APN's daily news review from Israel

Wednesday March 4, 2020

 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Elections 2020 / Netanyahu Indictment News:
A day and a half after the polling stations closed, the Hebrew papers were all about what happened and what next. The big story today was about Likud's hunt for defectors from Kahol-Lavan and the left-wing Labor-Gesher-Meretz list because Likud, which made a major victory with 36 seats to Kahol-Lavan’s 32 or 33, still can’t make a government because it only has 58 or 59 seats in its right-wing-ultra-Orthodox bloc - not the 61 needed to have a majority in the Knesset. Kahol-Lavan leader Benny Gantz reiterated that he would not enter a unity government with a man who is indicted for crimes. The papers also looked at the amazing achievements of Likud and the Joint List, as well as the failure of the Kahol-Lavan and Labor-Gesher Meretz, which went from 10 seats as two parties to seven seats as one list. (See Commentary/Analysis below and an interesting set of interviews in the Interview section.) And meanwhile, everyone waited for the count of the last votes: those of the soldiers and of the people under coronavirus quarantine.

Yedioth Hebrew’s Moran Azoulay wrote that Likud was attempting to establish a narrative of victory - even there there is still no decision on who will form a government - or even if there will be fourth elections. Azoulay writes that Netanyahu aims to present a new government within two weeks, but the current deadlock may lead President Reuven Rivlin to deliver the decision of choosing who will form the government immediately to the Knesset.

Three right-wing MKs in Kahol-Lavan and MK Orly Levy-Abukasis, the ‘Gesher’ part of the Labor-Gesher-Meretz list, all denied they were in talks to defect to Likud. Maariv reported that sources in the right-wing bloc said the bloc had made initial contacts with the Labor Party and its left-wing leader Amir Peretz, whose party dismissed the claim.  Moreover, Likud threatened Kahol-Lavan MK Omer Yankelevich that if she didn’t defect they would release embarrassing tapes of her. Haaretz+ reported that Kahol-Lavan was aware of the possibility that some members might defect and some members of the party - made up of three parties - didn’t rule out splitting up. The knives were pointed toward Labor-Gesher-Meretz list chairman, Amir Peretz, but he said he wasn’t going to resign from political life. Haaretz+ reported that the Labor-Gesher-Meretz list was mulling breaking up.

The Joint List claimed a 'huge success' with its historic 15-seat win, noting that the list got twice as many mandates as all the left-wing parties together. The party members proudly said that the "Arabs went out to vote in droves" (making fun of Netanyahu, who used the phrase to racebait right-wing voters into going out to vote - OH]. The party got an extra boost from Jewish voters this election. The result is a record number of 17 Arab lawmakers, including five women in four parties. Joint List leader MK Ayman Odeh called his party, the ‘principled alternative for the entire Israeli political map' and said, "We are the real left-wing.” He also attacked Kahol-Lavan leader Benny Gantz, saying, "I will have nothing to do with him and the Kahol-Lavan party, there are quite a few racists there.” During the campaign, Gantz said he would not make a government with the support of the Joint List. ‘Israel Hayom’ (Hebrew) newspaper noted that a week before Election Day the Joint List made huge efforts to bring voters to the polls who were Jewish voters disappointed with Meretz,-immigrants from the former Soviet, post-Zionist left-wingers and extremist ultra-Orthodox factions. To that end, the Joint List campaigned in Hebrew, Russian, Yiddish and Amharic languages.


Elections 2020 / Netanyahu Indictment Quickees:

Quick Hits:

