist-religious bloc is at 70 seats – up 9 from
its current 61 seats, which gives it a bare majority in the Knesset.
Also in the poll, Yesh Atid is clipped down to 11 seats from the
current 19, Hatnua is at 4 seats, down from the current six, Meretz has
10 (up from 6) and Labor remains at 15. Kadima is wiped off the
political map.
Israelis continue to favor Binyamin Netanyahu for prime minister.
Thirty percent see him as the politician best suited for the role.
Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett is in second place with 16%. Labor
head Yitzchak Herzog has 11%, whereas ministers Avigdor Liberman and
Tzipi Livni each enjoy 6% support. Yair Lapid is at a meager 3%, along
with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon.
The Jewish Home party has finished in second place in five of the
six polls conducted since the start of Operation Protective Edge
(Dialog, Smith, Midgam and Panels).
We're going to see a much more hostile Obama after November. This is only going to get worse. Today (the missile shipment hold-up) was just the opening shot across the bow.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli polls, Jewish Home party, Likud party, Naftali Bennett, Yesh Atid party
An alliance born in sin is coming to an end
The alliance between the Yesh Atid and Jewish Home parties, which was always and solely about trying to
bring about the demise of Haredi Judaism in Israel (the only thing on which they ever agreed), appears to be coming to an end. Here are some
choice quotes.
“Yesh Atid doesn’t have an alliance with the Bayit Yehudi,” Peri said on Channel 2’s Meet the Press.
Peri blasted Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s party over its stances on negotiations with the Palestinians.
“There
is an abyss between Yesh Atid and the Bayit Yehudi, which has made
delusional proposals and tried to sabotage negotiations, on both
diplomatic issues and religion and state,” Peri said.
The two
parties formed an alliance before the coalition was formed last year,
forcing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s hand into including both of
them in his government. The party’s chairmen, Yair Lapid and Bennett,
formed a close partnership at the time, leading them to be nicknamed
“brothers,” but it deteriorated over differences in opinion on
religious and diplomatic affairs.
Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman
Ayelet Shaked said that “every Saturday on Meet the Press another
left-wing minister attacks Bayit Yehudi."
“You know what it’s
like to build a career on having a partner for peace [in the
Palestinians] and then the partner runs away? It’s tough for them.
Maybe they need a Plan B,” she quipped.
Similarly, a Bayit Yehudi spokesman said “the Left should try to keep its cool even when it’s in crisis.”
Meanwhile, the Leftist parties in opposition are urging Yesh Atid and the Tzipi Livni party to withdraw. And they also had some
choice words for Netanyahu.
Opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog (Labor) on Saturday night
launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his
coalition, blaming them for the collapse of the peace talks with the
Palestinian Authority (PA).
In a post on his Facebook page, Herzog called on Netanyahu to
“initiate a comprehensive and courageous offer” to PA Chairman Mahmoud
Abbas.
"In recent days, I spoke with the Prime Minister, with Abbas, with
[American mediator] Martin Indyk and others, and my impression is that
the situation is volatile and very sensitive and we must not take
irreversible and potentially harmful steps,” he wrote.
Herzog attacked Netanyahu and wrote that the Israeli government is a
"government that is dragged and not a government that takes an
initiative. Netanyahu has no plan. He does not know where Israel will be
a decade from now.”
He called on the Prime Minister to place on the table "a
comprehensive and courageous offer that will win international support,
while insisting that the Palestinian government that will be formed
recognize Israel and meet the conditions of the international
community.”
Elections in September? I'd bet on it. Heh.
Labels: Ayelet Shaked, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jewish Home party, Middle East peace process, Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid party
Oh my: Food fight in the coalition
Yesh Atid's Yaakov Perri is accusing Jewish Home's Naftali Bennett and Uri Ariel of '
killing peace' in what could be the beginning of a reshuffling of the coalition.
The pact
between Jewish Home and Yesh Atid, by which neither agreed to enter
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition government last year
without the other, is over according to Perry, who spoke on Mako's TV show "Meet the Press."
"In recent months there's a gaping chasm in national topics and
topics of religion and state" between the two parties, remarked Perry.
