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Home , Ayelet Shaked, Benjamin Netanyahu, Haviv Rettig Gur, Israel Land Authority, Nadav Argaman, Naftali Bennett

Selected articles concerning , published weekly by Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim’s (Baltimore) Israel Action Committee Edited by Jerry Appelbaum ( [email protected] ) | Founding editor: Sheldon J. Berman Z”L

Issue 8 90 Volume 2 1 , Number 2 2 Parshias Korach June 12 , 2021

Netanyahu , not Lapid or Bennett, is the chief architect of his looming undoing By Haviv Rettig Gur timesofisrael.com June 9, 2021 In repeatedly breaking his most solemn promises to treatment of political rivals and allies alike have robbed coalition partners, Netanyahu has convinced growing him of the capacity to negotiate and maneuver. ranks of potential allies it’s simply not profitable to do Broken promises business with him . It is important to grasp the scale of distrust that and may have Netanyahu elicits in the political system, not only in the accomplished the seemingly impossibl e. Sunday will mark “change bloc” but even in his own front bench. It’s not only the end of 12 consecutive years of Benjamin a distrust Netanyahu has earned. Netanyahu’s premiership but, if all goes to plan, the We can start the story of Netanyahu’s present founding of the strangest and most improbable predicament in October 2012, when the Likud government in the history of the country. announced a union of Likud’s and Yisrael Beytenu’s Islamist Ra’am and hawkish , prog ressive election slat es, a union that Yisrael Beytenu’s leader and deeply conservative , parties avowedly Liberman, a former Likudnik, hoped would mark his long - religious and passionately secular, MKs anxious to see the delayed return to the ruling party. The two parties ran establishment of a Palestinian state and MKs equally together in the 2013 election, but Netanyahu spent the anxious to avoid that outcome, are all jostling for space at ensuing year working hard to stymie Liberman’s e fforts to the coalition table . merge them, and an embittered Liberman broke the Many have already noted that the glue that holds that alliance in 2014 and refused to join Netanyahu’s coalition fractious new coalition together is none other than the after the 2015 election. man they seek to replace — a feat for which, as one Netanyahu finally convinced Liberman to let bygones comedian quipped, “he deserves the Nobel peace prize.” be bygones in 2016, appointing him defense minister in But just what is it about Prime Minis ter Benjamin order to draw him into his coalition. But as with the party Netanyahu that actually keeps all those disparate parties merger tease two years earlier, Netanyahu then gutted united in their commitment to depose him? Liberman’s post of any significant power, communicated Is it, as Likud leaders have complained, “wild hatred with the military over the new minister’s head, and caused of Netanyahu?” a humiliated and frustrated Liberm an to resign in 2018 Some of the right - wingers working to boot Netanyahu without a single meaningful ministerial decision to his from power surely hate him. For Avigdor Liberman of name. Yisrael Beytenu, Naftali Bennett and of The point here isn’t to sympathize with Liberman’s Yamina, and Gideon Sa’ar of New Hope, who all once plight, but to shed light on Liberman’s calculations when, worked directly for him as political aides and appointees, a in the wake of the April 2019 race, he saw a chance to lot of the animus is personal, and in no small part caused return t he favor — and took it. For seven long weeks of b y Netanyahu himself. coalition negotiations, he let Netanyahu believe he would But what of the rest? What of New Hope’s Sharren eventually join his coalition, right up until May 30, the final Haskel, Yifat Shasha - Biton and Ze’ev Elkin, or Yamina’s day of Netanyahu’s mandate from the president. It was , Abir Kara and Idit Silman? Netanyahu needed only then, hours before Netanyah u’s deadline for forming just two defectors, potentially even one, to prevent a government, that it became clear that Liberman would Sunday’s expected ous ter — and insisted repeatedly for the not join the Netanyahu coalition, and the country’s two - past two weeks that he’s already got more than two rebels. year, four - election crisis began. But as of this writing, they haven’t materialized. Why? Why Liberman wasn’t driven by a mere desire for revenge. couldn’t he coax them away even with the offer of slots on He’s a savvy politician who has s hown repeatedly that he is the Likud slate or attractive cabinet po sts? able to rise above personal enmity for the sake of high Some in the new coalition, on the center - left, disagree political office. It was simply that Netanyahu had with Netanyahu on substance, on the economy or the repeatedly proven that no promise one extracted and no . But many others, from Yisrael Beytenu to appointment one won from him at the negotiating table Yamina to New Hope, do not fundamentally disagree with was safe when the time came to cash it in. him on any issue. Yet they refuse to do business with him Instead of the introspection one might expect after even in the service of causes they all share. such a setback, Netanyahu has spent the past two years The simplest explanation for Netanyahu’s downfall, doubling down on similar maneuvers. the simplest catalyst of the unlikely new alliance that has He thought he had finally won his way out of the emerged to oppose him, is Netanyahu himself. Or more impasse after the March 2020 race when he signed a precisely, the way Net anyahu’s past behavior and power - sharing deal with , a move that Foc us o n Is rael June 12, 2021 Page 2

shattered the Blue and White alliance and left him in reexamine the pitfalls of mistreating allies and reneging on power for another 18 months at least via a rotation deal. solemn commitments. New institutions were forged in that coalition He has spent the past two weeks attempting to draw agreement and strange new conce pts were introduced into Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope and Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am Israel’s constitutional Basic Laws, including the “alternate away from the Lapid - Bennett alliance. He has failed. prime minister,” the “parity government,” a premier who In a phone call between Netanyahu and Sa’ar on May no longer has the power to fire ministers in his own 29, Netanyahu asked Sa’ar to meet with him to discuss a cabinet, a stipulation that any vote of no confidence by rotation offer in which he would step aside and Sa’ar one side would automatically hand over the premiership to would have first go as prime minister. the other — all to satisfy a wary Gantz that wily old Sa’ar refused on the spot, on the assumption that the Netanyahu would keep true to his word with, as offer wasn’t in earnest, but was a ploy to sow distrust in Netanyahu himself had put it, “no tricks and no shticks.” the Bennett - Lapid coalition. But the tricks and shticks came fast and fu rious as Netanyahu has leaked word of new offers to Sa’ar soon as the ink was dry. Netanyahu immediately set about