APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday September 18, 2019

 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Top News Summary:
The papers were printed after waiting till 2:00AM; that was when the updated poll results declared that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had lost - both his party and his right-wing bloc without Avigdor Lieberman were both smaller than Benny Gantz’s Kahol-Lavan party and the center-left bloc.

Nevertheless, neither party could cobble together a coalition government without Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party and Lieberman insisted he would only join a unity government with both the Likud and Kahol-Lavan - and without the ultra-Orthodox parties and the extremist nationalist religious parties and the Arabs. But Kahol-Lavan said they would not sit in a government with Netanyahu leading it due to the corruption cases against him. So the results showed a political quagmire. By this afternoon, the updated vote count revealed that the poll results late last night were partially wrong. After 91% of all the votes were counted, Kahol-Lavan had one more seat than Likud, but Likud had a larger bloc. Nevertheless, neither had an outright majority so Netanyahu faces the same problem as he did five months ago: without either Kahol-Lavan or both Lieberman and the ultra-Orthodox parties he can’t form a coalition and Lieberman insists on a unity government with Kahol-Lavan. All the votes will be counted by Thursday afternoon, but that won’t solve the riddle of who will be prime minister. And the hopes are that this time, President Reuven Rivlin will be more pro-active in making the leaders form a government.

But in short, the Kahanists (Otzma Yehudit) are out, both the left-wing parties, Labor-Gesher and Democratic Camp are in, and the mostly-Arab Joint List did quite well.


