Israel's Do-Over Election
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October 17 2017
Israel and the Middle East News Update Tuesday, October 17 Headlines: • Labor Head: I Won’t Evacuate Settlements Under Peace Deal • Gabbay’s own Colleagues Reject his Evacuation Remarks • Israel Moves Ahead on West Bank Settlements, but Guardedly • Bennett: Israel Should Continue Security Cooperation with the PA • Israel Scraps Plan for Database of American Jewish Students • Trump Says Iran Deal Could be Terminated Altogether • Netanyahu Congratulates Kurz, Silent on Partnership with Far Right Commentary: • Yediot Ahronot: “With Netanyahu, it’s All About Political Survival” − By Sima Kadmon, political columnist at Yediot Ahronot • Jerusalem Post: “Will a Jewish Head of UNESCO Change its Anti-Israel Bias?” − By Tovah Lazaroff, Deputy Managing Editor of The Jerusalem Post S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President ● Aaron Zucker, Editor News Excerpts October 17, 2017 Times of Israel Labor Head: I Won’t Evacuate Settlements Under Peace Labor party head Avi Gabbay said he would not evacuate West Bank settlements as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians, in remarks that represent a dramatic break from the historical stance of the dovish party. “I won’t evacuate settlements in the framework of a peace deal,” said Gabbay, in a preview broadcast Monday of an interview with Channel 2 set to air in full Tuesday. “If you are making peace, why do you need to evacuate?” Elaborating on his comments, Gabbay said the notion any peace deal would by necessity require the evacuation of settlements is mistaken. “I think the dynamic and terminology that have become commonplace here, that ‘if you make peace — evacuate,’ is not in fact correct,” he said. -
And Other Enemies of the People
‘Anti-Zionists’ and other Enemies of the People “Did you know? Jeremy Bird, the American strategist, who came to help the left oust Bibi comes from anti-Israeli circles that argue that Gaza is the only place in the world in which soldiers [IDF] kill kids for sport.”(My Israel: Doing Zionism) A couple of weeks ago, Labor MK Stav Shaffir’s impromptu Knesset speech went viral. Social media called it “Who is a Zionist?” Shaffir attacked Habayt Hayehudi’s MKs for pretending they are “more Zionist than Ben-Gurion,” while taking public money and giving it to their friends in the Yesha Council. “Real Zionism,” she said “means dividing the budget equally among all the citizens of the country. Real Zionism is taking care of the weak. Real Zionism is solidarity, not only in battle but in everyday life.” Shaffir was responding to Naftali Bennett and Binyamin Netanyahu’s attack on the Zionist camp for being “Anti-Zionist.” Both Bennett and Netanyahu picked a list of candidates on Labor’s list and labeled them anti-Zionist: MK Merav Michaeli once said Israeli mothers should not send their sons to the army; MK Stav Shaffir, according to a book on the 2011 social protests, called “Hatikva” a racist song; Prof. Yossi Yona said he does not connect to the concept of Zionism; Zouheir Bahloul said his Palestinian identity is stronger than his Israeli identity. Bennett called on former President Yitzhak Navon not to join the Zionist Camp list in the honorary last place (120). “This is not a ‘Zionist Camp’, nor is it Zionism,” Bennett declared. -
1 Schlaglicht Israel Nr. 5/19 Aktuelles Aus Israelischen
Schlaglicht Israel Nr. 5/19 Aktuelles aus israelischen Tageszeitungen 1.-15. März Die Themen dieser Ausgabe 1. Versehentlicher Raketenangriff ...................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Israelische Parlamentswahlen ....................................................................................................................................... 3 3. Unruhen am Tempelberg ................................................................................................................................................. 6 4. Medienquerschnitt ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 1. Versehentlicher Raketenangriff heftigen Ausschreitungen bei Protesten in Gaza Israels Armee geht inzwischen davon aus, dass die gegen die hohen Lebenshaltungskosten und die zwei Raketen des Typs M-75 Fajr, eine Langstre- hohen Steuergelder, die die Hamas den Palästinen- ckenrakete aus iranischen Werkstätten, die Tel Aviv sern abverlangt. Demonstrant_innen steckten Auto- für einige Minuten den Atem anhalten ließen, unbe- reifen in Brand und blockierten Straßenkreuzungen. absichtigt abgefeuert wurden. Das Militär reagierte Die Sicherheitsbeamten der Hamas reagierten mit mit rund 100 Luftangriffen auf zumeist militärische harter Hand. Mehrere Menschen mussten mit Ver- Anlagen der Hamas. Vier Menschen trugen bei den letzungen ins Krankenhaus eingeliefert -
Israel's National Religious and the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict
Leap of Faith: Israel’s National Religious and the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict Middle East Report N°147 | 21 November 2013 International Crisis Group Headquarters Avenue Louise 149 1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 502 90 38 Fax: +32 2 502 50 38 [email protected] Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... i Recommendations..................................................................................................................... iv I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 II. Religious Zionism: From Ascendance to Fragmentation ................................................ 5 A. 1973: A Turning Point ................................................................................................ 5 B. 1980s and 1990s: Polarisation ................................................................................... 7 C. The Gaza Disengagement and its Aftermath ............................................................. 11 III. Settling the Land .............................................................................................................. 14 A. Bargaining with the State: The Kookists ................................................................... 15 B. Defying the State: The Hilltop Youth ........................................................................ 17 IV. From the Hills to the State .............................................................................................. -