repeatedly in the week since that refusal — but no one undermining the deal via various actions, chief among believes him. them the unprecedented step of refusing to pass a state As Naftali Bennett explained publicly on May 30 budget for the 2020 fiscal year — thereby forcing a snap about the firs t offer, there was a simple reason that election in March of th is year, before Gantz could take his Netanyahu kept failing: “There was yet another attempt, a seat as prime minister. public one, to establish a [right - wing] government, with This time, Netanyahu had every reason to believe he Gideon Sa’ar first in rotation and Netanyahu second. I, of had beaten the odds. By early 2021 he could boast a world - course, agreed. But the attempt failed bec ause no one leading vaccine drive and four peace agreements, while believes those promises will be fulfilled.” facing a splintered opposition and expecting a dramatic The Abbas rejection downturn in Arab turnout. Then came election day, and it Then came Mansour Abbas’s turn. Netanyahu has confirmed yet again the same deadlock that had plagued called Abbas dozens of times in recent weeks, including the country for three previous votes. repeatedly over the past few days. The new government is not a sudden pivot for Israeli According to a Channel 12 report on Sunday about politics, but simply the latest step in a piecemeal expansion one such call from last week, apparently leaked by Ra’am of the circle of distrust Netanyahu has steadily built around officials, Netanyahu has been trying to convince Abbas himself. The crisis that began in April 2019 was caused by that he can deliver for Israel’s Arab community where Netanyahu’s careless (and, it must be said, largely Lapid and Bennett can not. unnecessary) alienation of a key ally. The new government “I’m the only one who can lead this, all their promises expected to be sworn in on Sunday comes because he has are written on ice,” Netanyahu reportedly told Abbas in since managed to alienate (once again, largely the call, using a Hebrew expr ession meaning that Abbas’s unnecessarily) additional former allies he could not afford coalition agreement with Lapid and Bennett won’t be to lose. honored. And he did it in exactly the same way: by breaking so Continued Netanyahu: “I believe in change, I want to many coalition promises so consistently that he lost the do this together with you. I’m the only one who can open capacity to promise and n egotiate. a new page with the Arab community. My stature and the The best evidence for that failure is the startling fact fa ct that my government will be a right - wing government that Likud’s persistent promises of generous appointments will allow me to do things they won’t be able to permit have failed to tempt to Netanyahu’s banner even the most themselves to do.” junior and uncommitted of “change bloc” MKs. In a June 3 interview with Kan news, Abbas explained Is this the first cohort of l awmakers in Israel’s history why he turned Netanyahu down. “In the end, I reached in which not one defector can be found? Or, more likely, is the moment of decisio n and you ask yourself if you believe a promise from Netanyahu no longer reliable enough to that the other side will actually carry out [their cause anyone to switch sides? commitments], if there’s goodwill or not, because you can (There was one party defector: Amichai Chikli. But he write any old thing down on the page,” he said. framed his abandonment of Yam ina as a principled stand While “we didn’t get everything we wanted” with and has not asked for, nor received, any guarantees from Lapid and Ben nett, he said, he believes that what his party Likud for the move. He has since talked of forming a new did win at the negotiating table it will actually receive when party.) the time comes. The Sa’ar maneuver Promises promises Over the past week, it became clear that even his For Netanyahu, it’s the same story repeated time and looming ouster from power hadn’t led Ne tanyahu to again. On June 6, for example, Kan reported that Netanyahu called Shmulik Silman, husband of Yamina MK Idit Silman, for “a long conversation” that included Older, in fact. In 64 BCE, the famed Roman (according to Kan) the suggestion that he, the husband, politician, orator and writer Cicero was standing for would be appointed to a senior post in a government election as consul, the highest office in the republic. Ahead company if Likud remained in power; if he could onl y of the race, his bro ther Quintus wrote him a letter of convince his wife to change her vote. advice on electioneering that remains startlingly relevant Likud spokespeople denied knowledge of the call, but two millennia later. in Yamina people believe it’s true. It’s the kind of ceaseless “If a politician made only promises he was sure he wheeling and dealing that once earned Netanyahu a could keep, he wouldn’t have many friends,” wrote reputation as a wily and aggressive politician, bu t which Quintus. “It is better to have a few peo ple in the Forum has now passed the tipping point into mere trickery. The disappointed when you let them down than have a mob offers flow like water — and that’s precisely why there are outside your home when you refuse to promise them what no longer any takers. they want.” Dishonesty is, of course, inherent in politics, and both Broken campaign promises aren’t even necessarily a Lapid and Bennett are violating oft - repeated electio n sign of dishonesty. Bennett would presumably like to have promises by the mere act of forming their new coalition. kept those promises to voters, as Lapid and Netanyahu Lapid has spent a year railing against the three - dozen would like to have kept theirs. In parliamentary systems or ministers of the “bloated” Netanyahu government; his new complex geopolitical environments, that’s not always one will have nearly the same number. Challenged by a possible, so politicians from time out of mind have kept reporter this week to defend th e bloat, he said simply, “I what promises they believed they could and didn’t worry can’t.” too much about those they couldn’t (or didn’t want to). Bennett is no better. In the week before election day, Netanyahu’s dishonesty is different. He has broken Bennett promised on live television never to sit with Lapid promises not to voters, but to coalition partners, including in a rotation deal. Challenged on that promise in an those made in solemn written contracts, including even interview earlier this week, he could only explain t hat he’d those that saw Basic Laws amended to ensure they were prioritized another promise — not to allow a fifth snap kept. In doing so, Netanyahu has cut the ground out from election in a row — over the promise about Lapid. under the negotiations process itself. He has made it Yet that’s not the sort of dishonesty that may have unprofitable to do business with him. now ruined Netanyahu. He is certainly guilty of unfulfilled Many in the new coalition have deep qualms about campaign promises, but they n ever interrupted his rise to their new partners, and many “change bloc” MKs are not power. personally opposed to Netanyahu or Likud. No In his first campaign