'Unacceptable and ugly'
The title of this post doesn't just describe Tzipi Livni. It
describes some comments she made on a satirical television show on Saturday night.
Writing on Facebook, [former Shin Bet chief and Netanyahu critic Yuval] Diskin said that Livni’s remarks were “unacceptable and ugly”.
“I normally have a great appreciation for Livni’s attitudes and
values, but in this case I'm coming out against her in the most
aggressive manner,” he said.
“It is permissible and even desirable to criticize,” stressed Diskin.
“This is in part the essence of democracy. Personally, I too have
criticism over the conduct of the Prime Minister and his leadership
style and his lack of personal example. But there is a fine line in my
opinion, that once people cross it, they become what Netanyahu and his
friends were when they ignored the incitement of their supporters
against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.”
“I call on Tzipi Livni, as well as on many of my friends, to immediately apologize for her remarks,” said Diskin.
Livni, who appeared on the “Matzav HaUma” (State of the Union) satirical program on Channel 2 on Saturday night, took satire to a different level and was perceived to have gone beyond the realms of political correctness.
"Two potential Prime Ministers are better than an impotent Prime Minister,” Livni said of her unity pact with Labor leader MK Yitzhak Herzog.
"Yitzhak and I decided to take out the garbage together," Livni said,
hinting at Netanyahu. She later said, “The truth is that Bibi said that
we’re going to elections because of the 0% VAT. I thought there is a
zero in this story, but it’s not the VAT.”
The comments were criticized by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz
(Likud), who said, "Since we cut off ties with [Palestinian Authority
Chairman Mahmoud] Abbas she has simply become unbalanced. She's addicted
to talks with the Palestinians and can't quit."
Coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin denounced the derogatory comments as well, telling Arutz Sheva that Livni had “completely lost it” in her appearance on the show.
“What we saw last night is beyond who we saw during the previous
Knesset term. Even in terms of style and expression level it seems that
she completely lost it,” said Elkin, who added, “I want to see all the
reporters who attacked me for calling [Livni and Herzog] ‘the beauty and
the geek who will not pass the threshold’ speaking out against Livni
now. I used parliamentary expressions but she stooped to a new low. But I
guess the left is allowed to lash out using such crude expressions.
This is probably part of the rules of the game.”
I wonder
which one Elkin was calling the beauty and which the geek.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, incitement, Labor party, Likud party, Tzipi Livni, Yisrael Katz, Yitzchak Herzog, Zeev Elkin
Israel to offer international airlines use of Eilat's Uvda airport
I know that many of you think that we have only one international airport, but in fact we have two. Uvda Airport outside of Eilat has been used by charter flights from Europe in the winter for many years and is capable of handling many commercial passenger jets (that's a Boeing 737 in the picture). From Noon on Wednesday Israel time (around when this post will go live), the State of Israel is
offering the use of Uvda to foreign airlines who are afraid to use Ben Gurion.
Speaking to reporters at Ben-Gurion Airport, Katz said that Uvda
would begin operating at noon local time. The minister said that efforts
are also being made to provide service to some 4,000 Israelis who were
left stranded in Istanbul after their airlines refused to fly into Lod
in light of the FAA ban announced on Tuesday.
Katz said that his
ministry had urged Turkish aviation officials to transport the Israelis
back home, but that the Turks are hesitant to land their aircraft in
Uvda.
Israel Radio reported on Wednesday that US Airways will renew its regular fights to Israel beginning on Thursday.
Well, maybe. If the FAA doesn't renew the ban. But we won't know that until about 7:15 tonight Israel time. In the meantime, you can find statistics on Uvda (or Ovda)
here. I note that it says that the airport cannot operate at night. If that's true, it won't be much of a solution for the foreign airlines.
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, Eilat, Gaza, Hamas rockets, Operation Protective Edge, Yisrael Katz
Knesset speaker blasts US hypocrisy for refusing to release Pollard
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, a former prisoner of conscience in the Soviet Union, has
blasted the United States government for its hypocrisy in refusing to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.
Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud Beytenu) assailed Washington
for “hypocrisy,” saying that “this is a severe case and I hope this is
the iceberg rather than the tip of the iceberg. Otherwise, this case is
liable to do damage to our relations with the US.”
“For 28 years,
the US administration has been preaching to Israel about the danger and
the lack of trust that results from spying on allies and today it turns
out the shoe is on the other foot,” the speaker said. “There is no other
way to characterize it other than hypocrisy.”
Edelstein wasn't the only senior Israeli politician to take a swipe at the United States.
"The secret is out,” Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said on
Sunday. “The US is systematically spying on the defense and diplomatic
leadership here in Israel. Is this how friends treat each other?”
“Pollard
was arrested for much less,” Katz said. “I plan on proposing in today’s
cabinet meeting that Israel demand an American statement vowing to put
an end to the surveillance and to immediately release Pollard in light
of the most recent revelations.”
Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked,
who heads the parliamentary lobby devoted to advancing the cause of
Pollard’s release, said on Sunday that “the most recent revelations
about spying and surveillance by the US against its ally needs to light a
red light of morality for any logical person.”
