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Home , Avichai Mandelblit, Makor Rishon, Yoav Galant

Israel and the Middle East News Update

Monday, May 11

Headlines: ● As Netanyahu Trial Looms, AG is in the Crosshairs ● Court: Netanyahu Trial will not be Aired Live ● Breaks with Right-Wing Bloc to Join the Opposition ● El Al to get $400M Loan from Treasury to Save it from Crisis ● Lifts Restrictions as Public Parks Set to Reopen ● Three Gulf States Seek to Work with Israel to Fight Corona ● Israel Set to Approve $230m Payment to the Palestinians ● East Residents now Prefer Palestinian Citizenship

Commentary: ● Makor Rishon: “The Hight Court of Justice Stopped the Black [flag] Left” − By Ari Shavit

● Ma’ariv: “The Netanyahu Method” − By Ben Caspit

S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President News Excerpts May 11, 2020 News As Netanyahu Trial Looms, AG is in the Crosshairs As ’s May 24 trial draws closer, the State Prosecutor's Office is acting on the assumption that supporters of the thrice-indicted prime minister will step up their attacks on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, mainly using social media to do so. “Netanyahu’s close associates will try to present the attorney general as the accused as opposed to the accuser,” said a senior official in the Prosecutor's Office. The aim, he said, is to show that during his stint as Chief Military Advocate General, Mandelblit "helped then-IDF chief of staff during the Harpaz Affair. This narrative will depict Mandelblit as unworthy of leading the prosecution against Netanyahu.” On Friday, Channel 13 news anchor Ayala Hasson said she had a recording made during the 2010 affair, in which a document claimed that Yoav Galant had been digging up dirt on his rivals in order to secure the position of IDF chief after Ashkenazi. The document was actually a forgery produced by Boaz Harpaz, a former Military Intelligence officer and associate of Ashkenazi, in an effort to discredit Galant.

Jerusalem Post Court: Netanyahu Trial will not be Aired Live The trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery on May 24 will not be aired live, the Jerusalem District Court ruled Sunday. Instead, due to the limited number of persons allowed in the courtroom under coronavirus regulations, the court will allow streaming the proceedings to two adjacent courtrooms for members of the media and some of the defendants’ lawyers. Some members of the media and partisans on both sides of the political divide had hoped the trial would be aired live the same way that last week’s High Court of Justice proceedings related to Netanyahu were. The court did not explain whether it had vetoed the live airing or whether one of the parties had opposed it.

Israel Hayom Yamina Breaks with Right-Wing Bloc to Join the Opposition The national-religious Yamina faction announced Sunday that its coalition talks with have failed and it will be joining the benches of the opposition in the coming , where it will be "preparing for the day after Netanyahu." The faction, an alliance of the Habayit Hayehudi, the National Union, and New Right parties claimed throughout the coalition talks that despite being a pivotal part of the right-wing block shoring up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu future government, Likud has failed to offer it any of the major government portfolios. In a statement laced with scathing criticism, Yamina accused the prime minister of showing "gross disrespect" towards its members and said unity government Likud plans on forming with Blue and White would be "leftist."

2 Times of Israel El Al to get $400M Loan from Treasury to Save it from Crisis Finance Minister decided Sunday to offer battered national carrier El Al a lifeline via a $400 million state-backed loan guarantee on condition the airline agrees to raft of reforms, Channel 12 news reported. If the airline declines the offer and all its terms, it will likely be broken up and parts of it sold off. Like other airlines around the globe, El Al has suffered devastating losses from the coronavirus pandemic, which may run to hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the report, the loan is conditioned on the owners injecting NIS 100 million ($28.5 million) into the company and carrying out further restructuring to reduce annual costs by at least $50 million. The airline must also enable the state to get its money back if its value rises after the crisis, the report said, noting that the worker’s union, likely to bear the brunt of the restructuring, must also sign off on the terms. See also ‘‘Israel to Demand Changes at Flag Carrier El Al Before Bailout Loans’’ (Reuters).

