APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday September 26, 2019

NOTE: News Nosh will be off for the Jewish Holiday and back Wednesday, October 2nd. Happy 5780!

 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Elections 2019 Top Story:
After talks for a unity government fell apart, President Reuven Rivlin gave Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu the mandate to try to form a coalition government, while prospects of him succeeding are small and talk of a third round of elections is louder, making the top story in today’s Hebrew newspapers. Both parties pinned the blame for the failure of unity government talks on the other side.

***The Israeli commentators were particularly incensed by Netanyahu’s speech at the President’s Residence upon receiving the mandate: ”We have been through a tough election campaign on all sides and for all sides," he said. "We need to unite the nation, to heal the rifts because we are facing three huge challenges,” Netanyahu said, for which the commentators, Haaretz’s Yossi Verter, Yedioth’s Sima Kadmon and Maariv’s Ben Caspit, expressed disgust. (See Commentary/Analysis below)

What was unclear is what happens forward. Yedioth’s political affairs reporter Yuval Karni called it “one of the most serious political crises in the history of the State of Israel,” since neither leader has the minimum 61 MKs to support him. Karni reported that Likud wants to renew its contacts with Kahol-Lavan leader Benny Gantz or cause Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman to return to the right-wing bloc, while Kahol-Lavan is hoping for an internal revolt in the Likud party and on a government with a rotation without Netanyahu at the head. The papers write that if no one succeeds forming a government, the President could use a never-before-used loophole in Israeli law and give the Knesset one day to endorse any MK as candidate for prime minister who will get the support of at least 61 MKs. The name being bounced around is former minister Gideon Sa'ar of the Likud. But if all efforts fail to form a new government, then Israeli citizens will return to the polls for the third time in a year. (Hebrew) Rivlin had proposed his own compromise suggestion, but Gantz rejected it, Haaretz+ reported. Netanyahu now has 28 days to put together a coalition, with a possible two-week extension.