How Palestinians Can Burst Israel's Political Bubble
Al-Shabaka Policy Brief Policy Al-Shabaka March 2018 WHEN LEFT IS RIGHT: HOW PALESTINIANS CAN BURST ISRAEL’S POLITICAL BUBBLE By Amjad Iraqi Overview the allies holding up his fragile rule, from the ultra- orthodox Jewish parties to his personal rivals within Although no indictments have been issued yet, Israelis Likud. “King Bibi,” however, survived them all. A are speculating whether the latest developments in skilled politician, he has been adept at managing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption Israel’s notoriously volatile coalition system, and [email protected] scandals finally mark the beginning of his political has remained in power with three consecutive demise. The second-longest serving prime minister governments over nine years – each more right wing after David Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu has had a than the last.2 profound impact on Israel’s political scene since the 1990s. It is therefore troubling, especially to Netanyahu directly influenced the country’s media Palestinians, that if these corruption cases are the landscape by shaping the editorial stance of Israel harbinger of Netanyahu’s downfall, they will have Hayom (the nation’s gratis, most-read newspaper, had nothing to do with the more egregious crimes for funded by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson), which he is responsible, and for which he – and future and used the Communications Ministry to threaten Israeli leaders – have yet to be held accountable. and harass media outlets that were critical of him. Despite crises and condemnations throughout This policy brief analyzes Israel’s political his career – including mass Israeli protests for transformations under Netanyahu and maps out the socioeconomic justice in 2011 and, more recently, current leadership contenders from a Palestinian weekly protests against widespread government perspective.1 It argues that Israel’s insular political corruption – Netanyahu withstood public pressures discourse, and the increasing alignment of Israeli to step down. -
July/August 2021/5781 President’S Message - Kelli Caplan It’S Summer and the UJC Is Alive with the Sound of Camp! All Wed to the UJC for Different Reasons
Dog Days of In the Box Series: Cooking with Summer Beach in a Box Carmela: Challah Page 4 Page 11 Page 19 News of the Jewish VA Peninsula Community July/August 2021/5781 President’s Message - Kelli Caplan It’s summer and the UJC is alive with the sound of camp! all wed to the UJC for different reasons. It Oh, how glorious it is to see and hear our youth having was fantastic to see such a gathering, and such a wonderful time at Camp Chaverim. Waching the drove home the importance of what we UJC come to life again with tie-dye clad children sporting do. What everyone had in common that huge smiles can boost anyone’s mood. It’s day was a smile and an life returning to normal, just what we all appreciation for our center and its ongoing needed. effort to improve year after year. Camp is just one way that the UJC has At the annual meeting, we also recognized shone brightly this year. We have worked an impressive number of volunteers. We hard to ensure that we stayed connected have a virtual army of members willing to during the past year. And it has worked. step up and help out when needed. That The energy at the UJC is as robust as ever. army powers our progress and deepens There are so many facets of life here that our connections. Without our volunteers, have blossomed in the face of adversity. we are like an octopus without tentacles. They add to all that we do, and brighten Our outreach and programming has our light out in the community. -
Freedom in the World 2019
Freedom in the World 2019 https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/israel A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 12 / 12 A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4 A largely ceremonial president is elected by the Knesset for one seven-year term. In 2014, Reuven Rivlin of the right-leaning Likud party was elected to replace outgoing president Shimon Peres, receiving 63 votes in a runoff against Meir Sheetrit of the centrist Hatnuah party. The prime minister is usually the leader of the largest faction in the Knesset. In 2014, in a bid to create more stable governing coalitions, the electoral threshold for parties to win representation was raised from 2 percent to 3.25 percent, and the no- confidence procedure was revised so that opponents hoping to oust a sitting government must simultaneously vote in a new one. The incumbent prime minister in 2018, Benjamin Netanyahu of the conservative party Likud, had been in office since 2009, most recently securing reelection after the 2015 parliamentary polls. A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4 Members of the 120-seat Knesset are elected by party-list proportional representation for four-year terms, and elections are typically free and fair. In the 2015 contest, Likud secured 30 seats, followed by the center-left Zionist Union with 24. The Joint List—a coalition of parties representing Arab citizens of Israel, who often identify as Palestinian—earned 13 seats; the centrist Yesh Atid (There Is a Future), 11; Kulanu, also centrist, 10; Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home), 8; the ultra- Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, 7 and 6, respectively; the right- wing Yisrael Beiteinu, 6; and the left-wing Meretz party, 5. -
Opinion New Government, New President, New Israel?
