Possible Deals of New Coalition!
(Please, pay attention to items #8 and #9)
1) The new government will have 26 ministers and 6 deputy ministers.
2) Benny Gantz (Defense Minister) and Gideon Saar (Justice Minister) will be deputy prime ministers (both are minsters in the current Netanyahu-led government!)
3) Additional parties can join the coalition if Lapid and Bennett agree.
4) Lapid and Bennett have the authority to veto any laws that are proposed to the Knesset for a vote.
5) The security cabinet will have 12 members, 6 from the right and 6 from the centre-left.
6) The entire government will be split equally between right and centre/left.
7) The Norwegian Law will be expanded to allow for parties with 6 MKs to have 3 ministers or deputy ministers resign from the Knesset to allow for the next people on the list to enter as MK’s; parties with 7-9 mandates can have 4 resign; and parties with more than 9 mandates can have 5 resign.
8) The government will pass a law that if a prime minister serves for 8 years he/she must take 4 years off before running again.
9) The base principles of the government include focusing on:
– strengthening the middle class and independent business owners
– reducing government regulations and bureaucracy including striving for a digital government with no paper
– reducing housing costs
– building two new hospitals – one in the Negev and one in the Galil
– building a new airport
– strengthening the police force and fighting crime in Arab cities
– passing the draft law for the chareidim put forth by the Defence ministry in 2020 and increasing civil service options
– revamping the health system including a focus on mental health
– taking care of the needs of Holocaust survivors
– taking care of the mental health of IDF veterans
– increased development of Jerusalem including moving all government ministries to the capital
– encouraging more Aliya, and strengthening the ties between Israeli and diaspora Jews
– healing the wounds in Israeli society
10) The deal with Yisrael Beiteinu includes that the government will work for civil unions.
11) The deal with Labor includes the government will work for “Jewish renewal” – meaning non-Orthodox streams.
12) The deal with Meretz includes advancing rights for the LGBT community (Funny that Meretz, the socialist party, cares mainly about advancing rights for the LGBT community – in the Soviet Union gays were jailed!)
13) The deal with Ra’am includes a pause on enforcing illegal Arab construction until 2024, not removing illegal Arab construction in the Negev for 9 months, 500 million shekels for projects in the Arab population, and a deputy minister position.
Food for Thought. by Steven Shamrak
Zionism is the Jewish independence movement! It is not a Left or Right political ideology of the Socialist or Capitalist systems! Jewish people have the right to live in peace on our ancestral land, and we must stop being apologetic about it – our enemies do not want our land, they want to see the destruction of Israel and to kill Jews!
Likud is Trying to Hide Leadership Problem
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has informed senior Likud members that he intends to run for the party leadership against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the report, Edelstein said in closed conversations that “Netanyahu needs to be replaced.” Finance Minister Yisrael Katz had submitted a proposal, according to which Netanyahu would allow the Likud Central Committee to elect a temporary candidate to serve as Prime Minister for a year.
Israel is not elected to UN Security Council Again
UAE, Albania, Brazil and Ghana elected to serve on the UN Security Council for a two-year term beginning next year. Each candidate needed two-thirds of the votes in the 193-nation UN General Assembly’s secret ballot. The 15-nation Security Council has 10 seats for temporary members but is dominated by its five permanent members – Russia, China, the US, Britain and France – which hold a veto power. Israel sought a seat on the Security Council in 2018 but withdrew from the race against Germany and Belgium. (They could have let Israel take a seat in UNSC for the first time, but didn’t!)
Netanyahu still would not be Able to Form Government
A new poll shows even if new (the 5th) elections were held today, Likud would only get 59 seats for coalition even if joined by Yamina. Likud would rise to 31 seats from its current 30, while Yesh Atid would rise to 23 seats from its current 17.