Elections 2019 Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Israel Elections Results: Why as Balad We Did Not Recommend Gantz as Israel's Next Prime Minister (Mtanes Shehadeh, Haaretz+) Less than a week after the election, Kahol Lavan leader Benny Gantz has already turned his back on the Arab community. He has completely ignored the Joint List, which is the third largest party in the Knesset and the one for which the vast majority of the Arab community cast their ballots. He has ignored its demands and denied holding talks with it, and in the end, he was even scared by the fact that three of the four parties comprising the joint ticket recommended him as prime minister to President Reuven Rivlin. Throughout the election campaign, the Joint List stressed that it seeks to end the reign of Benjamin Netanyahu, the racist, dangerous inciter, and prevent him from forming a government. But we never promised to do so by supporting the ostensibly less dangerous candidate, Gantz, at any price. And that’s all the more true when said candidate has offered less than nothing in exchange. We in Balad want true equality in every walk of life. We want a democratic system of government, and we want to have an influence. In this, Balad is no different from the other components of the Joint List.
Everyone believes that Netanyahu has a new plot to eliminate the evil of the decree (Ben Caspit, Maariv) Netanyahu stood there yesterday at the president's residence and unity and reconciliation were his words. Again and again he preached and implored his hearers to understand the magnitude of the hour and the state of emergency and the mighty challenges, etc. He was wearing yesterday the perfect fake image of the father of the most gracious and merciful, and even he no longer buys his own story. A few days earlier, another dance of swords, incitement, arousal, deception, and dereliction of his creation had ended. And suddenly he says that "there is no point in stretching and wasting the state's time," ignoring the fact that he called for early election so as to advance his own hearing, and then he did not return the mandate to the president (after failing to form a government in April) and dragged the state into another election to preclude his indictment - four years after he called for early elections due to the ‘Israel Hayom’ newspaper affair. Binyamin Netanyahu stood there without shame yesterday, because he has none. One’s heart goes out to the president, he knows the client better than all of us. Ruvy Rivlin was the first to warn the Likud princes about what was to come, when Netanyahu returned to Israel in 1988. Now he has exhausted all the creativity in the world to square the circle of madness and to try to release the country from the grip of the family that lost all remains of checks and balances.
Netanyahu’s Mandate Is Meaningless, but He Will Continue Campaigning (Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz+) He will appeal to Gantz’s sense of national responsibility while secretly reaching out to potential defectors in the opposition.
*All means are valid (Sima Kadmon, Yedioth Hebrew) Those who have not been here in recent months must have been impressed by the appearance of the Prime Minister last night at the President's Residence, almost bending down from acting so humbly and calling for reconciliation with the people. Anyone here who went through what we went through in two of the most difficult elections here ever had to rub their eyes at the cynicism of those who spoke about a difficult election campaign, and the immediate need to unite the people and nurse the tears.  It was as if it was someone else, not him, had roughly ripped the delicate seams (of society). As if he were not the one who led the incitement, the one who for many months split and divided and separated and destroyed every good part of the nation. How much disrespect and contempt for public intelligence there was in this slick speech, in his intention to bring unity to the people, detailing the existential threats (yes, Iran's nuclear as well) that require the unification of the ranks. Could the Prime Minister really believe what he says? Or maybe he sees us all as statisticians, an audience who is thrilled by his dramatic abilities, which make up for his lack of integrity and honesty. Because if we were impressed with his excellent acting in the election videos, it was just the promo for the real show going on in front of our eyes these days. They call for unity, when they are actually preparing for elections. They talk about clean negotiations, and it comes with a 55-seat block that allows no unity. If there were honesty here, Netanyahu would have said in the rare opportunity given him that he regretted being a key partner in the campaign of incitement and division being done here. That he is doing real soul searching right now and he apologizes to entire groups for hurting them. Like the Arabs. The left-wing. The media. Not to mention the delegitimization he did to three former chiefs of staff, in particular Benny Gantz. But no honesty was there yesterday, and certainly noreckoning, but another stage on the way to the supreme goal, called survival. Or in other words: how can a prime minister be extricated from three indictments, with all the means sanctifying it? You could almost hear the cogwheels working in the prime minister's mind as he planned the following moves: how to shorten the term given to him by the mandate to form a government, how to return it to the president, who might give up the expected failure at Gantz's attempt to form a government. And how all this moves towards new elections, a third round, and that if it happens, Netanyahu will try to advance them so they take place before the attorney general files the indictments. What we saw yesterday - and it's so awful that it's hard to say it - is an irresponsible prime minister who would be willing to drag the state into yet another election campaign if it serves his interests. If anyone thought that responsibility and the good of the state would come first, and that Netanyahu would agree to step off the stage and let his party members, if not the residents of his country - return to normalcy, and go on with their lives, then that person has never seen a wounded animal.
Israel’s do-over election performed a vital service for democracy (Evelyn Gordon, Israel Hayom) Without it, many right-wing voters would have felt that April’s election was stolen from them. That would have undermined their faith in the democratic process.
Another Election Is a Real Possibility: We Must Prepare for It (Uzi Baram, Haaretz+) Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a decisive blow in the last election. In his efforts to build a narrow right-wing government, he didn’t shy away from using any means to make his rival seem ridiculous. He divided the country into two groups – his supporters, and all the rest, who of course are all leftists. He threatened Arab voters with unconcealed cameras, persuaded Moshe Feiglin to withdraw his party from the race and published false polls on Election Day, after realizing his situation wasn’t good. Netanyahu’s guiding assumption in promoting a third election is that while there are parties that say they won’t sit with him, those parties are also very afraid of another election. If any of the parties comprising the “blocking majority” against him were to join a Netanyahu-led government, he wouldn’t need another election. From this, we see that the threat of a third election will bring about a real shift in the coalition negotiations. We must immediately form a united left-wing Zionist bloc that will include both Labor and Meretz. That will greatly increase their ability to withstand the threats posed by a new election, such as a loss of votes and the danger of falling below the electoral threshold.
Lower the minimum electoral threshold (Prof. Asher Cohen, Israel Hayom) Small parties do not form nearly as big a threat to government stability that mid-size parties do. Regardless, we have a political and cultural obligation to ensure that everyone, even the smallest groups, are represented.
Close Ranks and Don’t Be Tempted (Haaretz Editorial) Even if another election seems a high-price to pay, the left cannot let Netanyahu get another term.
A nation divided about Netanyahu, not the peace process (Jonathan S. Tobin, Israel Hayom) As long as the question is on whether or not Netanyahu should remain in office, unity may be more a figment of Rivlin’s imagination than a realistic plan.
We are all hostages (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth Hebrew) We are entering crisis days. Israeli democracy is not in danger. It is functioning. But there is not even a quarter of comfort here. Because both sides were supposed to show flexibility. And neither side revealed any. Netanyahu's responsibilities are a little bigger because he has already led us to unnecessary choices, in order to save himself. The bet was unsuccessful. He might take us for another bet. We are all hostages. The President of the State raised a compromise proposal: a two-headed government. The experienced President Reuven Rivlin was supposed to know that as soon as Netanyahu created a 55-seat block, and insisted on negotiating on behalf of the block, rather than on behalf of the Likud party - it was not a negotiation. It was a tug of time. After all, unity should create a compromise between the parties. Insisting on the block was meant to torpedo any chance of a compromise.
Can Trump, Evangelicals and Right-wing Jews Really Relate to a post-Netanyahu Israel? (Jonathan S. Tobin, Haaretz+) Will the U.S. president lose interest in an Israel no longer headed by a populist honorary Republican? What about Trump's most ardent supporters, and his Mideast 'peace team,' so deeply invested in Netanyahu staying in office?
Out of gratitude: An open letter to PM Netanyahu (João Lemos Esteves, Israel Hayom) Thank you for standing up to Islamic terrorism, denouncing the nuclear deal with the barbaric ayatollahs' regime, and making Israel a startup nation. May the legacy of your wise policies and resolute defense of Israel always prevail.
Mr. President, don't apologize in my name (Ariel Kahana, Israel Hayom) You don't need to be a Holocaust survivor, or even a second-generation Holocaust survivor, to understand that former IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan's remarks comparing Israel to 1930s Germany deserve condemnation and not support.
Netanyahu Got the Mandate, but One That Won't Lead Anywhere (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Despite losing the election, the Prime Minister and all his indictments keep holding the country hostage.
Netanyahu decides to beat Blue and White to the punch (Mati Tuchfeld, Israel Hayom) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a government in place or a date for a new election before the attorney general makes a decision about whether or not to indict him.