Journal of Military and Strategic VOLUME 20, ISSUE 3 Studies Opinion New Government, New President, New Israel? Melanie Carina Schmoll, PhD Israel in summer 2021 – the end of the pandemic seems to be near. Israel opens up, almost all mask requirements are cancelled, international travel groups are welcome and even the individual guests are allowed to travel to the Holy Land with almost no restrictions. It seems Israel is back in pre-pandemic times. But it is not the same country anymore. Some fundamental changes have happened over the last few weeks. When, in March 2021, the Israelis had to vote again for the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, it was for the fourth time within two and a half years. The outcome was almost the same as the three times before. Benjamin Nethanyahu, Israel´s long-time prime minister, won most of the seats with his Likud party. As the State of Israel is a parlamentary democracy the executive branch or the government draws its authority from the Parliament (the legislative branch) and needs its confidence. Therefore, the prime minister is not decided directly by the voters but depends instead on a process of bargaining among the various fractions elected to parliament. In Israel, no single party holds most of the seats in Parliament and thus the process of forming a government is long and complicated.1 Israel also has an extreme proportional system of government, 1 For more information see Melanie Carina Schmoll, “Israel and the permanent siege: The people have spoken - who will find an answer to the needs of the voters?” Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 20, 1 (2019). -
S Election Results
The Challenge of Israel’s Election Results I wrote the following for the latest newsletter of the World Union of Meretz, from the J Street Conference in Washington, DC. Representatives of all of the Israeli opposition gathered there, meeting together with its counterparts from American Jewry, who clearly represent the majority of American Jews. The final polls allowed on Friday the 13th, four days before election day, had given the Zionist Union (Labor & Hatnua) led by Herzog and Livni a lead of 24 to 20 seats, with an even chance to lead the next government. Netanyahu then went into emergency mode, using every demagogic trick in the book to turn the results around. He warned the leadership of the settlers that “the left” was on the verge of winning, and would begin to evacuate settlements, so they mobilized en masse, coming in thousands to Likud strongholds in the outlying and development towns to get out the vote. Mobilizing the extreme right to abandon Naftali Bennet’s Jewish Home party, Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu and the ultra-right Yachad party (led by Shas refugee Eli Yishai in alliance with Kahanist Baruch Marzel), Netanyahu renounced his support for a two-state solution, and on election day warned that Israeli Arabs were voting in droves, being “bussed in by Jewish left-wingers” supported by foreign money. This last claim was ridiculous, since Israeli Arab citizens were simply walking to the polling booths, exercising their democratic right to vote, and energized by the fact that the four Arab parties had united in a Joint Arab List to ensure that they would pass the minimum voter threshold that had been raised to try to prevent them from entering the Knesset. -
The New Israeli Government: Background and Prospects
Situation Assessement | 14 June 2021 The New Israeli Government: Background and Prospects Unit for Political Studies The hee Isrhele Gohsrnhrnte rackgrornd ane Prospect Series: Situation Assessement 14 June 2021 Unit for Political Studies TheUnit for Political Studies is thheCenter’s department dedicated to the study of the region’s most pressing current rffairs.eAn integral and vital part of thheACR S’ activities, it offers academically rigorous analysis on issues that are relevant and useful to the pubela, academics and policy-makers of thheArab region and bhyond. TheUnit for Political Studie draws on the collaborative efforts of a number of scholars based within and outside thheACR S. It produces nhree ofenhheCenter’s publication series: Assessment Report, PolicyeAnalysis, and Case Analysis reports.e.e Copyrighne©e2021eArabeCenter for Research and PolicyeStudies.eAll RlkhnIeReserved.eeeeee TheArabeCenter for Research and PolicyeStudies is an independent research institute and think tank for thhe