Israel and the Middle East News Update

Friday, April 24

Headlines:

• , Kahol Lavan in Legislative Marathon to Change Basic Laws • Entire Prosecution Top Echelon Supports A-G Against State Attorney • ICRC Delivers Vital Medical Supplies to Gaza • Muslims Prepare for Restrained Ramadan Clouded by Coronavirus • Kindergartens, Elementary Schools Reportedly Set to Open on May 3 • EU Warns Incoming Israeli Gov't Against West Bank Annexation • Largest Group of Jewish Immigrants Since Start of Outbreak Expected • US to Reduce Intel with Mideast Countries who Criminalize Homosexuality

Commentary:

• Ha’aretz: “Netanyahu-Gantz Deal Might Mean Ordinary Israelis Must Save the Day” - By Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of • Ma’ariv: “A Government with Moral Turpitude” - By Orit Lavi-Nesiel, commentator at Ma’ariv

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org

News Excerpts April 24, 2020 Ha’aretz Likud, Kahol Lavan in Legislative Marathon to Change Basic Laws Kahol Lavan and Likud are planning to begin the marathon process of amending Israel’s Basic Laws, the closest thing the state has to a constitution, according to the coalition agreement reached between the two parties on Monday. But the sides have not yet reached an agreement on the final wording of the new laws.The heads of the opposition parties in the Knesset announced in response that they are demanding that the advancement of the legislation be delayed. In a letter to the Knesset speaker and chairman of Kahol Lavan, Benny Gantz, the heads of the , Yesh -Telem and parties said, “The advancement of the bills, before the High Court of Justice has ruled on the matter of agreement between the parties, could well create a situation in which the Knesset legislated a law whose basis is undermined in a decision of the High Court of Justice.

Jerusalem Post Entire Prosecution Top Echelon Supports A-G Against State Attorney The entire prosecution top echelon, including around 20 division chiefs covering all sectors of the country, published a public letter on Friday supporting Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit in the public breakdown between him and Acting State Attorney Dan Eldad. Mandelblit on Thursday said that Eldad must be forced out on May 1 even though this would violate the coalition deal signed between Likud and Blue and White. In response, Eldad implied that Mandelblit wanted to get rid of him because he was probing the attorney-general. He did not elaborate on the probe other than to say it was based on information from an unnamed journalist. See also, “A-G rips apart coalition deal on keeping Ohana’s state attorney” (JPost)

Ynet News ICRC Delivers Vital Medical Supplies to Gaza The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday delivered vital medical equipment to Gaza including ventilators, and more equipment crucial for the treatment of severe symptoms of COVID-19.This donation is badly needed in Gaza's failing health system that contains only 110 ICU beds, most of which are already occupied by elderly patients. There are only 93 ventilators in the entire Strip which is home to two million residents. The Red Cross said it is also working to improve the infrastructure at the European Hospital in Gaza city where most coronavirus patients were being treated, building a contamination monitoring facility. Facial masks and protective goggles were also delivered to the Red Crescent teams who operate the ambulance services in the Gaza Strip. Times of Israel Muslims Prepare for Restrained Ramadan Clouded by Coronavirus Muslims in Israel and the Palestinian territories were preparing Thursday to begin the holy month of Ramadan without visits to mosques or festive communal meals as the Islamic world struggle to balance the demands of religion with public safety in the wake of the spread of the coronavirus. On Wednesday, Israel’s government approved emergency measures placing nighttime curfews on Muslim-majority towns and in Ramallah, Palestinian Authority officials said mosques would remain shuttered and called on people to avoid getting together for the holiday.

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Jerusalem Post Kindergartens, Elementary Schools Reportedly Set to Open on May 3 The Education Ministry is reportedly set to reopen kindergartens and elementary schools during the first week of May as Israel prepares to gradually ease its pandemic restrictions. The government has faced mounting public frustration in recent days over the continued lockdown, although health officials remain steadfastly opposed to opening schools due to the risk of infections among children. Thus far, only special education programs have restarted operations, albeit in a limited capacity, while daycares and all other schooling have remained on the back burner. School administrative staff were ordered back to work on Thursday. A statement from the Education Ministry said administrative employees would be returning to schools subject to Health Ministry guidelines.