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Elections 2020/Netanyahu Indictment Commentary/Analysis:
Netanyahu Has a Plan, Even Without a Majority (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) 'Let’s see them vote against, block a new government and basically drag the country to a fourth election,' senior Likud official said.
Lieberman's fork in the road (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) It is a terrible shame that the fate of the future government, and subsequently the state, might be used as a pawn in the hands of a politician seeking to ingratiate himself with the judiciary.
Kahol Lavan, Don’t Join Netanyahu in a Unity Government (Haaretz Editorial) As in the last two elections, the political stalemate again raises the possibility of negotiating a national unity coalition. This idea must be rejected outright. The stalemate that has dragged Israel into elections three times in a single year isn’t a fluke. It is the result of Netanyahu’s unprecedented legal situation, and the understanding shared by most Knesset members that it is intolerable for a person accused of a crime to head Israel’s government. Therefore, this is a moment of truth for Benny Gantz and for each and every member of Kahol Lavan and Labor-Gesher-Meretz, who have publicly committed again and again, campaign after campaign, that they will not take part in a government that includes defendant Netanyahu.
3 Israeli elections reconfirm 2 basic facts (Jonathan S. Tobin, Israel Hayom) The effort to break the logjam established that there is a broad consensus on national security, and that only judges, and not political rivals, can topple Netanyahu.
Center-left Doomed by Netanyahu’s Killer Campaign – and Its Own Crippling Complacency (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) Champions of Israel’s liberal democracy must now tap their inner rage to avert imminent extinction.
Arab Citizens Are Playing the Political Game, but Israel Isn’t Ready for Them Yet (Jack Khoury, Haaretz+) On March 2, the Joint List beat its electoral record, changing the face of Israeli politics; but Israel’s traditional left and its shortcomings are standing in the way
They wanted change: This time the Arab public went in droves to the polling stations (Yasir Ukbi, Maariv) The Arab sector enlisted in mass and went to vote. Those who visited polling stations in the Arab sector on Election Day noticed the strong desire for change. Whoever forgot, Lieberman was the one who united the Arab parties. In the first round of elections, the Arab parties split and the public gave them a red card. They were forced to return to the discussion table, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also made a crucial contribution to reunification [through anti-Arab statements - OH]. For the first time, Arab and Jewish democrats achieved a huge achievement in the Knesset. This time everyone flocked to the polls. Everyone and his own interest. The Arabs want equality, the cessation of house demolitions, the end of exclusion and especially the end of incitement (against them). It was a sweet win. I proudly noticed the faces of many activists, who worked around the clock to bring voters to the polls…Alongside this, there was also concern that the right-wing would again form a government. One thing could not be taken away from the electorate - the vast majority decided that it did not need to appoint a guardian to represent it in the Knesset. If one needs a Knesset member to solve a problem for him, he directly contacts Ayman, Said, Ahmed, Mansur, Amtanes, Aida and the other members of the Knesset. What is good for the ultra-Orthodox is also good for the Arabs.
My Vanquished General Brothers of Kahol Lavan, It's Time to Talk to Israel's Arabs (Yitzhak Laor, Haaretz+) The people who pinned their hopes on Kahol Lavan – and more than one million good citizens did so – erred in at least two ways. First, they made Benjamin Netanyahu the embodiment of all the evil in our lives, and not Likud rule or Israeli colonialism with its hundreds of thousands of settlers. This led to a demonization of Likud voters. The second mistake related to “the morning after a Gantz victory.” If he did win, what exactly was going to happen? How many disappointed Kahol Lavan voters are capable of understanding that Netanyahu’s incitement (“Gantz will go with Ahmed Tibi”) was effective not only for Likud voters, but primarily, historically, for them, too? The more than one million Kahol Lavan voters must learn that we can’t get rid of the right without making a pact with Israel’s Arab population and its leaders. This is a lesson in democracy that must now be repeated and learned.
"Our society stumbled along the way and moved away from humanistic considerations“ (Erez Biton, Maariv) The day after the election, we are hit again with the recognition of the chronic separate camps of Israeli society. We must look for each other and find ways to make the difference into something rounded, harmonious and constructive.
*Gantz's party looks to the Arabs to save the Jewish state (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) While according to the New Testament, Peter disowned Jesus three times before the rooster crowed, Kahol Lavan, and particularly its leaders – the so-called cockpit – have disowned the Arabs three thousand times at least. They have not only disowned the Arabs, but have also been at the forefront of the Arabs’ demonization. The Netanyahu government falsely accuses the Arabs of planning to annihilate the Jews – men, women and children – while Kahol Lavan, the alternative to Netanyahu, follows suit through its own measure of incitement, calling the Arabs jungle dwellers and accusing them of supporting terrorism. But when the moment of truth comes, when Kahol Lavan finds itself on the ropes following the release of the exit poll results on election night, Yael German of the party’s Knesset faction asks the media to hold off announcing the winner until the final results are in – in case the Arab Joint List gains another seat at Likud’s expense. Oh! So, those whom her party just hours before had crucified in the city square are now cast as the saviors who will snatch Israel from the jaws of the extreme right. As the 10th century Arab poet Abu Firas al-Hamdani said: “In the dark night, look for the moon.” Yes, in the darkness after the exit polls, all of the Jewish and Arab democrats look to Nazareth. Now the Arabs are tasked with saving the Jewish state.
Netanyahu must reach out to Arab parties (Jalal Bana, Israel Hayom) There is a theoretical possibility for some form of integration of Arab lawmakers in the realm of the coalition but not necessarily as an integral part of the government.
And what if Israel's Zionist left joins forces with the Joint List's 15 seats? (Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz+) There are 15 Knesset seats rolling around in the street that no one wants to touch; 12.5 percent of the seats in Israel’s next Knesset will remain unoccupied. True, flesh-and-blood people will sit in them, representatives who were voted into office in a free election, but they have a fatal flaw that disqualifies them from Israeli politics. They’re Arabs. Not only do they belong to the lowest caste in Israel’s economic and social hierarchy, they’re untouchables; anyone who touches them is contaminated. Imagine, however, if the seven measly Knesset seats won by the Labor-Gesher-Meretz hodgepodge had been joined by the Arabs’ 15 seats and by the Ethiopians’ two. All of a sudden, the left would have become an actual bloc – not just in terms of size, but in its ability to offer an ethical platform that honors leftist ideas. It could have even trimmed a few Knesset seats from Kahol Lavan, in whose branches many voters without a political home reluctantly sheltered.
Gaza for Netanyahu, West Bank for Gantz (Elior Levy, Yedioth/Ynet) The Palestinian Authority had hoped a change in Israeli leadership would ensure no one-sided moves to annex the settlements and Jordan Valley, while Hamas preferred the 'devil you know.’
Premature celebration (Yossi Beilin, Israel Hayom) You would think that the first to declare victory is the one who seizes it, or creates a public perception that ties them to victory, but that is not always the case.
Israel's Center Will Not Hold: Time for a Political Cleanup (Abed L. Azab, Haaretz+) Hatred of Arabs: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought it to the level of an art form. Kahol Lavan built a museum to house it. Even when they weren’t asked they declared that they wouldn’t cooperate with Arabs. The occupation: Netanyahu plans to annex, and so does Benny Gantz. The "deal of the century": Netanyahu cooked it up and Gantz signed it. The nation-state law: The Zionist left started it, Netanyahu passed it and Gantz adopted it. Swinish capitalism: A large percentage of Netanyahu voters have difficulty making ends meet. Gantz voters – a white elite.
Israel's Election Is Over. Now, Where’s the Money to Pay for the Promises? (Meirav Arlosoroff, Haaretz+) The cupboard is bare and coronavirus looms large, but politicians vowed no new taxes.
The Left Learned the Hard Way That the Whole Is Smaller Than Its Parts (Jonathan Lis, Haaretz+) After the April election Labor-Gesher and Meretz thought the time had come to establish a left-wing slate. Now it’s uncertain whether the failed merger can be undone.
 

 

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