Archive for month: September, 2019

New Government Quest
President Reuven Rivlin announced has decided to nominate PM Netanyahu to form a new government, after negotiations on forming a unity government between Likud and Blue and White Party fell apart.

Th PM called again for a unity government, and Benny Gantz again said that his party would not sit in a government led by someone facing criminal charges.

Netanyahu now has 28 days to form a government. He can get a 2 week extension if necessary. If he fails to form a government, Gantz will get the chance to do so.

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Terror Attack
A 34-year-old female police officer was stabbed in the Old City of Jerusalem Thursday afternoon, near the Chain Gate — which is located in the Muslim Quarter along the Western wall of the Temple Mount. The officer was lightly wounded in the suspected terror attack.

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No TV Coverage
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit declined PM Netanyahu’s request that his pre-trial hearing next week on corruption allegations be broadcast live.

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Abbas at UN
In his speech before the UN General Assembly yesterday, Palestinian Authority President Abbas pledged to continue to pay salaries to terrorists. He said, “Even if I had only one penny, I would’ve given it to the families of the martyrs, prisoners and heroes”, to which he received a round of applause.

Abbas attacked PM Netanyahu for promising to annex the Jewish settlement in the Jordan Valley and the US for moving its embassy to Jerusalem.

Abbas also said that the Palestinians would no longer agree to only one country mediating at a time in their negotiations with Israel and called for an international conference to promote the peace process.

He said, “Our hands are always extended for peace. More than one country has invited Netanyahu and me to meet. Netanyahu refused three calls from Russia, but we always turned to peace. I am calling for an international peace conference, which will involve Arab and international parties. The international community must put an end to Israeli aggression and arrogance.”

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Population Stats
On the eve of the Jewish new year of 5780, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics has released its annual report. Israel’s population stands at 9,092,000, which is a 2.1% increase since last year. The population is expected to hit 10 million by 2024 and 20 million by 2065. Jews make up around 75% of the total population, Arabs 21% and others 4%.

Israelis are generally satisfied with life, with 88.9% reporting they are pleased with their situation. However, 36.1% claim they are unhappy with their economic circumstances: 29.9% said they were unable to pay their bills last year, while almost 25% said they had given up medicine or medical treatment and even hot meals due to a lack of funds.
 

Life expectancy for men in Israel is 80.9 years, while Israeli woman on average live to the age of 84.9 – among the highest life expectancies in the world. Cancer is the leading cause of death for around one quarter of Israelis (25.2%), followed by cardiac disease (14.8%). And one in seven Israelis (14.1%) suffer from severe disability.

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Climate Protests
Thousands of people, many of them school students, marched through the streets of Tel Aviv, holding up signs protesting about the dangers of global warming. At a certain point in the “climate strike,” dozens of teenagers lied down on the ground in a symbolic display. The Friday For Future school strikes are strikes by school students participating in demonstrations instead of going to class in order to demand action against global warming and climate change.

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Election Results

After meeting with all of the parties who won seats in the election, President Rivlin will make a decision on Wednesday as to whom he will give the chance to form a new government.

It seemed as though Blue and White would have more votes than Likud and get the chance to form the government, assuming that the Joint Arab list would support them, as they had indicated. But at their meeting with the President, the Arab list could only provide 10 votes, since one of its parties, Ba’lad – with 3 seats, refused to support Blue and White. That left Blue and White with only 54 votes (BW – 33, Arabs 10, Labor 6, Meretz 5).

On the other side, Yamina (7), Shas (9) and UTJ (7) all pledged to support Netanyahu (Likud – 31), giving him a total of 55 seats.

Rivlin has called Likud and Blue and White to a meeting tonight to urge them to form a unity government. But with his lead in the vote count, it looks like PM Netanyahu has managed to stay in power once again, one way or another, at least for the time being. Unless they agree to form a unity government, it looks like Lieberman and Yisrael Beytenu’s 8 votes hold the keys to the kingdom. Gantz is meeting with Lieberman before his meeting with the President.

Gymnastics Medals
Israeli rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram won a bronze medal in the all-around world championships and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The bronze medal awarded on Friday in Baku, Azerbaijan was her sixth medal of the competition.

Ashram, 20 and a resident of Tel Aviv, also earned three silver medals in competition with hoop, clubs and ribbon and a bronze medal with a ball. She was part of the team competition in which team Israel won a silver medal behind Russia.

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Amazon Launches
Amazon launched its local delivery service in Israel yesterday. For the time being its Israel website is only in English but a Hebrew website should be available in the coming few weeks. Product prices on the new Israel site are in shekels and the website includes a feature enabling consumers to filter out products from abroad. Local delivery should mean that products are cheaper and shipped more quickly.

Amazon’s Israel operations have been launched after 30 months of preparations coordinated by representatives from Amazon’s Berlin office. Israel operations are headed by Rolf Kimmeyer.

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Election Results
With around 90% of the votes counted, the results indicate that we’re in for another round of uncertainty as to who will be able to form a government, or if it’s even possible to do so at all.

Here are the current results (according to News 12):
Blue and White – 32
Likud – 31
Joint Arab List – 13
Yisrael Beytenu – 9
Shas – 9 (ultra-Orthodox)
UTJ – 8 (ultra-Orthodox)
Yamina – 7
Labor-Gesher – 6
Democracy Camp – 5

Based on these results, the right wing block including the religious parties could have 64 seats, enough to form a government. Unfortunately, Yisrael Beytenu leader Lieberman has vowed not to join a coalition with the religious parties unless they agree to his version of the draft law, which they will not do. And without his 9 seats, the right is left with only 55 seats, 6 short of the required 61.

The extreme right Jewish Power party did not pass the minimum threshold, possibly as a result of the much higher Arab voter turnout that raised the overall number of total voters, and thereby raising the threshold. This factor could have also effected the other smaller parties.

