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Home , Aryeh Deri, Moshe Gafni, Naftali Bennett, Yaakov Litzman

Israel and Middle East News Update

Wednesday, June 9

Headlines: ● Lawmakers to Vote Sunday on Formation of Govt of 'Change' ● and UTJ Leaders Lash Out at New Government ● Edelstein to Challenge Netanyahu for Leadership ● Flag March to Take Place June 15 ● : Tried to Hamper Defenses From Gaza Tower ● Palestinian Leaders in for Gaza Cease-Fire Talks ● Blinken Calls Out UNRWA in Congress ● Israel Reported to Strike Several Sites Across Syria

Commentary: ● : “All Means are Kosher’’ - By Chen Artzi-Sror

● Ma’ariv: “Disgraceful Trio’’ - By Ben Caspit

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 1725 I St NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President News Excerpts June 9, 2021 Ynet News Lawmakers to Vote Sunday on Formation of Govt of 'Change' Lawmakers will vote Sunday to approve the new government put together by leader , Speaker said. The move will unseat Prime Minister , Israel’s longest-serving leader who has railed repeatedly against his political opponents as they worked to form their coalition of right-wing, left-wing, centrist and Arab parties. Lapid said that the coalition agreements would be presented at least 24 hours before the vote as required by law. If the new government wins the vote of confidence, which is expected as it has a majority, it will be sworn in on the same day, marking the end of Netanyahu's 12-year run as prime minister and his replacement by far-right head . Dig Deeper ‘‘Report: TIFF Over Construction a Last-Minute Obstacle to Coalition’’ (Times of Israel)

Hamodia Shas and UTJ Leaders Lash Out at New Government Shas and leaders, and Rabbi , spoke out against the government. “Something has fallen in Israel. The Jewish State is in danger. We are going to fulfill the dream of , Labor, the Reform and Lieberman.’’ Deri said. “The government led by Bennett is going to destroy everything we have built here for 70 years: a Jewish state that allows us to live together. It will destroy the holy Shabbos and the Rabbinate,” he warned. Litzman said: “What we see before our eyes is an extreme left-wing government that has lost its way, lost its values and lost its conscience. The whole Jewish character of the country is in danger. Israel’s tradition, religious values and the tenets of Judaism are thrown into the trash. Giyur, yeshivah students, the Torah world, Shabbos Kodesh, the Kosel, recognition of the Reform – everything here is broken into and falls into the hands of haters of religion Liberman, Bennett and Lapid.’’ Dig Deeper ‘‘Top Evangelical Leader Warns: Israel Could Lose Our Support if Netanyahu Ousted’’ (Times of Israel)

Ynet News Edelstein to Challenge Netanyahu for Likud Leadership As Netanyahu prepares for the end of his term in office, a senior member of Likud was planning to challenge him for the leadership of the Likud party, Likud sources said. Health Minister will join former Jerusalem mayor MK in running for leadership when the party holds its next primary election. The sources expressed the belief that Netanyahu would also face challenges from other senior Likud members should he become leader of the opposition during the term of the new government. Barkat is planning to host a conference in on Thursday, with the participation of thousands of Likud party members, where he intends to present his vision for Israel in the coming years. Edelstein declined to comment on the claims, and close associates said he would speak publicly when he had something new to say. 2 I24 News Jerusalem Flag March to Take Place June 15 The March of the Flags will take place next week in Jerusalem according to an itinerary that will be fixed in coordination between police and organizers of the parade. Netanyahu reached an agreement in discussion with Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister on the sidelines of a security cabinet meeting. The march had been canceled after its route through the 's Damascus Gate was not authorized by police, who cited security concerns. The march was seen as possibly setting off violence just before a new government was set to be sworn in. The annual Flag March to commemorate Jerusalem Day is always a controversial event; partly because its route takes it through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. The original march was planned for May 10 but had to be canceled when the Hamas-controlled launched a barrage of rockets at Jerusalem, as well as Israel's densely populated center. Dig Deeper ‘‘Netanyahu Was Long Appreciated for Keeping Israel Safe. Now He’s Endangering Us’’ (Times of Israel)

