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Home , Aryeh Eldad, Avichai Mandelblit, Yuval Diskin

Israel and the Middle East News Update

Monday, December 2

Headlines:

• Rivlin to Ask AG if Netanyahu Can Form a Government After Indictment • PM's Partners Drag Feet on Backing Him to Form Coalition • Left-Wing Parties Said in Merger Talks as Prospects of 3rd Election Grow • Gantz, Netanyahu Readying Compromises on Unity • Bennett Plans Building New Jewish Neighborhood in • Cabinet Approves $11.5m in Funding for Security in W. Bank Settlements • Trump and Netanyahu Discuss ‘Threat from Iran’ in Second Call in Weeks • With Brutal Crackdown, Iran Convulsed by Worst Unrest in 40 Years

Commentary: • Ma’ariv: “Right Wing Rule is in Danger” - By Aryeh Eldad, contributor to Ma’ariv • : “We’re the Victim, Not Netanyahu” - By Yuval Diskin, former director of the Israeli

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

News Excerpts December 2, 2019 Ha’aretz Rivlin to Ask AG if Netanyahu Can Form a Government After Indictment President Reuven Rivlin is preparing for the possibility that Prime Minister will receive be reccommended by the to form a government, and plans on asking Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit for his legal opinion on whether a prime minister can be given the mandate while under indictment. As of now, the President's Residence has yet to check if there is a legal barrier to Netanyahu forming a government after being charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust in the three corruption cases. Last week, Mendelblit published a legal opinion saying that there are no legal grounds to force the PM to resign or in light of his indictment. Mendelblit did not comment on whether PM will be allowed to form a government. See also, “Liberman vow to help build coalition false alarm” (JPost)

Ynet News PM's Partners Drag Feet on Backing Him to Form Coalition Party leaders from Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing bloc have - for now - declined to sign a petition drafted by the prime minister's party seeking a 14-day extension to the current period allowing any lawmaker to try to put together a coalition government. The Likud petition names Netanyahu as the person it backs in this effort, which aims to avert a third round of elections in 12 months. Both Likud and Benny Gantz's Blue and White party are scrambling to gather support from 61 Knesset members in order to be tasked with forming the next government. The current 21-day period in which any lawmaker can try to put together a coalition comes after both Netanyahu and Gantz failed to do so in the 28 days allocated to each following the Sept. 17 elections.

Times of Left-Wing Parties Said in Merger Talks as Prospects of 3rd Election Grow Two of the Knesset’s two left-leaning parties, Labor and Democratic Camp, have launched preliminary negotiations for a merger in the event that a new election, the third in less than a year, is called, Channel 13 reported Friday. The possibility of a joint left-wing slate was raised during a meeting between Labor chairman Amir Peretz and Democratic Camp head Nitzan Horowitz earlier this week. Officials in both parties reportedly said that they feel they need to merge due to an increased likelihood that one, or both of the parties, may not cross the electoral threshold in another national vote.

Jerusalem Post Gantz, Netanyahu Readying Compromises on Unity Blue and White leader Benny Gantz is prepared to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in making compromises ahead of the December 11 deadline to form a government and prevent a third election in under a year, sources close to Gantz said on Sunday. Netanyahu already compromised by dropping his insistence on serving as prime minister the first two years in a unity government to one year, and then relaying to Gantz that he would settle for “less than six months without tricks and shticks.” Sources close to Gantz said he was willing to accept the offer and stand up to Blue and White’s second and third candidates, MKs Lapid and Ya’alon, who warned him that it is a trap. The sources said Gantz will tell them that they can sit out of the govt’ while Netanyahu is prime minister and then join for his two years at the helm. See also, “Netanyahu said willing to vacate PM post for Gantz in under 6 months” (TOI) 2