That seemingly was less the case as recently as last December, when Bennett voted for a Yesh Atid law to give same sex couples equal tax breaks while the rest of his party abstained, after a compromise removed
official recognition of such couples in the wording, saving Jewish Home
from being perceived as supporting same sex couples.
The Yesh Atid minister hinting at the possibility that his party would leave following the collapse of talks,
saying sharply "neither Bennett nor Ariel - with all of their
hallucinatory and sabotaging statements - will decide if we sit in the
government."
Netanyahu might want to go into a coalition with the Left, but I doubt that his own party will let him. Unlike Sharon, Netanyahu does not have the support from his MK's to govern using a new party, and would likely have to go to new elections to try to do so.
In the meantime, Jewish Home, which has kept relatively quiet since the 'talks' collapsed, is telling the Left to calm down.
In response to Perry's caustic comments, Jewish Home fired back only a
short reply, saying "the left needs to keep self-restraint even in
times of distress."
Bennett reportedly gave members of his Jewish Home party orders not to soften their tone towards Justice Minister Tzipi Livni following the deal so as not to drive her from the coalition, saying "it's
important not to celebrate too much, and to leave the platform for
explaining the decision to (Finance Minister Yair) Lapid and Livni -
they'll do that excellently."
Actually, he gave orders TO soften their tone. Faster, faster....
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, Jewish Home party, Middle East peace process, Naftali Bennett, Uri Ariel, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid party
His bark is louder than his bite
Renegade Likud MK Moshe Feiglin predicts that Jewish Home party MK Naftali Bennett will
find a way to fold and stay in the government despite a decision to release 'Israeli Arab' terrorists.
“I don't want to prophesy about the future,” Feiglin told Arutz Sheva
in an interview. But he expected that a compromise wording would be
found, which would satisfy the Palestinian Authority (PA) and allow the
release of terrorists, including Israeli Arabs, while enabling Jewish
Home, led by Bennett, to remain in the government.
...
Last week, Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett
announced that his party will leave the coalition if Israel agrees to
release Israeli-Arab terrorists as part of a framework agreement to
extend peace talks with the PA. But Feiglin said he doubted this would
be the case. Feiglin said that he had raised the issue with Jewish Home
already in the first round of prisoner releases, impressing upon Bennett
and his fellow party MKs how unjust releasing terrorists was.
At least now, Feiglin said, the party had woken
up to his message, and was at least publicly agreeing with him that the
prisoner release was immoral and should not take place.
“The release of terrorists is a moral injustice
that must opposed in any way possible,” said Feiglin. “I don't see any
difference in their being Israeli or not. Just the opposite, with the
Palestinian Authority demanding that they be released, we see who these
Israeli Arabs really affiliate with.”
Priorities man, priorities!
Labels: Israeli Arab, Jewish Home party, Moshe Feiglin, Naftali Bennett, Palestinian terrorists
Jewish Home to quit government?
Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett is
threatening to quit the government (and take his party with him) in the event that it approves the release of hundreds of terrorists - including 'Israeli Arabs' - and a 'settlement freeze' in exchange for continuing 'talks' and the release of Jonathan Pollard.
"Israel has been facing a new situation in recent days with the
Palestinian appeal to the UN which flagrantly violated all the
agreements with them since the Oslo Accords until today,” said Bennett.
“The emerging deal, if it includes the release of murderers with
Israeli citizenship, harms Israeli sovereignty, and not only that - it
is done being when the Palestinians have not cancelled their requests to
join international organizations,” he added.
"Therefore, if a proposal for release of Israeli murderers comes
before the Cabinet, the Jewish Home will oppose it,” Bennett declared.
“If the proposal will pass - the Jewish Home will resign from the
government, which frees murderers with Israeli citizenship. Enough is
enough.
“On this evening of Passover, it is important to remember that we
went from slavery to freedom so we that we can have an Israeli legal
system which will protect the citizens of Israel - not a system that is
being blackmailed by a gang of terrorists and which releases murderers,”
said Bennett. “This is an act of extortion and surrender to terrorism
which we cannot accept.
“I wish the citizens of Israel a Happy Passover, and I hope that our
brother Jonathan Pollard will be released soon, but not in the immoral
way that is this currently being suggested,” he concluded.
The Jerusalem Post reported last week that
Bennett had issued similar threats to Netanyahu then but had purposely confined them to private conversations with the prime minister. When
talks became more serious on Thursday, Bennett upgraded his threat to a public warning.