I24 News Israel Lifts Restrictions as Public Parks Set to Reopen The government approved the reopening of public parks and outdoor fitness facilities Sunday after the Health Ministry issued new regulations on the matter as the country gradually lifts restrictions amid the coronavirus crisis. However, contrary to earlier reports, playgrounds will remain closed as well as beaches. The minister said the move to open public parks was “good and right,” but urged the Health Ministry to “approve the launch of the bathing season. The existing regulations cannot be enforced while explaining the logic behind them.” On the issue of returnees from abroad, Minister Erdan submitted a new supervision model for the government to approve, Hebrew-language outlet Walla News reported. According to the new directive, Israelis returning from overseas who can prove a capability to self-isolate in compliance with Health Ministry instructions will be allowed to do so in a place of their choosing -- be it their homes or otherwise.

Times of Israel Three Gulf States Seek to Work with Israel to Fight Corona Three states in the Arab Gulf are actively engaged in cooperation with Israel’s health system, with one having recently asked for help installing an advanced telemedicine system to confront the coronavirus pandemic, a senior official at one of the country’s leading hospitals said Sunday. Top representatives from Bahrain and the UAE have been in regular touch with the Sheba Medical Center since before the current health crisis, said Yoel Hareven, who heads the hospital’s international division. But in March, a high-ranking member of the Emirati royal family privately visited the hospital in Ramat Gan and has since remained in weekly contact, Hareven said. In addition, a third country in the Gulf that is not known to have strong ties with Israel recently reached out to Sheba with a request for help installing telemedicine solutions to treat COVID-19 patients from afar, something Sheba has specialized in, he said.

3 Ha’aretz Israel Set to Approve $230m Payment to the Palestinians Israel will approve a payment of about $230 million to the Palestinian Authority to help it cope with the coronavirus, Finance Ministry officials confirmed Sunday. Government sources say the payment is an advance on the tax revenue Israel collects on the PA’s behalf. Under the agreement that is slated to be signed with the PA, the money will be transferred in four monthly installments. The first installment will be delivered at the end of this month. Last week, in response to petitions against the transfer by two organizations, the state told the High Court of Justice that it planned to send the money as soon as possible, since the PA’s income has fallen drastically due to the virus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Defense Minister and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat all approved the payment.

Israel Hayom East Jerusalem Residents now Prefer Palestinian Citizenship A revolutionary shift in the political preferences of east Jerusalem residents: Only about 15% of people asked in a recent poll now said they prefer Israeli citizenship over Palestinian citizenship, compared to 52% who said they would rather be "Israeli" and not "Palestinian" when questioned on the matter in polls conducted between the years 2010-2015. The new surveys, which point to the dramatic conclusion, were conducted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in conjunction with Palestinian pollsters, under the directorship and supervision of Dr. David Pollock throughout 2018-2019 and in the first two months of 2020. The results were presented during an online event sponsored by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, which helped Pollock during his time and work in Israel. Pollock has surveyed the views of east Jerusalem Arabs since 2010. Over the weekend, Pollock explained that between 2010-2015, many more residents of east Jerusalem preferred Israeli citizenship for practical reasons, irrespective of self-identity or ideology. "They wanted more comfortable access to work, education, healthcare, welfare and social services, and even to the sea. But in the past five years, there has been a dramatic change, which I, as a veteran pollster, have never seen anything like it. All of a sudden support dropped between 15-52%, and only a small minority of east Jerusalem residents now say in polls that if they had the choice, they would choose Israeli citizenship," Pollock said.