On the left, even if Blue and White includes the Arab parties in a coalition, which no Israeli government has ever done and which they promised not to do, they would still be left with only 56 seats. And there’s absolutely no way that Yisrael Beytenu would join a coalition that included the Arab parties, and the feeling would most likely be mutual. It’s also almost impossible to imagine a scenario in which the religious parties would join a Blue and White led government that would include Labor and the Democracy Camp.

The obvious solution would be to form a unity government between Likud and Blue and White, which is exactly what Lieberman is pushing for and which he said is the only type of government that his party will join. The problem is that Blue and White has vowed never to join a government led by Netanyahu, because of the criminal investigations against him. And it’s very unlikely that the PM will step down or be ousted from his position as leader of Likud.

President Rivlin must now decide who he feels will have the best chance to form a new government. Of course, if no one is able to form a government, then new elections will be called again.

Annexation Promise
PM Netanyahu said at a press conference yesterday: ”Today, I announce my intention, after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea. This is a historic opportunity, a one-time opportunity, to extend Israeli sovereignty on our settlements in Judea and Samaria, and also on other important regions for our security, for our heritage, and for our future.”

The PM added, “Out of respect for President Trump and great faith in our friendship, I will await applying sovereignty until release of the president’s political plan.”

Arab leaders, the UN and the EU all condemned any annexation attempts.

The Jordan Valley, which stretches from the Dead Sea in the south to the Israeli city of Beit Shean in the north, makes up around 30 percent of the West Bank. Israel has always said it intends to maintain military control there under any peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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Rockets Fired
Today, terrorists fired three rockets at Israel from Gaza, triggering air raid sirens in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai and Netiv Ha’asara. One of the rockets exploded in a greenhouse near a town. No one was injured.

Yesterday, two rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza. Both were intercepted by Iron Dome and caused no damage. PM Netanyahu was speaking at a rally in Ashdod when the warning sirens went off. He was escorted off the podium by his security detail. Most of the rally attendees as well as several ministers remained in the venue and did not evacuate during the sirens. Likud deleted the video of the event from its Facebook page. His political opponents on the right and left attacked Netanyahu, claiming the rocket fire on Ashdod and Ashkelon was a humiliation.

After the siren, the PM returned to finish speech and tweeted: “Great support in Ashdod. You must vote to stop a leftwing-Arab government.”

Israeli analysts said it appeared that Gaza terrorist deliberately targeted the southern cities, knowing that Netanyahu and other politicians were holding rallies there.

In response to the rocket attacks, IDF jets carried out 15 airstrikes against Hamas military targets.
 
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Election Update
The latest poll, released on Tuesday, shows Likud leading with 33 potential Knesset seats over Blue and White’s 32. The Arab Joint List would get 10 seats, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu would get 9 seats, Ayelet Shaked’s Yamina 7, UTJ (ultra Orthodox) 7, Shas 7. The Democratic Union – an amalgam of the left-wing Meretz party, Ehud Barak’s Israel Democratic Party and Labor defector Stav Shaffir – would get 6 seats, the Labor-Gesher union would receive 5 seats and Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) 4.

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Bolton Out
President Donald Trump abruptly announced in a tweet Tuesday that he has asked national security adviser John Bolton to resign, noting that he “strongly disagreed with many” of Bolton’s suggestions “as did others in the administration.” He added, “I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.” Bolton then tweeted, “I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow.'”

In any case, one of Israel’s staunches supporters in the White House is out.

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Greenblatt Out
The White House has announced that Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, will leave the administration in the coming weeks. Greenblatt has been spearheading efforts at creating Trump’s Middle East peace plan, which the White House says will be released at least a month after the upcoming September 17th Israeli election.

President Trump tweeted, “After almost 3 years in my Administration, Jason Greenblatt will be leaving to pursue work in the private sector. Jason has been a loyal and great friend and fantastic lawyer….” He added that Greenblatt’s “dedication to Israel and to seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians won’t be forgotten.”

Jared Kushner praised Greenblatt and said “work has helped develop the relationships between Israel and its neighbors as he is trusted and respected by all of the leaders throughout the region.”

The Palestinian leadership welcomed Greenblatt’s departure.

Greenblat’s role is expected to be assumed by Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook, the State Department’s special representative for Iran.

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US Blocks
The US blocked a UN Security Council statement about the recent tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. The statement, drafted by France, stated that “members of the security council condemned all violations of the Blue Line, both by air and ground, and strongly calls upon all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities.” The US opposed the fact that the statement failed to specifically condemn Hezbollah and that it put Israel’s right of self-determination on an equal footing with the terrorist group.

Meanwhile, Lebanese President Anoun warned Israel that it would bear responsibility for any attack against Lebanon.

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PM in London
PM Netanyahu met with British PM Johnson is London yesterday. A Downing Street spokesperson later said the two leaders “agreed on the need to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon and stop wider destabilizing Iranian behavior”, while Johnson “stressed the need for dialogue and a diplomatic solution”. Netanyahu wants the UK to spurn a French plan to offer a $15bn credit line to help Iran sell oil.

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Haifa Fire
At least 18 firefighting crews from the Haifa region as well as other parts of the country successfully battled a massive fire at the Haifa Port oil warehouse yesterday. Large containers of sunflower and olive oil are stored in the warehouse ahead of distillation and bottling.

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Election Update
The latest polls show Likud and Blue and White each winning 32 seats in the upcoming election. Right wing Yamina and the Arab List are both projected to win 9 seats and Lieberman’s Yisroel Beytenu 10 seats. The Ultra Orthodox parties are at 15 seats and the left wing block at 13. Based on these projection, Avigdor Lieberman seems to hold the key to making or breaking any government.

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