AP EU Warns Incoming Israeli Gov't Against West Bank Annexation The European Union on Thursday issued a warning against the incoming Israeli government's intention to annex parts of the West Bank, saying that such a move "would constitute a serious violation of international law." The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the 27-member bloc does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the territory and that it will "continue to closely monitor the situation and its broader implications, and will act accordingly." Earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival Benny Gantz signed a coalition agreement that includes a clause to advance plans to annex parts of the West Bank, including Israeli settlements, starting on July 1. Netanyahu's pro-settler base is eager to move forward with annexation while the friendly administration of President Donald Trump is in office. See also, “U.K., EU States Warn Netanyahu-Gantz Government Against West Bank Annexation” (Ha’aretz)

Ha’aretz Largest Group of Jewish Immigrants Since Start of Outbreak Expected Thirty-six immigrants from Belarus are scheduled to land in Israel on Sunday on a regular commercial flight, despite the strict regulations Israel has introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This flight will be the largest organized group of immigrants to arrive since the outbreak of the disease. The flights were paid for and organized by the International Fellowship for Christians and Jews, a private charity active in promoting aliyah, Jewish immigration to Israel. It operates mainly in former Soviet bloc countries. The Jewish Agency, which has been assisting with logistics, confirmed that all the passengers had been approved for aliyah. Under new rules aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus, only Israeli nationals and individuals pre-approved for immigration are allowed entry into the country as of now.

Jerusalem Post US to Reduce Intel w. Mideast Countries who Criminalize Homosexuality The acting Director of National Intelligence for the US government, Richard Grenell, may curb intelligence-sharing with Middle East countries that continue to criminalize same-sex relations.According to a Wednesday New York Times report, Grenell said, “We can’t just simply make the moral argument and expect others to respond in kind because telling others that it’s the right thing to do doesn’t always work,” adding that “to fight for decriminalization is to fight for basic human rights.” Grenell added that “we have the president’s total support. This is an American value, and this is United States policy.”The Times reported that Grenell said. 3

Ha’aretz – April 24, 2020 Netanyahu-Gantz Deal Might Mean Ordinary Israelis Must Save the Day

By Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel

• Nothing of the like has been seen before – not in Israel or in any other advanced democracy. This political agreement, fundamentally corrupt and rotten, emasculates the Knesset under cover of the coronavirus, undermines the foundations of our system of government and subordinates the Supreme Court to the government. • The obvious reason for its existence is neither the coronavirus nor the crisis, but immunity for the criminal defendant, Benjamin Netanyahu, in any situation and at any price. Here’s a partial list of its components, all of which are in the defendant’s service. • If the defendant is barred from serving, Israel will hold another general election. Effectively, this eliminates the so-called Dery-Pinchasi precedent stating that a minister charged with bribery or a similar crime must be fired. • For six months, the Knesset will not legislate and no appointments will be made, including of a new state prosecutor and police commissioner. The Judicial Appointments Committee will include a representative of the defendant instead of a representative of the opposition. • Finally, there’s the so-called Norwegian Law that lets ministers resign from the Knesset and be replaced by someone else in their party’s election slate, but not necessarily the next in line. (And for now let’s ignore the new government’s two “prime ministerial” residences and the 50 ministers and deputy ministers at a time of a million unemployed and businesses are collapsing.) This agreement reflects a moral, political and psychological collapse by Kahol Lavan leaders Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi. It’s a gross betrayal of their voters’ trust, and the concrete result is miserable. • When they already had the backing of the High Court of Justice, and when all that was left to do was to pass a law stating that in the future someone charged with crimes involving moral turpitude may not form a government, everything collapsed – in a way that I find inexplicable. One obvious possibility is that this outcome stems partly from considerations hidden from our eyes. But another part revolves around rescuing the defendant, both from his current trial and the investigations to come. • And don’t let them tell you there was no choice. Netanyahu was making threats with an unloaded gun. The very passage of the law to bar him from forming a government would have weakened him dramatically, made it clear that there could be no fourth election and opened up possibilities such as a six-month emergency extension of the current caretaker government. Or maybe even the Likud party would have abandoned its , a defendant whose time is up. • Even if, for lack of other options, Netanyahu had resumed talks on a unity government, it would have been unity between equals, with Kahol Lavan at 33 Knesset seats and Gantz possessing political power as well. Instead, the two former military chiefs who led the “Bibi go home” bloc for three election campaigns now find themselves crowning the defendant and collaborating with him on destroying the rule of law.