Time for Negotiating with Iran is Over
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that it “remains unclear” whether Tehran is ready to comply with the nuclear agreement signed with the world powers. The US and Iran began indirect talks in Vienna in April. “The logical thing to do would be to continue the sanctions and take even more aggressive steps against Iran” said an Iranian-born scholar Dr. Soli Shahvar.
“What is happening here today is a direct message to Netanyahu. You messed up. You took a movement with 30 seats, you threw it out of power, used it as your own and forgot that the Likud is a family,” said former Likud MK Oren Hazan. “Today I remember the foundations of the Likud,” he added, “A party that is a home that is supportive of community and a partner. There is no single ruler, there is a group. Netanyahu, wake up, because at this rate you will be outside the group.” (Abandoning the fundamental Zionist principles of Likud party also did not help!)
Quote of the Week:
“Smart people do not take any electoral promise made by Israeli politicians at face value. After all: most politicians in Israel are reasonable centrists – they take the votes of the extremes and move to the centre after the elections. That’s true for the left, see Gantz who ‘betrayed’ those of his voters that thought he wouldn’t sit with Netanyahu and true for the right, where Bennett ‘betrayed’ those of his voters that thought he wouldn’t sit with Ra’am.” – a FaceBook comment
Perplexed non-Jewish Supporters of Israel
by Steven Shamrak
It might surprise some Jews, considering the disproportional anti-Israel coverage in the media and from international political pressure on Israeli government, that there are many non-Jews who sincerely and resolutely support the State of Israel. What is even more surprising is that many of them enthusiastically approve the idea of the reunification of all Jewish land and creation of Eretz-Israel (Land of Israel), even more than most Jews do, as it was designated by the League of Nations in July 1922!
Quite often, I receive messages of disbelief and surprise from our non-Jewish friends. They are unable to understand Jewish passivity and inadequate responses to Arab aggression and terror. Many of them have never experienced continual persecution and violence because they belong to a national or religious minority!
Although most of them are Christians, they are still struggling to grasp the Jewish concept of love and respect for life, even at the time of existential threat from their mortal enemies. They ask:
Q1: How on Earth do Jewish people put up with this injustice?
Jews are used to it, and we must be very careful with what and how we do things. Before WWII, Jews, facing genocide, were not allowed to leave Europe by international anti-Semites and the current leading democracy played a main part in it! During the war, Jews were betrayed and killed by their neighbours and friends. After the war, the British did everything possible to disallow the establishment of Jewish homeland on the land which was legally designated for Jews, in spite of the fact that many Arab and Muslim countries were recently created as a result of the same mandate system, established by the League of Nations after collapse of the Ottoman empire,
Q2: Why some Jews turn their backs on Israel, and help haters of Israel and Jews?
For too long Jews suffered persecution and were told “you can’t do this or that.” And we started to believe this lie! Many of us are suffering from the Stockholm syndrome or some form of PTSD. For thousands of years we learned to survive by appeasing our oppressors. It is difficult to break bad old habits (the Galut mentality), especially when there aren’t many truly supportive friends around.
Q3: There is non-stop world-wide Islamic violence and terror against the Western world and the state of Israel! Why is the international hatred focused on Israel and Jews, and there is no real reaction against Muslim or Arab states?
Welcome to the world of the Jew-hating reality – the cancer of humanity! Anti-Semites love to hate Jews, while conveniently disregarding the fact that Islamists hate Christians and any other religions, Communists, Socialists and nice democrats even more than they hate the existence of Israel. Israel is the front line of the world defence against the Islamic assault, whose goal is to achieve global domination by Islam!
Jews and Jewish leadership must realize that the horrors of our past should not destroy the future of the Jewish people. We achieve what most people had considered impossible – creation of the Jewish state in 1948 in an utterly hostile international environment. We are still in danger of squandering this great achievement! The time has come to understand that Jews will never get full approval for anything we do, or do not do, from anyone. Therefore, it is better to do what is right for the future Jewish people!
Read previous Editorials here.