“There needs to be
reciprocity in any relationship between countries,” Shaked said. “It is
inconceivable that while Pollard has been rotting in an American prison
for decades for spying, which was considered an unforgivable crime by
the American government, we are now informed that the US has been spying
against Israel, and this is just swept under the rug.”
And it wasn't just coalition MK's who spoke out.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog told Israel Radio that he hopes
Snowden's revelations will lead to new thinking by the Israeli
government about how to bring about Pollard's release in an effective
manner.
"There needs to be new thinking because the time has come," Herzog said.
...
Labor MK Nachman Shai, who heads the Knesset Caucus on US-Israel
Relations, called for a special meeting of the Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee to discuss the American espionage.
He said that Israel has not spied on the US since Pollard was caught in 1985.
“The silence of Israeli officials following these reports is disappointing and shameful,” Shai said.
“We
cannot let such revelations pass quietly. Like Germany and Brazil, we
should ask the US for clarification, or at least confirmation that such
spying has stopped.”
And in case you've forgotten why Pollard's sentence is so ridiculous:
Pollard has already spent 28 years of the life sentence in a federal prison for passing classified information to an ally.
No
one else in the history of the United States has ever received a life
sentence for this offense, whose median time served is two to four
years.
It's time to free Pollard.
Labels: Ayelet Shaked, Edward Snowden, Jonathan Pollard, Nachman Shai, spying, Yisrael Katz, Yitzchak Herzog, Yuli Edelstein
Netanyahu's Likud rebels
A group of Likud MK's has banded together to stop our
spineless Prime Minister from giving half the country away to a group of terrorists.
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon on Sunday convened the heads of right-wing
groups inside the Likud central committee he heads to plan strategies for
blocking Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from advancing an interim agreement
with the PA.
The meeting was intended to counter-balance pressure to move
the diplomatic process forward that Netanyahu is expected to encounter in
Monday’s meeting with US President Barack Obama and over the next several
months.
Danon stressed that the event was not an anti- Netanyahu meeting.
He said the activists made a point of focusing their criticism on the head of
Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni,
repeatedly citing her speech to the J Street conference in
Washington.
“We won’t sit silently while Livni cooks an unacceptable
deal,” Danon said. “We can’t let there be industrial quiet.”
The
activists decided to focus their pressure on the Likud’s top four ministers:
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Home Front
Defense Minister Gilad Erdan and Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom. The
activists, who are close to the ministers, will push them to make public
comments opposing an interim agreement with the Palestinians.
...
Some of the same central committee members were among
the signatories of a full-page ad in Hebrew papers on Sunday that praised two
ministers, four deputy ministers and four more MKs for statements they have made
against giving up land. The ministers were Erdan and Transportation Minister
Israel Katz.
Another full-page ad in the same papers called upon Sa’ar,
Erdan, Ya’alon and Shalom to stop further releases of Palestinian
terrorists.
The ad, which was taken out by families of terror victims,
called upon the public to sign an online petition that has already been endorsed
by more than 31,000 people.
Another campaign against concessions to the
Palestinians will begin soon by the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea,
Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The campaign will feature hawkish quotes by
Netanyahu from his 1995 book, A Place Under the Sun.
There needs to be lots of pressure like this on Netanyahu.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Gidon Saar, Gilad Erdan, Middle East peace process, Moshe Yaalon, Sylvan Shalom, Yisrael Katz
A Palestinian state does not guarantee Israeli security. It is a recipe for Israel’s destruction.
Knesset members from Israel's Right
blasted President Hussein Obama's Tuesday United Nations speech, in which he called on Israel to make concessions to 'Palestinian' terrorists and claimed that a 'Palestinian state' would guarantee Israel's security.
“That is one of the worst statements by an American
president in history,” said Transportation Minister Israel Katz, who heads the
Likud’s governing secretariat. “Israel’s existence does not depend on anything,
especially not the Palestinians. The US helps Israel, but we have always known
to defend ourselves with our own force. We desire peace, but we will not take
unnecessary risks and we will not accept any solution that endangers our
existence.”
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon called upon Netanyahu to
resist pressure from Obama on the Palestinian issue, which he said he expects
will only increase with time.
He also criticized Obama’s outreach to Iran
in the speech.
“At a time when steely resolve is needed in dealing with
the Iranian nuclear issue, we are instead hearing of premature concessions,”
Danon said. “If this is the new policy of the US administration, then our
government must remain vigilant and ready for the possibility of huge American
pressure in the current talks with the Palestinians.”
...
Likud MK
Moshe Feiglin blamed what he did not like in Obama’s speech on Netanyahu and his
predecessors for accepting the creation of a Palestinian state. He said that
when Israel recognized a Palestinian people and its rights, it began a process
in which the right for there to be a Jewish state was delegitimized.
“The
truth is the land is either ours or theirs, so if we recognize another nation’s
right to our land, we lost our rights,” Feiglin said. “Obama is misleading
Israeli citizens. A Palestinian state does not guarantee Israeli
security. It is a recipe for Israel’s destruction.”
Obama is determined to bring about the extirpation of the Jewish state, God forbid. He must be opposed at every conceivable juncture - including on matters that are not directly connected to Israel - and politically destroyed.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Danon, Iranian nuclear threat, Moshe Feiglin, Obama's obsession with engaging Iran, Obama's obsession with Israel, Palestinian state, Yisrael Katz