studyeGfehistory and social sciences, with particular emphasis on the applied social sciences. TheCenter’s paramount concern is the advancement ofeArab societies and states, their cooperation withe one another and issues concerning thheArab nation in general.eTo that end, it seeks to examine and diagnose nhe situation in thheArab world - states and communities- to analyze social, economic and cultural policies and to provide political analysis,efrom an Arab perspective.e TheCenter publishes in botheArabic and English in order to make its work accessible to botheArab and non- Arab researchers.e TheArabeCenter for Research and PolicyeStudies Ae-TarfreStreet,eWrnleAl Banat Ae-Dryrhr,eQatar O Boxe10277,eDGhre +974e4035e4111 www.nGhainstitute.org The hee Isrhele Gohsrnhrnte rackgrornd ane Prospect Series: Situation Assessement Table of Contents 14 June 2021 Background . -
The Role of Ultra-Orthodox Political Parties in Israeli Democracy
Luke Howson University of Liverpool The Role of Ultra-Orthodox Political Parties in Israeli Democracy Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy By Luke Howson July 2014 Committee: Clive Jones, BA (Hons) MA, PhD Prof Jon Tonge, PhD 1 Luke Howson University of Liverpool © 2014 Luke Howson All Rights Reserved 2 Luke Howson University of Liverpool Abstract This thesis focuses on the role of ultra-orthodox party Shas within the Israeli state as a means to explore wider themes and divisions in Israeli society. Without underestimating the significance of security and conflict within the structure of the Israeli state, in this thesis the Arab–Jewish relationship is viewed as just one important cleavage within the Israeli state. Instead of focusing on this single cleavage, this thesis explores the complex structure of cleavages at the heart of the Israeli political system. It introduces the concept of a ‘cleavage pyramid’, whereby divisions are of different saliency to different groups. At the top of the pyramid is division between Arabs and Jews, but one rung down from this are the intra-Jewish divisions, be they religious, ethnic or political in nature. In the case of Shas, the religious and ethnic elements are the most salient. The secular–religious divide is a key fault line in Israel and one in which ultra-orthodox parties like Shas are at the forefront. They and their politically secular counterparts form a key division in Israel, and an exploration of Shas is an insightful means of exploring this division further, its history and causes, and how these groups interact politically. -
July 23, 2021/14 Av 5781 Next Deadline July 30, 2021 16 Pages
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Norwich, CT 06360 Permit #329 Serving The Jewish Communities of Eastern Connecticut & Western R.I. CHANGE SERVICE RETURN TO: 28 Channing St., New London, CT 06320 REQUESTED VOL. XLVII NO.14 PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY JULY 23, 2021/14 AV 5781 NEXT DEADLINE JULY 30, 2021 16 PAGES HOW TO REACH US - PHONE 860-442-8062 • FAX 860-540-1475 • EMAIL [email protected] • BY MAIL: 28 CHANNING STREET, NEW LONDON, CT 06320 JFEC Annual Campaign Kickoff Annual Harold Juli Memorial & Ice Cream Social - It’s So Cool! Cantors’ Concert August 1 Come and enjoy a fun afternoon on You must register to attend. Congregation Beth El of Waterford/New 2007, after which the synagogue Sunday, August 8, 2021 from 4:30- The deadline to register is London is pleased to present its annual Harold Board of Directors voted to name D. Juli Memorial Cantor’s Concert on Sunday, the event in his memory; sadly, 6:30 PM at the Hygienic Art Park at Wed., Aug. 4. August 1, 2021, beginning at 7:00 PM via Zoom. he was to be the congregation’s 79 Bank Street, New London. Here’s how to register: This year will feature two crowd-pleasers, next president. 1. Online by going to the www. Hazzan Sanford Cohn and Cantor Michael Zoos- There is no charge to view the JFEC.com website. Go to man who will be accompanied by pianist Na- performance, but non-members event date on the calendar tasha Ulyanovsky. They will be performing a are asked to please contact the at the bottom of the home variety of music genres including Ladino, show synagogue at 860-442-0418 or page and click on JFEC An- tunes, Hebrew songs, North American pop by email [email protected] for nual Kick Off – Ice Cream Jewish composers, Yiddish songs, and Jewish the Zoom link; the event will be Social and follow the direc- songs of healing.