Anonymous 'Likud officials' are telling Bennett to
go right ahead and leave.
"We are not keeping anybody in the government by force," the officials declared.
"This is a well-known method used by Bennett: to make threats when it
is clear to him that they are false threats that will not come to
fruition," they added.
But other Likud officials, who were speaking on the record, had
a very different take.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin warned Netanyahu on Thursday not
to return to a diplomatic deal that would involve the mass release of
terrorist murderers and restraining construction in Judea and Samaria,
if the Palestinians did not withdraw their petitions to join UN bodies.
Signing
such a deal under the current conditions could cause political shock
waves and lead to elections, the deputy minister said.
Elkin thus
became the first high-ranking Likud politician to warn of early
elections, four days after Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman
spoke at Sunday’s Jerusalem Post Conference in New York about the possibility of Israel going to the polls.
“Returning
to the deal would project weakness and give the Palestinians a reward
for their stubbornness,” Elkin said. “It would result in them attacking
Israel internationally even more. We cannot turn the other cheek when
they spit at us in the face. Surrendering to Palestinian hostility has
only brought upon us disasters.”
Deputy Defense Minister Danny
Danon (Likud) said he intends to resign from his post if a diplomatic
arrangement to extend the talks with the Palestinians is reached. But
other politicians are not expected to follow suit, because the deal
would be softened by the inclusion of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard.
According to a new poll, the Likud would gain in new elections... but so would
Jewish Home.
The Dialogue Institute survey, published in Friday morning's Haaretz,
shows that Jewish Home would tie with Labor as the second-biggest party
in the Israeli government, in the event that elections were held
today.
Likud-Beytenu would receive 37 seats - compared to 32 in a previous
poll, the survey reveals. Meanwhile Jewish Home would receive 15, as
opposed to 12 in the last poll. Likewise Labor would receive 15 seats,
down from 16 in the last poll.
Yesh Atid would remain stable from the last poll at 14 seats, and
both Shas and Meretz would drop a seat from the previous poll, from 10
to 9. United Torah Judaism would gain an extra seat, for a total of 7,
Hatnua would lose two seats and have only 3, instead of 5 in the last
poll, and Kadima would not pass the threshold.
All of the Arab parties would retain their previous projected number of seats: Raam-Taal - 5, Hadash - 4, and Balad - 3.
Yes, but if these were the results, Likud, Labor and Yesh Atid could make a coalition without anyone else (assuming that Likud's MK's were willing to stay on board)....
As for American hostage Jonathan Pollard, yes, he could be released over the weekend.
Well-placed sources involved in efforts to bring about Pollard’s
release said they were cautiously optimistic about the diplomatic
developments and were hoping to welcome him home to Jerusalem. His
medical condition required him to leave prison and seek urgent medical
care in Israel, they said.
Should Pollard be allowed to fly to
Israel in time for the Passover Seder, the last El Al flight that would
arrive in time departs from New York at 7 p.m. local time on Sunday.
Using a private plane or the government of Israel sending an airplane
are also possibilities.
Hmmm....
I sure hope Bennett doesn't leave the government before the seder. He'd ruin a lot of really good Torah for the seder if he did.... והמבין יבין.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli elections, Jewish Home party, Jonathan Pollard, Likud party, Middle East peace process, Naftali Bennett, Palestinian terrorists, settlement freeze, Yesh Atid party
Jewish Home party to leave coalition?
The JPost is reporting that seven of the Jewish Home party's 12 MK's want to leave the coalition if Israel trades
420 terrorists and a settlement freeze for Jonathan Pollard and prolonged talks.
A Bayit Yehudi party source said Tuesday that seven of the party's 12
MKs think the faction should leave the coalition if the government
agrees to free 400 prisoners, even if Pollard is also freed as party of
the deal.
A right-wing senior minister who was supposed to meet
with Almagor Terror Victims Organization chief Meir Indor on Tuesday
canceled the meeting citing a coalition crisis over the deal as the
reason.
Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel of Bayit Yehudi said on Tuesday
he would oppose any such accord that would see Pollard go free in
exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, telling Army
Radio that Pollard himself was against being part of a prisoner
exchange.
