25 Iyar 5779
30 May 2019
The News On The Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
In Jerusalem:
*A Jewish man was badly wounded when hit in the head by a “rock” thrown by a terrorist near the Dung Gate outside the Old City. He is currently at Sha’are Zedek Hospital.
*Palestinian arsonists started a fire in the Peace Forest near the Talpiot neighborhood. Firefighters have managed to get the fire under control.
In Judea and Samaria:
*A Palestinian terrorist from Jenin was captured attempting to enter the Salem Military Court with two pipe bombs.
*Palestinian terrorists attempted to burn down the Karmei Tzur security fence with Molotovs.
*Palestinian terrorists throwing “rocks” and Molotovs attacked Israelis at Ya’bad, Nabi Elias, on Road 55, near Kiryat Arba, at the Reihan Crossing, and at Givat Assaf among other places.
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On the Syrian border . . .
You may have missed it, but on Monday, Syrian forces in a military vehicle fired at an Israeli aircraft. Those Syrian forces were then eliminated by the same aircraft.
Yesterday, IDF tanks crossed over into the area near Quneitra for purposes that were not immediately clear.
On the Lebanese border . . .
The “main tunnel” built by Hezbollah leading into Israel was destroyed.
At least, the IDF says that it is the “main tunnel”. Who knows how many other “main tunnels” there are?
Brain drain news . . .
A report in the Calcalist today revealed that a little over twice as many Israeli academics are leaving the country than returning to it. Most of them are going to teach at American universities.
Why are they leaving?
Simple. Higher salaries and a much lower cost of living.
Should Israel be concerned? Yes and no.
Yes, because in a country the size of Israel, a brain drain has a much larger and more noticeable impact.
No, because Israeli academics have always migrated to the United States–as have academics from all over the world. The percentage leaving now is not significantly different than before.
TODAY’S BLOG
No Rabbit Out Of The Hat: New Election On September 17
Your humble servant thinks that the events of yesterday came as a surprise to almost everyone. The idea that PM Netanyahu would be unable to cobble together a coalition was simply not entertained by most Israelis.
Not that Netanyahu did not try–even frantically try.
When it became apparent that Avigdor Lieberman–ever the self-aggrandizing hypocrite–would not join the Coalition, Netanyahu tried to convince Avi Gabbay of the Labor Party to sign on and even tried to get one or two members of the Blue and White Party to defect.
All efforts proved futile.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What really happened with Lieberman? How was he a self-aggrandizing hypocrite?
Last year, Lieberman was the member of the Coalition who most ardently supported the proposed “Draft Law”–a law that would have established minimum enlistment quotas for ultra-orthodox men, and sanctions for yeshivas that didn’t meet their quotas. From the outset of this proposed Draft Law, the ultra-orthodox parties in the Coalition made it clear that they would not support it.
Nevertheless, to keep the Coalition together, the ultra-orthodox compromised and made an agreement with Lieberman and the rest of the Coalition that they would not block the passage of the first reading of the law in January—but at the same time, the ultra-orthodox made it clear that they would vote against the “Draft Law” in its second of three readings.
That is precisely what happened.
The Draft Law passed its first reading in January, but then failed when the ultra-orthodox refused to go along with the second reading. Lieberman, who had been happy to go along with the ultra-orthodox compromise regarding the first reading then hypocritically hopped on his high horse, quit the Coalition, and it fell apart thereby necessitating the election on April 9th.
Fast forward to the last few days. Lieberman announced that he wanted to return to the “Draft Law” that passed the first reading in January knowing full well that the ultra-orthodox would not go along. Nevertheless, the ultra-orthodox accepted some minor compromises, but not enough to satisfy Lieberman.
Therefore, in the end, a new Coalition could only garner 60 votes and could not be formed. All the way, Lieberman aggrandized himself as “a man of principle”–which all Israelis know is total nonsense. We in the South remember how Lieberman used to rail against Hamas in Gaza and how he promised to eliminate Hamas leaders should he ever become Minister of Defense.
What happened when Lieberman became Defense Minister in 2016?
He did absolutely nothing until he resigned in 2018.
So where does all of this leave us? As Netanyahu said yesterday, Lieberman’s actions have brought down a right-wing government for the second time. But more than this, Lieberman’s actions have driven a wedge even deeper into the Israeli body politic by pitting the secular against the ultra-orthodox.*
As for the coming election on September 17th, the following rumors are swirling about:
*Ayelet Shaked may run with Likud.
*Naftali Bennett and Moshe Feiglin may join forces.
*Yair Lapid may not run with Benny Gantz again.
*The Arab parties may all run as one bloc.
And on and on. Without any doubt, this new election is a gigantic waste of time and money and should never have happened.
What will happen with Netanyahu is anyone’s guess. Already being criticized on all sides for pushing an “Immunity Law” that would protect him from prosecution while he is in office, Netanyahu will now have to also deal with the fallout from the Trump Peace Plan which will be published in June–as Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt noted yesterday in Jerusalem.
And so it goes in Israel.
*Your humble servant would like to note for the record for the umpteenth time that he believes that a formula must be found by which the ultra-orthodox will serve the country either in the IDF or in national service.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.