Israel and the Middle East News Update Wednesday, April 24 Headlines: ​ ● PM May Petition High Court to Delay Hearing ● Gantz: PM Using Coalition Talks to Secure Immunity ● Union of Right-Wing Parties Remains Divided Over Immunity ● PM to Name a Golan Heights Settlement After Trump ● Kushner Claims Two-State Solution ‘Failed’ ● Report: Hamas Says Israel to Advance Gaza Aid Projects ● AIPAC Pans Sanders for Calling Netanyahu Racist ● Hamas Arrests Gaza Comedian Protesting Economy Commentary: ● Times of Israel: “Ten Takeaways From the 2019 Election Results” − By Simona Weinglass, Senior Columnist ● Ma’ariv: “Selling Out Democracy for Immunity for Netanyahu” − By Yanir Cozin, Senior Columnist S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 The Hon. Robert Wexler, President ● Yoni Komorov, Editor ● Aaron Zucker, Associate Editor ​ ​ News Excerpts ​ April 24, 2019 Times of Israel PM May Petition High Court to Delay Hearing Netanyahu’s lawyers are mulling petitioning the High Court of Justice against Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit if he refuses to postpone a pre-indictment hearing for corruption charges, according to a report Tuesday. One of Netanyahu’s lawyers reportedly said they were also considering forgoing the hearing altogether if Mandelblit won’t delay the hearing, which is scheduled for July. The lawyer confirmed reports that Netanyahu’s attorneys have yet to collect the legal documents made available by Mandelblit’s office earlier this month. Times of Israel Gantz: PM Using Coalition Talks to Secure Immunity Blue and White leader Benny Gantz on Tuesday slammed Netanyahu for allegedly seeking to negotiate a coalition whose members would guarantee his immunity from prosecution. “Blue and White will lead the fight against the prime minister’s efforts to buy himself a coalition that will serve as his own personal legal fortress,” said Gantz. Earlier, Bezalel Smotrich of the Union of Right-Wing Parties confirmed that he intends to advance legislation to grant automatic immunity from prosecution for all MKs. Yedioth Ahronoth Union of Right-Wing Parties Remains Divided Over Immunity Tensions between the two leaders of the Union of Right-Wing Parties, Rafi Peretz and Bezalel Smotrich, remain high, with Peretz reportedly furious about the list of demands that Smotrich presented to the Likud without his knowledge. “Smotrich’s demand on immunity is unacceptable to us and [was presented] without our consent,” said one senior Jewish Home official. “He’s mounted an entire campaign on that issue in the coalition negotiations instead of focusing on the issues that are truly important to us.” On Tuesday, Peretz reportedly threatened to disband the alliance of parties due to Smotrich’s behavior. The New York Times PM to Name a Golan Heights Settlement After Trump Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he would ask his government to approve naming a new settlement in the Golan Heights for President Trump, in appreciation of his recognition of Israel’s authority over the disputed territory. Netanyahu’s announcement came a month after Trump’s proclamation, which delivered a valuable pre-election gift to Netanyahu even as it upended decades of American policy in the Middle East. 2 Times of Israel Kushner Claims Two-State Solution ‘Failed’ In a clear indication that the Trump administration’s peace plan will depart from the two-state solution as a framework for a permanent Israeli-Palestinian accord, White House adviser Jared Kushner said on Tuesday peace efforts by previous administrations had “failed” and that the new proposal would be different. Asked twice if the plan would provide for a two-state solution, Kushner replied said: “If people focus on the old traditional talking points, we’re never going to make progress.” Israel Channel 13 Report: Hamas Says Israel to Advance Gaza Aid Projects A report Tuesday said Israel relayed new messages to Hamas in the last few days to advance humanitarian projects that were postponed until after the elections in Israel. The messages were reportedly through Egyptian and Qatari mediators. The projects include improving the electricity infrastructure in Gaza and building industrial zones on the border. Next month, vouchers from Qatar will also be distributed to more than 100,000 families in the Gaza Strip, and that 10,000 temporary jobs will be provided by means of international organizations. Times of Israel AIPAC Pans Sanders for Calling Netanyahu Racist ​ The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and an Israeli minister pushed back Tuesday against Sen. Bernie Sanders for calling Netanyahu’s government “racist.” The pro-Israel lobby said, “Name-calling by political leaders against the democratically elected government of Israel is counterproductive to maintaining close ties and advancing peace.” Tzachi Hanegbi, a cabinet member and key Netanyahu ally, told Israel’s Channel 13 news that “Israel’s government is not a racist government. There isn’t a single racist minister. Sander’s should hold back on what he’s saying.” Jerusalem Post Hamas Arrests Gaza Comedian Protesting Economy Hamas security forces arrested on Tuesday Palestinian comedian Hussam Khalaf, who is known for his criticism of Hamas and Qatar. Nicknamed “The Brain,” Khalaf is known for his songs criticizing the political and economic conditions in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip through songs inspired by famous Egyptian singers. He has been critical, among other things, of new taxes imposed by Hamas on residents of the Gaza Strip and the high rate of unemployment. 