"I was personally told he is against being released in
such a disgraceful deal," said Ariel, arguing that Pollard deserved
unconditional freedom and not to be swapped for Palestinian "murderers."
I doubt that the Jewish Home party will leave the coalition - Bennett and Shaked are too rooted to their government seats to allow that to happen. A faction of MK's - maybe even seven - could break off and form a new party outside the government (I think that's still allowed - you need at least a third of the faction).
But that wouldn't bring down the government. The real question here is how many Likud-Beiteinu MK's - if any - would leave the government over this. There are only two MK's from among the Likud who are on record as favoring a two-state solution: Binyamin Netanyahu and Tzachi HaNegbi. Will the others have the courage to jeopardize their careers by walking out?
Don't hold your breath.
Labels: Ayelet Shaked, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jewish Home party, Jonathan Pollard, Likud party, Naftali Bennett, Palestinian terrorists, settlement freeze
Government nearly falls over conversion spat, then cuts off nose to spite face
The Jewish Home party vented its anger over a bill that would
remove power over conversions from the Chief Rabbinate by having all its non-minister MK's walk out of a no-confidence vote. After the government survived the no-confidence vote by four votes, the coalition chairman removed all of the Jewish Home's bills from the agenda, including party leader Naftali Bennett's bill to
lower food prices.
A Bayit Yehudi spokesman explained that the party's MKs walked out on
Bennett's instructions, after a new article was added to the
controversial conversion bill without the party's prior knowledge.
"The
Bayit Yehudi never learned coalition discipline or commitment to
agreements," Levin said following the walkout. "I will not give in to
extortion."
On Tuesday, a fierce political fight broke out between
Bayit Yehudi and its coalition partners over the bill on reforming the
conversion process, authored by MK Elazar Stern of Hatnua.
The
bill proposes to allow chief municipal rabbis to establish a rabbinical
conversion court in conjunction with one of the centrally appointed
rabbinical conversion judges and any other rabbi ordained by the Chief
Rabbinate.
A senior Bayit Yehudi source said on Tuesday that “if [
Justice Minister Tzipi] Livni was promised that her party’s conversion
bill would pass in exchange for voting for the three major bills
[ultra-Orthodox conscription, electoral reform and referendum on land
concessions], then that was an unfounded promise. We’re sorry someone
made a promise to her, but it’s not our problem.”
The source added that party will vote against the coalition if the Stern conversion bill goes to the plenum.
“A conversion bill will not pass without the support of the Religious Services Ministry,” the source said.
Which paragraph in this bill did the Jewish Home party
not know about?
Labels: Chief Rabbinate, Elazar Stern, Jewish converts, Jewish Home party, Jewish law, Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni
Will the 'Jewish Home' party listen to their rabbis?
Last week, I reported that the quid pro quo for the Tzipi Livni party's support for the three bills that were rammed through the Knesset last week (electoral reform, 'equal burden' and referendum) was that the coalition would support a bill introduced by MK Elazar Stern of the Tzipi Livni party that would essentially
strip the Chief Rabbinate of its power over conversions. At the time, I asked:
Given that the 'Jewish Home' party regards itself as the primary
proponent of the idea that the state institutions of the State of Israel
(qua State) [have] religious significance, is the 'Jewish Home' party
actually going to support this bill?
On Wednesday morning, we got part of the answer. Their rabbis definitely will not support the bill. The 'Jewish Home' party's rabbis met this morning with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef (the son of Rav Ovadiah Yosef zt"l, the founder of the Shas party) and agreed that the Chief Rabbinate will not recognize what it's calling "
Stern's conversions" (link in Hebrew). But the bill passed the legislation committee of the Knesset on Wednesday morning.
Rabbi Yosef said that conversion will continue to be decided only based upon halacha (Jewish law) as determined by the Chief Rabbinate. According to Rabbi Yosef, the Knesset has nothing to say about conversion, and they are fooling people by saying otherwise. The result, should this bill pass, would be the administration of
Sifrei Yuchsin (Lineage Books), without which it would be virtually impossible to marry here.
The rabbis signed a joint declaration saying that they would oppose the law. Tens of amendments, mostly introduced by MK Orit Struck (Jewish Home) were rejected. But Struck and MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) have demanded a revote, and so a revote must take place.