Associated Press Israel: Hamas Tried to Hamper Defenses From Gaza Tower Israel’s ambassador to the United States , said that Hamas militants tried to disrupt Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defense system from a Gaza building housing The Associated Press and other news outlets, prompting the Israeli air force to destroy the high rise. The AP said it has not seen evidence to support the claim. Erdan issued his statement a day after meeting the AP’s president and chief executive, Gary Pruitt, and Ian Phillips, vice president for international news, at the AP’s New York headquarters. The Israeli air force bombed the 12-story al-Jalaa tower on May 15, roughly an hour after ordering all occupants to evacuate. No one was injured, but the building was destroyed. The building was home to offices belonging to the AP, the Al Jazeera satellite channel as well as dozens of families. The AP renewed its call to see evidence backing Israel’s claim that Hamas militants were operating in the building. Dig Deeper ‘‘Nine Lessons for Israel Following Gaza Operation’’ (Al-Monitor)

Reuters Palestinian Leaders in Egypt for Gaza Cease-Fire Talks Palestinian leaders, including Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a delegation from President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, arrived in Cairo for separate talks with Egyptian officials that aim to reinforce a ceasefire with Israel. Haniyeh’s visit came in response to a special invitation from Cairo, in advance of a broader meeting that could begin as early as next week, a Hamas spokesman said. Jibril Rajoub, a senior Fatah figure, which dominates the Palestinian Authority that exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was also expected to meet Egyptian officials, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said. Abbas has been invited to Egypt. The Palestinian and Egyptian sources did not say whether the delegations from the rival Palestinian groups would meet each other. Egypt has said it will allocate $500m for the reconstruction. Egypt has played a major role in the brokering of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Dig Deeper ‘‘Gazans Struggle With Continued Israeli Restrictions’’ (Al-Monitor)

3 Jerusalem Post Blinken Calls Out UNRWA Antisemitism in Congress Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that the Biden administration’s renewal of funding for UNRWA is conditional on anti-Israel and anti-Jewish education reform, referencing educational materials that erase Israel from maps and praise terrorism and martyrdom. The State Department would be “looking very, very carefully” at the mechanisms that the refugee organization for Palestinians says it has in place in order to address problematic educational materials, which were discovered by a January 2021 review by Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), a non-profit that monitors the content of school textbooks. The State Department reportedly became aware of the UNRWA curriculum in February. The European Parliament also expressed outrage upon being briefed earlier this year of the hate being taught to children. Canada, which pledged $24m to UNRWA in 2020, and Australia have also announced investigations into the refugee organization. The Biden administration announced it would provide $235m in aid to the Palestinians, restarting funding for the UNRWA and restoring other assistance cut off by former President . Dig Deeper ‘‘Poll: Nearly Half of Democratic Voters Think US Military Aid to Israel Should Be Decreased’’ (I24 News)

Times of Israel Israel Reported to Strike Several Sites Across Syria An Israeli airstrike caused damage to sites in southern and central Syria, Damascus said, the first attack attributed to Israel in over a month. According to Syrian state news agency Sana, air defense systems managed to shoot down some Israeli missiles which were fired from the direction of Lebanon. It said some missiles were shot down and others caused damage, citing a military source. Video published by Sana purported to show air defense interceptors shooting down missiles. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel, which does not generally comment on individual airstrikes in Syria. The IDF has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against moves by Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria and efforts to transport advanced, game-changing weapons to terrorist groups in the region, principally . The pace of attacks has slowed considerably in recent months, with the last reported attacks taking place May 5 and 6 on sites in Latakia and near Quneitra. One civilian was reported killed in the May 5 strike. In late April, an errant Syria air defense missile flew into Israel and exploded over the region, setting off sirens and raining shrapnel near the Dimona nuclear reactor. Dig Deeper ‘‘Gantz: Israel to Use Overwhelming Force in Future Lebanon War’’ ()

