APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday April 8, 2019

 

Quote of the day:

Haaretz

Yedioth Ahronoth

Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)

Israel Hayom

Elections 2019 News:
The day before elections, the Hebrew papers gave the parties another opportunity to share why voters should vote for them and noted that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, and Lt. Gen. (ret.) Benny Gantz, leader of Kahol-Lavan party, were essentially saying the same message: Gantz is going to win. Gantz encouraged his supporters, saying he was at the finish line, while Netanyahu warned his supporters that if they didn't get out and vote then Netanyahu would lose the elections Gantz would be victorious.

Oddly, what didn't make much news - except on the websites - was the reactions to Netanyahu's announcement that, if elected, he would impose Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the West Bank. Haaretz’s Noa Landau noted that it was Netanyahu who blocked three West Bank annexation bills just last year. A top Palestinian minister said Netanyahu will face a 'real problem' if he fulfills his election promise. And two Democratic Presidential hopefuls also bashed Netanyahu for making such a promise. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a Netanyahu loyalist, said Netanyahu’s announcement was not a surprise. "We will never uproot settlers, we will not grant citizenship to Palestinians” adding that "After the American recognition, this should certainly be the next target. (Maariv)
 

Quick Hits:

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Features:

Eritrea's Capital Is Lovely. But Scratch the Surface and You'll Find a Terrifying Reality
People are jailed in cellars of houses, a network of informers has destroyed trust between people and hundreds of thousands have fled. A rare visit to the ‘North Korea of Africa.’ (Tamara Baraaz, Haaretz+)
 