Other Top Commentary/Analysis:
We’re the Good Folks (Yitzhak Laor, Haaretz+) Racism isn’t the exclusive province of the right. Racism is the state.
Israel, Judge and Jury: When Mob Rule Overpowers the Law (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) A  society is measured by how it deals with extreme cases; how it treats, for example, Carmel Mauda, manager of a daycare center who is accused of abusing children under her care. Enlightenment, humanity and lawfulness must still apply. If they don’t, the path to the slippery slope is short and dangerous, and will end in the public lynching of anyone who commits a crime considered serious in certain circles. These values have been totally erased in Mauda’s case. What happened in the Baby Love daycare center was indeed horrible; watching the videos is difficult. But no less difficult is the public treatment of the accused. Mauda is now in jail, contrary to a ruling by the Supreme Court, which ordered her released to house arrest. A few violent threats by furious parents, not all of them related to the victims, were enough to undermine the court ruling.
The attacks attributed to Israel are justified but one gets picture of going wild in the region (Amos Gilboa, Maariv) Israel's confrontation with Iran and its emissaries on the one hand, and the United States' struggle with Iran on the other, are two issues that we are now at a strategic juncture.
Israel’s Netanyahu Experience Validates Pelosi’s Fear of Trump Impeachment (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) The Ukraine-Gate scandal overpowered the Speaker’s resistance but House proceedings could still emerge as Trump’s blessing in disguise.
The First Step in a 1,000 Mile Journey to Rebuild Syria (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) After over eight years of war, a 150-member committee will soon convene to write a constitution for the battle-weary country. But internal divisions and foreign interests could torpedo the accord at any time.
 

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