The Likud Party Primary Results: Good News for Likud, A Rebuke to PM Netanyahu

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1 Adar I 5779

6 February 2019

Photo of the Day:

The new sign that has just gone up in the communities around Gaza in anticipation of another Spring and summer of explosive balloons and kites.

What the sign says is that everyone should be aware of suspicious balloons and kites and should stay away from them, make others stay away, and call the police or the IDF.

Your humble servant would suggest that signs like this are about 10,000 balloons and kites late.

The Revealing Quote of the Day

Yesterday Benny Gantz removed all doubt . . .

Of course, we here at israelstreet have never doubted that Benny Gantz is an ardent leftist; yesterday he removed all doubt in his first campaign interview (an interview conducted by leftist singer Shlomo Artzi of all people). In response to a question about how he would solve what Artzi called “the “settlement problem in Judea and Samaria”, Gantz said:

“The disengagement from Gaza in 2005 was carried out with a lot of political consideration. All sides had a lot at stake and the state managed to do it without tearing the country apart. It was done legally, carried out by the State of Israel and the IDF, and even though it was very painful for the settlers, it was handled well. We must take the lessons of that disengagement and implement them in other arenas.”

In short, Gantz believes that the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria should be uporooted just like the ones in Gaza were. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what Gantz believes should happen in Jerusalem.

By the way, there is rejoicing in Ramallah today about Gantz’s declaration. The spokesman for PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said that Abbas is “encouraged by Gantz’s statements” and hopes “that he will succeed in the election.”

The News on the Israeli Street

The U.S. Senate passes a pro-Israel bill . . . to no avail . . .

Once again, the U.S. Senate showed itself to be one of Israel’s best friends yesterday in passing a bill that:

*codifies the $38 billion dollars in defense assistance over the next ten years

*provides legal cover to states in the country that legislate against BDS

*adds more sanctions against Assad’s regime in Syria

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), was approved by a vote of 77-23.

Who were the 23 senators who voted against the bill? Primarily 21 Democrat senators including presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Kamala Harris of California–and independent senator and also presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Ostensibly, these 22 senators opposed the bill because they have bought into the Palestinian narrative that says that opposing BDS means opposing freedom of speech. In reality, few of these 21 support Israel at all.

So why do we say that this bill was passed “to no avail”?

Simply because it now goes to the U.S. House of Representatives which is controlled by the Democrats. There is no chance it will pass in its current form.

President Trump’s State of the Union last night . . .

Israelis applauded President Trump’s speech last night which once again highlighted Iran as a major world sponsor of terrorism, and referred to U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the moving of the American Embassy there.

Also, Trump did not mention the Palestinians at all.

Nevertheless, many of us are still waiting for the hammer to fall when Trump’s “Deal of the Century is announced in the coming months. We suspect that it will call for Jerusalem to be divided and the Old City to be internationalized.

J Street weighs in on Trump, etc. . . .

In an interview published yesterday, Jeremy Ben Ami, president of the supposedly “pro-Israel” J Street, said that American Jews are leading the resistance against President Trump–a president who thus far has done nothing but support Israel.

More than this, Ben Ami made this Orwellian statement: “We are the real Zionists.”
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What a joke.

Ben Ami continued: “J Street is trying to push America to help Israel be democratic, Jewish, and secure. This is our agenda.” 

Another joke.

What J Street has been trying to do since its inception ten years ago is to have the American government adopt the position of the PLO. 

TODAY’S BLOG:

The Likud Party Primary Results:

Good News for Likud, A Rebuke to PM Netanyahu

The spin doctors were out early this morning–very early as the final primary results were announced around 6 am.

Almost immediately PM Netanyahu’s spokesmen declared victory, all because Gideon Sa’ar (see yesterday’s blog) did not come in first place.

However, in reality, the results showed something else. Here were the top 10 finishers:
1. Yuli Edelstein (current Speaker of the Knesset)

2. Yisrael Katz (current Minister of Transportation)

3. Gilad Erdan (current Minister of Public Security)

4. Gideon Sa’ar (no current political position)

5. Miri Regev (current Minister of Sport and Culture)

6. Nir Barkat (previous mayor of Jerusalem)

7. Yariv Levin (current Minister of Tourism)

8. Yoav Galant (current Minister of Construction

9. Gila Gamliel (current Minister for Social Equality)

10. Avi Dichter (no current political position)

The only Netanyahu loyalists above are Miri Regev and Yariv Levin.

And as for Sa’ar? After 5 years out of politics, he came in 4th and was within a couple of thousand votes of first. It was an astonishingly strong showing.

Let’s not forget Edelstein and Katz—both of which are reviled by Netanyahu. That they claimed the top two spots cannot possibly be interpreted as anything except a slap in Netanyahu’s face . . .

. . . and a placing of the Likud party above personality–which bodes well for the upcoming election.

In fact, the Likud election list looks strong and may carry the party to victory now that the general public knows that there will be strong candidates to take over Likud should Netanyahu be indicted.