4 Makor Rishon– May 11, 2020 The High Court of Justice Stopped the Black [flag] Left By Ari Shavit ● The haunted right owes us an apology. For years it has cast the High Court of Justice as a monster. For years it has alleged that the justices on the Supreme Court are all members of a dark, secret and malicious cult. ? An invisible tyrant who stripped the people of its sovereignty, seized control of the country through deceit and forcibly Hellenized it. Dorit Benish? A top conspirator who oversaw the operation of the State Attorney’s Office’s hit teams to neutralize right-wing politicians and to ensure the judiciary’s continued dictatorial rule. Esther Hayut? A well-known radical extremist who is responsible for inserting [African] infiltrators into southern , hametz into hospitals, terrorist sympathizers into the Knesset and loathsome liberal values into the heart of the Jewish state. According to the horror story that we’ve been told by the haunted right, there wasn’t any doubt about what was going to happen here this week. One way or another, the High Court of Justice was going to block the popularly- elected leader’s path to government. Using one pretext or another, the revolutionary politburo was going to stop Binyamin Netanyahu and try to replace him with a Stalinist super- regime. ● But lo and behold, they proved to be nothing of the kind. They aren’t dictators or revolutionaries. They aren’t Stalin, Fidel Castro or Che Guevara. In plain view of a grateful nation, 11 responsible adults presided this week over the pursuit of justice. Sitting before millions of astonished Israelis, the suspected leftists displayed conservatism, intelligence and some very welcome legal dryness. They even displayed familiarity with what is on prime-time television. In the two days of a fascinating, bracing and open hearing, and in the 21 pages of a well-argued and restrained ruling, the Supreme Court justices proved that there truly are judges in Jerusalem. And there is also a president of the Supreme Court. There is law, there is justice and there is hope. However, the people who really need to do some deep soul-searching in the wake of the High Court of Justice’s historic ruling on Wednesday are on the left. ● For years the black [flag] left has been telling us that it speaks in the name of democracy. In the name of democracy, that left has said that it is okay to dismiss the ballots that were cast by the 2.3 million Israelis who voted for Binyamin Netanyahu. In the name of democracy that left has argued that it is okay to ignore the basic law that stipulates that a prime minister can serve in his capacity until a peremptory verdict is handed down in his case. In the name of democracy that left has decided to dispense with the presumption of innocence, due process and freedom of the press (for anyone who doesn’t think, report and speak as it does). It draws no distinction between prosecutor, judge and executioner. ● This process has been fascinating, and it has unfolded in the Western world and in Israel simultaneously. In the course of the past decade the democratic left has become patently non-democratic. It has sought to impose the opinions of a minority (secular-Ashkenazic), which considers itself to be elect, on the majority (traditionally- observant-Mizrahi), which it considers to be ignorant. Meanwhile, the liberal left has become patently illiberal. It 5 tramples underfoot human dignity, human rights, the principle of universal equality and freedom of speech every morning, noon and night. Because the new black [flag] left is actually an anti-left left. It knows no love for humanity; it knows no human fraternity; and it knows no social justice. It has no empathy, doubt or modesty. In America, Europe and in Israel, that black left has stopped being a tolerant movement with a humanist worldview, and it has evolved into a total and totalitarian religion. The public, the individual, the law and the truth are of no consequence to that black left. After all, the black left knows everything, and the black left is above everything. The violent rule of the black left is the true embodiment of democracy. ● Along came the High Court of Justice and said: hold on a moment, dear petitioners. There is the public’s will that needs to be taken into account. Dear ardent protestors, there is the law that needs to be taken into account. There is common sense, there is [the Knesset’s] discretion and there is a complex reality that all need to be taken into account. Political correctness is not the Ten Commandments. The arrogance of the bubble is not divinely- ordained truth. And, most importantly: democracy isn’t the black left. Democracy is the rule of the majority, respect for the minority and protection of human rights. Democracy is the rule of law and not the rule of Twitter. Democracy is freedom of thought and not an Inquisition perpetrated by the sanctimonious. Democracy is due process, the presumption of innocence, sanity, fairness and decency. And yes, despite everything, democracy is the rule of the people. The people and only the people are the sovereign. ● All of which is to say that the real importance of the correct, courageous and wise action that was taken this week by Esther Hayut and her colleagues extends well beyond the issue of Bibi and the unity government. For the first time in a generation, the Supreme Court shattered the right wing’s conspiracy theory. And for the first time in a generation, the High Court of Justice told the black left to stop. By so doing, the Supreme Court restored Israel to something that was sorely lacking here: a genuine liberal democracy. It also opened a door to comprehensive internal Israeli dialogue. In its own way, the Supreme Court laid the groundwork for the establishment of substantive unity that will not cave to the zealots on the right and the left. It offered us an old- new ethical alternative that will allow Israel to be at long last a Jewish and democratic state.