Ynet News Bennett Plans Building New Jewish Neighborhood in Hebron Defense Minister said on Sunday that he is planning the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in the city of Hebron. Bennet instructed the military to begin the official process by advising the Palestinian municipality of the plan to construct housing for Jewish settlers in what had been the produce market which was closed in 1994. According to the proposed plan, the now-empty shops on the street level will remain in Palestinian hands while housing units will be built on the top floors to house settlers. The disputed territory was home for both Jews and Arabs before Arab riots broke out in 1929, in which dozens of local Jews were killed. The riots of August 1929 began when a long-running dispute over access to holy sites escalated into violence. Members of the local Arab community launched savage attacks on Jewish neighbors and their institutions, killing at least 67 Jews. See also, “Israel Plans to 'Double' Jewish Settlement in Battleground City of Hebron” (Ha’aretz)

Ha’aretz Cabinet Approves $11.5m in Funding for Security in W. Bank Settlements The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved an allocation of 40 million shekels ($11.5 million) for West Bank settlements. Most of the sum — 34.5 million shekels — is a one-time grant for security needs of Jewish communities in the territory. The remaining 5.5 million shekels is earmarked for the construction of first aid stations. An announcement of the intended allocation was issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the heads of the Yesha Council of settlements. At the end of the meeting, the council issued a statement “express[ing] support for the prime minister and appreciation for his leadership of the country at present.” See also “Netanyahu pledges $11.5 million for settlements' security” (i24 News)

Times of Israel Trump and Netanyahu Discuss ‘Threat from Iran’ in Second Call in Weeks US President Donald Trump spoke Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the two leaders focusing talks on “the threat from Iran,” the White House said. “The leaders discussed the threat from Iran, as well as other critical bilateral and regional issues,” a terse statement said late Sunday. There was no immediate readout on the call from Israel. The two last spoke on November 19, when Netanyahu thanked the president for Washington’s decision to repudiate a State Department legal opinion that said West Bank settlements were illegal. Though Netanyahu and Trump were once close allies who touted their friendship to their respective bases, ties between the two have been seen as cooling in recent months as the Israeli premier has struggled to cling to power. See also, President Trump speaks with Israel's Netanyahu about Iran, other issues” (Reuters)

New York Times With Brutal Crackdown, Iran Convulsed by Worst Unrest in 40 Years Iran is experiencing its deadliest political unrest since the Islamic Revolution 40 years ago, with at least 180 people killed — and possibly hundreds more — as angry protests have been smothered in a government crackdown of unbridled force. It began two weeks ago with an abrupt increase of at least 50 percent in gasoline prices. Within 72 hours, outraged demonstrators in cities large and small were calling for an end to the Islamic Republic’s government and the downfall of its leaders. In many places, security forces responded by opening fire on unarmed protesters, largely unemployed or low-income young men between the ages of 19 and 26, according to witness accounts and videos.

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Ma’ariv- November 29, 2019 Right Wing Rule is in Danger By Aryeh Eldad, contributor to Ma’ariv