in 1996, Netanyahu vowed never monochromatic psychologizing about “wild hatred” is to negotiate with — and then went on to enough to explain the strange loyalty gripping the anti - sign the last agreement to be concluded between Netanyahu camp. and Palestinians, the 1998 Wye deal, with that same Arafat. The truth is simpler: Bennett is immune to In the 2009 campaign, Netanyahu vowed to topple the Netanyahu’s t hreats to destroy him electorally because he’s government in Gaza, then spent the next 12 years certain Netanyahu will try to destroy him regardless of his helping to prop up that government in exchange for actions. Sa’ar is immune to Netanyahu’s offers of the relative stability on the southern border. premiership because he believes he’ll be treated, at best, as Unfulfilled promises to voters aren’t an aberration, Netanyahu treated Liberman. And s o it goes down the they’re a key feature of parliamen tary democracy — as old slate, all the way to the last backbenchers. as the institution of the elected parliament itself. In Israel, a Victory for Netanyahu’s Protégés By Lahav Harkov unherd.com June 2, 2021 A full - spectrum coalition includes prominent figures half as many years — he has overseen a number of major from the right. triumphs: from Israel’s world - leading Covid - 19 vaccination The past decade is littered with political obituaries roll - out to its normalisation of relations with four Ara b announcing ’s imminent depar ture countries to his cool - headed manner in the country’s latest from office — and each has ended up looking more conflict with Hamas. absurd than the last. Here in Israel, predictions of his But even a political genius can make mistakes, and it downfall have become a fixture of daily political life; so looks like Netanyahu is about to get his comeuppance on much so that he is often greeted with cheers of “he is a one of his most enduring flaws: his cultivation of protégés wizard, he is a wizard” at hi s Likud Party’s events who he then discards, fearing that they might one day whenever he sees off another challenge. To put it simply, challenge him. For years, it seemed like this was just when Netanyahu is on the ropes, you can usually be sure politics; Netanyahu didn’t want to promote someone only he won’t stay there for long. for that person to take him down, so he pre - emptively saw This time, however, it feels different. Yes, Netanyahu off any potential competitors. is the same skilled politician. An d yes, despite the political Littl e did he know that there could one day be turmoil of recent times — resulting in four elections in consequences. Israeli politicians are currently involved in Foc us o n Is rael June 12, 2021 Page 4 coalition negotiations after another inconclusive government after the third el ection in March last year, he parliamentary election. There are, of course, a number of passed Sa’ar up for a cabinet post, despite Sa’ar’s relative reasons for Netanyahu’s inability to form a go vernment in success in the party primary. three of the past four elections. But the most important So, when the fourth election came along a year later, has been the Right’s majority in the after each Sa’ar broke off from Likud with four of its legislators, and one, and their refusal to be part of a coalition led by formed his own party , New Hope. Its policy proposals are Netanyahu. mostly indistinguishable from Likud’s, apart from their And the leaders of the three main Right - wing parties refusal to form a government led by Netanyahu — not who have de clined to be in Netanyahu’s coalition all have because of Sa’ar’s personal issues, they claim, but because one thing in common: they all used to work closely with Netanyahu is motivated purely by self - interest. In the most him — until they were no longer useful. recent election, Likud lost seven seats; Sa’ar won five. First, there is Avigdor Liberman, leader of Yisrael The third and final protégé - turned - enemy is the man Beytenu. Liberman was Netanyahu’s chief of staff when he who may be Israel’s next prime minister: Naftali Bennett, was prime minister in the 1990s, but after that, decided to leader of the Yamina party. Back in 2005, Bennett, a major form a new party that appealed to immigrants from the admirer of Netanyahu, sold his cyber - fraud detection former Soviet Union. That wasn’t the end of their software company Cyota for $130 million. A year later, he relationship; in the 22 years since Yisrael Beytenu’s became the leader of a protest movement concerned with founding, Liberman has served as both fore ign minister the Government’s unpreparedness for war, which is how and defence minister under Netanyahu. Their parties even he ended up meeting Netanyahu, the opposition leader at ran together in 2013, as part of a joint parliamentary slate t he time. After Bennett fought in the second War called Likud Beytenu. that year, Netanyahu appointed him his chief of staff. But as Defence Minister, the hawkish Liberman felt The cause of Bennett’s sudden rift with Netanyahu in that Netanyahu was preventing him from implementing 2008 remains a mystery. I’ve spent hours interviewing the policies on which he was elected, including a harsher Bennett, who refuses to get into speci fics, and the closest response to Hamas terrorists shooting rockets into Israel. thing to an answer I’ve managed to extract centres around So he resigned in late 2018, which was one of the early Bennet’s decision to block Sarah Netanyahu’s access to her triggers for the first vote of this four - election cycle. husband’s official funds and perks as opposition leader. After the first election, Liberman would have been the Whatever the truth, suffice it to say that he left key to Netanyahu getting a parliamentary majority Netanyahu ’s office on bad terms. In 2012, Bennett coalition, but he simply refused; defence is one of the returned to politics and successfully ran a campaign to lead issues he cited, but so is Netanyahu’s close partnership Bayit Yehudi, a mostly religious party to the Right of with orthodox religious parties. Their past relationship Likud. At first, Netanyahu didn’t want anything to do with forgott en, Netanyahu’s former right hand man doesn’t his former ally, but ended up having to turn to Bayit want anything to do with him. Yehudi in his attempt to form a majority coalition. After Next, there is Gideon Sa’ar, who for years was viewed subsequent elections, Netanyahu was again willing to sign as Netanyahu’s anointed successor as the leader of Likud. with just about anyone else before offering to talk with He repeatedly came second on Likud’s candidate list, Bennett. Bennett, for his part, would take what he could which is electe d through a vote by the party’s 100,000 - plus get; for all their differences, his voter base liked members. Over the past decade, Sa’ar had successful turns Netanyahu. as education minister and interior minister, but then he After election number four, though, Bennett didn’t supported President ’s run for the promise to support Netanyahu. He didn’t promise not to presidency, which Netanyahu opposed; despite Riv lin sit with Netanyahu, either. This, along with the being