Elections 2019 Commentary/Analysis:
Israelis, You Are Scary (Amira Hass, Haaretz+) You are scary. Yes, you, Jewish Israelis. Particularly now, as we head into an election. For you, the Center is someone who supports continued land theft, but not necessarily the expulsion of Palestinians. A legitimate candidate who could get your vote is someone who supports the expulsion of Arabs and the repeal of the minimum wage, but who also supports the legalization of cannabis. For you, the Left is a tall Ashkenazi general who boasts of the thousands of Palestinians whom he has killed and who, when he thinks about a bloc of parties that would stand in the way of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection, doesn’t include the Arab parties.
*Israel's lurch to the right (Sever Plocker, Yedioth/Ynet) The political bloc that built the country and held the reins of power for decades is now decimated by the country's shift in political proclivity; but politicians would do well to understand that the shift could easily reverse itself too.
To Bibi or not to Bibi (Ra'anan Shaked, Yedioth/Ynet)This election campaign is on values. Netanyahu espouses to values of self preservation, victimization and disrespect of institutions of democracy and the state. This election must be for anyone but Bibi.
Just don’t stay home on Election Day (Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom) Even if many of us are disgusted by the filth and lies flung around in this election campaign, we must not forgo the privilege and obligation given to us once every four years.
My Good Tidings for Election Day (Odeh Bisharat, Haaretz+) It is important to note that this election, despite the absurdities accompanying it, is slowly but surely creating a nation of citizens, in which an Arab citizen has an important role, and sometimes even decisive one in setting the direction in which the country will march.
Cat and mouse to the ballot box (Nahum Barnea, Yedioth Hebrew) At the height of the election campaign, Netanyahu convened a press conference at the Prime Minister's Residence. The law states unequivocally that party propaganda signs must not be placed in government installations, and, as everyone who worked there and knows, the Prime Minister's Residence is a government facility. The first time Netanyahu did so, the Likud representative admitted that there had been a mistake. Then Netanyahu convened another press conference at the Prime Minister's Residence. Twenty minutes before the start of the incident, a petition was submitted to the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Vice Justice of the High Court Hanan Meltzer, who allowed the event to take place - news is news - provided that this time there are no billboards for his campaign. "What happened," the judge asked the Likud representative. “We did not have time to take it down,” he answered. And aside from that, he added, the event did not take place in the prime minister's residence. It was on the patio. The patio is the inner courtyard of the residence. Show me the lease of the place, the Judge asked, we will see if it is a separate property. There was no lease contract. Explain to me whether the security check at the entrance to the residence is before the patio or after the patio? Before, the Likud representative admitted. You disrespected my previous decision, the judge told them, do you want me to issue an order against you? Likud representatives understood that a third time would not work. Netanyahu convened the following propaganda events outside the residence. An election campaign, every election, is a game of cat and mouse. The parties, from the right wing to the far left, walk on the line at every opportunity. When you catch them red-handed they act innocent. The media are also trying to be clever: The Israeli brain is inventing patents for us.
Feiglin Is Selling a Bottle of Free Market Snake Oil (Sami Peretz, Haaretz+) A close reading of the Zehut Party platform reveals impossible contradictions, especially vis-a-vis settlers.
Israel’s libertarian moment (Dennis Mitzner, Israel Hayom) As Israel’s elections approach, the political campaigns have largely been focused on security issues. However, the rise of Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut is a sign that issues relating to individual and financial freedom are gaining in popularity.
Netanyahu's Dangerous Annexation Spin Helps Normalize Marginal Ideas (Haaretz Editorial) What begins as election campaign spin can, during coalition bargaining, turn into an official agenda that makes the temporary apartheid permanent.
Choosing between Israel and Judea: (What really divides Israelis) (Dr. Sagi Elbaz, Maariv)  If liberal Israel and conservative Judah can no longer agree on one core of values, then there is no real purpose in their existence as a single people…It's acceptable to assume that Israeli society is dealing with four central rifts: The Jewish-Arab rift, the secular-religious rift, the Ashkenazi-Mizrachi rift and the rift between right-wing and left-wing. The four last years of Netanyahu's government, especially the present election cycle, prove that that assumption is wrong. More than anything, Israeli society is divided between the tribes whose base is not nationalist, religious, ethnic, but rather value-based. On the one hand, the tribe that supports meaningful democracy, state institutions, the superiority of the rule of law, freedom of expression and free press, tolerance, openness and sensitivity to the Other, human rights, equality before the law, equality of opportunities. On the other side there is a tribe that supports ethnocracy, in other words, the superiority of the ethnic group of the majority over the smaller minority group because its [different] ethnicity, and national identity. This tribe despises democratic institutions and shows almost blind loyalty to strong leadership - political, religious, community - even if that leader acted improperly, committed a crime and became corrupt. It's true that the Israeli right-wing is mostly Jewish, religious and Mizrachi and according to in-depth research prefers the characteristics of an ethnocratic rule over a democratic one. The ethnic identity is more prominent for him than his civil status. But there are parts of the right-wing that criticize the cynical corrupt and non-democratic government of Netanyahu. People in high standing such as Benny Begin, Reuven Rivlin, David Levy, Limor Livnat and many others who remained loyal to the democratic institutions and the rule of law. They are part of the same tribe that identifies with a center-left political leadership, even if in their view the chance of a diplomatic arrangement with the Palestinians is not realistic at this point. And therefore, if these two tribes, liberal Israel and conservative Judea can no longer agree on one core value that is based on respecting democratic institutions, the rule of law, the advancement of civil rights and equality, then there is no more real purpose in their existence as one people.
Why Netanyahu’s Paranoid Hail Mary Might Turn Out to Be Political Hara-kiri (Chemi Shalev, Haaretz+) U.S. silence over the PM’s pledge to annex swaths of the West Bank could have a very simple reason: It’s part of Trump’s peace plan.
We want to serve you (Lt. Gen. (ret.) Benny Gantz, Israel Hayom) I ask you to vote for the Blue and White party. Any other ballot will allow the continued incitement and division in our society, the continued focus on indictments instead of Israel's citizens, and our continued weakness in the face of our enemies.
We have only ourselves to depend on (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Hayom) Likud voters think that victor is in the bag, so they don't need to vote. That would be a serious mistake. Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid could wind up forming the next government, and we must not let that happen.
Israel's identity politics is failing voters (Ben-Dror Yemini, Yedioth/Ynet) The Israeli public often votes against their own positions while government policies contradict the public's stated preferences. This is the Israeli paradox and it crosses party line.
Who Will Win Israel's Election Is Unknown. One Thing Is Sure: The Losers Are the Pollsters (Amnon Harari, Haaretz+) At no point in the campaign have the polling results been so disparate. Here's why.
Netanyahu Keeps Winning Because His Story Is About Israelis' Weakness, Not Strength (Carolina Landsmann, Haaretz+) It would be tempting to end the story with Netanyahu’s defeat at the polls. An election loss would be proof that Israelis were mature enough to understand, at the last possible moment, that Netanyahu is dragging Israel to the brink of an abyss. The people would come out looking good from the perspective of time. The nation could even boast of how, against all odds, it managed to gather the forces necessary to rid itself of Netanyahu by choice and stop the attack on Israeliness.

Commentary/Analysis:

 

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