3 Times of Israel – April 24, 2019 Ten Takeaways From the 2019 Election Results By Simona Weinglass, Senior Columnist ● On April 17, the Central Elections Committee presented the final vote tally for Israel’s 21st Knesset to President Reuven Rivlin. A few days earlier, the committee had published the election results on its website, with the number of votes for each party broken down by town and individual polling station. The Times of Israel drilled down into the data to reveal nuggets of insight into Israeli society and its tendency to vote in demographically predictable ways, seemingly in spite of the march of current events or campaigns’ efforts to sway voters. Here are ten insights that emerge from the detailed election results. ● 1) Cities where Likud earned a high percentage of the vote are significantly poorer than strongholds of Blue and White support. Nationwide, Likud, Israel’s governing right-wing party, received 26% of the vote. But there were many towns that voted for Likud in much higher proportions than that. The two towns with the highest proportion of Likud voters in 2019 were Dimona and Beit She’an, where Likud received 56% and 55% of the vote respectively. Dimona and Beit She’an are both socioeconomically disadvantaged places, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics, which regularly ranks 255 Israeli towns and cities by socioeconomic bracket or cluster on the basis of family income, the number of years of education completed by adults residents, vehicle ownership, and the number of vacations residents take abroad. The Central Bureau of Statistics ranks Dimona and Beit She’an as belonging to clusters 4 and 5 out of 10 socioeconomic clusters in Israel, with 10 being the highest. ● In Jerusalem (cluster 2), where Likud earned 25% of the overall vote, the polling station with the highest percentage of Likud supporters was number 867 at Eliahu Koren Street in Har Homa, where a whopping 61% of voters chose Likud. A number of polling stations in the Katamonim neighborhood, home to a large Kurdistani Jewish immigrant community, gave Likud 56-58% of their vote. Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, Likud did best in the working-class Hatikva and Neve Ofer neighborhoods in the city’s southeast. At polling station 766 in the Hatikva neighborhood, Likud earned 55% of the vote. ● Blue and White likewise earned 26% of the vote nationwide, but its most ardent support could be found in Israel’s wealthiest towns and neighborhoods. The large town with the highest proportion of Blue and White voters was Ramat Hasharon, where the party earned 56% of the vote. Ramat Hasharon is ranked in cluster 9 out of Israel’s ten socioeconomic clusters. Hod Hasharon (cluster 8) gave Blue and White 54% of its votes while Binyamina (cluster 8) gave the party 51%. In fact, every single Israeli city in the top three socioeconomic clusters (8, 9 and 10) favored Blue and White over Likud. In Jerusalem, where Blue and White received only 12% of the overall vote, Blue and White received its strongest support at a polling station at 29 Zangvil Street in the secular Ramat Danya neighborhood, where it earned 45% of votes. Other Blue and White strongholds in Jerusalem included the Ben Gurion school polling station in the Rehavia 4 neighborhood as well as several polling stations in Jerusalem’s Beit Hakerem neighborhood. In these places, Blue and White earned more than 40% of votes cast. ● 2) In Tel Aviv, Blue and White did best in the city’s most affluent neighborhoods. At polling stations 107 and 306 in the upscale neighborhood of Tzahala, where apartments retail for well over $1 million, Blue and White received 70% of the vote. Blue and White received 69% of the vote at polling station 113 in nearby Tel Baruch, where celebrities can be spotted rubbing shoulders with high-tech entrepreneurs and directors of corporations. Blue and White earned 68% of the votes at polling station 100, which is adjacent to the high-end Sea & Sun Luxury apartment project. One exception to the trend of wealthy towns voting Blue and White is the Druze town of Daliat el Karmel near Haifa (cluster 4), which gave Blue and White 55% of its votes. ● 3) Labor’s (diminished) base consists of kibbutzniks and well-heeled urbanites.