• Netanyahu made an effort to recruit his supporters to attend the demonstration in support of him last Tuesday. He wanted them to depict him at the demonstration not as a defendant but as the victim of persecution by the police, the State Attorney’s Office and the attorney general. Even if his sense of persecution is genuine, and he is confident that he did not commit any crime, and even if the law enforcement agencies were out to get him—his attempt to recruit the masses failed. Even if many right wing voters are certain that Netanyahu is a victim of left wing persecution—only a few of them draw a link between his contention that seating him on the defendant’s bench is an attempted coup and the ability of a demonstration to stop a takeover of the law enforcement agencies. • After all, hundreds of thousands took part in a “social justice” protest that changed nothing. And hundreds of thousands demonstrated against disengagement and could not stop the demolition of a single house or the expulsion of a single child. So a demonstration against the attorney general? Against the State Attorney’s Office and the police? Will these be able to cancel the indictment? Right wing supporters perhaps wondered to themselves—if Mandelblit is a left wing mole and Shai Nitzan is an agent of the New Israel Fund, why didn’t Netanyahu fire them? He is the prime minister, after all. Not a demonstrator or an online commenter. • The problems with the police, the State Attorney’s Office and the attorney general are not new. They have been known for years. They didn’t begin with Netanyahu’s investigation. […] The slogan was chanted at the demonstration “the rule of law is not above the law.” That’s true. But the person who can cure these ills is not the demonstrators, but rather the prime minister. • And perhaps there were some among the right wingers who were called to attend and didn’t, who remembered that when they called for help, Netanyahu voted against them, in favor of disengagement. Perhaps they also remembered that he built almost nothing in Judea and Samaria. Or in Jerusalem. That he did not demolish Khan al-Ahmar. That he always forgot all his election promises to the national camp. Maybe they are fed up with being called to help with the slogan “the right wing is in danger” when they are unable to view Netanyahu as a real right wing leader. Perhaps they also remembered that Netanyahu, who is today raising an outcry against the law enforcement agencies, is the same Netanyahu who blocked the reforms to change the system for selecting judges, who blocked an override clause, who blocked the initiative to split the authorities of the attorney general, and only when the system turned against him, did he remember to fight it. • Few from the right wing, about 6,000 according to most reports, showed up. The settlers are able, when they want, to bring hundreds of thousands. They stayed home. So did the ministers (aside from the ubiquitous Miri Regev, who could not miss the opportunity to brownnose). Only Miki Zohar showed from the Likud MKs, and so perhaps will be appointed a minister as a reward. Most of the others found things to do. […] • If Netanyahu had not tried to so hard to recruit demonstrators—the failure perhaps would not have been so stinging. After repeated failures to form a government, this was another failure, inside his own camp. The writing on the wall is getting bigger—but he refuses to read it. Some

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of my best friends in the right wing camp tried to recruit the settlers, telling them: The is in danger! The rule of the right wing is in danger! And they’re right. In their diagnosis. But their proposed treatment was faulty. This was a demonstration for Netanyahu’s rule. Not for the Land of Israel. Not for the rule of the right wing. Furthermore, their “treatment,” to wit, to attend the demonstration—was liable to be damaging. • They tried to explain in their call that they had not become Netanyahu supporters. The said that they had not forgotten Netanyahu’s shortcomings and weaknesses. The construction freeze, the unkept promises. But they reasoned, “it is not Netanyahu who is the issue, the right wing camp must fight against the system that will oust a right wing leader elected by a majority of the people.” […] • The call “the rule of the right wing is in danger” is correct. But the right wing camp is not in danger because Netanyahu might be forced to go, but rather if the right wing camp sticks to him through thick and thin, even when he freefalls into an abyss. The message to future right wing leaders should be—you will earn our trust, you will receive our support in the polling stations and in the city squares only if you keep your election promises. If you apply Israeli law to Judea and Samaria. If you build. Or as Netanyahu once said: “If they give, they’ll get.” • True, the left wing is trying to topple Netanyahu in order to undermine the right wing camp. But the right wing has to realize that the left will assume power if the right wing sticks to Netanyahu and is not quick to present an alternative. Because even though Netanyahu enjoys the presumption of innocence—we called for Sharon and Olmert to resign because of corruption long before their trials. Today, it is enough to know about the gifts that Netanyahu received in abundance (Case 1,000) to which he admitted saying “it is permissible to receive gifts from friends” —for him not continue as prime minister and continuing to stick by such a leader is not just morally wrong, it is a bad political mistake. • Netanyahu’s political fate has been decided. He is now retreating only to gain time. But that only makes sense if the time is used to call up the reserves and to organize. But Netanyahu no longer has such reserves. He is willing to leave scorched earth behind. He could care less about the right wing staying in power. If the national camp were important to him, he would vacate his seat after an orderly process of choosing a new Likud leader. This is what did. […] Netanyahu is fighting only for his personal fate, and I fear that this battle is no longer rational. How does he gain anything by another few months in power? • The great fear among the Likud voters about the day after Netanyahu is understandable. In some areas (the economy, foreign relations), he had important achievements. and his consecutive years in power granted a sense of stability. But there comes a time when every leader must go. The shadow that Netanyahu cast prevented outstanding successors from sprouting. We must only hope that his fall will not bring down the national camp. That is within our hands.