the candidate from Likud, the Prime Minister feared inconclusive result, put him in the position of b ecoming he would be too independent. the kingmaker — despite only winning seven seats. From that moment, Netanyahu became hostile to Sa’ar And, most importantly, it looks like Netanyahu won’t and obstructed every policy that he proposed. Sa’ar be that King. Negotiations are set to continue until responded by deciding to take a break from politics for a tonight, but the opposition leader Yair Lapid, of the few years — he claimed that he wanted to spend time with centrist Yesh Party, looks to hav e enticed Bennett to his family — but returned and ran in the Likud primary support him by sharing the office of Prime Minister with ahead of the first 2019 election. He did not, however, him — with Bennett serving as the country’s leader for return to his number - two slot, though he did remain in the two years. top ten. He was, in effect, still a threat. If that were to happen, if King Bibi were to be toppled Indeed, after Netanyahu failed to form a coalition the by three of his protégés, it would undoubtedly be a mess y, first time, Sa’ar challenged Netanyahu in a Likud fractious end to his reign. But in many ways, it would be leadership race, but ended up with only about a quarter of entirely fitting. They did, after all, learn from the best. the vote. Then, when Netanyahu formed a short - lived

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What sort of government are Lapid and Bennett forming? By Caroline B. Glick israelhayom.com Jun 6, 2021 The easiest way to figure out w hich side is telling the Over the weekend, in a gross overstep of his powers, truth would be to read the coalition agreements Director placed his thumb on signed by the parties set to join the Lapid - Bennett the scales on behalf of Lapid - Bennett and their government. controversial government. Resonating leftist propaganda The storm of controversy now engulfing Israel that delegitimizes all criticism of leftist policies from the revolves around one question. What sort of government Right as "incitement," Argaman released a state ment do Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett intend to swear in? Saturday where he insisted, "the incendiary discourse According to Lapid, Bennett and their media chorus, [around the Lapid - Bennett governing coalition] is liable to Israel is about to get a "unity government." Once it is cause physical harm." formed, all will be sweetness and light. The political fights For more than a year, leftist activists and leaders have that have afflict ed us will fade away as the nation been calling openly for Netanyahu and his family to die. undergoes a collective therapy session. R epeated death threats against the Netanyahu family have The other side – the political Right – insists that the been made publicly by leftist activists. Despite repeated two men are forming a leftist government that is willing to pleadings from the Netanyahus and their supporters, sacrifice to achieve their highest goal: ousting Argaman has refused to issue a statement against the mass Benjamin Netanyahu from the Prime Minister's Office. incitement from the Left. The easiest way to figure out which side is telling the Likewi se, for the past decade and a half, Israeli Arab truth would be to read the coalition agreements signed by politicians and religious leaders have issued a steady stream the parties set to join the Lapid - Bennett government. of incendiary and often openly antisemitic statements Those agreements would tell us what Lapid and Bennett rejecting Israel's and demonizing its people. have promised to do in their "unit y" government. Ahead of the Israeli Arab pogr oms against Israeli in Unfortunately, Lapid and Bennett refuse to publish the mixed Jewish - Arab cities countrywide last month, those contents of those agreements until after their government statements escalated. But Argaman never had anything to is sworn in. say about any of it. Last Friday night, journalist Sharon Gal reported on So the first time the security chief decided to warn Channel 13 News how the Islamist Ra'am Party is about political violence is now, at the hei ght of a heated, presenting the agreement they signed to its voters in and completely legitimate public debate around the Arabic. In its written statements and in television formation of a government dominated by leftist parties interviews on Arabic - language channels by Ra'am Knesset that will not reveal whether or not it has pledged to members, the Islamist party claims that Lapid and Bennett effectively end Israeli sovereignty over Israel's non - Jewish agreed that their "unity" government will end enfo rcement citizens and cede the to irredentist who of building and zoning laws in Arab - Israeli villages and openly seek the destruction of the state and are aligned cities. Orders to destroy illegal structures will be frozen. with extreme Islamist elements. Fines for illegal buildings will be canceled. If Lapid and Bennett were really forming a unity According to Ra'am, Bennett and Lapid have agreed to government, their supporters on and grant effective autonomy to the Bedouin in the Negev. wouldn't be banning right - wi ng voices or censoring and Over the past 15 years, Bedouin have illegally seized banning right - wing opinion pieces. And yet, since last massive swathes of state lands and built illegal settlements week, Facebook and Twitter have banned information on them. Ra'am claims that Lapid and Bennett agreed to about a scheduled protest outside the home Yamina MK freeze the so - called "Kaminitz Law," which empowers Nir Orbach. They also suspended the accounts of state autho rities to reassert the 's Netanyahu's son Yair N etanyahu and several other well - control over seized lands, among other things, through the known right - wing writers and activists. Whatsapp banned destruction of illegal construction. the accounts of an entire community of right - wing political So as far as Ra'am is concerned, the political Right's activists. assessment of the Lapid - Bennett government is accurate. If they were forming a unity government, last week La pid and Bennett's government will jettison Zionism. Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked wouldn't have felt it necessary Lapid and Bennett's refusal to deny Ra'am's claims, or to lock Orbach in a room in the Knesset and ban him reveal the actual agreements, prevents the public from from speaking to anyone who opposes what she and checking the veracity of Ra'am's assertions while lending Bennett are doing with Lapid and the rest of their coalition them credence. partners. Beyond hiding informa tion from the public about If this were a unity government, we could reasonably what they have agreed to do once in power, Lapid, Bennett expect that Bennett a nd Lapid would eagerly put all their and their friends in the media and the permanent agreements on the table and let the public read them. And bureaucracy are also working hard to silence their critics. we could expect the multitudes to rush to join and support Visit suburba northodox.or g for the current issue . Foc us o n Is rael June 12, 2021 Page 6