4 Yedioth Ahronoth – June 9, 2021 All Means are Kosher By Chen Artzi-Sror ● “Remove your kippa,” “remove your kerchief,” are insults that religiously-observant people can never grow used to. Not because those insults are necessarily disrespectful of them, but because they are disrespectful of what those articles are supposed to represent—the very name of God. The Haredi politicians threw a tantrum yesterday on their way into the opposition in which they hurled countless insults at Naftali Bennett and his colleagues. The words “wicked” and “Reform” were bandied about, and naturally they also felt obliged to order him to remove his kippa. They had to do something that would show who truly belonged to the group of observant Jews and who was beyond the pale. ● Deri and Litzman didn’t exactly do saints’ work in politics until Bennett showed up. Sometimes a camel can collapse under the weight of its own hump that it can’t see. With the leaders of the Haredi parties suspected of criminal wrongdoing, when the demands made by bereaved families from the Mt. Meron disaster for a commission of inquiry have run up against a brick wall, and after the Haredi politicians bent the coronavirus regulations for their sector even as the pandemic raged—it is hard to believe that they yielded too much satisfaction to the Creator in heaven by doing all that. But He and His name, just like and the saints, were enlisted to serve as instruments in a political battle. ● The question that ought to be asked is: who was the target audience of the Haredi politicians’ cries of dismay? The hard core group of their devoted voters aren’t going to go anywhere. Their softer supporters and more independent thinkers are unlikely to be persuaded by their jeremiads after the recent spate of failures and fiascos. And the general public? The same news broadcast that featured their demand that Bennett remove his kippa also featured a report about a new set of allegations of bribery in Litzman’s inner circle. It seems fairly easy to know how they are going to view things. “That’s the Haredim’s job, to worry and to sow fear,” said a Haredi friend of mine to me only half seriously. “And the secular [Israelis’] job,” he said in a Hasidic lilt, “is going to be to prove them wrong.” ● This cynical game is ultimately a performance in which all of the actors know perfectly well that everyone can see the director setting up the scenes and creating the sets. Having said that, this narrow unity government does not include any representatives of that important segment of Israeli society and that is why the burden of proof currently lies with Bennett and Lapid. Even if sitting in the opposition can only do good things for Haredi politics and the Haredi citizens, the bridge to them needs to be indirectly maintained and not dismantled. In another few weeks Israel may have itself a functioning government. The reciprocal trade of insults was cold and calculated, and won’t leave a lasting mark.

5 ● The important question is what is now going to be built after that passes, and whether the opportunity of a government without Haredim will be utilized intelligently but sensitively. Ultimately, both sides want to keep the door open. Not just because running a coalition with just 61 MKs is dreadfully difficult, but because being in opposition to the people on whom you’re dependent for state budgets is just as much of a nightmare.