6 Ma’ariv– May 11, 2020 The Netanyahu Method By Ben Caspit ● On the evening of Friday, March 23, 2019, Ayala Hasson reported on Channel Thirteen News excerpts from minutes that were recorded in classified Defense Ministry meetings. The quotes she provided seemingly demonstrated that top Defense Ministry officials had been privy to the approval that was given to Germany to sell [advanced] submarines to Egypt. The timing of that report, less than two weeks before a crucial election, allowed Binyamin Netanyahu to deflect the serious allegations that had been made against him by Blue and White on that issue. Ultimately and after the fact, it became evident that the minutes in question were irrelevant, and that the issue that had been discussed in that meeting was a previous submarines deal, and not the deal that allowed Egypt to buy Dolphin submarines from ThyssenKrupp—the third one of which was delivered just this past weekend. But none of that mattered anymore. That report allowed Netanyahu to defend himself against allegations shortly before the election. ● The Sunday after Hasson’s report, Defense Ministry Director General Udi Adam convened a special meeting in an attempt to find out how classified documents from such sensitive meetings in the Defense Ministry had “made their way” to the media. That inquiry turned up the following: a day before the Channel Thirteen News report, the defense minister’s military secretary, Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter, went to the Defense Minister’s Bureau saying that the defense minister wanted to refresh his memory on the turn of events surrounding the question of Egypt and the submarines’ sale, on account of the recent reports. Winter spent a few hours in the Defense Minister’s Bureau along with senior officials who attended the meetings. He questioned them and left with a bunch of classified documents from the meetings. According to the inquiry that was conducted by Defense Ministry Director General Adam, the military secretary then turned over that sensitive material to the person who had dispatched him, the defense minister. And who was defense minister at the time? You guessed it, Binyamin Netanyahu. The documents were turned over to him a day before the Channel Thirteen News report. The quotes in the television report were taken from the documents in question. What a coincidence. ● Maj. Gen. (res.) Adam, who was responsible for information security in the Defense Ministry, was furious. He demanded that a formal investigation be begun. As required by law, the issue came before Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. The norm in Israel is to order a GSS investigation on information leaks only if the leak was damaging to national security. Mandelblit asked for a professional assessment, which determined that the damage that was caused had been limited. Mandelblit decided—and State Attorney Shai Nitzan and Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri concurred—that there was no cause for investigation. I don’t know whether Mandelblit now regrets being so forgiving back then. It seems to me that his defense lawyer’s temperament and the extensive leniency he habitually displayed towards Netanyahu over the years not only failed to help him persuade his former boss that he is fair-minded and by-the-book, but actually had the opposite impact. He may now be paying the price for that same forgiving attitude that he adopted with all of the investigations into Netanyahu’s actions. 7 ● This is the place where we need to state clearly: no one ought to take Hasson to task for reporting the material. That is what journalists are supposed to do, especially when they acquire material that comes straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. If the material is authentic, you report it (even though it became evident after the fact that the documents she reported in 2019 were irrelevant to the submarines affair). Journalists aren’t supposed to ascribe importance to their source’s identity, only to the veracity of the material. Nor do I believe that it was Brig. Gen. Winter who delivered the material to Hasson for publication. This story is a perfect example of what is known in the corridors of power as the “Netanyahu method.” When the need arises to smear his rivals, to manufacture spins and to spread fake news, he does so—using all means and all outlets full steam ahead. That is precisely what happened when someone leaked from the cabinet meeting an IDF presentation about [projected casualties in] a takeover of the during Operation Protective Edge to Hahadashot’s Udi Segal. There are countless other examples as well. Now, all of those means, as well as several new ones, are being put to use to achieve a single very clear goal: to destroy Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. ● The current sludge that has been sucked straight out of the sewer is supposed to serve as the “golden piece of evidence” proving that Attorney General Mandelblit is an enemy of the state, a man who is responsible for serial cover-ups and the commander of the Popular Front’s branch who disguises himself as an Orthodox Jew. The sordid allegation as if Mandelblit tampered with the investigation into the Harpaz affair— an affair that has been investigated again and again and again—is now taking on real shape and form in front of our very eyes. That allegation is being made on the presumption that no one is truly familiar with all of the details of that case. Yes, this is the same Mandelblit whom Netanyahu appointed as his cabinet secretary, which is one of the most intimate and trusted positions in the Prime Minister’s Bureau, after the Harpaz affair. Yes, this is the same Mandelblit who was approved to serve as attorney general by a special vetting committee long after the Harpaz affair and long after all of the material from that affair had been thoroughly reviewed by two separate police investigations and after Mandelblit had been questioned at length about every recorded and unrecorded conversation he held, and which someone has now gone to the trouble to drudge up and to leak to the press in order to demolish the State of Israel’s prosecutor general only because he and his office had the gall to prosecute Binyamin Netanyahu. ● Sefi Ovadia, who is Channel Thirteen News’ political affairs correspondent, shared the following story on Friday, writing on Twitter: “The attorney general and the justice minister share the same room on different days in the government compound in Tel Aviv. During the time of the crisis surrounding the appointment of the acting state attorney (Dan Eldad), the attorney general entered the room one day and found on the desk there the state comptroller’s report from 2013about the Harpaz affair. A message? Was it forgotten by accident?” A Sicilian atmosphere by every measure. The prevailing assessment is that the report hadn’t been forgotten there accidentally. The goal was either to remind or to insinuate to the attorney general that they have material against him. The state comptroller’s report was used as the severed horse’s head from The