their great Zionist effort to restore tranquility, happiness, sweetness and light to the people of Isr ael. Palestinian Actions, Not Benjamin Netanyahu, Have Made Israel Averse to Territorial Compromise By Daniel Gordis danielgordis.substack.com June 3, 2021 Dispelling some myths about the recent • The religious stances of the two sort - of - Prime - developments in Israeli politics. Ministers - elect are also worth noting. Bennett will be Yesterday, Israel got a new President ( — Israel’s first religious, kippah - wearing Prime Minister. more on whom in a later posting), and, more significantly, That reflects many important shifts in Israe li life, may have taken a step towards getting a new Prime which we’ll address down the road. (The recently Minister. We shall see. While Yair Lapid (on the right, published results of the Pew Research Center portrait above), who leads the centrist [“There is a of Jewish Americans in 2020 show that Future”] Pa rty, has informed the (current) President that are becoming ever more distant from religion; in he can form a coalition, the actual vote on this coalition Israel, the trend is the opposite. The impl ications of will probably not take place for twelve days. Bibi will use those shifts for relations between the two this time to do everything he can to undermine the fragile communities are significant. More on that, too, down agreement. Netanyahu contends t hat as long as he is Prime the road.) Minister, he cannot be convicted in his corruption trial and • As for Lapid, the NYT wrote in one of the articles sent to jail; if he’s out of office, he has no such protection. headlined above that “If the government lasts a whole We should thus expect to see some very scorched earth as term, it would then be led bet ween 2023 and 2025 by he desperately (and perhaps successfully) tries to cling to Yair Lapid, a centrist former television host power. considered a standard - bearer for secular Israelis.” Not While the question of who will be Israel’s “next” surprisingly, that is also only partially true. Lapid, to Prime Minister remains unresolved, what is clear is that my knowledge, will be the first Prime Minister who some international coverage of what is unfolding here is so belongs to a Reform syn agogue (Reform in Israel and myopic as to be essentially wrong. According to the “all in the US are quite different, which we’ll cover some the news tha t’s fit to print” world (see screen shot below), other time). A Prime - Minister - elect who’s a member Israel is lurching to the right under the leadership of a new of a Reform synagogue doesn’t fit the “ultra - “ultranationalist” leader. The real story is precisely the nationalist” image of a country lurching right — so opposite. yup, it gets ignored. So with a few quick bullet points, a brief illustration of • D uring the horrific rioting between Jews and Arabs a how much more com plex — and hopeful — the story few weeks ago (something that those who advocate a really is. one - state solution ought to study very carefully), the So, we have three headlines that purportedly popular wisdom was that any deal that depended on encapsulate the story (the actual articles are no less Mansour Abbas of Ra’am joining with Naftali Benn ett misleading). What’s missing here? or Gideon Saar (also formerly from the Likud) was • As Mansour Abbas [not to be confused with the dead. Yet here we are. Two takeaways: (1) many Palestinian Authority’s ] of the Israelis are so determined to unseat Netanyahu that Islamist Ra’am party (that’s him on the right in the they are willing to put ideology aside to form this photo immediately above, signing the agreement with coalition, and (2) Israelis are also committed to Lapid on the left and Bennett in the middle) noted, m oving beyond those agonizing days of violence and this was first time that an Arab party had helped make to repairing the frayed relations between a coalition. Israeli Arabs are entering the political and Israeli Arabs. Mansour Abbas joining the coalition process as never before. Naftali Bennett is joining with (and being joined by right - wing Jewish parties) won’t them. Yet he’s an “ultranationalist?” do that work, but it’s an important symbol ic step in • The guy who actually put the coalition together, Yair that direction, Lapid, doesn’t make the headlines. What has emerged • One NYT headline declared that many Palestinians here, with eight very differe nt parties joining together were viewing Israel’s developing political story with in what will be a rickety relationship at best, is actually “little more than a shrug.” That’s not terribly a centrist government. The coalition includes Bennett surprising, since when it comes to the Palestinians, but also includes Labor and Meretz, Israel’s far - left Israelis are fairly uni ted, left and right. There’s no deal party. Here’s what really matters: this broad - based with the Palestinians looming anywhere on the coalitio n, of the sort the American system could never horizon, regardless of which parties form the coalition. produce at present, reflects the fact that far from the So the Palestinians (who can tragically only observe headlines, Israel is a country with a very solid political democracy at work from afar) shrug. (The PA’s center. That doesn’t make for interesting news, so few Mahmoud Abbas is in the 17th year of a 4 year term outlets cover it, but when it comes to the health of — yes, you read that correctly.) The question that democracy, that’s the critical fact. matters, though, is not whether they are shrugging, but why is there no deal looming? Page 7 June 12, 2021 Focus on Israel

• In an implicit answer to that, another NYT article • The two - state solution is alive and well — in the noted that “The presence of Mr. Bennett at the imaginations of Americans. Closer to home, it’s threshold of power is testament to how Mr. tragically seen as an idea out of a Disney movie: a Netanyahu has helped shift the pendulum of Israeli sweet and enchanting idea for an ending to the story, politics firmly to the right.” This, though, ignores the utterly unrelated to the world we actually inhabit. fact that the Palestinians have repeatedly rejected Read the stories headlined above, and you’ll learn of a overtures from Israeli leaders like Eh ud Olmert on the small, hyper - nationalist country lurching rightward and left and Netanyahu on the right, and that even Barack electing someone even to the right of Bibi. The reality on Obama could not get Mahmoud Abbas to the the ground h ere is far more complex, more nuanced and negotiating table. Israeli politics moved to the right infinitely more healthy. not because of Netanyahu (of whom I am certainly no But then again, to report that, you’d actually have to fan), but because even centrist and l eft - of - center think that the Jews having a state and shaping their own Israelis have despaired of the Palestinians making a destiny is a good one. deal. Hamas’s Underground Military Complex i s The Work o f a Dedicated and Sophisticated War Machine By Qanta Ahmed spectator.co.uk May 26, 2021 The exit of one tunnel “led directly to an Israeli shown the