Elections 2019 Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Bibi the Magician Has Run Out of Rabbits (Aluf Benn, Haaretz+) Israel’s voters joined Trump, Putin, the army chief and others in recognizing Netanyahu's weakness and acted accordingly.
There is nothing to leverage and no one to pressure: Netanyahu finally ran out of rabbits (Ben Caspit, Maariv) Netanyahu's chances of becoming the next prime minister are low. Now he will come with claims against the world and his wife. The skill-laden man became addicted to power and rotted inside himself.
Will Lieberman Go All the Way With His Promise to Take Down Netanyahu? (Ravit Hecht, Haaretz+) If Yisrael Beiteinu chairman has indeed decided to deliver a coup de grace, it would set into motion an amazing domino effect, which could prove a paranoid Netanyahu right.
Now is the time for unity (Ariel Kahana, Israel Hayom) A unity government is the best solution to the challenges Israel is facing in terms of security and defense, diplomacy, and domestic social issues.
Netanyahu Has No Immunity (Haaretz Editorial) Although the final results are not yet in, and despite the differences between the exit polls of the three TV stations, it may be understood from the polls that the prime minister has failed. Netanyahu was unable to win the 61 seats he had set as his goal to form a government that would grant him immunity from prosecution in the three cases against him pending a hearing. The public said no on Tuesday to the political escape plan he concocted together with his natural partners, the plan that would allow him to evade prosecution and bring down the rule of law in Israel.
The loss of restraint and the fascist radicalization: These are the faces of much of the right-wing today (Dr. Revital Amran, Maariv) The insanity must be severed from the root. Israel has gone too far from its enlightened values, and it needs a through system upgrading. Voting for a centtist party is not enough.
The Day After Netanyahu (Zehava Galon, Haaretz+) It’s 11:00 P.M. and Netanyahu has no coalition. Not for lack of trying. He promised Pnina Tamano-Shata to see to the aliyah of the rest of the Falashmura, three committees against police brutality and a rotating premiership. He promised Lapid the ministries of finance, defense and strategic preservation of Diaspora Jewry. He even tried to win over Moshe Ya’alon – with promises to build the Defense Ministry in Ramallah and convert the Jordan Valley into an aircraft carrier. But there’s no point rehashing all that. Now he has to pack up.
It's easy not to ask for anything from the state when you have the right face and last name (Nir Kipnis, Maariv) A lot of things can be said about someone who belongs to the Kahol-Lavan camp and left of it - but don't rush to take what it deserves.
Exit Polls Prove Netanyahu's Spell Has Been Broken (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) Preliminary election results show that the politician who made it his business to win elections has finally run out of effective dirty tricks.
The Likud abandoned the secular public in the right-wing camp, and that is its mistake (Uriel Lin, Maariv) The biggest mistake in the current election campaign was made by the Likud movement, which turned its back on secular voters and could lose them in favor of Lieberman.
Maybe, Just Maybe, the Age of Netanyahu Has Come to an End (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) If Israeli election exit polls are right, the prime minister failed to achieve an overall majority and Likud came up short. If Gantz ends up forming a new government, Netanyahu will have to fend off revolution.
There is no escape from unity (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth Hebrew) Assuming that Israeli politicians have not completely lost their sanity, we are on our way to a national unity government. These things were written immediately after the three TV channels polls were released. Division by blocs indicates a significant difference between channels 11 and 12, which gave an advantage to the right-wing bloc, compared to Channel 13, which gave an advantage to the center-left bloc. But that's not the point. The main thing is that according to the three models, Netanyahu does not have 61 mandates for establishing an immunity coalition. If that figure doesn't change, Netanyahu will have to recalculate a trajectory. President Rivlin will, of course, wait for the final results. But if the full results do not materially change the sample data, the president will have to take leadership, call the Kahol-Lavan and Likud leaders and explain to them what he expects them to do. I believe the vast majority of the electorate will be behind it. Apparently, the man who can promote a solution is Avigdor Lieberman. If the poll samples are accurate, he has achieved his goal: he is the kingmaker. As with any election campaign, also now, Lieberman can be a catalyst, accelerating processes. He cannot force a solution.
In Israel, Political Success Comes Through Crushing Minorities (Israel Cohen, Haaretz+)  The path to power in Israel requires the hatred and exclusion of minorities. Yesterday it was the Arabs, today it’s the ultra-Orthodox, and tomorrow it will be the leftists or the settlers.
Ethiopians ditched Likud after country-wide summer protests (Ortal Mogos, Yedioth/Ynet) Demonstrations against racism included voices calling for end to support for Likud. This downturn among a traditionally Likud-voting community highlights the impact of protests on political opinion within the sector. Some Ethiopian Israelis, who decided to switch allegiance from the traditional Likud ballot, received backlash from other Likud and right-wing voters.
A Vote to Buy Time (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) Whatever the results of today’s election, they won’t stop the Israeli colonial project, which is speeding ahead like an express train, in broad daylight, not in the shadows as was the case in the 1990s amid all the blah-blah about peace. Even if Benny Gantz ends up in the conductor’s seat, the direction won’t change. On the other hand, the Palestinians – who for all their weakness and flaws, refuse to be silenced, to disappear or to submit – act like a large and heavy cargo ship, navigated by obsolete written agreements, promises of a Palestinian state by a traitorous world, international law and justice. Every move made by the captains of the Palestinian ship is always very late and so maddeningly slow that they are irrelevant by the time they’re carried out, because the train has arrived first.
Netanyahu declared the annexation (of the Jordan Valley) for votes and stuck a finger in Jordan's eye (Dr. Roy Kibrick, Maariv) Netanyahu's annexation statement, even if not implemented, causes damage to the Israeli interest in the global political arena and deepens the crisis with the Hashemite kingdom.
For Bibi It's All About Getting a 'Stay Out of Jail' Card (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) Withholding immunity means betraying a large constituency that believes that only Netanyahu can run this country. This is the answer anyone aiming to join a unity government will get – Gantz too.
The elections that decided the future of the conflict (Jonathan S. Tobin, Israel Hayom) Israeli voters won’t determine whether peace is possible. That happened when Abbas succeeded Arafat and subsequently refused to hold another vote.
Patience, my friends, patience! (Emily Amrousi, Israel Hayom) We can complain about the candidates, we can shut our ears to the mudslinging, and hold our nose to avoid the stink of fakery – but we can also vote, and by doing so, choose the type of country we want to leave for our grandchildren.
Can Netanyahu Escape the Corruption Cases Against Him? (Alison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz+) The results of Israel’s election and Netanyahu’s legal fate are intertwined.
It's good that it's over (Yehuda Shlezinger, Israel Hayom) Election Day is always a celebration of democracy, but this campaign was marked by what we loathe – incitement, hatred, old resentments, and lies.
The Real Challenge Facing Israel's Arab Leaders (Jack Khoury, Haaretz+) Low turnout affects the entire Arab community, but one specific sector among them in the least likely to be persuaded to go out and vote.
Lieberman is no ideologue, he's just a survivor (Akiva Bigman, Israel Hayom) Less than a year ago, he helped the haredim win the municipal election in Jerusalem. This isn't hypocrisy, it is typical Liebermanist politics. Who knows, maybe one day we'll see him heading the Joint Arab List.
Real Voter Fraud Will Be a Third Israel Election. We Shouldn’t Let It Happen (Noa Landau, Haaretz+)
If the person who the president entrusts with forming a government doesn't succeed in recruiting 61 lawmakers, they shouldn't be allowed to dissolve the Knesset as easily as Netanyahu did after the April election.
 

Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.