Summary: The call “the rule of the right wing is in danger” is correct. But the right wing camp is not in danger because Netanyahu might be forced to go, but rather if the right wing camp sticks to him through thick and thin, even when he freefalls into an abyss. The message to future right wing leaders should be—you will earn our trust, you will receive our support in the polling stations and in the city squares only if you keep your election promises. If you apply Israeli law to Judea and Samaria. If you build. Or as Netanyahu once said: “If they give, they’ll get.” 5

Yedioth Ahronoth – December 2, 2019 We’re the Victim, not Netanyahu By Yuval Diskin, former director of the Shin Bet • Remember one thing: we’re the victim in the delusional situation that the country is in. We are, not Netanyahu the accused. Don’t let the accused, no matter how brilliant a salesman and rhetorician he may be, confound you for even a single moment. The future of our country, which was established against all odds, and the future of our people’s unity are at stake here. They are the victim. The victim is not the accused, who is prime minister of a transition government, the man who twice in the past year has failed to form a government; the man whom the attorney general just recently decided to prosecute. The victim isn’t the accused. We are the victim. • We and our children’s future is the victim. All of that is on the line here. Because the accused is prepared to do anything and everything to prove to us that a coup is being staged against him. He has incited against the rule of law and the media, and has called on his supporters to head out into the streets to demonstrate against…the rule of law in the State of Israel. Unprecedented. Unfathomable. Shocking. And he has done that so that he doesn’t have to go to face trial, where he will have to prove to the judges like every other citizen that he is innocent. • But let’s take a look at the accused’s assertions and see: is a coup truly being staged here? Let’s let the facts speak. Fact one: The accused is the man who appointed the former police commissioner, Roni Alsheich, who commanded the Israel Police that recommended that Netanyahu be indicted by the State Attorney’s Office. I know that former police commissioner back from when he was my subordinate in the General Security Service. How shall I put it? He isn’t exactly a activist or, heaven forbid, a member of the extreme left. • Fact two: The accused is the man who appointed and took pains to ensure that the attorney general who has just indicted him, Avichai Mandelblit, would be appointed attorney general. This same Mandelblit, who comes from an family, was the sole candidate for that job after having served as the accused’s cabinet secretary, and his appointment was confirmed by Netanyahu’s own government. This is also the place to remind everyone that the “user-friendly” Mandelblit put an end to ’s affair of the prime minister’s residences with a curious count of “deceptive exploitation of someone else’s mistake without fraud.” Indubitably, that might be a strange charge, but it is definitely creative and interesting. All of which proves to us, once again, that this attorney general has done anything but persecute the accused and his family. • Mouthpieces in the service of the accused, Netanyahu, claim that even this user-friendly attorney general, who recently decided—to the surprise of many and in a display of great personal courage—to indict the prime minister of the transition government in connection to Cases 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000, is himself a victim of the “deep state” that actually runs the country, and that it was this same “deep state” that spoke from Mandelblit’s mouth when he announced his decision. It would be best to remind all of those mouthpieces that this same Mandelblit has dragged his feet in a decidedly puzzling way in connection to the submarines affair. In that affair, as opposed to all of the other affairs, there are serious allegations of corruption that have direct bearing on the State of Israel’s national security. We can only hope that the statute of limitations doesn’t come to apply to that case by the time Mandelblit finally gets around to investigating it.