exit of the tunnel, which led directly to an farmer’s field meters away from a kindergarten.” Israeli farmer’s field metres away from a kindergarten. In the wake of its ceasefire agreement with Israel, These tunnels are not built by amateurs but by a H amas has again attempted to paint itself as a struggling dedicated war machine obsessed by its hatred of Israel. resistance movement against an occupying force. After 11 The structure of the tunnels, which run at le ast 30 feet days of fighting, which left more than 250 people dead, below ground, is also far more complex than many realise. Hamas’s co - founder, Mahmoud Zahar, claimed a strategic Satellite images from the tour (which I undertook at my and a symbolic victory. own expense) made the sophisticated complexity of the ‘The n ew element here is the degree of the resistance Underground and the New York subway system movement, in particular in Gaza, to attack the Israeli look like child’s play. Ha mas’s tunnel network looks more targets and very important points, including most of the like a lattice of intricate crochet. overcrowded areas... the civilian society,’ he told Sky My guide, Gaza deputy colonel commander Yacov News. ‘So for how long will the Israelis accept that?’ ‘Kobi’ Valer, led us down the deep steps into the labyrinth. By painting itself as a plucky victim, Hamas is trying to As we went further in, Colonel Kobi folded at the waist, convince the – and Muslims in the West, like and craned his neck for ward. With his weapon loaded, he me – that we should be on its side. But the reality is that aimed into the dark. It took a while for my eyes to adjust the terror group’s ever escalating appetite for conflict does to the darkness as we left the electrical lights behind us. As nothing to serve the Palestinian cause. While Hamas’s we went further, the darkness deepened, the temperature leaders live in the luxury and safety of Qatar, millions of cooled and only the LED light beam from the m uzzle of dollars, which should have been used to help Palestinians, his M16 shone into the abyss. has been syphoned off to build the Islamist group’s Soon I could see only his silhouette. I was worried he complex network of tunnels throughout Gaza. would disappear from sight. Even though the tunnel had During this latest conflict, the Israel Defence Forces been secured by the IDF, and Hamas could not get destroyed more than 60 miles of these tunnels, known as through, I couldn’t shake the primal fear that I wanted to the ‘Metro’. ‘They were originally used by Hamas leave. I remembered the story of a lion destined for Gaza operatives to hide after firing rockets at Israel,’ the IDF zoo, smuggled in through , that woke up from explained in a video last week. ‘Hamas conn ected its sedation in one of the tunnels. Terrified, it lashed out and smaller tunnels until they became a complex underground tore apart a handler. I needed to get out. It was not so system allowing terrorists to hide, train, and transport much the claustrophobic surro undings or the mounting weapons.’ The IDF noted that the network has been years darkness, it was the tunnels’ testament to hatred that began in the making, after much of it was destroyed in 2014 to engulf me. during ‘Operation Prote ctive Edge’. ‘I’ve seen enough,’ I called out to Colonel Kobi. With The word ‘tunnel’ conjures up an idea of something the beam from his M16, he helped turn me around and small and dirty. But when I explored these tunnels in Gaza guide us out. Only when I reached the blistering sunlight with the IDF in 2018 during a guided tour, the reality was above ground did I realise I had been holding my breath. rather different. I entered wearing a tailored white jacket The most concerning aspect of this latest round of and emerged co mpletely spotless. fighting is the evolution of Hamas into a much more It was not a ramshackle trench, as I had expected. Far formidable and aggressive force. The enormous numbers from it. Ventilation ensured the air in the tunnel was fresh. and range of Hamas’s missiles in this conflict confirm this. There was electrical wiring and concrete finishing. They Military and financial funding from has allowed are well - illuminated and carefully engineered. I was also Hamas’s structure and ranks to start resembling the Foc u s o n Israel June 12, 2021 Page 8

sophistication and daring of the Iranian Revolutionary My hope is that this proposal (or a similar one under Guard’s combat units. Make no mistake: without the Iron president ) will come to life when the Palestinian Dome, the de ath toll of Israeli civilians would have been leadership recognises that Gaza must be demilitarised and much higher. that Israel has a right to exist. Only then can there be Away from Israel, Iran has its sights set on even peace. bigger, bloodier future conflicts. In , for instance, It is tim e for the Arab world to stand in defence of Tehran has assembled increasingly covert pro - Iranian Iraqi human values by repudiating Hamas’s shameful use of militia units with special par amilitary skills, such as drone Palestinian people as human shields. The moment Hamas, warfare, surveillance and online propaganda. These units, hiding in its tunnels, elected to bombard a civilian who received training from in Lebanon, answer population in a sovereign state, which is home to – and directly to officers in Iran's Quds Force, the arm of its safeguards – religious freedom for the three monotheistic Revolutionary Guards that controls its allied militi a abroad. faiths, they abandoned any semblance of ethics, any The Arab world, in contrast to Iran, is deeply vested in remnant of Geneva conventions, and any right to decry normalising ties with Israel. Former president Donald Israel’s actions. Claiming to defend Muslim Palestinians, Trump’s proposed Israel Palestine Peace to Prosperity Hamas instead violates all Isl am’s codes of just war which Plan was widely mocked as ’s vanity project. expressly forbid the targeting of unarmed civilians, But the Arab nations in volved in the , women, children, the elderly and the disabled. such as the United Arab Emirates and , are deeply If the conflict is ever to end, Hamas must not only be engaged in developing relations across the board, from muzzled, but fully defanged. Dismantling the tunnel economic, agricultural, tourism, trade, intelligence and network would be a s tart. Israel deserves support from the military ties. Arab world in its legitimate efforts to safeguard all peoples Kushner envisioned that his plan would ha ve allowed in its sovereign territory. It is time the Arab world Palestinians in Gaza a better economic future, mobility and demanded the disarmament and neutering of Hamas. Only freedom. The Palestinians rejected it at inception, setting then, will the Palestinians have a chance at ac hieving peace aside the opportunity for $50bn (£35bn) of Gulf nations’ and prosperity. investment, the chance for a free and mobile economy and Ms. Ahmed is a British physician and a contribut or t o The regional de velopment. Spectator, Huffington Post and The Post. Sticking points in the Iran nuclea r deal By Yonah Jeremy Bob jpost.com June 7, 2021 The