No word yet on how close the vote was in the Knesset legislation committee or who voted for or against - Israel Radio is on strike.
Will the 'Jewish Home' party listen to its rabbis?
UPDATE 1:23 PM
Reader
Romy L points me to this post on Arutz Sheva's website on Tuesday, which claims that the
'Jewish Home' party is opposed.
The religious-Zionist Jewish Home responded by saying that the move
contradicts the Coalition agreement that stipulated that the Conversion
Law would be coordinated with the Chief Rabbis and the Ministry of
Religions. The Jewish Home is threatening to vote against the
Coalition's position in all of the votes that remain to be held in the
Law, Constitution and Justice Committee until the end of the Knesset's
winter session.
The winter session ends next week, however.
A threat to vote against the coalition for a week seems kind of empty.... But how quickly can we introduce a bill to repeal the 'equal burden' law?
Heh.
Labels: Chief Rabbinate, Elazar Stern, Jewish converts, Jewish Home party, Jewish law, Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni
'Jewish Home' party to support bill to strip Chief Rabbinate of powers over conversion?
In an earlier post, I reported on the
pact with the devil made by the main parties in the coalition. Each of Likud/Beiteinu, Yesh Atid and Jewish Home agreed to force every member of its Knesset delegation to support three bills - electoral reform, Haredi draft and referendum. The tactic worked and the last of the bills - the referendum bill -
passed the Knesset on Wednesday.
But there's a fourth party in the coalition - the Tzipi Livni party - which also voted in favor of all three bills. I hope you didn't think they're not getting something too. And indeed they are. The Hebrew daily Maariv is reporting on Thursday that the coalition has agreed to support the Tzipi Livni party's bill to
strip the Chief Rabbinate of its exclusive powers over conversion in Israel.. Et tu Naftali Bennett?
The legislation, put forth by MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua), would allow
city rabbis to conduct conversions, and would allow potential converts
to choose the beit din (rabbinic court) they wish to convert with.
Currently, would-be converts are restricted to conversion via the
rabbinic court in their place of residence.
The bill’s supporters say it will ease the process of conversion to
Judaism while ensuring that state-recognized conversions adhere to the
requirements of halakha (Jewish law). Opponents warn that it could
effectively strip the Chief Rabbinate of its authority
over conversions, and could ultimately lead to rabbis being forced to
accept a definition of Jewishness that contradicts Jewish law.
Stern reportedly received a promise of Coalition support for his
bill, and in exchange, retracted objections he had made to various
clauses in the Enlistment Bill.
Sources in Hatnua and Likud explained, “Hatnua was unhappy that it
was being forced to support three laws, each of which it had some
problems with, without the party getting support for any law associated
with it. That led to the agreement on promoting Stern’s conversion
bill.”
Given
what's currently going on in America over precisely this issue, is this really the direction in which we want to go?
Given that the 'Jewish Home' party regards itself as the primary proponent of the idea that the state institutions of the State of Israel (qua State) has religious significance, is the 'Jewish Home' party actually going to support this bill?
I can name two MK's - one from Jewish Home and one from Likud - who probably won't. Yoni Chetboun from Jewish Home and Moshe Feiglin from Likud. I have to wonder what others will do.
Labels: Chief Rabbinate, Jewish converts, Jewish Home party, Jewish law, Moshe Feiglin, Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni, Yoni Chetboun
Jewish Home party: Voting your conscience is 'immoral'
In an earlier post, I reported on how the coalition parties had signed an agreement that they would produce every last vote in favor of
three bills that are being brought for approval this week. The three bills are electoral reform (already approved), the Haredi draft and the referendum bill.
Now, the whole house of cards may collapse. This evening, Jewish Home MK Yoni Chetboun, who has thus far been a
straight shooter, announced that he will
vote against the Haredi draft bill.
“I will oppose the Enlistment Bill. This bill was born in sin, as part
of a wave of anti-religious legislation aimed at challenging the Jewish
identity of the state,” he declared.
...
On Monday, Chetboun revealed that he, and other MKs with similar views, had made “holes” in the Enlistment Bill
through behind-the-scenes parliamentary work. “What they were hoping
for and the product we brought to the Shaked Committee were completely
different,” he declared.