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• Fact three: Netanyahu the accused claims to be a victim of the media. But take note: he controls a daily newspaper that has the largest circulation in Israel because it is a freebie, a newspaper that was established on his behalf by Sheldon Adelson, who successfully bought a large number of “supportive” journalists with large amounts of money, and Netanyahu enjoys almost absolute control over that newspaper’s content. He also apparently controls Channel 20 and, according to the indictment, he also maintained tight control over Walla and held “give and take” talks with Noni Mozes and successfully intimidated quite a few editors and journalists into refraining from publishing anything “negative” about him. • Fact four: The charges against the accused will ultimately be addressed by the court and, most likely, will reach the Supreme Court. Naturally, that court has also been attacked by the accused’s mouthpieces and by quite a few of his supporters in the right-wing bloc. Just bear in mind that 13 out of the 15 (!!!) Supreme Court justices were appointed to the bench during his term in office. • Now, let’s assemble all those facts together: despite the very user-friendly appointments that he made, indictments were filed. The aforementioned public servants were unable to ignore the evidence that came before them in the numerous investigations and, as such, despite their close relationship with the accused, they chose to indict him. They chose to be loyal to the State of Israel and not to the person who appointed them in hope that they would grant him their blind loyalty. All of which makes it perfectly clear that there couldn’t be a bigger fabrication than the one that asserts that Netanyahu is a victim. • There is a victim in this story: we, the Israeli people. We are the victim of a deliberate and ongoing attack by the accused, Netanyahu, on the public’s unity. His deliberately divisive remarks that have been quoted and publicly made over the years were designed to serve his personal and political interests. They contributed to the sowing of hatred and division among the Jews in Israel and to a severe rupture in relations with Jewish communities in the diaspora and, to an equal degree, between the Arab citizens of the State of Israel and the Jewish citizens. Sowing those seeds of internal hatred and division is, in my opinion, the most egregious accusation possible. It is far more egregious than any of the “thousands” affairs. Divided nations never survive. They crumble. • But the accused hasn’t sufficed with undermining national unity. Now the accused has taken the unprecedented step of inciting against the law enforcement agencies in Israel while serving as its prime minister. The immediate result of that incitement has been that Shai Nitzan, the state attorney, and Liat Ben Ari, the district attorney who oversees the economic crimes division within the State Attorney’s Office and who is responsible for the fight against governmental and corporate corruption, now have had bodyguards assigned to them for fear that someone might try to hurt them. Herzl, Ben-Gurion and Begin must be turning over in their graves. Look at how far we’ve come from their vision of a model society as described by the Declaration of Independence. • Friends, don’t let anyone confound you. Remain clear-eyed. Remember time and time and time again: we are the victim of an ongoing campaign against national unity, against the media and against the rule of law. This campaign has been waged by Netanyahu solely in the service of his personal survival. This poses a strategic threat to our unity, the future of our people and the future of our country. Therefore, the time has come for us to publicly demand that the accused act immediately in keeping with his well-known and precisely-worded statements in 2008, which 7

he aimed at the prime minister at the time, : “This is a prime minister who is mired up to his neck in investigations, and he doesn’t have a public and moral mandate to make such fateful decisions for the State of Israel. There is fear—I must say [that it is] real, that isn’t unsubstantiated—that he may make decisions on the basis of his personal interest in his own political survival and not on the basis of the national interest (because) he is in this special predicament, which is so very deep.” • Olmert resigned and went to defend himself in court (and paid the price for his actions by going to prison). Alternatively, the accused Netanyahu has proved to us that he is guided solely by his personal interests and is acting diametrically opposed to the public and state interest. • If the Likud Central Committee can’t find the way to replace Netanyahu and to allow him to devote his time to dealing with his legal affairs, it will fall to us, the responsible public in Israel from all walks of life, to call on him to do so. We will demand that the man who stands accused meet the standard that he set so correctly back in 2008. We will do so online, in the streets and in the city squares. We will do so democratically, legally and responsibly. That is the only right thing that he can do immediately in order to keep the State of Israel a democratic, Jewish, and equal country free from corruption. Any other choice will turn his legacy into a black stain on the State of Israel’s history.

Summary: There is a victim in this story: we, the Israeli people. We are the victim of a

deliberate and ongoing attack by the accused, Netanyahu, on the public’s unity. His deliberately divisive remarks that have been quoted and publicly made over the years were designed to serve his personal and political interests. They contributed to the sowing of hatred and division among the Jews in Israel and to a severe rupture in relations with Jewish communities in the diaspora and, to an equal degree, between the Arab citizens of the State of Israel and the Jewish citizens. Sowing those seeds of internal hatred and division is, in my opinion, the most egregious accusation possible. It is far more egregious than any of the “thousands” affairs. Divided nations never survive. They crumble.

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