US and Iran both want a return to the Joint centrifuges, as opposed to destroying them, this was Comprehensive Plan of Action. So, what is preventing because the question was quantity, not quality. the deal from being signed? These advanced centrifuges are so much faster than The US and Iran both want a return to the Joint the old IR - 1s th at they could give Iran the future capability Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the to kick - start a dash toward a at breakneck 2015 nuclear deal, and both sides are ready to make the speed. The Biden administration reportedly wants them main concessions they need to make for that to happen. completely destroyed. So what is preventing the deal from being signed? In a previous press conference, US State Department Reportedly, there is a mostly agreed - upon text around Deputy Press Secretary J alina Porter declined questions 20 pages long alrea dy drafted. about the US position on advanced centrifuges. Part of the issue may likely be that Iranian Supreme However, when followed up the Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prefers deal only after his question with her office, the response was: “Any return to new handpicked candidate for president, Ebrahim Raisi, is the JCPOA would entail a rollback of Iran’s nuclear elected on June 18. pro gram. The is not going to lift sanctions There is also talk that the Islamic Republic is still unless we have clarity and confidence that Iran will fully d emanding that the sequencing include Washington lifting return to compliance with its obligations under the sanctions first and Tehran returning to the JCPOA’s JCPOA, including with respect to the level and scale of its nuclear limits only afterward. uranium - enrichment activities. ” Yet, there is a distinct list of issues that reportedly are To return to the JCPOA level of enrichment activities, also stalling a deal between the sides. The most importan t the advanced centrifuges would need to be destroyed since of them is probably advanced centrifuges. in 2015, Tehran did not even know how to successfully Iran is willing to take all of the hundreds of new IR - 4, operate them. IR - 6 and others off - line and to place them in storage as it However, this would be the first time Khamenei did with around 75% of its centrifuge fleet after the 2015 would need to agree to completely destroy a nuclear JCPOA agreement. scientific advancement as opposed to pausing it. But this may not be enough for the US. If, in the past, In some ways, this would be a much deeper Washington agreed to mothballing the regular IR - 1 concession for him to make, even as it is imperative from Israel’s and the Gulf countries’ perspective because the Page 9 June 12, 2021 Focus on Israel existence of advanced centrifuges opens multiple of clause to better ensure that in the future, Washington additional scenarios and time lines to a nuclear bomb. could not leave the JCPOA again as easily as Trump did. The other interesting leak relates to the so - called Iran is also tryin g to peel off some additional follow - on talks the Biden administration has emphas ized nonnuclear sanctions instituted by the Trump throughout its term. administration, claiming they also violate the JCPOA. Jerusalem has reacted with scorn and disbelief at the But the Biden team has consistently said it will repeal idea that the US could lift sanctions on Iran and still nonnuclear sanctions that it thinks the Trump team succeed later at getting new concessions that were not part mislabeled and will maintain nonnuclear sanctions that it of the JCPOA after giving away its sanctions leverage. believes the preceding administration properly instituted. Howev er, Washington reportedly is fighting for a There are other outstanding issues, such as Iran’s mention of follow - on talks that would give it a clear basis failure to resolve questions about past military nuclear through which to press the Islamic Republic to restrain its dimensions, which International Atomic Energy Agenc y ballistic - missile program and aggression in the region. Director - General Rafael Grossi is asking about. The Post understands that all of the se issues were But those issues on their own are unlikely to slow raised with US President Joe Biden himself in April during down the train for rejoining the JCPOA. visits by top Israeli national security officials. How it handles advanced centrifuges and whether a Tehran opposes any indications of follow - on talks at rider is attached to the new deal to set the stage for all costs since its goal is to lift sanctions and be done with addressing holes in the JCPOA in follow - on negotiations negotiating wit h the US. could provide strong clues as to whether the US is serious To try to combat the Biden administration’s focus on about confronting the threats presented by Tehran. this issue, it appears that Iran has raised adding some kind The Recent Arab Riots in Israel Were a Revolt against Political Integration By Doron Matza besacenter.org June 8 , 2021 Feeding on the resentments of those left behind by agreed to cooperate with the rightwing government in economic progress. promoti ng economic integration despite their diametrically The Jewish public and political discourse in Israel has opposed perceptions of the national status of Israel’s Arab viewed the riots that occurred in May through a starkly minority. The pragmatic trend stemmed from a variety of dichotomous prism. Right - wingers saw Israeli Arabs’ factors, among them the government’s commitment to attacks on their Jewish compatriots in terms of “the 1948 economic integration, the weakening o f the political disc ourse” — that is, a further example of the irresolvable agenda in the Palestinian context, and the relative security struggle between Arabs and Jews in the land between the stability that was achieved in the over the past River and the . Left - wingers, for decade. their part, preferred to see the eruption of violence as acts During the COVID - 19 crisis, cooperation between the of extremist groups from b oth sides that need not disrupt state and the Arab minority increased even further. For the Jewish - Arab coexistence in Israel. first time since the days of the military administration, the Though both explanations contain some elements of IDF returned to the Arab communities — but this time in a truth, neither is fully correct. What happened in the mixed different role. Soldiers from Home Front Command were cities in May 2021 must be understood in terms of the stationed in Kfar Qasim, Taibe, Jaljulia, and other Arab deep processes that have transpired in recent years in the settlements to help provid e information on the COVID - 19 Arab sector in general and in its relations with the Jewish pandemic as well as aid to the elderly and the poor. state in particular. What is noteworthy about the violent This formed the background for the emergence of events is that they in fact occurred after a prolonged Mansour Abbas, who signified a new stage of cooperation period in the state’s relations with its Arab ci tizens that with Zionist parties. Abbas sought to turn Arab could be described as very