His Jewish Home colleagues are
furious.
A statement from the Jewish Home faction said that Chetboun agreed to
vote in favor of the bill just one day earlier. “The Jewish Home
decided yesterday in a faction vote to support the Enlistment Bill and
the National Referendum Bill, and MK Chetboun supported that decision
too,” according to the statement.
“Any vote against the faction is immoral, anti-social and
inappropriate,” it continued, adding, “The Jewish Home faction will not
tolerate a blow to the party and its members. This will have serious
consequences.”
Sources with ties to the party informed Arutz Sheva that if Chetboun
follows through on his plan to vote against the bill, the Jewish Home is
expected to force him out of all official Knesset roles, including his
position as Deputy Speaker of the Knesset.
They accused Chetboun of “undermining the hesder yeshivas and the
National Referendum law just because he wants to make headlines.” and
called on him to retract his statement.
Immoral? Voting your conscience is 'immoral'? Voting to prevent an irreparable divide in the nation is 'immoral'? Someone needs to learn a little morality.
Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Jewish Home party, Yoni Chetboun
You kick my shins, I'll kick yours
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.
Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Israeli Knesset, Jewish Home party, Second Temple, settlements, Torah
Jewish Home party having second thoughts?
The Jewish Home party is having second thoughts over the Haredi draft law (officially known as the Equal Burden law) and is
threatening not to support the Electoral Reform law unless changes are made to the Equal Burden law (link in Hebrew). The Electoral Reform law is due to come up for a second and third reading on Monday, and would raise the minimum percentage a party needs to get into the Knesset from the current two seats to four seats. (The MK's from the three Arab parties, which each have between three and four seats, have threatened to
resign en masse if the Electoral Reform law passes). While a majority of the Knesset favors the Electoral Reform law, it is a basic law and therefore requires 61 votes. If Jewish Home does not show up to vote on it, there is a good chance it won't pass. That's the leverage that Jewish Home has.
Jewish Home is demanding three changes in the Equal Burden law. First, a declaration that the State values the study of Torah. The other two changes are more substantial. They are demanding the cancellation of both the economic and criminal sanctions against individual yeshiva students, and the cancellation of budget loss to yeshivas who don't send enough students to the army. Instead, they want to reward yeshivas that do send enough students to the army with increased budgets. The other change is to calculate the overall Haredi participation rate in the IDF, rather than calculating for each yeshiva individually.
Sounds like Sunday's prayer rally scared someone. There were more than a few knitted kipot (skullcaps) in the crowd.
Labels: Ayelet Shaked, God, Haredim, IDF, Jewish Home party, Naftali Bennett, peaceful demonstrations, Torah
'Jews were in Israel long before Britons were in Britain'
Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett does a pretty good job in this interview on BBC's Hardtalk program.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip:
Zvi S).
Labels: BBC HARDtalk, Binyamin Netanyahu, Jewish Home party, Middle East peace process, Naftali Bennett
MK's apologize to Shapiro for recording and leaking meeting contents
A group of MK's had an 'off the record' meeting with US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Tuesday. There were two small problems. First, at least one MK recorded the meeting. And second, several MK's
leaked the contents of the meeting to the media.
Knesset Land of Israel caucus chair-people Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu) and Orit Struck (Bayit Yehudi) expressed regret on Wednesday that a recording of the parliamentary group's closed meeting with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro was leaked to the press.
The meeting, which took place on Tuesday,
was closed to the press and was described by attendees as "charged,"
after MKs used harsh language in discussions of Israeli agent Jonathan
Pollard's treatment and accused the US of bias against Israel in talks
with Palestinians.
Shapiro spoke to Levin and Struck, saying that he was upset that the meeting was recorded.
Levin and Struck apologized and said that the participant did not realize the meeting was closed before recording it.
However, sources in the meeting were made aware that it was meant to be closed to press by The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday, but still agreed to divulge extensive information about it.
Struck and Levin thanked Shapiro for taking part in the meeting.
Shapiro accepted their apology and said that, in his opinion, it was a successful and beneficial discussion.
But it's not likely to happen again anytime soon. Only in Israel....
Labels: Dan Shapiro, Israeli Knesset, Jewish Home party, Jonathan Pollard, Likud party, Yariv Levin, Yesh Atid party
