11 Cheshvan 5780
9 November 2019
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror on the Gaza Border in the last 24 hours . . .
An Israeli hung in effigy, an Israeli-flagged coffin (note the X on Balfour), a PLO flag: just another day on the Gaza border.
An estimated 6000 Hamasniks were at the Border yesterday–setting Israeli military vehicles on fire with Molotovs, and throwing hundreds of grenades, IEDs, and “rocks” at our soldiers. Miraculously, none of our troops were wounded.
The Nir Hefetz affair . . .
Nir Hefetz–at the center of a investigation into police interrogation methods in Case 4000.
In case you have missed it, a dramatic development has apparently thrown a monkey wrench into the push to indict PM Netanyahu in Case 4000–the most serious of the three cases because it allegedly involved bribery.
As you may recall, Case 4000 involves PM Netanyahu supposedly granting regulatory favors to Shaul Elovitch–the owner of Bezeq and Walla!– in return for favorable coverage on the Walla! website.
In your humble servant’s opinion it has always been one of the most specious of the charges arrayed against Netanyahu mainly because Walla! never gave favorable coverage to Netanyahu.
A substantial portion of the charges against Netanyahu in Case 4000 is based on the testimony of former Netanyahu aide Nir Hefetz.
The bombshell that has exploded on the scene is that there is now verifiable information that police investigators threatened Hefetz with an exposure of an extramarital affair that he supposedly had if he did not provide incriminating evidence against Netanyahu.
We stress “supposedly had” because there is considerable evidence that there was no affair at all and that Hefetz and the woman hardly knew each other. Nevertheless, the police had apparently manufactured enough evidence to the contrary to terrify Hefetz.
According to Justice Minister Amir Ohana, the police told Hefetz: “we know everything and will drop a bomb on your family.”
Whereupon Hefetz suddenly changed his story to match the police version of events.
The long and short of this sordid situation is that Attorney General Mandelblit is now saying that he is going to investigate the police interrogation of Hefetz.
Thus, instead of coming out with a decision in the next few weeks concerning whether or not to indict Netanyahu in Case 4000, the decision might be postponed indefinitely.
TODAY’S BLOG
This herb has achieved enough popularity for building up muscles in bodybuilders. levitra on line sale Although, for the most part, available free to use at no extra cost, are your PEOPLE and the online levitra prescription TEAMS they work in. Make sure never to settle down with any of these issues and get treated as soon as possible. 2. brand cialis prices The sale of the cialis online from canada started increasing from here.cialis is very powerful medicatrion, and as like other medication, it also has some side effects.
Naftali Bennett To Take Over At Defense
Naftali Bennett and Benjamin Netanyahu–not exactly a match made in heaven.
The blockbuster announcement yesterday from PM Netanyahu that Naftali Bennett (pending approval by the Knesset) will become Israel’s Defense Minister and the New Right Party will merge with Likud has sent shock waves in all directions.
First is the question of why Netanyahu would appoint him, particularly given the long-running animus between himself and Bennett. And not just between himself and Bennett but also between Sara Netanyahu and Bennett.
A few possible explanations come to mind:
1. Netanyahu was sincerely afraid that the New Right Party led by Bennett and Shaked was about to join a Coalition headed by Benny Gantz and believed the reports that Gantz had offered Bennett and Shaked the Defense and Justice Ministries respectively.
2. Netanyahu was looking for a way to bury Bennett as he has done with so many rivals in the past (such as burying Ya’alon as Defense Minister, and Lapid and Kahlon as Finance Ministers). Netanyahu’s modus operandi has always been to “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
3. Netanyahu is getting ready to embark on a military campaign against Hamas and/or Islamic Jihad in Gaza (or conceivably against Iran) and wants someone else to carry the water–and shoulder the blame should something go wrong.
On the other hand, one wonders why Bennett accepted the appointment. This is especially true because the appointment could be for a period as short as a few days if Gantz manages to form a government, or for a period of some months if Israel goes to elections again in February or March (part of the agreement between Netanyahu and Bennett is that Bennett will relinquish the Defense Ministry if there are new elections which lead to a new Netanyahu-led government).
Again, a few possible explanations for Bennett’s acceptance:
1. Bennett has never made a secret of the fact that he wanted to be Defense Minister. When Netanyahu formed the Coalition back in 2015, Bennett wanted the Defense Ministry as a demand for joining. Instead, he ended up with the Education Ministry, and Ayelet Shaked got the plum job of Justice Minister.
2. No matter the duration of the appointment, Bennett looks at it as his re-emergence onto the Israeli political scene (after being dumped following the April election in which the New Right did not pass the election threshold). More than this, Bennett sees the appointment as a major stepping stone to something even grander in the future such as the prime ministership.
3. Bennett knows something that we don’t know. Could it be that that the ongoing discussions between Ayelet Shaked and Avigdor Lieberman might be bearing fruit–and Lieberman and his 8 seats might end up joining the block of 55? If this happens and there are no new elections, Bennett’s term of office might end up being much longer.
Whatever the reasons for Netanyahu’s offering and Bennett’s accepting, Naftali Bennett is a much “harder-core” Defense Minister than Israel has had in decades. His outspoken views–often in opposition to Netanyahu’s–about Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Hezbollah, and Iran are well known–and they are significantly to the “right” of many within the supposedly “right-wing” Likud Party.
So much more significantly that leading Likudniks such as Yoav Gallant and Israel Katz had been blathering to the media over the course of the last month that Bennett would never become Defense Minister.
And yet he is about to become just that.
We hear at OneIsrael believe that Bennett is an excellent choice and wish him well.
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.