6 Ma’ariv – June 9, 2021 Disgraceful Trio By Ben Caspit ● Fire, brothers, fire. The town is burning [Caspit is referring to “The Town is Burning,” a poem written in 1938 by a Polish Jew about the rising tide of anti-Semitism and the sense of impending doom]. The end of the Jewish state has arrived. For 3,000 years we survived pogroms, destruction, the Inquisition, , wars and disasters—until the advent of Bennett. Naftali Bennett. Aryeh Deri, and Yaakov Litzman yesterday described Bennett as the latest great and wicked tyrant who has risen up to destroy us. How did the rabbis put it the other day in their petition? “We need to do everything to prevent it.” Yesterday they began the cursing stage in that process. The truth is that the Haredim truly are afflicted. No, I don’t mean their miserable leadership. I mean the Haredim themselves. More than a million Israeli citizens are imprisoned under the leadership of a group of people who are unworthy of serving as the leaders of a small shtetl on the outskirts of the Pale of Settlement. Where did they find the chutzpah yesterday to lash out so rudely, crudely and brazenly against a person who had had the gall to commit the greatest act of heresy a Jew could possibly commit—namely, to form a government without Binyamin Netanyahu? Only the Holy One Blessed Be He knows. I have the sinking suspicion that even he doesn’t know. ● It was a jihadist-like setting. Deri announced that Bennett was going to “root out religion from the state.” He also spoke about the “kippa-wearers’ lust for power,” while irony quietly committed suicide in the corner of the room. Next came Moshe Gafni, a human megaphone and a man who soldered himself to state coffers. Gafni denounced Bennett adding the phrase “may the name of the wicked rot,” which is a traditional curse that is reserved for history’s greatest tyrants: Haman the Wicked [the villain from the Book of Esther], Titus, Chemlinsky and Yair Lapid. Yaakov Litzman gave a particularly miserable grand finale, calling on Bennett to remove the kippa from his head. “Shame on you,” he cried out. Let’s review the facts for a moment. Litzman, for whatever reason, isn’t ashamed of the fact that the attorney general has decided to indict him (pending a hearing) on charges of bribery. The man who served as health minister and, while he was responsible for public health, allegedly abdicated his duties. ● The man who collaborated with a suspected pedophile [Malka Leifer], and pressed [Health Ministry officials to issue] permits to a deli that was found to sell tainted food and more. And just this week more members of his innermost circle were arrested in connection with an entirely new bribery case. The story is always the same: abuse of their positions of power within the Health Ministry to receive payouts. And now he’s telling Bennett that he ought to be ashamed of himself? And what about Deri? After spending a few years in prison, he returned to the scene of the crime, came under new suspicions and we can only hope that this time he won’t be indicted. No final decision has been made on that count yet. Not long ago he mustered the kind of pathos that usually only Netanyahu is able to muster, and pledged that he would personally vouch for the promise that Bibi made to Gantz to honor the alternating premiership arrangement in November 2021. 7 ● It isn’t clear whether he used his famous slice of onion before making that famous promise to vouch, and it is even less clear why he didn’t utter a peep once it became evident—predictably enough—that Netanyahu had fleeced Gantz and the entire country only to continue to evade justice. That leaves Gafni, the robbed Cossack. Gafni has grown accustomed to having his hand on the tap that controls the flow of money from the state coffers for years on end, and to being able to disburse funds, to set conditions and to clip coupons. Now they’re taking his toy away from him. Is it any wonder that he screamed yesterday like Sara Netanyahu being asked to pay for something? I hope that that disgraceful triumvirate—Deri, Litzman and Gafni—sit down in another few weeks to watch a recording of the horror show that they put on yesterday. I hope that they have the courage to repent, to pick up the phone and to apologize to Bennett. Incidentally, contrary to any other impression, those three politicians are the last people to have the right to judge others about how Jewish they act or to tell anyone to remove his kippa. This Jewish state was established in 1948 by [secularists such as] David Ben-Gurion and the Zionist forefathers. Had it been up to the rabbis in Europe, we would all still be living in ghettos. ● In summary, the alternative government, if it is formed, won’t place the State of Israel’s Jewish character or the Jewish religion in any danger. For the first time in history and against all odds, the prime minister will be a God- fearing, kippa-wearing man. The only thing that is in any danger is the monopoly that was recklessly given to extremist Orthodox religious clerics over our lives, our marriages and even our deaths. If the [new government’s] plan to grant city rabbis the power to form conversion courts is what induced Litzman’s hysteria, they are kindly asked to press on. One last thing: it’s not as if anyone has forcibly excluded them from the government. That trio, in a rare and spectacular show of self-abnegation and groveling, tied its fate to the fate of Netanyahu the defendant. They seem to have confused him for the Messiah himself. MK Eichler said a few days ago that Netanyahu was dragging all of the Haredim along with him into the abyss, and that description was spot on. The problem is that they found themselves clutching at the slippery slope. On their way down they lost their self-control, their self- respect and the last vestiges of morality that they still had left, cursing people who are blameless.

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