21 Elul 5779
21 September 2019
Graphic Photo of the Day:
The driver of the car, an IDF officer, is in critical condition this morning.
The terror attack occurred on Road 55 in northern Samaria near Azzun. The “rock” thrown by Palestinian terrorists went through the windshield and hit the driver of the car in the face–aside from having a fractured skull, he may lose one of his eyes.
The News On the Israeli Street
Around the neighborhood . . .
*The U.S. imposed sanctions on the National Bank of Iran yesterday and is positioning American soldiers in Saudi Arabia to protect the oil fields. In the meantime, three American naval vessels specializing in missile interception have moved into the Persian/Arabian Gulf, and the Iranians have transferred anti-aircraft batteries to protect their oilfields near Beneer Mashar.
*In Syria, the Russians shot down an Israeli drone that was on the way to attack Iranian and Iranian proxy sites.
*In Egypt, large demonstrations have erupted in Cairo demanding the ouster of President Sisi. Military forces have been placed on high alert following a reported (but unconfirmed) assassination attempt on Sisi two days ago.
*In Lebanon, the government announced that it has been extended 400 million Euro in credit by France in order to purchase “military equipment.”
Post-election maneuvering . . .
*Amir Peretz of the Labor Party rejected offers to join a Likud-led coalition yesterday. The offers included naming Peretz as Finance Minister and instituting the various social programs Labor supports.
*Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party adamantly declared yesterday that he has not joined forces with Gantz’s Blue and White Party. Nevertheless, we can expect him to do so any day now.
*Netanyahu’s Likud Party is actively considering merging with the New Right Party of Ayelet Shaked and Naftali Bennett (not to be confused with the Yamina Party which broke up yesterday–one part of which was the New Right).
Netanyahu’s impending hearing . . .
As you know, there will be a hearing during the first week of October. At that hearing PM Netanyahu’s team of lawyers will present a defense against the multiple charges arrayed against him.
At the conclusion of this hearing, a decision will be made on whether to indict him or not.
The preliminaries of this hearing have already begun, and rumors about what Netanyahu is planning are being bandied about the media. According to one report, Netanyahu is rejecting any sort of plea deal–preferring to battle the charges. According to another report, Netanyahu has already sent out feelers to find out if President Rivlin would be willing to pardon him if he removes himself from Israeli politics.
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Another piece of information seems to be that the prosecution is unwilling to make any deal with the prime minister that does not include a guilty plea and prison time.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Four Election Ironies
As the celebrations continue in Tehran and Gaza that PM Netanyahu lost the election on Tuesday, Benny Gantz seems no closer to reaching 61 mandates as of this morning.
Of course, there has yet to be an official determination of how many mandates each party won. That should come sometime this week.
It is interesting to take a short look today at four ironies of the election:
1. Both main candidates used the same strategy of cannibalization. On the left, Benny Gantz attacked the Democratic Union and Labor. On the right, Netanyahu savaged Yamina and Otzma. The point of all of these attacks was to decimate the smaller parties at the expense of the larger ones.
2. The plan of all of the left-wing NGOs to change the outcome of the election by busing thousands of Israeli-Arab voters (particularly Bedouins in the Negev) to the polls was successful but self-defeating. By this, your humble servant means that many more Israeli-Arabs voted than ever before (though the mandates received by the Joint Arab List will be about the same as the individual Israeli-Arab parties received in the past), but the parties that suffered the most were Democratic Union and Labor. The greater turnout meant that the number of votes needed to reach the 3.25% threshold was higher.
In short, without the large Israeli-Arab turnout, both the Democratic Union and Labor would have received more mandates.
3. A barrage of missiles proved once and for all to voters in the South that Netanyahu is not “Mr. Security.” All it took was one video of Netanyahu being hustled offstage here in Ashdod to show that Mr. Security was in fact Mr. Insecurity—a fact that was underscored by the lack of any Israeli response to the attack on our prime minister.
4. Though the Likud party finished behind Blue and White by some 35,000 votes, Likud gained more votes (1,111,535) than it has in any election. Even in 2015, when Likud won 30 mandates, it only received 985, 408 votes. In 2009, Likud only received 729,054. To say that Likud is finished is a gross overstatement. Would Likud have finished on top with another person at the top of the ticket?
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.