promising. pragmatism, and Arab politicians’ tacit cooperation with Over the past decade, the Israeli Arabs’ relations with the right - wing government, into an openly declared the Israeli state were marked by two macro - processes. One ideology. This ideology gained public legitimacy when, in was a widespread trend of Israeli Arab integration in the the March 2021 elections, the Ra’am Party was able to Israeli economy. This was reflect ed both practically and obtain four mandates after splitting off from the . symbolically in Government Resolution 922 of December The trends of economic integration and political 2015, which allocated billions to address urgent pragmatism in Israel’s relations with its Arab citizens went socioeconomic issues in Arab society and defined the Arab hand in hand with similar trends in the Middle East. The minority’s integration in the Israeli economy as a national Abraham Accords and the push for normalization between objective a nd a significant growth factor. Israel and the Arab world c reated a new regional paradigm The second process involved Israeli Arabs’ turn based on a utilitarian - pragmatic preference for economic toward political pragmatism alongside a diminished focus progress involving both living standards and quality of life, on national issues. In parallel, the Arab political elite instead of the identity - politics paradigm of past decades. Focus o n Israel June 12, 2021 Pag e 10

What, then, caused the May riots? into doubt — “coexistence” on the one hand and “built - in Unlike thos e of October 2000, the May riots did not conflict” on the other — but particularly about the fate of occur in the , where most of the Arab population is the paradigm that has undergirded Jewish - Arab relations concentrated. True, there were violent incidents at certain over the past decade. In this regard, there is no doubt that geographic locales in the north of the country, but the the riots breached the equilibrium point of the relationship major riots were in the mixed cities. It appears that, between the Israeli Arabs and the state, not unlike the alongside criminal elements, the violence was perpetrated 1976 events and the . The by a weak population that did not manage to join the May riots were, however, exceptional in terms of the process of economic integration between the state and the extent of the Israeli Arab public’s participation and the Arab middle class. In this regard, the May riots are severity of the violence, and also for having occurred reminiscent of the “Arab Spring” that began in Egypt and within a country that was at the time in the midst of a North and was spurred by the disgruntlement of round of warfare with Hamas. young people who were left behind by the economic Throughout the riots, the government signaled its growth those countries had undergone. intention to quel l them even with means that are more In addition, the Israeli Arab leadership’s ability to keep commonly used in a context of nationalist terror. The cooperating with the integration model turned out to be Israel Security Service was employed to identify those limited. involved in the violence and to preempt attacks, Border The Israeli Arab political world is divided into two Guard forces that operate mainly in the West Bank were opposing camps: the veteran political hegemony, which deployed in the mixed cities, and the government even forms the basis of the J oint List; and the new leadership of signaled a readiness to use military force against the violent Abbas that challenged it. In lieu of the national - identity disturbances. politics of the Arab minority that the veteran hegemony Will there be a return to the model that combines has promoted since the 1970s, Abbas introduced a political economic cooperation with political pragmatism, or will outlook that is subversive in historical term s and prioritizes the balance in Is raeli Arabs’ relations with the state economic and social interests over the vision of national change — and if so, in what way? It is naturally very hard to equality. In recent months the veteran Arab leadership has give clear answers to such questions. One can, however, been striving to return the Arab sector’s discourse to that note factors that could help sustain the integration model of national - identity politics, and the violent events in and others that could lead to its unravelin g. Jeru salem, centering on the “al - Aqsa is in danger” lie, One factor that could favor the integration model is provided a convenient platform from which to abandon Ra’am’s participation in the Bennett - Lapid coalition (if it the socioeconomic discourse for the national one. indeed takes shape). A political success by Abbas would Another factor behind the outbreak of the riots was reinforce the validity of his pragmatic approach. The the overall political context. The COVID - 19 cris is economic interests of all sid es could also promote the strengthened the impression of the weakness of the state integration model. and its mechanisms; a profound political crisis produced Among the factors that could lead to its unraveling are not only four election campaigns over the past two years the economic effects of the COVID - 19 crisis, which will but a decline in the political status of Netanyahu, who had eventually result in reduced government spending and played a pivotal role in the new order that emerged in the cuts — thereby jeopardizing the continued imple mentation Middle East over the past decade; and identity politics of the economic five - year plan for the Arab sector (not to made a comeback with the advent of the new US mention the vast economic promises made by the Bennett - administration, which turned its back on the previous Lapid coalition). In addition, the heterogeneous administration’s economic - utilitarian agenda. composition of a Bennett - Lapid government could What happened in Israel’s mixed cities was, then, a encourage the national - equality dis course — which triple counter - reaction — sociological, political, and probably would also get a tailwind from the Joint List’s systemic — to the pragmatic - utilitarian approach that had leadership, who will want to challenge Abbas’s approach. guided the state’s relations with the Arab minority over the A change in the intensity of the conflict with Hamas could past decade. This approach was challenged from abo ve by also negatively affect Jewish - Arab relations within Israel the veteran Arab elite, acting in the framework of national - and make it difficult to return to the equilibrium that identity politics, and from below by the Arab underclass in existed before the May riots. Under these circumstances, the mixed cities and the Negev, all in a framework of wider only time will tell how relations between Arabs, Jews, and contexts. the State of Israel will change. What, then, is in store? The riots raise essential Dr. Doron Matza, a Research Associate at the BESA Center, has question s not only about the notions that have been cast held senior positions in the Israeli intelligence system. Current issue also available at suburbanorthodox.org . If you see something, se nd something” – editor