8 Godfather. Outgoing Justice Minister ’s insistence on appointing Dan Eldad as acting state attorney was anything but a coincidental whim. Justice Ministry officials tell about material that was collected over the course of his three months in office, about emails that were read, safes that were opened and inspected and material that was taken. All that, along with the cold noodles we were now just served once again from the Harpaz affair, is being used against Mandelblit and against everyone who is either connected to him or to the cases against Prime Minister Netanyahu in one way or another. The problem is that it isn’t being used only against them. It is being used against all of us. We don’t have a fallback State Attorney’s Office. We don’t have an alternative attorney general. We are all bound by the rules of the game. Even when the left really doesn’t like the rulings that are handed down by the High Court of Justice. ● The distance from that to the nauseating tweets that were written by the prime minister’s son, Yair Netanyahu, was short. His latest tweet cast Mandelblit, the man whom his father appointed to the most sensitive positions in the State of Israel, as a Mafioso—while irony committed suicide on live television. But that is only one side of the coin. A new government is supposed to be sworn into office on Wednesday. That government is supposed to form a “reconciliation cabinet.” Gabi Ashkenazi is supposed to serve as foreign minister. Ashkenazi, the man who crossed the Rubicon and became convinced that the State of Israel needs a unity government to pull itself out of the mud. Ashkenazi, who agreed to set aside and forget about the scars that Netanyahu and his lackeys left on his body and to give national reconciliation a real chance. With his one hand, Netanyahu signed an agreement with Ashkenazi and Gantz to form a government, while donning the mask of the leader bent on reconciliation, as our very own Nelson Mandela. With his other hand, however, Netanyahu has continued to sling mud, to slander and malign the people responsible for the rule of law and the very gatekeepers whom he personally appointed. He has done all of that with an eye towards May 24. ● I ask myself, what is the prime minister thinking? Let’s assume that Mandelblit is a criminal (let’s just assume even though that certainly isn’t the case). So what? Will the cases against Netanyahu be closed? Let’s assume that Mandelblit and Ashkenazi were not as pure as the driven snow in the Harpaz affair. So what? Is that supposed to have any influence on the judges who will be presiding over Netanyahu’s case when they review the evidence? There is something deeper, more primal, more emotional and far more frightening at play here. To the issue itself: since I have no intention of discussing secretly-made recordings, I’ll make do with reminding everyone once again of the one simple fact that is relevant here: no investigation was underway against Ashkenazi at the time of the conversation in question between Mandelblit and Ashkenazi. There was no criminal case, no investigation, no inception of an investigation and not even an inquiry was underway. It is impossible to tamper with and obstruct an investigation when there is no investigation. It’s that simple. Furthermore, all of the conversations were reviewed, scoured, investigated and probed multiple times, including by four courts. The High Court of Justice (Justice Sohlberg!!) put a final end to all that. But all means are kosher in the attempt to burn everything to the ground. ###### 9