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• This is utter insanity. Would anyone have believed a year ago that Gantz would give the defendant veto power over the appointment of the attorney general, state prosecutor, police commissioner, police investigators and Supreme Court justices? • Many people contributed to this crisis. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit, who submitted the indictments against Netanyahu “with a heavy heart, but at peace with himself,” has been silent ever since. Why? What’s happening with the investigations into Netanyahu’s stock dealings with his cousin, on which the statute of limitations will expire in six months? And into Netanyahu’s false reports to the state comptroller? And into the hacking of his rivals’ cellphones, including the role played in the affair by Weizman? • The High Court also played a role in the crisis. In a Weimar-like moment on the eve of the third election, the court refused to rule on whether someone charged with bribery can form a government, arguing that the question at the time was only theoretical. But what could have been more concrete? Millions of Israelis were going to the polls, and the court wasn’t willing to answer this simple question. And if it didn’t have the courage to do so then, how will it now? • What an irony. On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the son of a historian of the Spanish Inquisition and the son of a survivor of Bergen-Belsen signed an agreement that will go down in history as a disgrace and probably won’t be implemented anyway. It’s now up to the High Court, and if it fails to make a clear decision, the torch of the battle to save the Israel we loved will pass to ordinary Israelis.

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Ma’ariv – April 23, 2020 A Government with Moral Turpitude

By Orit Lavi-Nesiel, commentator at Ma’ariv

• Who are you, ministers in Israel’s cabinet, who serve as rubber stamps for the decisions that Netanyahu makes at the advice of high-ranking bureaucrats in the government ministries? Why do you submissively accept the faulty mechanism whereby Netanyahu adopts new regulations, announces them to the public, and only then calls a cabinet meeting to approve them retroactively? Who are you, Members of Knesset, who agree to be a fig leaf for the show of independent parliamentary democracy? Who are you, journalists and media, who accept the rules of the game and let Netanyahu issue declarations and hand down rulings without asking him a single question? And who are you, citizens of Israel, who are groaning under the economic crisis and making peace with equanimity with the new government in the making? • A gloomy chapter in the annals of Israeli politics ended this week, and a new and embarrassing one has begun: a government of huge proportions, whose sole purpose is to serve as a suit of armor for the defendant from Balfour Street and spare him from facing justice. The coalition partners who even yesterday swore not to join someone charged with crimes and rejected legislation to bypass the High Court of Justice ultimately signed on to a clause that bypasses it, stipulating that if the Supreme Court disqualifies Netanyahu (the odds of which are slim), the Knesset will be dissolved and elections will be held, with Netanyahu serving as prime minister of the transitional government. This is an unconstitutional clause that is meant to intimidate the Supreme Court and effectively abolish the Knesset’s independence. Where are the Likudniks who are knights of democracy, aspiring to the principle of the separation of powers who lambasted the High Court of Justice on the grounds that it must not intervene in the legislative branch’s actions with regard to electing the Knesset speaker? They are all silent. • Only Netanyahu keeps on juggling in the wandering circus in which he is the director and the lead player. The Knesset and the cabinet serve as the arena where he makes fools of his more or less natural partners. True, politics requires compromise, and coalition negotiations have always entailed giving “dumplings” (a euphemism for appointments and unique budgets, the point of which is to satisfy the partners). In this context, the poet Avraham Shlonsky, who criticized the rule of [predecessor to the Labor Party—INT] counted three stations: “It starts being about the workers, then it turns to disgust, and it culminates in malfeasance.” The fifth Netanyahu government will depart from the fourth station: the Jerusalem District Court, where the prime minister’s trial will begin next month. Yitzhak Rabin said that every coalition had a little disgust, emphasizing the words “a little.” He didn’t imagine that you could have it in such huge portions. • The coalition agreement and its appendices are a guide to how the 35th cabinet will act: they change basic laws and arrangements of governance as if they were nothing, and they grant Netanyahu the right to veto appointments for Supreme Court justices, so that the High Court of Justice will also think twice before ruling on the petitions against him. The Knesset will be dissolved in three years, contrary to the law that states that the Knesset is elected for four years. The coalition MKs will be subject to strict coalition discipline restricting legislative initiatives and effective oversight of the cabinet’s work. Moreover, during the six-month emergency

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government, all primary or secondary legislation will receive Netanyahu and Gantz’s approval. In other words, the MKs are marionettes and Netanyahu is the puppeteer. • Gideon Saar once used a simpler expression, “pushovers from Pushoverland.” It was during the Olmert government, after the great split that left the Likud with only 12 seats. Now he and his colleagues have opted to exercise the right to remain silent, whereas Blue and White members have been telling themselves bubbe meises [“tall tales” in Yiddish—INT], as if they had saved the country from a fourth round of elections. • Nothing is more ironic than the title of the coalition agreement to form a “national emergency unity government.” The government in the making will be a government with moral turpitude. This really is an emergency, but the alarms are silent. The wail of the siren is reserved for memorial ceremonies and Red Color alerts. After the tribulations of three election campaigns that stretched on for a year and a half, no one will mourn the premature passing of Israeli parliamentary democracy.

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